Anna Bonnage Horsemanship

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Anna Bonnage Horsemanship Anna travels out to client's facilities training horses and people in a variety of disciplines.

Anna’s training approach applies to all riding disciplines, starting young horses and working with horses that have developed troubled behaviours. Anna has a practical, common sense approach which focuses on working with the horse’s point of view and seeing things from their perspective, helping the horse to have a relaxed state of mind. If we help a horse to change the way that they feel then the

y will naturally change the way they behave. Although Anna has worked with horses for all of her life, her approach towards helping horses and people, in her opinion, is greatly down to the knowledge which she has gained from spending time with one of the most talented horseman in the world, Harry Whitney.

22/06/2025

When it comes to fly masks. Back strap too loose and flies get in or masks fall off. Bottom strap too tight causes pressure and swelling around your horse’s muzzle.

This beautiful mare has arrived with me to be backed. It really is my happy place backing the young horses. It’s a real ...
21/06/2025

This beautiful mare has arrived with me to be backed. It really is my happy place backing the young horses. It’s a real joy for me the day they arrive.

Here she is with her babysitter! All of the young horses arriving for me to back are given a retired friend who they live with for the duration of their stay. I don’t know of any other trainers who do this. When I’m not with the mare she’ll have her new friend with her at all times. Every young horse settles in so quickly. It’s really crucial to me that these young horses first experience of leaving the safety of their friends at home is a good and relaxed experience. An electric fence between the young horse and the baby sitting horse is sometimes needed but often the division of a fence is too frightening for a young one who ‘needs’ the closeness of the experienced horse right there next to them. In time they learn to cope on their own during their stay but initially they have a friend to guide them, either me or their new horse friend are with them at all times. I’m setting them up for live not just for the 4-6 weeks which they’re with me being backed.

Early morning trip to the beach with a client/ friend of mine and her young mare who I backed.Most young horses feel a l...
21/06/2025

Early morning trip to the beach with a client/ friend of mine and her young mare who I backed.

Most young horses feel a little overwhelmed by the vast expanse. For miles off into the distance they can see moving figures, be it dogs, walkers or other horses. The goal was a combo of leading and riding, keeping the mare’s mind ‘with’ her owner. Drawing the mare’s attention to give her things to think about right here by her feet. Directing her attention when overwhelm kicked in and she needed to move her feet and the occasional interrupting her attention with the windmill rope action if the mare was unable to hear her owner, because her brain was miles up the beach.

A great first exposure for both mare and owner at the beach. Pan my dog and I went along and got wet feet and both owner and mare relaxed and enjoyed their outing, as you can see by the stress free photos 🥳

A lovely client of mine is looking for a new four legged friend. Do share the post if you know of a suitable riding hors...
04/06/2025

A lovely client of mine is looking for a new four legged friend. Do share the post if you know of a suitable riding horse to join her at their lovely facility.

WANTED a horse that loves to hack…… anywhere - busy roads, open spaces, fields with livestock, beach etc. Happy riding out on their own or in company first or last, forward going and level headed ernough to nanny youngsters - not spooky.
Must load and travel without any issues and be content to stay away on horsey holidays.
14.2 - 15.2hh nothing heavy or wide, as I find wide horses uncomfortable. Aged 7 - 15 yrs old with experience in the world and past history known. Must be fit/sound and pass vetting. Preferably a gelding.
Good realistic budget to buy the right horse or would loan with BHS agreement in place (would consider 15yrs + if loaning)
Older experienced owner offering a private family home with 24 hr turn out, field shelters, stables and other ponies/horses for company - versatile set up to suit the needs of the horse.
North Devon tel 07909964737

A trusted friend Alison, has a horse whom I haven’t met, who she is looking to find a new home for, so I said I’d post a...
27/05/2025

A trusted friend Alison, has a horse whom I haven’t met, who she is looking to find a new home for, so I said I’d post about Charlie on here to help her and Charlie.

