Some news and a hack out......

Very unexpected news yesterday, it would appear that I haven't said goodbye to Seraphina after all.......she can't go to the US because she tested positive for Piroplasmosis so Rochelle's asked if I would have her!

Gutted for Rochelle, after all this time she finally sells her house than she can't take her pony with her......

So Seraphina looks likely to join my motley crew. Need more grazing!!!

Went for a great hack this morning in the sunshine with my doggie and a couple of friends. Here's a video

Sunny hack...

Went for a nice hack today, with Gandalf's old field mate Gimy, and the mare Gim lives with now, Jinelle. Gandalf had a bit of a spring in his step, was pleased to see Gimy, and Gim showed his usual enthusiasm for seeing Gandalf by pulling his tail........

Beautiful day, we are so lucky to have countryside like this to ride in......

Adam's weekend, day 1

Well, Adam is here and he did a demo for us this evening with my friends' horses. The first one was Gimy, a big Trotter, who can sometimes be disrespectful on the ground. The photos clearly show how Adam begins by mirroring the horse's movements, as another horse would do,  to "support" them and begin to gain their trust. Gimy came from a trekking centre and is very "switched off", he was ridden by loads of different people many of whom couldn't ride very well, so he quickly lost interest in people. It's very important to work with him during his short attention span, and try to show him that we will listen to him after all.

Then he worked with Jinelle, Gimy's field mate. She is never left on her own because she totally panicks when her friend goes out of view. At the start of the session she was very anxious, galloping around and calling for Gimy. There is no point trying to work with a horse in such an anxious state, so Adam somply "got with her", copied her until she started to realise he could be her support as well as another horse can.

Towards the end of the session, she was much calmer and at that point he was able to start teaching her some things: