A chilled Filly

Sunday 28 December 2014

Bridleless on Bonitao

Lovely session playing with horse last night. We both went down and I played with Filly whilst Ritchie did a prepare to ride with Bonitao.
The session with Filly was mostly about the circling game again. She is improving quickly. We are mainly working on her "maintain direction" responsibility. But at an advanced level.
It's not about her keeping going at trot in a clockwise direction but about it being a nice smooth circle. She has a tendency to do ovals rather than circles keeping to close when away from the gate and pulling when close to the gate. Her idea is to get into a nice warm stable full of hay and I can't blame her. However she has responsibilities to uphold when she is circling and it is my job to gently coach her into upholding them.
If she pulls away on the halter that means she is pulling into pressure which is not a good thing for a horse that is ridden in a bosal. There are several ways to correct this behaviour. Meet the pull with an ounce more pressure to move her head back onto the circle is one but might mean she pulls harder. Driving the hind quarters out onto the circle is another and this also creates a better arc in her body that conforms to the circumference of the circle. Sometimes it is the shoulder that is pushed in with the neck out, then she is in counter arc which is really bad. So correcting this tendency to pull out on the circle is a fine balancing act of applying pressure to the zone that is causing the problem. It is not just about pulling on the head.
Where she come in too close the job is much easier. I just wave the stick and string around in a friendly game attitude. If she stays on the circle it can't touch her, if she comes in it can. It's her choice.
Once we had established some nice circles is was time to give into her desire for a warm stable and lots of hay.

I returned to the ménage to find Ritchie riding Bonitao. He's going really well at the moment. The bosal is helping us communicate the idea of collection to him very well. Ritchie was working on shoulder in when I got there. He tends to travel around the school with his haunches in so that he is not travelling very straight. To help correct that we are over correcting him at the moment.
Once Ritchie had finished riding it was my turn, just for a few minutes. I started by making sure that all my leg signals for turning were working well and also that he would stop on my body position. I felt so happy with this that I decided to take the bosal off and just ride with a string tied around the base of his neck. The string is only there so that if he looses mental connection with me I can get it back easily.
It was the first time I had ridden Bonitao bridleless, though I had done it often on Filly. But he was a complete star. We even managed sideways over a jump wing and sideways over a pole on the ground. His direct and indirect "rein" were great proving they really come of the legs and body position not the reins.
It was great feeling of freedom to be riding without reins again. I look forward to doing it often in the future

Monday 22 December 2014

Appreciation of beauty

Filly and I went for a nice walk yesterday. I decided time off from the school was a good idea and also she needs to walk on a variety of surfaces for the sake of her hooves.
It was a chilly but dry day and the track was reasonably dry. The odd muddy section but mostly firm and easy walking. It was noticeable that Filly seemed much much more comfortable walking on the varied terrain than in the past.

As we go up the track out of the yard we climb a short hill. At the top of the hill there is a path which goes off to the left. Filly had made it known in the past that she wanted to explore this track. Yesterday I let her. After just 20 yards or so we got to a gate to a field we could not go beyond. The views from there were lovely though. Now I don't know what horses know or feel about landscape beauty, to be honest I would have thought they couldn't care less. But Filly stood at that gate for a fair while just staring at the view. Not a frightened stare, she seemed very relaxed. When she was ready we continued with our walk. But everytime we came across what I consider to be a pretty view she insisted on stopping and looking for a while and resisted being asked to come along. Then after a minute or so she would look at me and we would carry on along our way with no fuss at all.

I would love to know what is going on in her mind at these moments. After all human experience of beauty in the landscape was only really acquired fairly recently. The Welsh mountains, which to my eyes are beautiful, were until recently considered by most as a wasteful landscape with no value whatsoever. So what, if any, is an animals experience of beauty ?

Saturday 13 December 2014

Strength to strength

Filly is now doing really well. Over just the last two weeks her feet have noticeably changed in shape, particularly the sole. All the feet are becoming much more concave (which is what we want) and the frogs are looking stronger and stronger. I wonder if this is because the hoof wall growth that started when she was at Rockley farm has nearly reached the ground. Hoof growth starts at the coronet band of course. Once started it then moves down the hoof as new hoof growth occurs. Exactly like a finger nail on humans. So although the changes in angle and density were started at Rockley we have had to be patient for them to get to the ground. They changes are not at the ground yet, there are several months growth still needed for that, but I think that as they are getting close to the sole they are influencing the way the sole is forming.

So we are back to playing properly with less concern for her lameness. I make sure no movements make her lame of course, but the range of things we can do are growing rapidly.
Yesterday we worked on her responsibilities on a circle. She was maintaining gait ok but her direction was not good. She was making ovals rather than circles. The classic circling game of standing still in the middle only happens when she is keeping her responsibilities. My standing still is actually her reward for doing the circle well. If she doesn't keep her responsibilities up then I will do whatever is needed as lightly as I can to correct her. Yesterday that meant spending a fair amount of time where I had to turn with her and correct her movement. But I was always looking for the slightest opportunity to go back into neutral and stand still in the middle thus rewarding her for her good performance.
The balance of when to correct and how firmly is of course the key to this and only comes with experience. It takes practice for both you and the horse. The "game" you are playing with the horse is getting the horse to work out what to do in order for the human to remain in neutral at the center of the circle.

I was watching a video of Pat Parelli the other day and he noted that the big mistake many make is not doing enough circling with their horses. He expects his to do forty (yes 40 !) laps at walk, trot or canter whilst maintaining gait, maintaining direction and looking where they are going. That's quite a standard to set us students to emulate.

As Filly needs lots of work on a circle at the moment to build muscle and also stimulate the hoof to promote its growth this is a perfect opportunity for us to get this really good. We also have a purpose for doing it. Not only to get her responsibilities stronger but to get her physically stronger.

Performing any game with the horse without a purpose is actually counter productive. The horse knows from are body language that we are doing it just to have something to do and without a real purpose and like a human would they resent being pushed around without reason. And when they resent you they loose respect for you and your leadership and either become dull and unresponsive or intractable depending on their particular horsenality.

Tuesday 9 December 2014

Overdue update

I finally feel motivated to update the blog. It's been a tough month or so. We had a farrier threatening us with the RSPCA for the "state of Fillys' feet" plus the ups and downs of caring for a fairly newly barefoot horse.
I'm sure the farrier was acting with the best intentions, though his stable side manner left a bit to be desired. Even though we were fairly convinced Filly was ok we took his concerns seriously and I had both a barefoot trimmer and a vet come out and check Filly over.
The trimmer thought she was doing pretty well fer her stage of rehab. The vet suggested she needed a small amount taking off the inside edge of her hind feet and maybe the toes, but the fronts were doing well.
Neither thought that the RSPCA were even remotely called for.

