Jen- Suzie School Horsemanship Student Instructor

24/08/2022

Pony people I wonder if you can help?

Urgent grazing land needed for 1 gelding horse and a pony mare with a foal at foot in or around SY15.

Does anyone know of anything?

29/07/2022

I've just got to the yard, after a long day/week at the my day job. My happy place 🥰

14/06/2022

Deb and Tia played with some liberty at our session the other day. We also looked at their stage 1 tasks. I love the connection these two have got.

13/06/2022

I challenged Sam and Jaffa to see whether they could back up a figure of 8. Jaffa is an unconfident boy and this was a particularly blustery day. I love how this task helped them both focus.

12/06/2022

Walkies Joules... I am trying to make sure I am consistently taking Joules out for walks. She can often lose confidence out on her own so I am looking to stretch that comfort zone.

11/06/2022

At my last lesson with Cate and Bailey we were playing with Bailey taking lots of direction. Unfortunately, I was rubbish and had not got my camera out for all the other cool stuff we played with. It's easy to forget how far this pair have come 🥰

10/06/2022

Cathy and John at our last lesson a few weeks ago. We have been helping John with his confidence with the saddle. John can get unconfident when he sees things above and behind him, where a rider would sit, so super Jockey Jim has been helping out. I love how relaxed John is now with the whole process.

07/06/2022

I love the field my two are in. My two love it. But now I need to go have a chat with Joules and see whether she can give me a clue as to where she took her fly mask off 🤷‍♀️🤣

05/06/2022

I was back out with Jacqueline and Ted last week. A lot of things are coming together for this pair. Consistency is key with Ted and hopefully they have both now found this. I was pleased to see such a nice change in Ted at his new livery. Ted has not been the easiest horse to give direction too, but today he listened like a star. We have put a voice cue to his go and stop to make it a bit easier for them both. It is so lovely to see Ted try so hard, and respond appropriately to the pressure when he goes off course. Honestly couldn't be more pleased for this pair 🥰🥰

04/06/2022

I am adoring helping Sam and Jaffa on their journey. I am back out with them later today. Sam is doing a fabulous job keeping Jaffa on task, which can be difficult as he gets worried about what is happening around him. So excited for this pairs progress together.

04/06/2022

Baby Joules 😍 How has 10 years gone so fast?!?! She still loves her naps... normally when I am just about to turn her back out 🤣

15/05/2022

I have been helping the lovely Sam with Jaffa. He came to Sam quite shut down and after not the best of starts to their partnership they are really flourishing together! Jaffa was very unconfident when I first met him and his thresholds were really shallow. We have carefully extended his thresholds and instead of panicking he has really started to look to Sam to help him through. I have lots of videos, that I will be sharing over the coming days. I am very excited to see where this partnership leads.

This is anlovely picture after Sam was able to ask Jaffa to straddle the pole lengthways 😍

25/04/2022

Lovely Liv and Es**rt had a lesson a couple of weeks ago. We looked at her confidence when ridden, after helping with a couple of basic rein positions we went to explore the yard 🥰

22/04/2022

Thanks to everyone who has been in touch about lessons. Sorry, if I have been a bit slow to respond, but you guys are keeping me busy 🥰

Don't worry if you are looking to get booked in I still have availability, but I am booking up fast 😀

22/04/2022

🥰🥰

11/04/2022

I have been working on Joules self confidence for a while now. Joules is very attached to Percy and would get very stressed in the stable if he left her behind. This is not just any picture of Joules having a sleep, she sleeps in the stable a lot 😴 This is a picture of Joules who has acknowledged Percy has gone out and she has then decided to go back to sleep 🥰🥰 I am so glad she feels confident enough to do this 🤫🥳🥳🤫

09/04/2022

Amazing day full of lessons. Meeting new people and catching up with people I haven't seen much recently. I will be popping up posts and catching up on messages tomorrow.

Thank you to everyone.... I have had a fab day helping you and your horses.

