TUESDAY CHECK-INS ARE BACK! And no, clearly Jason hasn't decided to get "insta-shiny" for 2025, but has stuck with the reality of muddy boots, hat and waterproofs, and fluffy young horses 😉.
Meet rising 4yo Zulu, owned by Jason and his great friend, Simon. He is by the great Glamourdale out of Granada (UFO x Jazz x Goodtimes), an Elite IBOP prok graded KWPN (and AES) mare who is half sister to the stallion Bristol and the Grand Prix horse, Raoul (USA).
With a just a handful of rides under his belt, and recovering from a foot abscess, Jason is simulating a "hacking frame" in the arena with Zulu - asking him to travel and think "forward, forward, forward".
Your Horsemanship members first demo of the year was about goal setting. Jason followed these steps to make some goals with Zulu this year...
Step 1 - Visualise what success looks like
Step 2 - Set SMART goals
Step 3 - Write your goals down
Step 4 - Share your goals (get an accountability partner!)
Step 5 - Outline action plans
Step 6 - Set a timeline
Step 7 - Identify potential barriers
Step 8 - Reflect and adjust
and we'll add a Step 9 - join Your Horsemanship to help you hit your goals! www.yourhorsemanship.com/membership
Tuesday Check-In!
I have a really interesting horse in at the moment, called Beckham (and yes, he's a good looking chap 🤣). He is a 7yo Spanish horse who has done a lot of groundwork and liberty training, but under saddle, he has developed a VERY sharp spin when he finds something scary to look at (which is fairly often!).
This clip is from our Christmas Coffee Morning (having to be filmed from the corner of the arena) and followed on from Jason was explaining "The Key" exercise... It is a great example of using the key to help you manage those "yeeha" moments!
Tuesday Check-In! Restarting a horse with bolting issue
After his starring role at Horsemanship Hub - Horsemanship Showcase on Sunday, I thought it would be interesting for you to see Tassimo's first ride with us four weeks ago.
Tassimo had been started under saddle but was not fully accepting of the rider, which had led to him rushing/ bolting. A naturally nervous, but kind horse, his owners sent him to us to restart him and fill in some of the gaps.
You can see in this video that Hamish starts by covering some groundwork/ desensitising done in the previous days before, using The Horse Education Company hybrid halters and flag (which we are delighted to be selling very soon!).
As I explain in the video, we don't use mounting blocks at this stage with horses like this, as we don't want the block to get under them if they do go to flight (lucky that Hamish is a lot more flexible than me; Tassimo is a good 17.2hh!).
Although there is tension at points during this ride, it gave us a lot of confidence that we were going to be able to work with Tassimo and give him a successful future under saddle.
As I said yesterday, I was so proud of Tassimo at the showcase, and am looking forward to his owners coming to do some handovers this week.
COOLING HORSES AFTER CROSS COUNTRY!
What a treat to sit down with @derbilldc for our Your Horsemanship members' webinar last night! Grooms can often be the unsung heroes (and hardest workers!) of the equestrian industry, so it was brilliant to hear from one of the best about her career as a freelance event groom that has taken her all over the world to the most prestigious events. Plus, we got to hear some great tips from her from plaiting to washing down!
Thank you Debbie! 🙏
#groomslife #lookingafterhorses #horsegroomingtips #horsewelfare #yourhorsemanship
Tuesday Check In - Safety in the Stable!
Tuesday Check-In - Safety in the Stable!
Safety is a priority for our staff (and owners!), and feed times can bring out challenging behaviours in horses, from getting a little bargy and impatient, to aggression, biting and striking.
Here, I’m with a lovely rising 4yo stallion, who we are working on “placing” in the stable in a particular way to ensure we are safe when placing hay in the EzeHay.
it is important to think about how you move around a horse in a stable and how they react to you. Noticing small "take overs" by your horse and correcting them early, can prevent more serious behaviours developing.
And the best thing about being able to "place" your horse where you want, is that your catching will improve, your ability to settle your horse on the horsebox or at an event will improve, and it will give you a great foundation for liberty training!