The ups and downs have been days when Filly was remarkably sound, followed by days of footiness. This has been a ratchett type of affair. Her bad days are now better than her old good days. For example a few evening ago she was lame at trot and canter in the school on both reins. On Saturday we had the osteo visit and she pretty good at all gaits but canter on right lead. This is odd as until recently left lead canter was worst. Like I said, ups and downs.
And then yesterday I played with Filly in the cold evening and she was very sound at walk and trot on both reins. The osteo had said that we need to build up her muscles again by doing lateral work and trotting poles.
We revisited basic sideways game along the fence looking for impulsion and relaxation. On the first traverse she stuck her head over the top rail of the fence and continued with her head up in the air as a result. On the second traverse she sorted herself out by stepping back from the fence a bit and did a nice sideways.
I set up a pattern of sideways along the fence stopping when the relaxation and impulsion were better than the last one. Then half circle around me and back into the fence to go the other way.
I also did a fair bit of work on the backup. Filly had always tended to raise her head for this which mean she did not engage her hind quarters. Yesterday I backed her with the driving game from in front of zone 1. I was looking for any sign of the head lowering. When it did we stopped and rested. I did not worry about speed at all, just head relaxing and lowering. I walked gently with her as we backed so this was not true YoYo game just backing practise.
We also did some 3 track work on the circle at walk to get those hind quarters working better. This was accomplished easily but we need to work on quality.
It was great fun to be able to play again without worrying about her soundness. 

Now as a record of her foot progress here are some before and after photos of her front feet. The first one of each set is the 25th July 2014 just out of shoes and the 2nd one was 2nd December 2014

















































Sunday 26 October 2014

Filly is home

On the 11th October I finally brought Filly home. And she came home to our new yard. From just those two sentences it is obvious much has happened !
The new yard is so different from where we were. It's a bit smaller, absolutely spotless and better equipped. It even has a hot shower for horses and another one for humans !
When I say it is spotless I'm not joking. I've even felt obliged to pick up some shed hair I groomed out of Bonitao as it stood out so much. Everyone on the yard has been very friendly and gently interested in how we train and ride our horses. But to be honest it is so quiet there that we rarely have to share the huge outdoor school with others. Even if we do it's not a problem, even if a jump lesson is taking place at the same time.
When we moved Bonitao there it took him a day or two to settle in. However he only ran away from them a couple of times in the first week and has not done so since. The energy levels of the place are much lower and I think that has made him more confident.
One big plus is the fact that we can leave the yard straight on to great paths for hacking out. No road work at all. Being on the side of a hill that's made of chalk it's dry as well. We are told that some of the paths get very muddy in winter, but up to now it's been mostly bone dry, even after rain.

We picked Filly up on the 11th October after her 3month rehab holiday on Exmoor at Rockley farm. She loaded very well for the journey home, but the journey was difficult again. She "danced" for around 3 hours of the 4 1/2 hour journey and got off the trailer very stiff. I could go on about her progress at Rockley, but that is better done by the Rockley farm blog .
After we got home the farrier happened to come around the next day and looked at her feet. He was horrified and from a farriers point of view I can see why. However she is not being shod anymore and is also half way through rehab. As a result of his concerns I took the trouble to have my vet look at the photos and the report from Rockley farm. Over the phone he sounded very impressed by her progress and wants to come out in the next week or so to see Filly in person. The lower part of her hoof is not the shape that you would normally see on a horse, however if you look at the photos the new growth that is coming down the hoof wall is at a radically different angle. Projecting that down one can see what shape the new hoof will be. Primarily the front of the hoof wall will be much steeper. That means that the coffin bone will be held at a steeper angle. This will reduce the stress on both the deep flexor tendon and the navicular bone allowing both the opportunity to repair themselves.
Yesterday we had our horse osteopath also come out and take a look at her. Her main comments were that the hamstring muscles are very tight and we need to stretch them. Her view on the hooves was pretty much the same as ours. They are work in progress and she can see how the new growth will rebalance them.
So two out of three professionals think we are moving in the right direction giving us the confidence to pursue this path.
When she first arrived the yard manager was concerned that she was pretty "footy" going up the track to her field. The track is a very challenging track for a barefoot horse being very rough and rocky. Even Bonitao, who is shod, is very careful. Talking to the yard manager yesterday she said the Filly is coping much much better with the track now.
So all in all the picture is positive but we have a way to go. I've set a personal target of riding her again by next March. It may happen earlier, but I'm not going to ride until she is ready. As they say "take the time it takes and it'll take less time". If I ride her too soon I could put progress back and it'll take longer in the end.

Friday 26 September 2014

Another visit to Filly




I went to see Filly again yesterday. Due to a mix up with messages Nic had already worked Filly and put her out. We brought her back so I could have a look at her in comfort.
She initially walked a bit lame with the right hind. As this soon cleared up I tend to think that was probably muscular. She has had another abscess in the right hind foot however, which apparently came out at the same time as the left front. I guess this is the price to pay when you first take horses out of shoes. As the feet haven't been stimulated they have gone soft and are more prone to damage until they harden off again. After all she spent the first few years of life without shoes with no ill effects other than the split hoof. She certainly never had an abscess in that time.
Hopefully these problems will sort themselves out over the next few months, patience required.
As a result of these issues she has not been able to load her feet as much as we would like, so whilst progress is still good it's not as fast as Nic would like. However now she is able to walk more she can be worked a little harder and hopefully progress will accelerate.
We took Filly to the arena Nic has so I could see her moving. The first thing I noticed was that the odd little swing her front right used to have has diminished a lot. It hasn't gone but is less attention grabbing. I also noticed that she was tracking up at walk pretty well with around 1/2 hoof print overtrack. Not great but better than it used to be without asking for effort.
Nic worked her for a while but was having trouble getting her to work from behind. She suggested I tried. So we switched to my equipment (rope halter, 22 foot line and carrot stick) and I started to play with her. Very soon she was doing ok ish circles around me and I started to ask for 3 track work. That caused her to flex nicely and start to work from behind.
Nic commented that it looked much better than she had been able to achieve. Nothing to do with Nics' ability as I've seen her working with a traditionally trained horse and it looked good, but Filly is not a traditionally trained horse.
I think that part of the problem is that Nic has seen several folks using Parelli to train their horses. But many many Parelli folks get stuck for a while with just playing the games, but not using the games to produce a performance horse. So many traditional folks who see parelli horse tend to assume that they are never worked in an outline online and then assume that they can't work in an outline online.
We are intending to go back there next Thursday and spend a few days with Filly and Nic. Then around a week or so later she comes home :) :) .

Saturday 13 September 2014

Should I be angry or sad ?