I'm ready for a nap now 🥰

07/04/2022

07/04/2022

It is so important to trust your gut and get off when you feel you need to. Both you and your horse will trust your instincts and you can grow in confidence together.

I love being an instructor and must thank Suzie for helping me and giving me that helpful Suzie shove to get out there doing it 🥰

03/04/2022

I saw something similar for dressage so I thought I'd write a Suzie School Horsemanship one!

The laws of Horsemanship

1. When the instructor arrives to teach you you will immediately forget how to tie your halter.

2. Your horse doesn't display any of the behaviour that you have a problem with when the instructor visits because he wants to make you look like a liar.

3. You have a 50:50 chance of making the right choice but when people are watching you'll always pick the wrong 50.

4. Your horse will perform all tasks beautifully until you get your camera out.

5. Other people who have no idea what you're doing will always pass comment on what you're doing. That's ok because you have no idea what you're doing either so make sure you listen for tips.

6. Your horse will always do the task perfectly for the instructor and not you because instructors are skilled at blowing up noses and have learned how to make the noise of a carrot which horses cannot resist.

7. After your lesson you will overthink everything and be too scared to give it a go on your own. You can rectify this by trying to do it in front of people and then you can refer back to point number 5.

8. When you first get your halter and rope be sure to wrap it around and smack yourself with it several times. You will spend the next 6 months doing that so better get used to how it feels.

9. You will spend your time questioning everything you ever thought you knew about horses and feeling regretful that you did not have this new knowledge sooner. Your head will hurt a lot and you will understand why your instructor drinks.

10. It can take between 7 and 21 sessions for you to work out that you were the problem all along and the horse was just reacting to what you were doing.
It's OK to join your instructor for drinks when this happens.

31/03/2022

Wakey wakey Joules I need to go to work 🥰

10/03/2022

I love this quote when thinking about connection with our horses 🥰

09/03/2022

Love sitting in the stable with Joules while she sleeps. I love that she trusts me enough to let me walk in to the stable and sit down with her 🥰🥰

28/02/2022

I was back with Alison and Lily at the weekend. Lily is young and has only been with Alison for a short time. Lily has settled really well into the herd and today she showed us she was unconfident leaving her new pals. We played with helping Lily with her thresholds when leaving her friends. We found that Lily would try and self soothe by eating grass, but she really was not relaxed in that moment. It can be easy to assume that because the horse is eating that they are confident. We will continue to help Lily with her confidence so that Alison can take Lily on lovely long walks over the common.

27/02/2022

How interesting? I love to go back and see whether Joules is still okay with things we have done in the past. She was not very confident backing up to the barrel. The barrel is in her blind spot. We helped her with her confidence and she was able to pop her hind leg on it. Something new to play with 😍

26/01/2022

It is so funny seeing this on film. Joules... 'Sorry, i forgot what i was doing'. I do love her 🥰

16/01/2022

This is Percy having a big worry the other day. I was leading Joules behind as well, so I didn't intervene too much. It really shows how much an introvert he is.

12/01/2022

I love days down the yard like this! I'm doing jobs, whilst listening to the birds sing. The ponies are in the field having a nap. You should just be able to spot them on the far side of the woods 😍

04/01/2022

Enjoying the sunshine on our adventure. We had a lovely walk and Joules found lots of snacks, which she was very happy about. Has anyone else got bog ponies at the moment? 🥰

15/12/2021

So proud of Joules today! We both really enjoy our liberty play and to see and feel how connected she is, even in the canter, it melts my heart 😍 I am so excited to keep playing with the liberty canter and see whether we can submit our Stage 6 Liberty in the new year ❤

02/12/2021

My lovely Jen- Suzie School Horsemanship Student Instructor and Joules having a confidence building moment this morning.

Today we stepped away from the arena for some exploring, theory work and goal setting 😀

29/11/2021

Has anyone else had loads of snow?

Let us see your cute snow photos in the comments 😍 😍