Kay's Lessons and Training

02/18/2023

Tuesday Tip 🐴

Riding shoulder-fore early in your training session can help your horse to relax and focus.

Asking the inside hindleg to come underneath and across the body together with a little flexion at the poll encourages relaxation of the topline, improves rhythm and longitudinal suppleness.

Try riding shoulder-fore in walk, trot and canter - using it as part of your warm-up.

07/02/2022

Our horses need your help. Due to current circumstances, FHHR will need to find/purchase a property in possibly just 2 short months. We need your help to secure enough funds for moving expenses, closing costs for the possible purchase of a property, higher monthly rental fees, etc.

FHHR has rescued over 360 horses in the past 18 years. While at Hampton Plantation, the rescue grew and began to host programs, events, and other outreach programs for the southern Maryland community. From our annual Spirits & Steeds fall festival to scout and veteran programs, FHHR has made an impact on our local community with the help of our beloved rescue horses.

If you’ve visited us before, or are just now discovering FHHR, we hope that you will consider helping us secure a future for FHHR and our horses. If you can’t donate, please consider sharing this post with others! With your help we can continue to help our horses and have our horses help our community. Link is below or in our bio to donate through our GoFundMe.

🔗: https://www.gofundme.com/f/d2une-help-fhhr-buy-hampton-plantation?member=18796891&utm_medium=email&utm_source=customer&utm_campaign=p_email%2Binvitesupporters

07/02/2022

Success!

07/02/2022

Im Juni 2019 entdeckte Bobby Carn ein verlassenes und verhungerndes Pferd in der Nähe seiner Ranch. Es war ihm nicht klar, wie das Pferd in einem solchen Zustand leben konnte. So etwas hat er noch nie gesehen (Bild unten). Bob ist übrigens ein großer Tierfreund. Er brachte das Pferd sofort zum örtlichen Tierarzt. Tierarzt Ron kümmerte sich um das Pferd und pfelgte es Tag und Nacht. Nach mehreren Monaten der Genesung kam Bob zu dem armen Tier und konnte nicht glauben, dass es dasselbe Pferd war (Bild oben).

Bob beschloss, das Pferd zu adoptieren. Das Pferd wurde nach Bobs Lieblingsroman aus der Kindheit Im Juni 2019 entdeckte Bobby Carn ein verlassenes und verhungerndes Pferd in der Nähe seiner Ranch. Es war ihm nicht klar, wie das Pferd in einem solchen Zustand leben konnte. So etwas hat er noch nie gesehen (Bild unten). Bob ist übrigens ein großer Tierfreund. Er brachte das Pferd sofort zum örtlichen Tierarzt. Tierarzt Ron kümmerte sich um das Pferd und arbeitete Tag und Nacht, um sich zu verbessern. Ihm wurde sofort eine spezielle Diät verschrieben. Nach mehreren Monaten der Genesung kam Bob zu dem armen Tier und konnte nicht glauben, dass es dasselbe Pferd war (Bild oben).

Bob beschloss, ein Pferd zu adoptieren. Das Pferd wurde nach Bobs Lieblingsroman aus der Kindheit White Mane genannt. genannt.

07/02/2022

This tho. Horses make us crazy, and leave us broke and exhausted-but they also somehow fix us, too ♥️

07/02/2022

That’s what the hole in the door is for. 😂

05/06/2022

IS PATTING REWARDING TO THE HORSE?

We often see riders slapping their horse on the neck enthusiastically at the end of a showjumping round or dressage test. Patting is considered by many to be a way of telling the horse that they have performed well – but is this the reward we think it is, or could it cause them discomfort?

Horses are extremely sensitive to touch and many riders use different pressures ranging from a light pat to a slap. To find out more about how horses feel about this, a team of equine scientists at Nottingham Trent University set out to investigate the effects of patting and wither scratching horses when ridden or being handled.

For the first part of the study, footage of 16 competitors in the dressage Grand Prix at the 2012 London Olympics was analysed to see how and when the riders patted their horses, and how they reacted.

Fifteen riders patted their horses, with 12 continuing to do so for over a minute. A significant percentage of these pats resulted in the horse reacting. Most commonly, the horses accelerated – sometimes they changed gait from walk to trot. This could indicate that the horses found the patting unpleasant, or that they took the opportunity to accelerate because the rider dropped the rein contact and/or leant forward.

In a second part to the study, a group of five well-handled riding school ponies and five relatively un-touched rescue horses were patted or scratched four times, for 30 seconds at a time. The study was filmed and the horses’ behavioural responses were noted.

Patting resulted in little behavioural reaction. However, wither scratching seemed to be much more effective as a reward to the horse. Some lowered their heads, moved their upper lips and tried to mutually groom the handler – all responses similar to those seen in positive horse-to-horse interaction.

The researchers concluded that riders and handlers should be encouraged to scratch rather than pat their horse as a reward.

Previous research has shown that scratching the withers consistently lowers the horse's heart rate and can therefore be a useful aid to calm them in anxious situations. Wither scratching may also improve the horse/human relationship as mutual grooming does between horses.

Research team: Emily Hancock, Sarah Redgate and Carol Hall of Nottingham Trent University. 2014.

Image by lhourahane 2012 Olympics - Team Dressage Final, CC by 2.0.

05/06/2022

Celebrating International Women’s Day may seem incongruous in a rare sport that allows women to compete as equals against men, but we’re all about girlpower here at EN. So to celebrate, we’re taking a look

05/06/2022

Yes!!!

02/25/2022

02/25/2022