We were talking about horses with a lot of curiosity in the pole clinic today and this horse, Dafydd, certainly fits that description.
It can be fun, but also hard, to work with horses who are really curious as they appear very unfocused (on our chosen task at least) but it can make things worse to try to shut down this curiosity as its such a strong desire, especially in some young horses. Horses also gain a lot in terms of healthy brain chemistry and learning if we allow them to make some choices of their own and satisfy their curiosity. However, we don't want them to take over either and the end goal is for them to willingly accept our choices. Sometimes we have to be a bit patient in finding a way to that end goal.
In this case we made a deal with Dafydd in that he needed to work with us with some focus for a short priod of time and in exchange he got to go and explore something that he was interested in. The end result was the video that you see below (we all got a bit wet) and also a much calmer and less frustrated horse, so good all round (apart from the wet part). I suspect that next time around he will be perfectly happy to stand on both the mats.
The new gate is ready!! It got its first testing today and Christine did a beautiful job, this is not as easy as she is making it look. So now this is a western Trail obstacle as well as Working Equitation and TREC. It can be adapted to be a rope gate as well which is needed for the speed phase of the working equitation.
I now have a new discipline on offer at Tilefield Equestrain as I have just spent 3 days at the Unicorn Trust and qualified as Working Equitation instructor.
The first clinic here is on 7 and 8 May and I plan to have obstacle clinics every month along with a 2 day camp in August. For anyone that enjoys this, regular clinics are going to make sense as goodness me there is a LOT to learn about this sport, its technical and really requires precision and control to do well.
Working Equitation is an exciting new international discipline which is currently growing rapidly. The sport promotes classical training principles and is based on the traditions of working horses from Southern Europe. In the obstacles phase riders need to be able to open gates, rein back, stand quietly, pick things up and carry them and manoeuvre in tight spaces so a great deal of connection and parternship is required between horse and rider. There are 3 phases in the competition, Dressage, Ease of handling (doing the obstacles very stylishly) and Speed (doing the obstacles fast!). But just practicing with the obstacles is going to be fun, even without any goal of competing.
Competitions starts with walk and trot classes (a walk and trot dressage test and you can do the obstacles in walk) and go up to Advanced which is really challenging with a mixture of PSG and Grand Prix movements.
Here are a few clips from the Masterclass that was run last night with the top GB internatinal squad riders.
Start 2022 with a plan for your riding and know how you are going to put this into action ....
