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......

New bridle

Check it out, our friend Cécile has made a fantastic new sidepull for Gandalf, I love it!

More of her work here: https://www.facebook.com/SinjunCML/?fref=ts

Dressage with a difference

After all the negative publicity surrounding the European Championships in Aachen recently, it was nice to go somewhere at the weekend and see a nice harmonious dressage competition.

Concordia Equestrians is a new group set up to promote the horse's wellbeing above competitive needs. So at this dressage competition, only snaffle bridles are permitted. No tight nosebands are allowed, and no spurs. And bitless bridles are allowed :-)

It was a lovely afternoon, despite a terrible forecast the weather behaved and the sun came out. There was a real mix of competitors, from little ones on ponies to Lucinda McAlpine on home-bred Spanish/TB crosses......

 

Every competitor had a tack check before starting to ensure that everything fit properly and nothing was overtightened.

 There was a very relaxed atmosphere, no pressure, plenty of time for horses to get used to their surroundings, which included some inquisitive cattle!

We met some nice new people and we really wished we could have brought our horses along......but they are planning on starting up some online classes so hopefully we will be able to take part that way soon

Hoping there will be many more of these :-)

I love it when a plan comes together.....

After the erm, interesting, time we had with Nahiade at the SJ competition, today I borrowed Ocarina's Dr Cook bitless to try with her during Ali's lesson. Have to say they were a bit sceptical up at the stables - will she be able to steer without a bit? What about the brakes? - but fair play to Carole for giving it a go. It appears that poor Nahiade has some sloppy dental work done in her previous home by someone with an electric rasp and that's why she's so sensitive in her mouth :-(

We noticed an immediate difference in her today, she still carries her head high, but nowhere near as much as she used to......

......and the real test, jumping, showed that she didn't feel the need to tank off after a jump (which she used to do at the club, albeit to a lesser degree than at that show), she stayed in a steady rhythm. And because she seemed less stressed, her roaring was much diminished :-)

 And the steering and brakes worked ;-) So Carole is going to order her a bitless bridle of her own.

Ali said she could really feel the difference in stress levels. You can see what she used to get like in this pic from a few weeks ago:

Days like today really do make it all worthwhile :-)

Gandalf's journey to bitless....

When I first rode the boy, back in December 2005, I used a borrowed snaffle bridle. He was very wound up about being taken away from the other horses (he'd not been there long) and kept trying to get back to the safety of the herd. In fact, he nearly pulled my arms off!

Over the next few weeks I came and rode him out, I was lucky enough to be able to really "try before you buy". I quickly realised that he preferred to have his mouth left completely alone, I knew he had been driven in his previous life so maybe he'd been pulled about a bit. The chap who had him for sale had tried him in harness and used a butterfly pelham.

So in my ignorance, I decided he needed a pelham for riding too, as he really didn't have any brakes in the snaffle if we were heading home.

I found him a single jointed elbow pelham and used that for the next couple of years with roundings.

But I knew he wasn't really happy with it, most of the time he was on a totally loose rein, but when I did need to take up a contact he would lean on my hands and whenever we stopped his head would go down to force the reins loose, something I've seen a lot of horses do since. So I started spending hours online researching bits and decided to try a Waterford mouthpiece as these apparently discourage leaning, with a universal gag.

I think he appreciated not having a single jointed mouthpiece any more.....I had read somewhere that you should put your horse's bit on the inside of your elbow and get someone to pull on the reins to feel something of what they would feel, and that single jointed pelham really pinched......but he still wasn't terribly keen on any contact.

So next up, an American gag with a copper roller mouthpiece

This seemed to suit him better, but when he wanted to ignore it, he did! So back to the research, and I came across Myler bits. Not a cheap option, but a lot of thought has gone into their design to make communication very precise with the horse and with comfort in mind. So I got him a long shank combination with a comfort snaffle mouthpiece.......