I'm in Cairo, Egypt today. Some of my crew arranged to go to see the Light Show at the pyramids. Terrifying taxi drive across town to the Sphinx and Pyramids. There appear to be no traffic laws at all. But we only saw one bad crash ;) . The show was pretty good, very dramatic with a voice over that would have sounded good in an epic 1960s movie. The pyramids were amazing, as was the sphinx.
On the drive over I was aware that there were a lot of horses and donkeys being used as working animals. Nothing wrong with that. They appeared a little thin by UK standards and the harnesses could have been better but they did not look badly cared for otherwise. Of course it's difficult to tell when you are speeding past in a taxi, but I chose to give them the benefit of a doubt. It was unusual to see horse and cart trotting down a 6 lane 60mph highway though :eek:
On the return journey I witnessed an incident that soured the evening for me a bit. As we drove past this young guy with a horse and cart I saw him whipping the horse as hard as he could with a long stick as he stood beside it. The horse had obviously tried to defend itself by trying to kick him and now had one hind leg outside one shaft, but the handler was still whipping the horse as hard as he could. I don't know what started the incident of course, I just saw the result. I could not see what the handler was trying to achieve. Punishment ?
As we drove home I couldn't help wondering what my reaction should be to this. The first was anger. But then I reflected that maybe this was how the young man had been taught to handle horses and knew no better. So maybe sadness was more appropriate  ?
Either way humankind has a long way to go before horses are universally treated well. This is a shame because I'm sure that if the young man knew better he would actually get more work done and make more profit with his horse. The horse would last longer as well.
As I really like the Egyptian people (those I've met anyway) and find them very polite gentle people I choose to believe that the man was acting out of ignorance and possibly fear.
Spreading the word of good horsemanship is something I think we should all aspire to do. Like pebbles starting an avalanche if our actions just help a few horse and owners, who help a few more horses and owners maybe we can make this a better place for horses and humans.

Using the slopes

The fields we now ride in are far from flat ! In places they can only be described as steep. Bonitao is not accustomed to walking on hills, let alone being ridden on them. This has given us the opportunity to really develop his balance and make him think more about his feet.
We started by finding one of the shallowest slopes and just asking him to walk, trot and canter in a circle online. For most of the circle he is fine, but the part where he transitions from going downhill to going across the slope has been difficult. We have just slowly allowed him to work out how to do it. He is now clearly being much more careful with his hind legs and has started being really conscious about where he is placing them and how much traction they are giving him.
On the farm there is one field set aside as a play field. It has many obstacles set up making it a great place to use the imagination. For example there is a round pen made of wooden posts and electric fencing tape. This is in an ideal place on an area that is not flat but not too steep either. Great for developing balance whilst following the rail. So that is what I have been doing. Unconventionally I've been following the rail on the outside of the pen. In this new environment it took a while to get him to just follow my intention to remain on the circle and I had to use the reins to keep him traveling around the pen.
The first day we tried this I noticed that he drifted away from the rail at the same point he had trouble on the online circle, when transitioning from downhill to across the slope. I felt that he needed to engage his hind quarters more to help him steer around this difficult turn. Yesterday I started online to ask for three track circles at walk on trot whilst on the slope, with emphasis of going to 3 tracks as he made that awkward transition across the slope. This really seemed to help him. Sometimes we have to help the horse find the easiest way of going.
Once riding I continued with this lesson whilst following the rail. So as we came around the hill I asked for a very slight indirect rein yield to get his inside hind leg tracking under his body to give him more support on the corner without his hind leg sliding out. This really seemed to help.
I had also noticed that he seemed to rush down the hill which also made the turn harder. So I asked for the slowest trot he could maintain, just a little jog, around the the circle. This seemed to really calm him down and make him more confident on the turn. Pretty soon we were jogging nice little circles and he was not panicking as much if a hind foot should slip slightly.
With all the adrenalin now out of his body the next problem was stopping him eating the lush grass in the play field :) . 

Saturday 6 September 2014

Riding at the new yard

Helen, who is now looking after Bonitao for us, asked if I wanted to hack out with her today. As I don't know any of the rides around the new place I jumped at the idea.
Riding in a new area is always a little tricky to start with. And even more of a challenge when there are no stables and you're not used to the setup.

First thing was to take Smokey, Bonitaos new field mate, back to his own herd so that he would not be on his own when we went out. In the couple of minutes that took Bonitao worked himself up into a huge separation anxiety. He was cantering around yelling for his mate, even though he could still see other horses around. I just waited for him to look to me for as a place of safety and comfort where he could feel better. Pretty soon he walked at liberty with me to the gate where I haltered and groomed him. Another example of using a stressful situation to my advantage and seeing it as a potential gift rather than a problem.

I saddled up near the car and started a prepare to ride. I wasn't after anything fancy, just calmness on a circle, some figure 8 patterns and some falling leaf patterns. All designed to give him focus and something to think about. As we did them all on a slope he had to think even more to his feet than usual which helped, but did highlight that he is not the well balanced on sloping ground. This definitely need working on. We also explored the area with some zone 3 driving to let him have a good look around from the perspective of being in front of me.

Then Helen and her friend arrived with their horses and we wandered up to the play field for some more prep and to start the ride. It's so nice to be somewhere where everyone knows the program, can anticipate what others are going to do and fit in around each other.

Once mounted Helen led the way on our hack. Bonitao does not like being behind, but that is where I desired him to be. It was hard work, but with Helen helping with the beep beep game we succeeded in keeping him behind the withers of Helens horse for the whole ride.

The beep beep game consists of the rider of the lead horse protecting her horses space with their stick. So if Bonitao came too close to Helen she just waved her stick around to protect her space. If Bonitao walks into that stick and gets knocked, well that's his fault. It has the advantage that I don't have to be the nagging rider always saying "no, slow down", but the horse still stays where we want him.

Bonitao never really gave up but became less pushy as the ride progressed, probably because it was a longish ride with some steep hills and he was knackered :) .

When we got back to the fields he was still very heavy in my hands, so whilst the others put their horses away I continued to work on getting him soft. I did not get off until he was following my feel in a polite and relaxed way.
Again it was great being somewhere where the others knew exactly what I was up to and I didn't feel I had to defend my actions.

Such a relaxing horsemanship day, even if the riding was a little difficult at times. I look forward to many more in the weeks to come.


