Trust

Another excellent post from The Red Mare yesterday, who is the horse at the heart of The Happy Horse book.

It's all about people wanting a quick fix for horses with "problems" and buying gadgets or calmers to try and make them easier to work with.

"No calmer in the world will give you a bond of trust with your horse. If you do not build that bond of trust, day by slow day, there is always going to be a moment when you will find yourself in trouble."

The trust I have been building all these years with my horses has really paid off this weekend. I very rarely ride Sky. I have ridden her maybe half a dozen times in all the years we've had her. But I have done a lot of groundwork with her and general day to day interactions so she knows that I am the one who makes decisions and she also knows that if she gets scared, she can turn to me for help. She does get scared quite a lot. Yesterday she was snorting at a patch of snow on the ground because it was well, white, and it hadn't been there the day before. But I said it was OK and we went past it and it didn't jump up and eat her.

Anyway, a friend had brought her Total Contact saddle over for Ali to try. And after she'd done that, I fancied a go. So I got on Sky, she looked round at me as I was on the mounting block as if to say "Well this doesn't normally happen" but she stood still as I mounted and stood waiting for me to tell her what to do. We rode up and down the lane in walk and trot and she followed all my instructions perfectly. She was calm and relaxed, and amazingly sensitive and supple. She really is a credit to Ali.

Would she have let anyone else do that? Probably not. Our years of building up a trusting relationship really have paid off. And of course I trust her too. She was only wearing a cordeo......

In other news, I rode Tari for the first time ever today. I think she trusts me too :-)

You can't do that, it's dangerous!

Yesterday we did something that is apparently very dangerous. We went for a hack and as soon as we got off the main road and started trotting, Sky started shaking her head up and down as usual. We have come to the conclusion that she doesn't like the feel of the bridle moving around on her head, even her specially made soft leather sidepull. So Ali took it off, and we did the rest of the ride with her just in the neck rope.

Sky is much happier like this it would seem. The head tossing stopped. We went up into the woods and decided to see what would happen if we went for a canter. It was very civilised and she didn't even feel the need to race with Damson. The neck rope was fine for stopping and no innocent passing hikers were run over.

Sky strode out, sniffed the path at times, looked around, nibbled the grass a time or two, but didn't brace her neck, didn't do her giraffe impression and generally seemed more relaxed then usual. I love this picture:

There is something very special about having the trust of a horse like this. I hope I can have the same with Tari when I start riding her. Ali also did her first Interdressage test bridleless this month and she got 77.5 % in spite of a few occasions when Sky made her opinion very clear that she didn't really want to be doing some of this stuff.....

......but then, when did she ever not do that? It's why we love her ;-)

Searching for calm

Today it has been raining, A lot. Almost biblically in fact. Making us wish for a return to last weekend's freezing cold but dry days.....but never mind, we thought, we now have an indoor school at the yard, we can do some work with the horses and stay dry!

However, when we went to get the girls, they apparently had other ideas. I was expecting a certain amount of distraction due to the usual Saturday ritual of attempting to shoot the bountiful number of pheasants up in the woods behind the horses' field that seems to amuse the locals. I don't know how many they actually shoot, but they sure use a lot of ammunition during the attempt, it's just like being back in France really.....so Sky in particular was already somewhat on alert.

But they came trotting (well, sliding sideways at the trot, the field isn't exactly flat) down to the gate and walked along with us down to the yard, snorting at puddles and random bits of plastic, as is Sky's wont. It's not really Tari's won't however, and she seemed more worried about life than usual. Then we got to the Waterfall of Doom, where a gap in the guttering along the side of the school roof meant some water was falling from the hole and making a scary noise. This was simply not to be contemplated unless from the far end of the leadrope with much more and much  louder snorting. Not even peppermint horse treats would induce Tari to approach this monstrosity.....well alright, she got a bit closer but it's truly amazing how far her chunky little neck stretches out when she wants the treat but doesn't want to get any closer to something ;-)

Ah well, we thought, at least they haven't run away, but the general unease meant that we gave up on any idea of in hand or ridden work so we just decided to turn them out in the school and see what happened.

Running about, more snorting, pawing at the sand, a bit more running, generally ending up by the gate and not at all keen to be anywhere away from me and Ali. So we stuck with it, wandered about with them and bit by bit they calmed down enough for a few scratches and a bit of yawning.

So I suppose it was half an hour of what a friend of mine calls "nothing happens horsemanship". But by the end they were calm enough for me to be able to take them back to the field just in their neckstraps. In the rain.......

A shiny new sand school!!

Sun came out today, went for a hack (I rode Sky!), then had a play in the new school that's just been built at our livery yard, such luxury!!

Tari wasn't sure about the step up into the school at first but soon got the hang of it.....

Ali's been riding her with both reins and neckstrap, she's getting the hang of it all now, even managed a bit of steering without her bridle

Obviously hard work though :wink:  :lol: 

She's done so well today, she's gradually getting the hang of steering etc, and she's interested in everything. We've been doing a little bit at a time and giving her plenty of thinking time, and she picks things up well, not as quickly as Kinna or Fina, but she gets there :-D 


Sky started out on full, tense alert (after all, we'd changed things!!) but once she'd got back to the school and got used to being in there, she settled enough to do some nice calm work.

