In-hand clinic

Had a nice morning with my friend and trainer Trudi Dempsey at the Swang Pony Centre and a lovely little pony called Alice. She is 7, but pretty much untouched. I went to meet her as she was tied up waiting to start work and she really didn't seem keen on people in general, and me in particular! It's so easy to forget that not all horses are trusting like mine......She was OK with me scratching her neck, but wasn't at all keen on me going further back than her shoulder, and any move towards the rear end was met with a sharp step away!

Anyway, we took her into the school, she really wasn't at all reassured to start with. We swapped her rope headcollar (which was one of those ones that tightens over the nose) for a sidepull, and then had a look at her conformation and how she moved. As with most cobs, she is solidly built and so probably wouldn't find it as easy to flex and bend as a finer, larger horse. She was also very tense in the neck, due to her anxiety about the total strangers in charge of her.

Trudi started by showing me how to do some simple neck flexions, just asking her gently to move her head first to one side, then the other. It was immediately apparent that she found this easier to the left. I led her around to see if she would stop and start when I did (bit sticky at first, but she soon started looking to follow me) and back up (needed quite a lot of energy the first time, but she quickly got the idea).

Then I had to combine the asking for bend with moving forwards. Again, she was pretty quick on the uptake, and after a very short time she was lowering her head and the tension in the neck was lessening. We worked on flexions both towards and away from me, and stopping with the slightest lift of the rein. She was very responsive. When she got a bit "stuck" I was able to change the bend to the other side and she would carry on walking.

I was very impressed by how quickly she decided to trust me and let me move her around. At first she didn't want me anywhere but where she could keep both eyes on me, so we had to start with leading from the front, but she soon realised that it would be OK to let me stand by her shoulder instead. However, the back end is still a no-go area, that will need more time I think!

By the end of the hour, we had a far more relaxed pony who was starting to step under with her hinds as we circled and was stopping, backing up and moving off from the lightest of signals. She lowered her head of her own accord and accepted scratches and strokes on her poll and ears. There were a few yawns too! I turned her out in the field next door and she promptly wandered over to the other ponies and went for a lie down. Lessons are obviously  hard work ;-)

Trudi took some video so I could see what her feet were doing. As you can see, at the start, we got stuck a few times. It's amazing how little bend you need to get those hinds really stepping under the body.

After that we stayed to watch some other lessons. There was another in-hand lesson with this rather gorgeous chap

......and a ridden lesson which was very interesting. The horse was falling in to the inside when circling and spiralling but with the simple addition of some outside bend when on the long side of the arena, it helped the horse support itself better in the bends.

What was really interesting was that the rider started off thinking she needed a lot more rein contact to get the horse to listen to her but when Trudi showed her that less is more and how to lengthen the reins a bit the horse seemed a lot more relaxed and responsive.

 

So a great morning and lots of things to take home and try with my lot :-) And hopefully we can get Trudi to come and do a clinic at the new yard now we've got somewhere to work.......two of my new fellow liveries came along to watch today and found it very interesting :-)

Bolshy youngsters, small ponies and goats.......

As you've probably gathered from the last post, we went to get Kinna back a couple of weeks ago. She's clearly decided that her summer off means that she's retired, at least when it comes to having to do stuff in a sand school (hacking out is apparently still an acceptable occupation, even if she's not always allowed to get her head down to the green stuff whenever she wants). So this week is week two of lessons for Kinny Whinny. Mademoiselle has decided that walking and trotting in the school is OK after all (unlike last week, she tried stopping dead when asked to move at first) although being asked to trot still requires an angry swish of the tail just to register a protest at having to do this kind of thing.

But when asked to canter, we are still trying the old "bounce to a halt and see if that gets rid of my rider/changes her mind about continuing with this dangerous rodeo ride" technique that you may remember from earlier in the year when first expected to run across grass rather than stop and eat it. When the answer is no, pull a face, swish tail and proceed with bad grace.......

Some work needed there, then.

In other news, Ali decided she wanted to ride the smallest pony up there for the second lesson. Brynbella Lady May, as she is known to the Haras, is a little Welshie who has a terrible reputation for rushing fences and bogging off with kids and dumping them to get back to her herd. I reckon she does this because they pull on her mouth too much. So Ali rode her with little or no contact on the reins and slowed her down with squeeze/release on alternate reins rather than a tug of war, and I suggested to Carole that we put the other ponies one in each corner of the carriere rather than all together. Certainly got her attention......

And in other other news, we took the goats up to the club as Carole has said they can come and live with the sheep and goat already in residence. They were deeply unimpressed at having to get into the car....

...but once they arrived in a huge new paddock with  little houses and everything, they soon got over it!

Fete du Cheval

For once there was a Fete du Cheval local to us, in Ste Foy la Grande, so we toddled off this afternoon in the sunshine. To be honest, having been to a few of these things I was wondering if we'd see some sorry sights, and there were one or two who were looking a bit unhappy.....