Moved again

It's been a hectic few days to say the least.
I've been riding in the big field with Bonitao a fair bit. The other day he spooked and, stupidly, I did not have his overreach boots on. As a result he pulled the front right shoe half off. Once back at the yard I removed it and inspected the hoof damage. Not too bad, but I wanted to ensure there was no further damage prior to the farrier being able to get there and put a new one on. As a result I decided to leave him in overnight and asked he be left in all the next day.
The following day I went to the yard at around 3:15 pm to get him ready for the farrier who was coming at 4. No sign of Bonitao in his box which was odd. I thought maybe he was in the indoor school. or another stable whilst they mucked the stable out. No sign of him. He was not in his field either. I expanded my search and finally found him a further two fields away with a different horse, the gate of which was not held closed.
He was a little jumpy and his neck and shoulders were covered in dry sweat, a sure sign of mental stress. On giving him a good look over I found a graze on his left hind leg as well. Obviously something very bad had happened.
I rang the yard owner and asked what on earth was going on. He said that the staff had gone to skip him out. Instead of moving him or tying him up outside they had just left the stable door open and parked the wheel barrow in the doorway. They know that Bonitao has a habit of running away from them so this was not a bright move. He took his chance and jumped the barrow through the stable door. I assume this is when he got grazed. Then he ran to his field. Finding the field gate shut he continued up the path and pushed his way through the unlatched gate (there's no latch on it) into the field I found him in. Then, of course, they couldn't catch him.
Despite the yard owner knowing I was at home on standby and therefore contactable by phone nobody bothered to let me know what had happened. If they had I could have gone to the yard and retrieved Bonitao from the field before he damaged his hoof further. As it happened he did chip the hoof quite badly and the farrier struggled a bit to put the shoe on.
When I suggested that really this was a very stupid thing to happen and that I was really very angry about it the owner implied it was all the fault of the horse. I asked if we couldn't get some staff who were better at handling horses. The owner does not like any criticism of his staff so said we should leave the yard as soon as possible.
Things have been building for us to leave as the standards there have dropped further and further so I didn't argue.
We quickly rang around our friends and one said we could come to her fields immediately. So the day before yesterday Bonitao was moved, yesterday being devoted to getting all our other horse equipment out of the place. Stable mats were the hardest to move, and the smelliest.
Whilst there we were told by other liveries that the three mares in Fillys' field had escaped overnight and wandered the yard until the morning. Then yesterday another horse was found in the hay field having escaped from a different field. Later on I heard a further four had got out of their field. So that was 8 escapees in a period of around 24 hours. There is also a race horse who has such deep wire cuts on his legs that it is possible he'll never be ridden again. The fencing at the yard was one of our bigger concerns. Bonitao still has the remains of a cut on his neck from the sharp point of a broken wire fence (I found hair on the fence), which has still not been repaired.
All in all I find I am sleeping better at night now. I had been getting the growing feeling that it was only a matter of time before there was a really bad accident there and we were almost perpetually worried as to what state we would find our horses in when we went to the yard.
We will miss many of the people on the yard, and their horses. But in the end the draw they provided for us to stay was outweighed by the worry about the welfare of our horses and it was the right time for us to leave. Filly being away only made this easier as we only had one horse to move.
So we have a new adventure now. We are in a beautiful part of the Chiltern hills with a lovely set of fields. The lady we are now with does Natural Horsemanship as does her daughters. In fact some of them went to JRFS for a course this summer and loved it. It will be nice to be at a yard (even if only temporarily) where we have like minded folks, though being somewhere without a school or stables is going to be a bit of a mental shift. I can't thank them enough for coming to out rescue.
Enough waffle for one post. I'm now going to the fields to go out for a hack with them and be shown the local riding areas :) .

Tuesday 2 September 2014

Good news and bad news




I went to see Filly again yesterday and there is good news and bad news.
The good news is that her hooves look amazing. The frog is much stronger as are the bulbs on the back of the hoof. The surface of the sole looks strong with no cracking. The grooves have deepened and the bars are coming back really well. Also the toes have shortened considerably on both the fronts and the backs. The best looking hoof is probably the front left.
This is ironic as she is also hopping lame on the front left. In fact she finds walking very difficult indeed. We assume that the abscess has flared up again which is a real shame. She was apparently doing very well up until last Saturday when she showed slight lameness. This has rapidly worsened over the weekend until yesterday (Monday) she was very very sore.
Nics' plan was to put her out in the field last night. The fields are wet at them moment and hopefully that will help soften the hoof horn a little to allow the abscess to break out. This is different to the way I've normally seen abscess problems treated, but I trust Nic to be doing what she knows is right. In the end it kind of makes sense to allow nature to sort it out. She would poultice the hoof but neither of us could feel any particular warm spot on the hoof to know where to apply it. In fact the hoof was not that warm at all.
As to her general demeanour, she is just being Filly. We brought her slowly into the barn and she got upset she was separated from her gang of admiring geldings. There were other horses in the barn, but not her particular followers. One of them was brought in and she immediately settled down and went to sleep.
I gave her a long groom and scratch which she accepted gratefully. I also noticed that anytime I went near her left front foot she picked it up clearly asking for the pain to be taken away. It was hard to not be able to help her.
I spent about 8 hours driving yesterday to spend 4 hours with her. Well worth the effort. Hopefully next time I visit she will be a bit better and I can take her for a quick play session.

Friday 29 August 2014

Riding Bonitao in the big field

I've taken a break from working in the school. I think we both needed time away from the place. I've been on standby for work as well which means I can only ride in the evening after my standby has ended. So we have been going to the big field on the farm for the last two evenings to get some exercise.

The first trip to the field was a little eventful just getting there. As we came past the row of horse trailers Bonitao got really worried. He actually tried to bolt past them and I had to bend him to a halt. No big drama but a little unexpected. So we played with the trailers for a while, just doing the ridden squeeze pattern until he was confidently eating grass right next to them.
The first day in the field was pretty good. He had highish energy levels, the forwards walk was very forwards. But we just did a lap at walk, another at trot and a last one at canter. We through in the odd refuelling stop to take on some grass from time to time.
The lap at canter was a little tricky. He wanted to really tank off, so we just rode circles until he relaxed and then carried on our way.

Yesterdays field trip was more exciting. He was fine going to the field, the trailers holding no worries for him other than a slightly suspicious glance. The first lap at walk went well until we got to the far hedge. He's always had a problem with this hedge. I have no idea why, and I doubt we can ever really know what worries a horse about any situation, we can just have what are usually unhelpful theories. Unhelpful in that we then become anxious in a similar situation and transmit that to the horse when otherwise they would have been fine !
But he was worried and started spooking and prancing all the way along the hedge. This was not desired behaviour. But then the oft repeated phrase of James Roberts came to mind. "Get them thinking to their feet". We started doing all sorts of patterns. Figure 8, sideways, direct rein, indirect rein, back up etc etc. I tried to ride exactly the same as I would in the school in a normal schooling situation. I would not allow any heaviness on the bosal. If he pushed into it then light bumps until he softened and then release. We kept this up for a good twenty minutes. Everytime he relaxed he got rewarded by eating grass. With tenseness came more patterns. Eventually he was relaxed enough to walk a straight line along the hedge line.

In a way this energy was a gift. We achieved some incredible yields. Sideways had impulsion as did the direct reins. So rather than just seeing the negative of the situation I tried to focus on the positive and get some schooling achieved that would actually been harder in the school.
We'll keep going to the field for a while, both to use this energy and to try and get him more confident in the environment.

Wednesday 20 August 2014

A very quick update

I have to leave for work in a few minutes, but we have had an update from Nic at Rockley farm. It's well worth a look

4 week update

Seems like all is going pretty well apart from the abscess. But then who knows how long that has been in her foot ? The fact it has come out can only be a good thing.

Saturday 16 August 2014

A visit to Filly

On Thursday I finally had time to go and pay a visit to Filly. A long drive in some very very heavy showers, but the reward was when I got there.
After parking the car just outside the yard I walked towards the house. Then I heard the most enormous whinny from the stable block. I thought all the horses would be out so hadn't checked in there but recognised that voice. Filly was in her stable and had recognised the sound of my foot fall. I poked my head around the door to be greeted by an alert little face with ears pricked. So I had to say hi before going to the house. Within minutes she was used to my presence again and went back to her friends. Horses are like that and live in the moment. It probably just took a short time before she forgot I had even been away. But that's fine I had had my reward already.