 The sand is really hard going at the moment as it'll need time to settle, so we'll be doing slow work for a while.....Interdressage Baroque test should be just the thing :-)

Skyfaxa or Shadowfax?

Continuing our little and often approach with Sky seems to be doing the trick. Ali has been doing a little bit of work with her a few times a week and we have now progressed to totally bridleless riding. We've done plenty just at walk to start with, and as there's nothing on her head to brace against, she seems to be more relaxed......

Then yesterday we decided to try a trot and see if things changed. Usually, any increase in pace brings with it an increase in stress and anxiety, and fairly often a tendency to bog off, but this time, she was really listening.....even when she got a bit distracted by the dog!

So we will continue to build on this, as long as the weather allows (still no sign of the indoor school being finished). Ali says Sky seems more relaxed and attentive with nothing on her head. And Ali must be pleased, she even broke into a smile :-)

The girls get back to work.....

We've had a few months of not doing a lot with our horses, largely due to much running around helping people with horseback archery training and events (more on that here). But recently we've picked things up again, so here are a few photos.....

With Sky, we have gone right back to basics and just started doing ten minutes or so a day asking her to move around a bit, bending, backing up, with as little rein use as possible, to stop her bracing her neck. In fact, sometimes we dispense with a bridle all together.

Tari too has made some progress, especially with that  scary plastic stuff.

And today, she went for her first hack with no lead rein, and was very good for our friend Nicola, with only a couple of discussions about stopping and trying to eat......

Rock crunching

When we went out in the woods the other day we noticed some big piles of gravel had appeared. Presumably they're going to spread it on the paths to make them more vehicle-friendly in the winter. It's not little smooth, round gravel like you get in posh gardens, it's big uneven, lumpy shapes, calcaire they call it in France.

So naturally we decided to see what the horses would make of it. Going up and down slopes is good training for TREC and all that. Not to mention good practise for just riding out and about.

Well, they just walked up and down it, no problems. Sky might have wonky feet that don't look like a lot of people think they should, but she has no problem taking them and the rest of herself over this sort of terrain.

Who needs shoes anyway? :-)

Our first Western clinic......

Very interesting outing today. Went to a clinic organised by the Western Edge Riding Club, which is a monthly affair at a yard not far from here. Thought it would be good experience for Sky to do something out of her comfort zone and also decided to take Tari along for a look.

They both coped very well, considering we were in an indoor school and it was blowing a gale and chucking it down which meant all sorts of odd noises, plus some sort of clay pigeon shoot happening nearby. Sky only had one real spook, and Tari just seemed more interested in investigating the mirrors a the far end......

The clinic was with Shane Borland who I'd never heard of before but turned out to be really good. He started off explaining that neck flexion thing the Western horses all seem to know but ours had never been asked for. Now to me it's always looked a bit extreme and really just not comfortable for the horse. But I was interested to know the reasons for doing it.

As Sky had never done anything like that before so didn't know what was being asked of her, he used her as an example. Ali had to slide her hand along one rein, then take that rein out and away from the neck then bring it back to her hip. And wait. Sky of course at first started going round in circles trying to follow her nose.

But the third time Ali did it, Sky realised that movement was not what was being asked for, so she stopped. You could really see her trying to figure it all out.

As soon as there was the slightest softness in the rein, Ali released it. And Sky lowered her head and seemed to lose all the tension in her neck. As this is one of the things we really struggle to get her to do, it's something to play around with a bit more, methinks......

Another interesting idea that he gave them to try was the concept of "throwing things away". So you start trotting the horse along and then you release your hold on the reins and slow down your rising more and more then take your legs away, relax your seat completely and see how long it takes the horse to stop once you stop micro managing. And if they're the sort of horse that speeds up, you use the neck flexion, but nothing else, to change the direction and keep changing the direction until the horse slows down.

What I especially liked about his approach was that he was getting people to look at what they were doing from the horse's point of view. He said the rider needs to perceive the horse's take on what they're being asked, as horses will never be able to see things from the rider's point of view. If you read my last blog post, you'll know why I was so happy to hear that today.

Another exercise was to hold the reins completely loosely on just one finger of each hand, and without shortening them at all, just add one finger at a time to see how little it would take to get the horse to rein back. Remarkably little, as it turned out......

He also explained how he doesn't think most people let their horse ever make a decision. He explained how he likes to let his youngsters decide what they do when he first starts riding them. So he just sits there and is a passenger, they get to go where they like for a bit, then he gently asks them to go in the direction they're already going in so he doesn't start getting into an argument with a horse from the off.

He asked the riders, one by one, to set off down the centre line from A at a trot or canter, then let go of the reins halfway along. The other horses were lined up on both sides of the school. He wanted to see what each horse would do when left to its own devices. First problem was riders cheating and not letting go completely! But when allowed to go where they liked, some horses headed for the gate and some to other horses. Sky just went straight on down towards C but Ali didn't try to grab the reins back and turn her (much to Shane's surprise!) and Sky stopped by the wall, but didn't head for Tari, which I found surprising.......

So lots of food for thought today, Ali said she really enjoyed it and would like to do another one. Tari was a star and apart from occasionally getting bored and needing distracting, was as good as gold. And I was really impressed with how Sky handled it all. Shane said that he wouldn't expect a horse to be as calm in an unfamiliar place as at home, he said you can't always know how much of your home horse is out with you on the road, which I thought was a good way of looking at things.

Oh, and we got to see some rather nice spotties :-)

Random pictures

Haven't had time to do a huge amount with the horses lately, but here are a few recent photos......

And even a couple of Kinna in France from last weekend :-)

British Horseback Archery Championships

So the long-awaited weekend finally arrived. Back in July I decided to bite the bullet and actually take my horses to a competition. Of course it just happened to be a five hour drive away in Cornwall, but that was the venue for this year's competition, so that was where we were going.

Having arranged to hire a lorry for the horses, I got an email on Monday saying it was at the garage with mechanical problems so wouldn't be available after all. Spent most of the rest of the day frantically calling round to get a replacement, and thankfully found one fairly locally.

Crisis averted, we went to fetch it on Friday and I carefully steered around some little lanes back to the yard ready to load up. Luckily there was a large storage compartment in the back since we had to fit in a lot of stuff: saddles, bows, fancy dress outfits, spare hay, the dog.....

The horses went straight in, they seem to prefer a rear-facing lorry and started attacking their hay. We got to watch them on a little monitor in the cab. When the lorry was in reverse gear the monitor changed to show the view out the back, which was just as well given my reversing skills ;-)

The trip down was pretty straightforward, mostly motorway and dual carriageway and we got there in 5 hours. Unloaded the horses, let them into a little paddock for a roll and some grass and went to check out the archery field. This just happened to be next door to the caravan park where we were staying so we checked in there too.

Then it was time to fetch the horses and show them around a bit. G of course too it all in his stride, but Sky was a lot more suspicious of the strange things dotted about.....

But there were no tantrums, so we wandered back up to the yard and turned them out for the night, whilst we retired to the pub.

Next morning we were up and organised bright and early (even got breakfast cooked by our mate Adam who chose to squat on the sofa in the caravan rather than sleep in his tent) getting G kitted out in his fancy dress for the kid's competition. There were only three of them, so we put the boys on G and made Éowyn ride Sky. Doing a few runs at the walk seemed to settle her (Sky) down a bit and she stopped worrying about the sound of the arrows hitting the target. And a fair few of Éowyn's arrows did hit, she even got a 5 on one of her runs, and she came first :-)

By the time they'd finished, some more horses had arrived and the Hungarian competition got underway. As soon as the speed increased, all Sky's calmness went out of the window and she seemed intent on trying to break the land speed record, doing some of her runs in less than 9 seconds, which meant poor Alex didn't get a chance to shoot many arrows. We persuaded Ali to give it a go on Gandalf too. I had no intention of even trying, since I can't hit a target on the ground, let alone one up in the air.......

Then it was back to the yard and Cornish pasties for lunch. In the afternoon was the Aussie Triple competition, which is reserved for those at student grades (more about the grading system here), and for those who haven't even got a student badge yet 'cos they can't hit a  barn door (me). And true to form, I didn't hit a thing. But it was fun though, as you can see I was hating every minute.....

So that was day 1. Rounded off with a trip to the pub, naturally.

Day 2 began much the same (eggs for breakfast again). The morning's competition was the Korean. Given my spectacular performance in the Aussie Triple, I elected to give this a miss and gave Alex the ride on Gandalf so she might stand a chance of scoring something as he doesn't feel the need to gallop full tilt down the track. So Ali got the hooligan pony, who was a bit better, some of the time......

My favourite of the horses there was Dolly, who Adam was riding.

My sort of horsie. Big, brassy, real leg-at-each-corner type. Very opinionated.  Reminded me of a mare I used to own......anyway, she made a real impression thundering down the track. And they came 3rd in the overall competition.

More pasties for lunch, to follow the tea and biscuits some locals had kindly provided for us that morning. Then all that remained was for Ali and Sky to do the Aussie Triple as they hadn't had time the day before. By this time, Missy was getting a tad fed up with running up and down so tried to go even faster, setting off like someone had set fire to her tail, resulting in some choice swearing from Ali (in French, of course!).

She did eventually manage to get a few shots off......

....but we still have a way to go. But generally I was really pleased with the horses this weekend, they took it all in their stride and didn't stress too much about the loooooong journey, loaded perfectly and travelled quietly. It was a lot to ask, really, and they delivered.

After Ali's runs were finished, we packed up and left as I wanted to get back before midnight and in the end, apart from a bit of a queue on the M4 near Bristol, the journey home was very smooth. Nice Renault Master lorry was easy to drive and probably had a better turning circle than my car. If only I could afford one!

We left before the main prize giving, although Éowyn had got her certificate earlier.

On the way back, got a text from Alex to say even I'd got a rosette, as there weren't that many of us doing the Aussie Triple. So it was all worth it then :-)

Now to find more time to practise for the next competition.........