My horse heroes

As a novice horse owner and rider I am always looking for information on various issues or bafflements I come across in my horsey life – and there are many. Google is a good reference source, but one has to remember that all and sundry can post their opinion there and it has to be taken with a pinch of salt. It's good to have horse heroes; those people in our everyday lives who excel at something we want to become good at, or whose methods are effective and seem to produce results in how we feel is the best way to work with our horses. One size does not fit all, but I come from the general view that horses are honest creatures, whose intention is not to be 'bad' or 'plotting'. They are a result of their genes, upbringing and training, as well as the experiences they've had, in fact, exactly like us (except that we are the ones with the ability to be bad or plotting). 

Sure, they might test your leadership, especially when new to you, or perhaps young, but it's their natural heard behaviour; they always need a leader that will show how to do things and how to navigate life. For us humans, owners and riders, the challenge is to be worthy of that trust and show leadership qualities the horse is comfortable looking up to – or down, as we're quite a bit smaller than them(!) – but I think consistency is the key. Also, rather paradoxically to consistency, another thing important for a good leader is to not get set in his ways, but to have an open mind and be willing to listen and learn, especially to learn to do things differently if something isn't working. And did I mention praise? Who can honestly say they have produced their best work when they haven't been praised but perhaps been put down or criticised? Not me. We all seek approval most of the time, and we flourish when we are told we are doing something well, gaining more confidence as we go. 

The challenge for me is that there are as many opinions and ways of doing things as there are people doing it. It is a balancing act to seek for advice and get someone to teach you things, as well as thinking for yourself and using your instincts. So, based on this week's activities and thoughts I have had, I decided cobble up a list of my horsey heroes.

Claire

We had a good Claire's lesson again on Monday with a bit of flatwork and small jumping at the end. I think R is a bit of jumper as I could sense her almost blossoming when she got presented with two cross poles at the end of our lesson. She sped up and took a major jump over a very low set of cross poles! My technique needs some honing and I need to really get my weight down to my legs when jumping. Claire also told me to extend my hands to R's ears and take the jumping position well ahead. I understand this is obviously exaggerating the movement and jumping position but something I struggled with as, apparently, I just jabbed my arms quickly forward and then back, which wasn't what she intended... Oh dear. Well, something to work on for the next time. I will do some pole work by ourselves this and next week. However, I always finish Claire's lessons on a high and always feel that I have learned something valuable, and I feel that we have achieved something again. It's great.

Rider in the mist

We also had lovely hack out on Tuesday with R. We went with Alison and Seamus. It was a foggy morning but we decided to head out to the fields and stay below the 'clouds'.  We were riding on the road in between fields as many bridleways are a bit too muddy at the moment. It's been a soggy week. It should be clearing by the weekend and the temperatures are meant to plummet down to near zero and minus temps in the night. So, cold by English standards. 

One of the most interesting sights we saw on our hack was another horse, and a lady riding him, cantering across the stubble field appearing from the mist, with two dogs running behind the horse. She looked so brave and seemed to have a fab time with her horse. Our horses spotted them before we did, so when we saw them approaching we slowed down and waited for the rider in the mist with two hounds to pass us. The lady slowed down as she came to where we were and we exchanged a few words. She was training her horse for some competitions so increasing fitness by doing some fast-paced hacking. It's definitely something I would like to be able to do one day; canter across the fields in the mist. I will let you know when it happens!

Annika

I was learning to lunge again yesterday, after very successfully purchasing a second-hand roller training set on eBay for under £14, including postage! New ones would be £30+ (not including postage) and not include side reins and crupper, etc. I am not using the crupper though.  The set had been hardly used and looked very clean/unscathed, so it was a great find.

I have been asking Annika teach me lunging. I have seen it being done and I have been shown by a couple of people before, but I think Annika is a pretty good horse hero for me, as she has been doing it for a long time and in her resident training instructor capacity handles a multitude of horses every day. She's not pushy with her opinions or patronising, and I am yet to ask her a question she couldn't answer, so I hold her professionalism in high regard.

The lunging went overall well; Rainbow was a good girl mostly, but played up a bit at the beginning. Annika got her going. We warmed R up before connecting the side reins. Then I had a go. R was going quite fast and cantering very easily. Occasionally, it took me a long time to get her to listen to my voice commands, especially when I asked her to go down to walk from trot. I will try to make lunging a weekly occurrence, so we get some lunging time under our belts and I will become more confident at it.

Jane

Rainbow was working in her bridle with the lunge rein going over her head from one side to another. The owner of our yard, Jane, had been watching me lunging R and afterwards Jane said that she noticed R was lifting her head, which indicated that she didn't like the lunge rein over her head. Jane recommended that to keep her mouth nice I should not connect the lunge rein to the bit but have a head collar or cavesson – only connecting the side reins to the bit. Other people may use bridle directly (which is how I have been shown, hence yesterday's set up) which in Jane's opinion is laziness, as they can't be bothered with collars/cavessons. This ignited a need to know more...

I set about researching the matter on Google and surely there are lots of advice for everything, so it's obviously a bit confusing. Anyway, I agree with Jane that I want to keep Rainbow's mouth nice and I don't want to do the lunging in a way that is uncomfortable to her. Ideally, I would like to help Rainbow learn to work on the lunge and to engage her behind in the way that will eventually get her to work in formation, also when I ride her. 

Jane's advice was really useful and I appreciate that she voiced what she had noticed, as otherwise I might have just continued in the same way, not noticing that Rainbow wasn't comfortable. So I will set her up with a cavesson next time and be more mindful of how she's holding her head and how she is working. I might ask Jane to come and watch next time, so she can also have a look too.

Horse Heroes

I also found a very good website called Horse Heroes, which inspired this post, as I found a super video by Laura Bechtolsheimer (one of the Team Dressage gold medallists in this year's Olympic Games) on 'Lungeing a young horse'. The website does charge for its videos, but I am trying it out for a month (at £4.50/month).

In the video, Laura shows how to lunge a young horse, but she doesn't use a roller! This threw all my ideas up in the air again, and now I am not sure what to think. She's using a piece of equipment which I found to be called Kavalkade Ho Lunging Aid. 

The fact that Laura slightly pans side reins and draw reins has now made me re-evaluate how I am going to be doing things. I might investigate the Lunging Aid and if I can buy it at a good price, I might give it a go. 

Lungeing a young horse, with Laura Bechtolsheimer

The Horse Heroes video website contains 'how to' guides for horse lovers, presented by people who actually know what they're talking about, professional trainers and riders at the top of their game. I find YouTube, for example, a bit tricky as anyone can post there, so I don't always trust the videos there.

Another video I found on Horse Heroes is how to ride a spooky horse. Rainbow is not spooky as such but they all have their moments. Again, the video totally threw my ideas of how to do things upside-down, but totally makes sense when shown in a new light. I will be practising!

Richard Maxwell shows how to ride a spooky horse


Anyway, something to mull over for while on the lunging front... If I have any regular readers with knowledge/opinions on lunging and training aids, please post a comment. I would welcome some conversation. 


Until next time! I will love you and leave you with a soggy autumn pic, a view from my office window. No prizes for spotting a soggy chicken, or two...!