Charlie is a 12 year old 15.3 Warmblood x Arab. Has hunted, arena hire, show jumped, and been on the gallops, all before I owned him. He is an intelligent, sensitive horse who will take time to adjust to a new environment. Charlie needs a compassionate, experienced owner who will put in the necessary time to bond with him and condition him to riding again or one who is happy having a nice looking horse for non ridden stuff. Lunges beautifully. He is not for a novice as he can be tense under saddle. He can become stressed if left on his own or his routine is changed.
He has travelled in a trailer and lorry, but he's not keen on being in the trailer on his own. No vices and not malicious in any way. He would be suited to a livery yard situation where he always has company or small herd environment.
🏡 more important than 🥕🥕. My main concern is seeing him settled with someone who will enjoy him.
PM for more details. Alison - 07974 567749

Today was the start of filming part 2 of my 1-3 part young horse online course. The editing has been far more time consu...
08/05/2025

Today was the start of filming part 2 of my 1-3 part young horse online course. The editing has been far more time consuming than I or the videographer anticipated. It’s an epic job creating a 3 part course that takes you from first haltering of your young horse through to part 3 hacking around the country lanes.

It’ll be worth it but it’s taking longer than I hoped as I’m working full time with young horses so only evenings and weekends are free for editing. Looking forward to showing you all some clips from 2024 filming ie once part 1 is ready to go on the market 🥳

Today we filmed concepts for leading your young horse around the village, over obstacles and trailer loading, your horse’s first time approaching the ramp.

Thankyou Sarah and Emma for letting your fabulous young horses participate in the footage today.

03/05/2025

This video is of a mare who I backed in March this year. She’s been home 5 weeks now and I’ve just received this clip of them riding on Dartmoor, plus a lovely message:

“She’s cracking Anna! She is a total pleasure to ride and I haven’t hit a single issue. Thank you very much”.

Those quiet walks her and I did around the fields on her first few rides paid off. She’s now able to open up into a canter and then return to the relaxed walk she learnt at the beginning. ‘How they’re started is how they go’. A saying that my teacher Harry Whitney says and it’s so true, a good start on a young horse sets them up for life with a rider.

24/04/2025

I quite frequently get called out to help people with loading. You’ll see on the internet trainers showing videos of horses pulling, rearing, running into the trainer when it comes to loading and then they show how they’ve tamed the horse who is then loading well. I get called out to those jobs too but I don’t allow a horse to get to the point of screaming at me with those behaviours, so we don’t video those behaviours. My approach is to show the horse each step of the process and give them time to think it through. All I need is to be told by the owner the behaviour they are struggling with and then in the stable or field way before we’re anywhere near the lorry I can identify what the horse is and isn’t understanding and help a horse to search for different options there is their safe place. The lorry or trailer is rarely the place that we should teach a horse to load.

With this particular mare her owner had bought a lorry, so for the first time they now have their own transport. Before I was called out they had a practice session and the mare would walk up the ramp but find herself unable to understand how to turn so instead would go backwards off the ramp. After their one practice the mare understandably thought backing out was a good and sensible option. When a horse learns to load there are lots of small areas that they need to understand and one of those areas is swinging their shoulders wide to prepare the hind quarters to follow so that they can turn inside of the box. Rather like a lorry going around a right hand bend they swing their front wheels left first so that the rear wheels can follow that path rather than run over the pavement. We practiced this outside of the lorry, using the lead rope, no not the end of the lead rope, below the rope attachment to the halter I used a circular motion to guide her forwards and around. Once we’d practiced that forward curve we applied it into the box, creating a forward flow up around and in. The flow had to be seamless so that the mare didn’t stop and start to make plans to back out. In time though her confidence to move forwards in a curve will reduce her need to consider backing. As with the way that she comes out of lorry in a thoughtful step by step manner, in time this will develop when she steps in. Meaning for a horse to be completely safe to load we need them to understand it feels good to follow our feel to stop, go, move sidewards, lower their head, step back, any of these movements at any time. A thinking confident horse who’s a team member not just making plan to survive because they don’t understand all of the sections needed for loading.