I then went to the house to meet up with Nic and she took me out to see Fillys' feet. The first thing to say is that a huge abscess had blown out of her front left coronet band. If you remember that was the foot that was extremely lame just before she went to Rockley, so I guess it had been cooking for a while. Apparently she was lame again on it for a few days before it came out, but became much sounder once the pressure was relieved. Nic said it absolutely stank :( .
Once we had discussed that small problem we looked at her feet. I have to say I was amazed. They don't look like the same hooves. I had expected to see badly chipped hoof wall, but what I actually saw was hooves that looked like they had been manicured. OK, the very edges were a little uneven but no sharp chips at all. I also noticed that the frogs looked much much neater and, even to my inexpert eye, stronger. Due to the abscess I did not see her moving about outside the stable but she should be out again as I write this. In fact Nic is hoping to take her long walks on Exmoor soon being lead as Nic rides one of the other rehabs.
We then had a long cup of tea and a chat about all things hoof related and horses in general.
After tea I went back out to just spend some time with Filly in her stable. Nic went for a ride leading a couple of other horses while Filly and I just chilled. And I have never seen Filly so chilled. The atmosphere on this yard is so conducive to being relaxed that leaning over the door next to Filly I nearly nodded off and she definitely did.
After an hour or so it was time to face the long drive home. Bad rain again, but I was feeling so happy knowing that Filly was being well looked after mentally and physically. It was much less stressful than the last drive home. Trusting someone else with your horse for 12 weeks is a bit difficult but having got to know Nic over the last few visits I now feel very relaxed about it.
Nic has shared a few videos of herself riding and that just reinforces my view of her. She doesn't "do" Parelli or any other NH training, but watch these videos and I think you'll agree that that is because she is already there !
https://vimeo.com/81551001
https://vimeo.com/81551489

Thursday 7 August 2014

The Box Exercise

As Filly is away I've been doing a fair bit of riding on Bonitao. I've spent a lot of time recently getting him really light with forequarter yields or direct rein. He will react to just a weight shift now most of the time. If that fails then just moving my outside leg forwards a little will get those front legs crossing over nicely.
At the same time I've been balancing this with getting the indirect rein lighter. This is asking the hind legs to cross over. He'll do this mostly from just my inside leg going back a touch, but occasionally still needs to be reminded with the rein.

For both of these I'm not talking about Level 2 Parelli type of feel, we are going way beyond that. I'm trying to see how light I can get the aids to be without them becoming over reactive. What I mean by this is that with my intention turned off I should be able to squirm around in the saddle, look at the view and have Bonitao not react to those feelings. I only want him to react when my intention (martial arts "ki" if you like) is turned on. To achieve this I've also being doing lots of "friendly" game in the saddle and on the ground both stationary and in motion. I also try to be very clear as to when my ki is on or off.
I don't think ki is a mystical thing by the way. But using it as a model in my mind effects the tension and intention in my body. It changes the activation of muscle groups causing my core to engage or relax. But we are straying of into martial arts training here.

Having got these basic yields very light I now wanted to get transitions much lighter. Not the traditional ones of walk, trot, canter, halt but ones between forwards, sideways and backwards.
I look to many sources to get inspiration for training sessions and so I came across this on YouTube Box Exercise . This was exactly what I was looking for, but how to make it as clear as possible to Bonitao ? Bruce does a great demo of the exercise in the video, but I want to do it from the ground first.

I like to teach a new pattern on the ground first if possible. I needed to make the pattern obvious to me which will help my focus and convey the pattern to Bonitao. Well the obvious solution was to place 4 poles on the ground in a box and move Bonitao around the outside of them with his nose always pointing in the same direction, say south. So we walk forwards along one side until his hind feet are just past the sideways pole. Move sideways right along that pole with his hind legs just in front of pole. Backwards down the other side then sideways with front legs just behind the other side pole. Simple.

Bonitao has done a lot of sideways with poles so I thought this would be pretty easy on the ground. Unfortunately it turned out he had only really done sideways with the pole under his belly or in front of his front legs. Rarely with the pole behind his hind legs and it worried him. This was the first problem to overcome. So we did a session of just going sideways in front of a pole, using the end of the pole as a place of rest. This is a bit like doing the point to point pattern to get impulsion except the impulsion was sideways and the points were each end of the pole. The ends of the pole were a destination, if you like, where he knows he will get a rest.
I also discovered that he was great going to his right, but going to his left was harder. In fact he would try hard to avoid going along the pole to his left at all, but was ok going left sideways when away from the pole. Approach and retreat to get over this problem by not asking him to go sideways with the pole too close behind to start with.

Once this pattern had become acceptable on the ground I tried it ridden. Backwards was good, but we had trouble transitioning from backwards to sideways. He wanted to keep going backwards. This was overcome with putting a long pause between the directions. Sideways to forwards was pretty good as was forwards to sideways. But we still have trouble with sideways to the left with the pole behind the legs.

All of this is very much work in progress, but the video gives me a vision of where I want to get to and now all I have to do is separate out the elements, get them good on their own and then recombine them into one beautiful flowing movement.

Tuesday 5 August 2014

2 weeks at Rockley Farm

Filly has been at Rockley Farm for two weeks now. I missing here terribly. But the reports from there almost make up for this as she seems to be doing very well. The latest blog post about her is here Filly update
I spoke to Nic at Rockley today and she says she is really chilled and has integrated to the herd very well. That makes me feel much better.
I've been riding Bonitao a fair bit but that will be the subject of another blog post

Monday 28 July 2014

Rockley Farm

Filly in now away on her holidays in Exmoor. She'll be away for at least 12 weeks which is a bit hard to bear. It's a 4 hour drive each way to visit her, but the area is very beautiful so we can make mini-breaks out of them.

Getting her to Rockley was challenging. I had decided that for this special journey I would give her some sedative to help her stay calm. But she hates having a syringe put in her mouth so administering it was going to be a problem. To get her used to syringes we tried filling them with apple sauce and apple sauce with mint and other tasty liquids. None of them worked. We finally found that she loved mashed banana and the problem was solved to the extent she was biting the syringe and didn't want to let it go.
So when the day came, last Monday, we mixed mashed banana with ACP and she ate it readily.
This did not have the expected result. She fought strongly against the sedation and became very agitated. I took her to the indoor school and she went nuts. Putting the travel boots on was not fun.
Trailer loading was actually pretty good and after a short time we were ready to go. Trailering was not good. We had picked a Monday lunchtime to depart to avoid traffic jams. We got stuck in 3 jams in the first hour. Two accidents and road works. During the road works a kind lady got out of her car two cars ahead of us to make she we new our trailer was rocking about. Sitting in a very rocky car we assured her we did know, but there was not a lot we could do about it. So long as we were moving Filly was actually ok, it was when we stopped we had trouble. We made the decision to not stop at all and arrived 4 hours 30 minutes later at Rockley farm with our legs firmly crossed. Not easy when you're driving !

