I love having such happy and relaxed horses 💗It makes me sad to think that we are having to relocate the herd so if anybody knows of anything available ideally somewhere around Melton area or en route to Stowmarket, please let me know. All we need is a field, water is a bonus but by no means essential. Also happier to consider somewhere with facilities etc. Ideally sole use, would consider shared as long as on a DIY basis and nice people. Long or short term options considered, references from current field owners available 🥰 I just don’t have enough land at my other site to move them all there 😢
You know you’ve got your horse trained well when they react like this to a train coming past 😎
Out for a long rein with Starlight this morning. I’ve been busy strengthening him up and refining his understanding of basic aids, in preparation to start riding him. Very excited to get him going under saddle 🥰❤️
Nervous horses definitely learn the best by watching more confident horses do things- Simba enjoys watching the older horses which shows him that things are okay. If a horse senses their friend is worried about something, it will naturally make them worry too. Here are Elsa and Simba practicing and watching loading the other day, in a borrowed trailer from a friend 🐎
Judge has always been a little bit worried in a specific corner of his owner’s arena- as this video shows, there is fast moving traffic which cannot be seen until the last moment which he finds a little worrying. Every session I make a point of showing him that it is okay and gradually he is getting better with it. I think watching and learning can teach a horse just as much as asking them to ‘do’ things. Good boy Judge 🥰❤️
It’s safe to say that Slinky is well over his fear of water! When he first arrived, he wouldn’t even step a toe into a puddle- let alone walk through a small ‘easily avoidable’ puddle, underneath a dual carriageway and step into the big puddle with zero hesitation. I’m so so proud of how far this pony has come along in just a few months! He is so chilled and relaxed to lead out now, and is exactly the same with a rider on board. Whilst we have been taking things quite slowly, my ethos has always been to create a happy and relaxed horses that are ‘working’ because they want to and are enjoying themselves, not because they feel they have to, and you can’t rush the creation of a safe and confident horse🥰🥰
5 ponies worked by 9am, we were on it this morning! Here is Slinky, out for a nice relaxed ride with Jorja on board. Most of the aids are coming from her now rather than me on the ground and we will soon begin to get him going independently. Our primary focus under saddle so far has been getting him happy and relaxed out hacking as he arrived very tense and nervous in general 🐎
Nothing makes me happier than watching the horses interact with each other. There’s a height difference of 4 hands between our littlest and largest herd members, Slinky and Ella, but they are the best of friends 🥰❤️
Judge happy and relaxed after our groundwork session earlier on! He has had a little winter break & today was our first session back. He learned how to leg yield and the beginnings of side pass today, as well as the stay command. We are doing some groundwork for now to build some strength and settle him mentally and then we will start riding him again 🥰❤️
Slinky long reining under the A12 yesterday. As it was the first time we have long reined him, Jorja stands by his head to reward him at the right moments so that we could teach him what was expected of him. Next time we will add a roller. Long reining will help him understand the rider’s aids and how to carry himself correctly, using his back muscles to support himself. Although Slinky is 20, he was out of work upon arrival and we were told that he was nervous and naps under saddle so we have restarted him from scratch with lots of groundwork. So far we seem to have gotten him confident and eliminated the napping as it appeared that the root of the issue was worry over leaving the herd- I have shown him that it is okay with lots of short in-hand walks, gradually built up so that he knows he will always come back to them 🥰❤️
The flooding provided the perfect opportunity for some water desensitisation with ‘puddle-phobic’ Slinky! They say you can’t teach an ‘old dog new tricks’ but this 20 year old pony gets better and better by the day. However Slinks thought this was the perfect opportunity to have a toilet break and was clearly very pleased with himself 😆😂
Slinky is now out in the field with Heidi and it was an instant friendship! Least squealing I’ve ever heard when putting two new horses together. They have had 10 days to get used to each other without being in the same field, whilst I assessed Heidi’s temperament in order to decide whether to introduce her to the main herd. As she is so sweet and still a little bit nervous, I decided to pull Slinky from the herd to be her friend as Cads and Star are very boisterous and he could also do with a sweet and gentle friend. Though him and Ella have bonded nicely, she is also good friends with Starlight and Cadog so isn’t being left alone and they are still in adjoining fields. Silva and Simba will eventually form a herd with Heidi and Slinky 🥰❤️
Horses living as horses should live- yes they get muddy and tangles in their manes. But they have forage, freedom and friends. I understand that it is not always realistically possible to turn horses out 24/7 etc. and I am in a lucky position to have enough land to do so, with ample grazing year round- but we should all be striving to offer them the best we can within our capability. And by that I don’t mean fancy stables etc. I mean allowing them to be a horse 💕
