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
BOLTING! In my mind, this is one of the most difficult behaviours to re-train, as it is fear based and taps in to the horse's strongest instinct of flight. It is also very easy for the rider to exacerbate the problem, as our first instinct is to protect ourselves by tensing up and grabbing the reins, which in turn increases the horse's desire to run.
This clip is from a full length video lesson of a horse that was with me some years ago for a bolting issue. Obviously, I had done a lot of ground and ridden preparation work before this video was taken, but I have lifted a few of the key points and moment from the session.
The full length video is available within Your Horsemanship Online, www.yourhorsemanship.com 😁👌
Apologies for no "Tuesday Check-In" today, but Hamish is on an Area Visit in Canterbury and Jason is doing a handover with clients! Please do join us next week though!
After Jason and Rosie had such amazing dressage lessons on "Hoggy" the simulated horse at Sparrow Oast, we organised a CPD afternoon this week for our horse trainers on "The Professor" at Hurstwood Farm Equestrian Centre, Holiday Cottages & Camping to get tips on their jumping seats and balance over show jumps and cross country fences.
So, who did best? Hamish, Caroline or Jason 🤔?! Keep 👀 out to find out in future posts!
A huge thank you to Amy and everyone at Hurstwood for such an entertaining and educational afternoon!
HAVE YOU GOT A "HOT" HORSE?
No Live @ 11 today as we're having work done to the cables in the area 😳, but here is the intro to this month's Your Horsemanship Members' video, which raises interesting ideas on the topic of riding, training and managing an energetic, or "hot", horse.
I love these types of horses, but you definitely need to remain CCD (calm, consistent and decisive!) and have plenty of patience and perseverance up your sleeve!
In the full demo, I am riding the beautiful Friday's Girl, who has come on leaps and bounds and has the paces and potential to be a dressage superstar... if we can slow her brain down!
This demo, along with over 250 horse training lessons and demos, is available via membership to Your Horsemanship. Check out the content here www.yourhorsemanship.com/courses.
“It’s important that we’re leaders, as rational
human beings, otherwise we’re handing leadership over to a flight animal”… The question is, how do we become a leader our horse wants to follow?
Hamish working with gorgeous Truffle! His owner bought two weeks training with us as part of a fundraising raffle for the United Kingdom Polocrosse Association UK Polocrosse Team who played at the recent World Cup in South Africa. Young Truffle is reactive to rugging, leg handling and spooky objects on the ground and under saddle. Here Hamish is working on desensitising him to the rugging process… you can see what a good job he is doing!
It's all in the detail!
You might not think that your horse putting their head over your shoulder is significant, but if it's not corrected, there's a chance they will then take a step into your space and before you know it, they'll be walking all over you!
It's just as important for your safety and your horse's training to stay vigilant and in tune with your horse's movements on the ground, as when you are riding them!
www.yourhorsemanship.com/courses
When should we start talking about horsemanship?!
I loved doing some short sessions with Philippa and Oscar during my time with Andrew Hoy and his staff. I don't think it's ever too young to start young riders about understanding why their ponies behave a certain way, and how we can influence them. The trick is to keep it fun, so they are soaking up knowledge without knowing they are being taught 👌
As we begin to to plan our events, course days and camps for 2025, maybe we need to incorporate a Junior Program?!
A little tip about riding in open spaces! If you don't have bales, trees or other physical objects to focus on and direct your horse round, just imagine them 🤣😁
Honestly one of the best webinars we have done!
Thanks so much to Jess from Rider Pilates Online for her Breathing Webinar. I am going to to revisit all the tips and techniques so I can improve my breathing in my daily work (when my stress response does kick in every now and again!) and when I am competing.
This webinar is available to Your Horsemanship members and sits in our webinar library alongside so many other fascinating presentations from guest experts from Olympic medallists to saddle sitters to physios.
Just another reason to join us today! www.yourhorsemanship.com/membership
#andbreathe #stressresponse #breathingpractice #horsetraining #horseridingconfidence #horseproblemssolved #yourhorsemanship #getinandgeton
Not live this week, but we hope you enjoy this little snippet of horse training life that was filmed first thing this morning! This time, showing how the building blocks of groundwork translate into all areas of handling, management and riding 😁.
We count ourselves so very lucky to be working with these amazing creatures (and their humans!), doing a job we love. Today we, along with the whole equestrian community, are remembering Georgie, a very special person and rider, who also loved what she did. Please go and give your horses a hug today and tell your friends and family how much you love them.