These guys were all flinching away from people trying to stroke them, maybe not the best thing to bring them out in public.....

But there were many more nice looking horses, this huge girl is a Percheron belonging to the guy who sold me Gandalf, she must be twice as wide as him!

She was earning her keep doing carriage rides today....

As were some less than impressed looking donkeys!

And for the first time I actually saw some barefoot and bitless people, this Friesian stallion had beautiful feet, not just unshod but properly barefoot with lovely fat frogs on show when he did his party trick

Pretty sure I've seen them out riding before, with no bridle at all,  only a neckstrap. There were a couple of others in rope headcollars too.
My friend Marianne was there with her lovely paintings, handsome chap in the middle of the top row ;-)

And the Ste Foy Poney Club had some artwork on display too, rather liked this one :-)

There is a spectacle on later, but we had to come home as the SNO was having a tantrum at not being allowed to have a  Barbe à Papa, mainly due to buggering off when she should have stayed in the play area and giving Ali and me a hectic 10 minutes looking for her......

 

Never mind, she's back at school tomorrow.......

Seraphina and Maverick go out.....

Took Seraphina out again yesterday, Jane rode her and I rode Maverick. She was fine, didn't even mind a cyclist (unlike Mav ) which is good as some of our route to Naulet is along a cycle track.

 We found a muddy puddle and she liked that!!

And when we got back she gave Jane's friend's little girl a pony ride!

Went to watch a football match....

....involving ponies, of course! As it's the holidays, Magali had organised a footy match for all the kids on the little ponies, using a big inflatable exercise ball. Great fun was had by all....

Of course, we had to chase some runaway sheep and goats off the pitch before we started....

Then we had to get the SNO to give up the ball.....

Ali's team was called "Bella Sara" and they drew 3 all.

Some more pics:

Éowyn watched for a bit, then got bored and found a nice muddy puddle to play in......

Still, she's nice and knackered now ready for her trip tomorrow......

Cheeky Choccy

Went to pony club today, took Choccy along. As Ali's group were going out for a ballade, Éowyn and I tagged along as far as the vines so Choccy could have a run round. The cheeky little mutt decided she's rather tag along with the riders, and as the instructor didn't mind, off she went!

When they got back, she discovered how much fun there was to be had charging around in the sand school......

....then found a friend to play with......

....and even had a sit on the very patient Enzo!

The instructor said she was a LOT better trained than Éowyn.......

Pony Club week 2......

Bit of a misty start this morning. Éowyn had been asking " is it time for pony club yet?" since she got up at 7am. Off we went, Ali had the same pony as last week, they did lots of fun games and stuff.

Éowyn meanwhile found a partner in crime to poke with sticks whilst she waited for her lesson.....kept having to stop them from trying to empty out the sand school!

Then it was her turn, she rode Enzo again, just as much fun as last week......

Journée du Cheval

Well today is the National Day of the Horse here in France which means that lots of riding centres had open days so we went along to one of them. Had a job to drag Éowyn away, we are going to have to find her somewhere to have lessons I think!

Probably not at this place though as they seem to be very much into Horseball and Alienor is very much into jumping.......

Another great little Fjord.....

 Went to see another pony today, for a different friend, maybe I should start hiring Alienor out as a test rider......this one was a youngster, called Seraphina, just 4 years old. She's from the same breeder as one of the Fjords at Flecha's new home, they have the same sire. She was amazingly calm for a baby, seemed to take everything in her stride, even Éowyn didn't bother her (which is more than can be said for some of the ponies at the poney club where Ali rides!!)

She stood quietly whilst she was tacked up, no pawing the ground, no signs of agitation. Obviously she wasn't bothered by dogs either!!

First one of the girls that worked at the place rode her, then Ali got into the saddle. She walked calmly up the road, steered with just a headcollar (the breeder is firmly into treeless, bitless, shoeless horses!!) and started and stopped when asked.

When a car came along she went around it no problem.....

And was happy to pass a motorcycle too! The rider was very nice and stopped for her, but she showed no hesitation!.

In a field to one side of the road there was a noisy tractor with some of the strange dangly bits on it for crop spraying, this didn't bother her either. A certain white hairy cob of my acquaintance woudn't have been able to cope with all of that lot!!! Seraphina just seems to trust you to take care of her, which is lovely! After such a positive report, my friend Rochelle is going to buy her so we are looking forward to visiting her in her new home soon!

Saw a cracking pony today......

Drove up to Niort today with my friend Tanya to look at a pony for her, she wants a nice sensible hack that she can share with her daughter. So we went to meet Jack, a 12 year old Fjord pony, and what a little star he was! Ali came with us to see how easy he was for a child to handle and her expression says it all really......

She even jumped him but he jumped with a lot more enthusiasm than Gandalf so took her by surprise!

 Really hope Tanya buys him.......sadly we can't afford to. Excellent little chap.......sort of a smaller, yellow version of Gandalf really!