Just to note, this mare’s owner had been very thoughtful by identifying a problem on day one of her loading practice. This means that her mare doesn’t start to practice a habit of running backwards, instead we tried a new approach to give the mare new options to create new positive habits.

20/04/2025

Happy Easter everyone! Riding newly backed Logi through a field on week two with me. Riding in open spaces is what we make it. Young horses with no prior experience of riding in open spaces generally find it easy and relaxing if their mind is with me and I act no differently to riding anywhere else 😊😎

16/04/2025

These are the update videos that owners get on a daily basis. This big guy has been with me a week and a half now. My job was to help him understand that he could move freely forwards from a rider’s request. He had been use to having a human on the ground to lead and guide him forwards so it was quite a worry for him at first when I got on and there was no human on the ground to guide him. At the beginning of last week he would grunt and grab himself through his rib cage, tightening up his body to the extent that his legs would feel wooden, stiff in all of his movement. My skill here has been doing enough to inspire him to search for forward motion. Too much and a horse like him either stops with tension, gets their back up and plunges or rushes off and bucks. It’s one of the hardest ‘feels’ the explain to people. To use life, use energy, use the air around you to bring life up in a horse and most importantly the moment the horse finds even a forward thought, for us to become passive and soft instantly, almost floppy so our movement blends in with the horse as soon as that forward thought comes up in them. You’ll notice I’m riding with a short jumping crop. This isn’t to hit him with, it’s to tap my boot with. There are two leather squares on the end of it and they clap together to make a noise if I ask with my leg and he chooses to sink back against my leg. I’m not using the noise of the whip to make him go. I’m using the noise to inspire a forward thought if he goes back to last weeks pattern of leaning back into my leg request. Last week I didn’t use a crop at all because that would have been too much for him. It’s only possible to use the crop noise now because he understands that he can move forward. In this last week he has learnt that he has the option to go forwards, as last week he didn’t know that he could. It’s really important that our approach reflects the horse’s current understanding and that understanding changes day by day as they learn.

This gorgeous boy arrived on Monday. He’s with me to bring on. So far he’s had his owner sit on him at a walk and quiet ...
09/04/2025

This gorgeous boy arrived on Monday. He’s with me to bring on. So far he’s had his owner sit on him at a walk and quiet trot but only with a human on the ground to support him. My job is to have him open up his trot and find a canter without the support of his human on foot. His owner describes him as a big Labrador and I have to agree there are some strong similarities. We’re all in love with him at the yard!

I grew up following the traditional methods, sitting on a youngster in the stable, being on the lunge under the control of someone on foot. Since my first trip to America in 2004, I’ve only backed young horses on my own, with no one at foot to help. I’m now so use to it just being me and the young horse it actually makes me nervous if someone comes into the arena wanting to hold the horse “ Err no no I’m fine, you just sit down” 😂. The timing needed when a horse needs support, it’s so quick. There’s no time to explain to the human on foot what they need to do. I love this way of backing young horses because I listen to their body through feel, my body feels their body and their body gains information and comfort from my body, so that when the chips are down we sink into each other for support.

Happy Mother’s Day! 🥳To all of us girls and ladies who love our animals and know them as family. The mud, the tears, the...
30/03/2025

Happy Mother’s Day! 🥳
To all of us girls and ladies who love our animals and know them as family. The mud, the tears, the lugging hay, the daily dedication in storms and floods. The brand new saddle you couldn’t afford but your horse needed it. The endless consideration and empathy. Of course the horse, dog, cat repay us with more than we could ever hope for but still it’s worth having a well done moment, to all of us animal mothers spring is here, well done for all that you do for your animal family. 🌺

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