Wow is all I can say! Simba has been making such amazing progress in his confidence around people. To think that the same pony you couldn’t stand 30ft from is now teaching kids (basic) groundwork skills and is happy to be around people he doesn’t know, is phenomenal. For anybody new here, this pony took 9 months before he allowed me to remove the headcollar he was wearing when I purchased him. Upon arrival it took me 2 hours to remove his lead rope, I think I have only worked with one other pony with fear as deep rooted as his (Cindy) and that’s speaking as someone who works with fearful ponies on a daily basis. I gave up trying to lead him for a while because the moment he felt the slightest bit of pressure on the headcollar he would completely freak out and the next 2-3 hours would be spent trying to catch him so he didn’t tangle himself up (I wish I was exaggerating on the time) and the stress wasn’t fair on him. At one stage he almost died because he was very poorly but too flighty to cope with the aftercare of surgery- luckily he turned a corner and recovered without surgical intervention. That wasn’t before 3 hours attempting to sedate him to get him to Rossdales, who saved his life- darting was a serious option as he wouldn’t even let me near him when he was in pain. I’m just happy he feels safe now as he has clearly been treated horrifically in the past as there have been certain triggers that could only possibly stem from abuse. He needs a bit more groundwork before he’ll be ready to back but I just know he’s going to be a superstar when he is ready 🥰❤️
(Shared with parental consent)
There’s absolutely nothing I love more then watching the horses utilise the natural obstacles we have available on our big 20 acre field. The differences I have seen both physically, emotionally and in terms of building confidence is indescribable. They have all muscled up from the movement and large space/ very long grass has worked wonders for Ella, who is laminitic. She also has kissing spine and has transitioned back to barefoot since moving here. Indi (in the video) has some weaknesses and, having known him for a while prior having him with me, it is beautiful to see him so free moving. My worries about having people in the field with Cadog (who worries very much about people that he doesn’t know) have almost been diminished, he even says hello to dog walkers over the fence. Lily has really chilled out and I am very happy with Starlight’s body condition. None of them are in current ridden work and only Ella is in groundwork at present however you wouldn’t necessarily be able to tell that as an onlooker. It might not be fancy but I couldn’t dream of a more perfect lifestyle for the horses 🐎❤️
Who remembers Starlight, the lovely cob I rebacked a couple of months ago? Well Star and his two friends, Lily and Indi, have come to stay. They have been here for about a month, I am just awful when it comes to updating this page! I find this interaction from the first day they were integrated into the original herd (Hermionie, Ella and Cads) and their progress since this, absolutely fascinating. For a while they were very ’split’ and kept their distance from each other. Now they do integrate a little more with each other- Starlight has established himself as herd leader which has done a world of good for Cadog, as he is not used to being challenged by somebody else and sometimes the power of other horses to mellow a horse out is far more efficient than human intervention! The newbies have had this month off of work however Ella, Simba, Silva, Mr.H and a few freelance client horses have all been doing lots 🥰❤️
Super-Silvs flying round Tuesday Evening Unaffiliated Showjumping hosted by Suffolk Vaulting Club! It may ‘only be a 60’ but it was such an achievement. Despite riding incredibly cautiously because it was my first time jumping (besides popping Blue over a few 50cm fences at the end of a session) since my accident, I wasn’t sure what he would be like and my 20+ year old dressage saddle providing absolutely zero support, he still managed to place 2nd out of 9, meaning he was the second quickest out of 6 horses in the jump off! For context, Silva was semi retired in October 2020 due to slamming the breaks on repeatedly at our last competition and having me off twice- once via refusal and once straight after the jump when he finally did go over. Lots would have pushed him through it but as jumping was usually his life’s joy, he was quite clearly trying to tell me something. Silva also suffers from melanomas which I feared may have been impacting him internally when he jumped. On Boxing Day of 2020 he then tore the hind suspensory ligament in his hind leg and we weren’t sure if he would ever be ridden at all and feared that he may not even come sound enough to do groundwork, in which case it would have been the end because he needs lots of movement to remain comfortable on medical grounds. Luckily he did come sound but he only hacked going forward- he did get fit enough to do our first 16km PR EGB ride in October 2021 and I was so proud of him. But straight line work only! Over summer 2022 I went on holiday and he lost so much weight whilst I was gone- as we have issues with ulcers once the weight was gone, it proved incredibly difficult to get it back on him. He had some time out of work and has been hard fed 4-5 times per day since this. Gradually (mainly due to winter and school times) I allowed the kids that share him to ride him in the arena very gently on the flat, and he seemed happy enough. After my accident, I decided to get on him and just take him fo
Having only known him for a week, this was the greeting I got from Boris this morning after being away for the weekend 😍 How lovely ❤️
(Big thanks to my mum and Silva’s lovely sharers for keeping things running smoothly whilst I was away)
We have expanded one of our current sites and Poppy & Elsa (the OG rescues) are very pleased to have so much more space and grass! They are only out on this field for around 30 minutes daily at the moment as there is not a whole lot of grass in their original field, but they are certainly happy.
N.B I do not leave headcollars on horses in general, however they are supervised the whole time they are wearing them 🥰
6 out of 8 ponies worked yesterday, not bad going! Ella and Cads have officially begun their bootcamp, kicked off with some nice in-hand polework for Ella and an in-hand wall for Cads, where he met sheep and donkeys for the first time.