PS. Excuse the dirty hat, it's been taking a battering from Storm Bert over the past few days 🤣😳
Tuesday Check In! This is a follow up from last week when we were just starting to work with a SJ/Eventer that was scared to go over poles on the ground. Although he was jumping courses, he was doing it out of fear not thought. As you can see, we are progressing and he is gaining confidence, but these fear-based behaviours take time to truly change.
Loved seeing this from Jim Boyle Racing! Arlo and Bob having their first canters up the gallops after being with us for starting.
Whatever your own thoughts on racing, I love the fact that Jim and Pippa recognise the value in their racehorses being started with ground and ridden foundations that will hopefully enable them to not only cope with racing life well, but to go on and have a successful second career in later life.
My dad is a huge racing enthusiast and bred horses for the local tracks in Australia. It wasn’t uncommon for them to be started and rounding up sheep on the farm before going off for pre-training! And when they finished their careers, we retrained them for jumping, polo and polocrosse careers.
Nowadays, one of my favourite camps we run is for Retraining of Racehorses; they really can make brilliant riding horses!
TUESDAY CHECK-IN! Jumping on Nerves Not Knowledge...
We've got a really interesting horse for you today; a SJ/ Event Horse that will not go over poles on the ground! This sounds strange, but we actually see it more than you think, and I describe it as a horse jumping on nerves not knowledge.
Horses have to learn to negotiate obstacles by taking the initiative themselves; it has to be their idea to go over, otherwise they will never totally lose their fear of going over an obstacle. That is why we keep it "low and slow" at first, building up to "small and scary", before we even think about raising the height or jumping a round.
With horses like this lovely chap, we have to go right back to the beginning. In our first session with him yesterday, we did groundwork over poles, before riding him over the same pattern. Today, Hamish is increasing the test by introducing a small cross pole.
Tuesday Check in! Riding stallions with other horses
Join us with Storm and Ted, who are just starting their 3rd week under saddle. Storm is entire and after being quite unsettled and tricky in his first week here, he has really settled down and is enjoying his ridden work. It is great to see Caroline being able to ride him forward and softly with no issues. It is a “course day” for the youngsters today… brilliant for developing my confidence and direction, and giving horses and riders a focus!
Tuesday Check In with Head Trainer, Hamish!
Hamish talks through what he does before getting on a horse that has had a break from being ridden... hint; he doesn't just cinch the girth up and hope for the best 🤣😉
If you're horse has had a bit of a break, or if he is looking a little fresh, then check out these tips before you pop your foot in the stirrup 👌
TUESDAY TRAINING TIP... Join us on our safe, peaceful feed round this morning 👌
Feeding times can be fractious affairs, with horses kicking the door and "making faces" at you and each other. Not only is it annoying and "catching" between horses stabled near each other, it can get dangerous with horses becoming aggressive around food and lunging at you as you try to get the feed over the stable door. Sustained door kicking can also lead to injuries.
On a yard where we have a lot of young horses, and those with behavioural issues, it is important that we are training them in all aspects of their handling, not just their ridden work. After some trial and error over the years, we now use this step by step method to ensure horses stay patient at feed time, whilst keeping our staff, and the horses themselves, safe. And for anyone who thinks that asking a horse to step back before they get fed is "wrong", then I invite them to watch a herd at feed-time!
When Maddie approaches a horse with their feed, if they come forward over the stable door, she raises the feed high above the stable door and says "back". This is the horse's cue to step back away from the door. If they don't step back, she calmly gives the horse a quick squirt of water from the water pistol on their chest. When they step back, she pops the feed over the door and walks away. No shouting, no stamping of feet, no hitting, no pain, no drama!
For the majority of horses, doing this one or twice will be enough for them to learn to step back as you approach with their feed. It also works a treat on persistent door kickers 👌.
You can see how quiet and relaxed our breakfast round was this morning, and how quickly the horses that arrived over the weekend have settled into the yard 😁.
As I said at the beginning of the video, whilst we love doing our live-streamed Tuesday Check-Ins, we often get issues with connection and visual and audio quality. So, we have decided to keep the same content of "real life