She unloaded really calmly and slowly and was soon installed in a stable to let her settle for a whilst we had a visit to the loo and a cup of tea.
We then went back out to see her and Nic (the lady who owns the yard) took loads of photos of her feet in shoes. She then took close up slow motion video of how her feet contacted the ground as I walked Filly up and down the yard. This gives Nic a baseline to work from for Fillys' rehab work.
Then very very carefully Nic removed Fillys' shoes whilst I and Ritchie stood on horse fly swatting duty. I was very impressed with the calm attitude Nic had as Filly was pretty difficult and the shoes were effectively glued on by the residue of the gel pads we had tried on her.
With that done she had her tea, which included loads of mineral ingredients which Nic prescribes to re-hab horses and was put out on the first track area which is part of the rehab treatment. She had company of another re-hab horse and one of Nics own horses, both chosen for their calm manner. There was one minor altercation and then everything settled down really well.
With that done we left for the night to find the hotel we were going to stay in.

The following morning we arrived to find Filly still with her friends on the track area. She came over to say a brief hello and then went back to her friends and hid around the back of the barn in an area we could not see. We did not go into the area as we did not want to disturb the herd that was forming and so reluctantly left her and set off to go for a walk on Exmoor, followed by the long drive home.
If you wish to follow Filly's progress as Rockley then take a look at the Rockley farm blog that Nic writes to keep us all up to date with progress. Here is the link Rockley Farm blog

Wednesday 16 July 2014

Touch all over

On James Roberts plan the second item is "touch all over". And he means all over. There should be no "yeah but" spots.
It has taken me the better part of a year to get to the point I could literally touch Filly all over and am I glad I took the time now. The difficult spot that took most of the time was the flank up to her teats. I got badly kicked at one point when trying and nearly passed out with the pain. Folks at the yard were a little derisive that I spent so much time getting to the point I could handle her teats relatively easily. But it has now paid dividends.

Filly starting lactating yesterday. I was gently playing with her and was more than a little shocked when a stream of milk came out of her teats. A quick phone call to our vet, Ben, and he reckoned she could be having a little phantom pregnancy brought on by the changeable weather and the fact she is on box rest. But he stressed that to ensure she did not get mastitis it was important to clean her teats.
A year ago that would have been an extreme sport, but because of the touch all over from James it was relatively easy. To be honest she was not wild about me using a wet sponge (maybe I should have used warm water ) but she was fine with my hands. She had a lot of nasty gunk there so I was pleased to be able to get it clean and reduce the infection risk. The last thing I need when she is about to go away for 12 weeks for rehab.
So a question to ask is "can I touch my horse ALL over, even in those slightly embarrassing bits, or am I going to find I can't when a medical emergency arrives?"

Filly is a lot better

For the last 4 or 5 days Filly has been much much better. She can now walk on concrete with only a little lameness. Where she used to dip her nose almost to the ground when her left front foot touched the ground she is now much more even. I can only assume that the equithane pads we had tried in her shoes had put too much pressure on the sole and had bruised it. Once the pad was removed it took a while for the bruising to heal.
Despite the improvement I have taken the descision to leave her on box rest. There are two reasons for this
1) We cannot afford for her to run around the field and pull a shoe off. To go barefoot at Rockley farm they want her brought there with at least 4 weeks of good hoof growth
2) When she had the tildrum and hrydro cortisone injection the vet was keen that she had at least 2 weeks box rest to give the injections a chance to work

So the problem has been to manage her on box rest. To be honest she has been much calmer than in the past and pretty easy to deal with. I've groomed her twice a day partly to get the dust off her and partly to give her main muscle groups a good massage. She started not liking being groomed at all, but now actually seems to enjoy it. This enforced rest has actually been very good for her. She's had a lot of attention and has become much calmer being handled. Possibly because I have been on leave from work and able to give her a very consistent way of being handled.

I played with her a little today. Just getting her to back up over a pole one foot at a time, then come forward one foot at a time. And by one foot at a time I mean pausing for at least 30 seconds between moving each foot. This is to prepare her for getting on and off the trailer. If you remember her big problem is getting her feet over the lip of the trailer onto the ramp, particularly the back ones. So this acts as preparation for that.

Wednesday 9 July 2014

To lighten the mood

After the last, slightly depressing post I thought I would recite a few little stories from the last week or so.
Before Filly was confined to her box we were letting her in the indoor school for a leg stretch every day. The yard owner Rick did this last week. After a while he went to check she was ok. He found that she had pulled the mounting block out into the school and had sat on it. She even had one of her hind legs of the ground as she rested her bum on the top of the box. As he said all she needed was a cigarette coming out of the corner of her mouth and she would have looked very cool and chilled :) .
We always make a point of handling our horses legs a lot. This includes wrapping a rope around them and teaching them to yield to the pressure when we pull on the rope so that we can literally lead them by the leg. I had heard that is helps to prevent injuries if they get caught in wire, but was always slightly sceptical this would actually work.
The other day I was in her box chatting to the vet on my mobile. She started lifting her right leg and pawing at the haynet. I wondered what she was trying to do as she was doing it over so gently. In the end she managed to rest her hoof on the net and started chewing her chestnut ! She was using the hay net as a foot rest. Unfortunately this net was one with large holes and her foot slipped through into the net so she got stuck. I quickly finished my phone call as she looked at me very calmly but was clearly saying "Oops. Help please". She did not struggle once. I just lifted her leg and with a bit of fiddling managed to get her hoof back out of the net. I then dumped the hay on the floor and left a note not to give her a hay net again, just put the hay on the floor.

Tuesday 8 July 2014

A painful journey

I know it has been a while since I posted. So much has happened I hardly know where to start.
The slight lameness Filly had when cantering finally lead us to consulting a vet. A vet I really trust and like. He came out to assess Filly several months back and decided to have her into the clinic for a proper check up. The finding was that she was sore in the right front foot. X-rays were taken at that point and hydro-cortisone injected into the hoof. After a couple of weeks of rest she was assesed again, and whilst a little better she was not as good as was hoped.
It was then decided to take her for an MRI scan. The result was that both front navicular bones were chipped, and the front right deep flexor tendon had a little damage. As a result of the chips some of the soft tissue in the area was a little inflammed.
The recommendation was to have more hydro cortisone and a new drug called Tildrun administered. To help with circulation on the hooves we then re-shod her with some equithane pads in the shoes to activate the sole of the hoof and the frog. After around 5 days she became very very lame on the front left hoof. The shoes and pads were removed to make sure there was no infection in the hoof, and then reapplied again. She remained lame.
It was then decided to remove the pads in case they were causing undue pressure on the soles. My heart lifted as she immediately walked better. Feeling much happier I left for the UK gliding national championship. This takes place over 9 days. On the morning of day 2 my wife rang me and said she had called the vet as the right leg was now hot below the knee and she was still lame on the left. I felt I could no longer remain at the competition and so hurried home to nurse Filly.
During all that time I had been investigating what we could do to help Filly recover. During that search it was recommended I look at Rockley Farm which specialises in rehabilitation of horses with navicular problems. This resulted in a 4 hour drive to Exmoor to see the place. I'll write a longer post about Rockley when I have more time, but the basic premise is to take the shoes off the horse and allow natural movement on a variety of surfaces which help to remodel the hooves to a better shape. After consulting with my vet, who had already heard good things about the farm, we have now arranged for Filly to go to Rockley on the 21st July. She will be gone for 12 to 14 weeks and she'll be 4 hours drive away. This is going to be tough and put lots of miles on my car. But it's worth it for the chance we can make Filly happy on her feet again.
Whilst there she will have her own blog to keep me in touch with what is happening. I'll share the web address of the blog when I have it.
So my focus for the next two weeks is to keep her in a condition where she can travel, a journey I am not looking forward to. But this is a journey for Filly and Filly alone. It is not for us to go on holiday together where I sometimes wonder if the trauma of the journey is worth it, it is to give her the best chance I can to get better.
This is an abbreviated version of all the ups and downs (which included many tears) we have had over the last few months and I hope helps explain why I have been a little quiet.

