Spring is on its way...the season of new beginnings - new life & new creations springing up all around us ...
I sense this is also a season for new ideas, exciting opportunities and door openings, and as I've been toying with the idea of starting a blog now for some time, what better season to start it in?!As the days are getting s lightly warmer and the evenings brighter with longer day light hours, it's made already such a big difference to the work with my clients & their horses.
I thought I share a little about one of the horses I current work with. Rosie's owner came to me looking for help, having lost her confidence when riding, as her horse could be very nervous & flighty at times. Meeting Rosie, working with her initially in-hand as well as under the saddle , it became very quickly clear to me that this little mare - sold as a 'bomb-proof, happy hacker' had a very poor initial start in her basic and ridden education. Her one and only response to any form of pressure was to run away from it as fast as she could. Lunging was near impossible without me getting dizzy from turning so fast in a circle. So I decided to take things right back to basics. Having explained and agreed a plan of action with Rosie's owner, we have since made some fantastic progress as Rosie grows in trust and confidence. Within only 4 sessions Rosie learned to respect my personal space when standing still and leading and she is now walking and trotting calmly on both reins, in-hand and on the lunge.
As Rosie has repeatedly expressed a dislike for the saddle, we have decided to 'park' any ridden work for the moment, and we will re-start Rosie right from the beginning when she's ready.
We've also had a couple of fantastic spook-busting sessions with Rosie over the past two weekends, using incremental desensitisation to various stimuli, such as rustling plastic bags, walking over tarpaulin sheets, manoeuvring through ground pole grids, standing calm and walking past farm yard machinery etc. Rosie's been amazing and we all have learnt so much during these session. I couldn't be more pleased with progress so far for both Rosie and her lovely owner and I look forward to the journey ahead.
So watch this space...