This seemed to suit him best of all. It's a bit but also has a noseband that works like a hackamore. The slightest touch would get the message across so I could be really light and he didn't lean on my hands any more. So we stuck with this until quite recently when I took another look at what I was doing. He didn't seem to mind the Myler but the noseband made him very itchy all the time and he was constantly trying to rub his nose. Some friends of mine were using bitless bridles with their horses, so I went back to the research and ended up buying an Indian Bosal to try.

He really seemed to appreciate not having a bit, yes his nose still gets itchy, but it's not tight all the time like the Myler has to be, and most importantly, he can graze! I have also bought him a Lightrider bitless bridle, as it's a headcollar too, so perfect for TREC

So there we are. Not so much fine control as with the Myler, which is far and away the best bit we have ever had, but as most of the time we are hacking out, not doing dressage tests, the bitless bridles are fine.

Interdressage without a bit......

OK, so I have been playing around with the bosal on Gandalf for a while now. Absolutely fine on hacks, no problems with the brakes. So today I thought I'd try to do the ID test in it. As soon as he got into the "arena" (grassy bit of commune land over the road) he wanted to canter, every time I asked for trot he tried to shoot off, I thought perhaps I'd need to go back for his Myler.......but after a few minutes he started to relax and listen to me and we got a nice rhythm going. So I did a few run throughs of the test (which includes leg yield) this afternoon, then took him back home to have some thinking time (and wait for Ali to get back from school to film us).

Then we went back out there, same thing, can I eat? No, can I rush off then? But got him listening again, and went for a take. It's not great, but there were moments when he was softening nicely and not rushing so we'll enter it and see what feedback we get. As you can see, the leg yield isn't  nailed either, he finds it especially hard towards the left, work in progress.

Discovered that although these HD videos on my new camera take AGES to upload, you can get decent stills from them!

Bitless hack.....

Well we hacked her out in the bitless bridle today, and for the most part she was fine. First canter though, she put in a couple of bucks, I suspect because Ali wanted me to go first just in case the brakes failed and Missy is used to going first and didn't want to be behind Chester!

She is definitely harder to stop with no bit, and when she pulled too much, the bosal tightened so Ali had to loosen it off, she is just as argumentative without a bit, but I suspect that will never change.....

Here's some video:

We practised Ches going off ahead and her walking and vice versa, after that first canter she soon settled down.

Got some nice pics.....

Went through a field of felled trees to give them a bit of footwork practise, Fina picked her way delicately through, Ches just yomped over everything

On the way back we went through the middle of the village and were talking to someone by the main road, several huge lorries went thundering past and she was a bit worried but seemed to take her cue from Ches, who didn't turn a hair.....

and he was very interested in the Percheron girls again....!

More bitless.....

Chester's turn today:

Dare I say he's actually getting a bit bendy? Bareback you can really feel him lifting his back for turning. He didn't even knock too many poles!

I found this video of the first time I rode him, about this time last year, I think he's put on a bit of muscle since then......

Interdressage again

Filmed a couple of classes yesterday, had to use Fina as the others are disgustingly filthy and there are marks for turnout. The Nordic Princess manages to stay very clean, she's obviously not a mud monster like Sky and Chester.

Here's Ali doing Manners, Ability and Performance:

And both of us doing the shared horse showing class, this was about take 4:

.......because as usual with Seraphina, there were a few outtakes!!

We put her in Ches's Myler bit this time, she argues less than with her usual one, but tends to overbend more.

Once we'd finished the Interdressage, we went back to the garden and Ali did a bit of practise with the bitless bridle. We reckon she's happier in that than the Myler for sure......

Better bitless?

I have decided to start Skyfaxa bitless, and ordered a type of bosal bridle for her. Yesterday I thought I'd try it on Seraphina, as she does seem to have issues with her bit, she pulls, chews it, and tries to evade by lifting her head and opening her mouth......

So this is what happened:

She was really listening and you could see her thinking about it.......will have to try that some more. She was originally started bitless, maybe it will suit her better to go back to it.......

Barefoot, bitless, I am a qualified tree hugger these days ;-)