Saturday 21 June 2014

Back to the vet

As a result of the recent MRI scan Filly had to go back to the vet yesterday for more injections. They couldn't be done at Manor farm as one of the injections, Tildrun, is adminstered slowly via a drip. The drug can make horses colic so it was felt that being under constant observation at the vet was a good idea.

She had to be there be 08:30 which meant an early start. Trailer loading did not go as well as in the past. Purely my fault. I should have left more time and even though I tried to be calm and patient I must having been giving off hurried signals. The result was trailer loading took longer than if I had left more time and been more patient. Her problem is still getting her hind feet over the junction between the ramp and the trailer. She finds this mentally very hard to do and lots of patience is required to give her confidence.

As usual the journey was not good. She arrived at the vets very sweaty. I can't sedate her on the way to the vet as they will be doing that there for the procedure and a double dose would not be a good idea. I always try and let her calm down before letting her off. I'm looking for her muscles to relax and for her to start eating hay in a calm, not frantic, manner. Then I let her off, but almost immediately ask her back on again. I want her last memory of the trailer to not be escaping it after a bad journey, but quietly walking on to it and eating hay. This makes the next loading much easier.

I left her in the very capable hands of the vet and his assistants and went to do other chores.

Returning at around 1pm I was told it would be wise to wait a little longer as the drugs had caused her mild colic. So I stayed and had a lovely cup of tea with one of the equine staff chatting about natural horsemanship. She was very open minded and interested.

Once Fillys' stomach had settled it was time to load her again. With as much time on my hands as I wanted my personal energy was very different. As a result so was the loading. Very patiently I waited until she was ready to put those hind legs in the trailer, then I asked her out again. She actually did not want to leave the hay net so reloading then went much easier.

The journey home was again difficult, but maybe not quite as bad. I took my time over the unloading, again reloading her repeatedly until she walked calmly on and ate hay. Job done for the day I tidied up and went home to prepare for my evening of aikido training. A very busy day :)

Wednesday 18 June 2014

Result of MRI scan

A long day yesterday. We had to get Filly to the vets by 9am for her MRI scan. That was a one hour drive. She loaded ok, but again the travelling was not great. When we arrived at the vets the staff there took one look at her and ran to get a bucket, sponge and scraper to wash the sweat off her. They were so nice and helpful it gave me great confidence in them looking after her for the day. I had been prepared to spend the whole day looking after Filly, but when we saw how compassionate the staff were we decided we could leave her in their capable hands.
It then occurred to us that we were half way to JRFS so decided that rather than hanging around the vets we would go and see our friends there.
We had a great day watching Josh playing with 5 colts, some of which he rode and some he did ground work on.
He really fired difficult questions at us this time. Not just about horses either. He would give a scenario of a rider and a student and ask what patterns would be best for them to practise to progress. That made us really think about the purpose of the patterns and how to use them to help the rider and the horse. In the past as we were the rider we only had to think about the horse. Thinking about both was much harder to do as the pattern had to match the needs of both.
We had arranged to be back at the vets by around 17:30 in the evening. When we arrived we found Filly back in her box and wide awake. As soon as she saw me she gave a huge shout and got really excited, which was a great welcome.
Before we left the vet, Bruce, showed us the MRI scans for her front legs. They had taken a scan of both front hooves. They showed that both the front navicular bones have small chips that have aggravated the soft tissue in the area causing soreness. In addition the front right "deep flexor tendon" has a small amount of damage. The suggested treatment was for a hydro-cortisone injection into the effected area on the right hoove and a course of tildren ( a drug that helps prevent bone degeneration). The vet seemed optimistic that the treatment would help her and she would probably be rideable again.
I hope this turns out to be the case, but if not she will still be my online and liberty horse so out story is not over yet !
For the journey home I prepared her for loading as usual. The surgery has a lovely sand school that I used to prepare her for loading using the usual games. It was noticeable that on this lovely sand she moved so much better than in the school at Manor Farm.
The loading went very well. Again I used a lot of patience and as one of the staff watched us playing with the trailer Filly suddenly self loaded. This resulted in the staff member asking us loads of questions about our methods. She said she had seen many ways of loading a horse, but ours seemed to be very gentle.
We had given Filly a mild sedative for the drive home and she was very very chilled. She ate the whole way and arrived at Manor Farm dry and without having done a single dropping. She also unloaded very calmly and settled into her stable with very little fuss.
The farrier is coming today to put the shoes back on that had to be removed for the MRI. Hopefully the injections can be performed on Friday, but we have to go to the local vet surgery for that.

Monday 16 June 2014

Trailer loading

Tomorrow is a day I am not looking forward to. Filly has to go to a vet about an hours drive away for an MRI scan on her hoof. The result of this will determine our future.
But to prepare for the journey trailer loading practise must not be ignored. It would be a shame not to be able to get her to her appointment. So the afternoon was spent playing with the trailer.
It's best not to focus on the trailer as a means of transport when doing this as I get too focussed on getting her in, and not focussed on improving our communication. Today I decided to really work on my skills at feeling her slightest try. As luck would have it I have just read Mark Rashid's book "Horses Never Lie" again. That must make the fourth reading. In it he describes closing his eyes to see if he can feel a "try" even better than in the past. I decided to give the idea a go.
The feel I wanted was of the porcupine pressure I was applying to the lead rope to ask her to enter the trailer. To do this I had to be standing in the trailer of course, but on the side another horse would occupy.
I started with my eyes open as she was a bit worried and played very gently until she relaxed. Then I closed my eyes.
That takes a lot of trust ! But Mark was right. As soon as I closed my eyes I could feel communication down the lead rope I had never felt before. I can't even describe some of the feelings that were sent to me. But it was intuitive and obvious as to when to release the pressure. I had to feel it, I couldn't see it. Filly became softer and softer. Even her eye changed its intensity and became soft.
This softness lead to me discovering that what she was really worried about with the trailer was not getting on, it was getting a back feet over the lip of the trailer and onto the ramp as she got off. She feared the metal strip, which to her metal shoes felt slippery. We spent a long time just letting her "pad" her hind feet around until she became more confident with the transition from trailer to ramp.
As that confidence grew, so did her confidence in getting on. Without the calm softness we had developed when I closed my eyes I am not sure I would have noticed the problem.
Maybe I should play with her more with my eyes shut :)

Tuesday 20 May 2014

The tripod tested

Filly had managed to stand on her own hoof and pulled one of the nails out of the front left hoof. So we asked our farrier, Nick, to come and sort out the damage she had caused.
He came today, took one look at the hoof and decided to remove the shoe, trim the hoof and put it back on. The test of my training with the farriers tripod was coming much much earlier than I anticipated !
To be fair the training had been going well. We had started with rewarding for just having the hoof on the tripod and got to the stage where we were rewarding for her actually balancing the tripod. In other words, if it started to rock over I would help her bring it upright again, click and treat. She soon got the hang of this and so I was working on extending the time the hoof was on the tripod.

Then the farrier came.

I explained to Nick that the cue for the tripod was "Filly, tripod" and point at the desired leg. She then at the least takes the weight of that leg and allows it to be place on the tripod. He tried this and was very impressed when it worked. He then commented that she was actively trying to balance the tripod as he worked on the hoof. This was a big turn around from our previous experiences where she had repeatedly knocked it over causing Nick real problems.

The best was yet to come. Nick decided to remove the other front shoe and trim the hoof as it had grown so well. This is the hoof we are trying to rebalance so that was really good news. So we came to the tripod with this hoof. He picked up the tripod and put it in front of her. Without even being asked she picked the hoof up and gave it to him. I think Nick was very impressed. As for, Filly she gave him a great big wet kiss around the back of his neck and into his left ear :) .

I now have visions of getting her to balance her hoof on a sawn off broom stick... just for fun.

Monday 5 May 2014

Farriers tripod

I created a monster when I taught Filly to stretch her leg forwards. She seems to really enjoy have her leg pulled forward and then really stretching into my hand. Great for horse yoga, not so great for the farrier.
When the farrier is performing the finishing touches to the shoeing he place the hoof on a tripod to hold the hoof at a convenient height for using the rasp. This was very close to the position that she puts her foot in for that nice stretch so she puts all her weight on it and it falls over. Not helpful at all.
After a few shoeings like this I got my farrier to get me a tripod I could use at the yard for training. This may seem extravagant but I strongly believe that as the owner it is my responsibility to prepare my horse so that my farrier can perform his craft with as little interference from the horse as possible.
So how to train a horse to place the feet on a tripod and hold it there. It seemed like an obvious candidate for clicker training. So I use the cue "tripod" pick up her hoof and place it on the tripod, click, treat. Then repeat extending the time that she needs to keep the hoof on the tripod for in a relaxed fashion.
After two sessions I just have to say "Filly..Tripod" and point at her leg for her to pick it up. I then place her hoof on the tripod and help her to keep it there relaxed. Today for the first time she actually adjusted the pressure to keep the tripod up. Click and mega treat, then end of session.
I hope to build on this over the next few weeks so that the next shoeing is a little easier.
As for her leading. Today she was very good. Walking back across her field I noticed whenever she tried to get even a step beyond me. Just the energy and intention. Then turned 90 degrees so that she was behind me again maintaining my position in the lead with no fight. Possible in a large space, not so easy on a track of course.

Sunday 4 May 2014

Leading Filly

Since the last post I've been continuing to take Filly to the field most days. Not to take her to the field as such, just to have a destination for the leading training. I've continued to use the waving of the stick idea where I swing the stick horizontally in front of me stopping it at the point I don't want her to walk in front of. If she comes to far forwards she gets tapped on the chest, the strength of the tap corresponding to how far she has pushed in front.
We had a few tantrums over this to start as she was used to being in front of whoever lead her, the position of the dominant mare. This was challenging her position in the herd and she didn't like it. Now, however, she has really settled down.
The walk to the field was very calm yesterday, far less spooking as she accepts my position as herd leader, and far less pushing in front. Once in the field I have never seen her so relaxed and calm. She grazed as horses should graze, slowly. In the past she was continually taking a bite then walking on with her head up. She could never settle to eat.
This may seem like a little thing, being able to lead your horse. But it has improved so much else, even her expression as I approach her in the stable has improved. She used to lay her ears back a little, not tight but not forwards either. Now she greets me at the door with bright eyes, pricked ears and a little whinny. She has always responded well to firmer handling. She has taught me so much about principle #5. It maybe 5 in Pats list, but in handling Filly I find it is much further up the list than that.
That is just Fillys' horsenality however. Try the same with Bonitao and you'll loose all connection with him instantly. His most important game is definitely Friendly game and the most important principle is "Principles, purpose and TIME are the tools of teaching".

Friday 18 April 2014

Fillys progress

Not a lot to say at them moment. I'm still not able to play with Filly properly as we are still giving her time to try and get over her bursitis. I am of course interacting with her every day. Grooming is just a part of the routine, not that she needs it every day but it helps with the "touch all over" part of the program.
With the spring grass now growing she also has a lot of energy. This has lead to problems leading her. Humans are just too slow ! To help with this I've been doing lots of leading training. Sounds basic, but seeing how many horses lead at the yard more of them could do with it.
I started by just asking her to walk slowly alongside me as we walked to a big field to graze. Not good. She kept pushing into me with her shoulder and trying to push past me. She turns her head away and shoulder barges me. I've developed sharp elbows to counter this one. Not trying to hit her but if she starts getting too close I just rhythmically move my elbow in and out. If she moves into it, well that was her choice.
For the overtaking problem I started by twirling the end of the lead rope in front of me. To be honest that was not a good strategy. She just turns her head away and leans on me even more. The problem is that the energy of a twirling rope is directing her away from me more that it is keeping her back.
Plan be was to take a carrot stick and wave it back and forth in front of me in a horizontal plane. Making sure it stops abeam me on the backward swing. As this is in the horizontal plane there is less energy pushing her away, and more pushing her backwards. If she moves far enough forward it taps her chest. Further forward and the stick is still at full speed and it hits her chest. There was a brief tantrum over this as she pushed through the pressure. But within 5 minutes she was walking quietly and peacefully next to me and even stood nice and still whilst I talked to one of the yard staff.
The most important aspect for me was that I had absolutely no intention in my mind of hitting her. For me the stick, my elbow and the twirling rope were just boundaries I had set up. And like a fence boundary it would not chase her. The boundary stays static even if it is defined by the limit of motion of the stick. She actually seemed to like to be at the spot where it just touched her much as a horse will lean over a fence to get at that bit of juicy grass.
I've trained the yard girls to use this technique so hopefully they can help get her a bit calmer as she is walked too and from the field. Eventually of course I don't want to use the stick, but in the meantime it's a useful tool.

Thursday 27 March 2014

At last an update

Things have been a little busy around here recently. Largely because Filly has been on box rest and she tends to be high maintenance !

Here is the story:

For some time I have been aware that Filly has had trouble with the left canter lead. She's pretty good and relaxed on right canter lead, but left was obviously uncomfortable for her. My osteo and I had been working on this for a long time. To be honest when I bought her in September 2012 she was physically a bit of a mess, so we always knew that there would be some serious rehab going on.
To start we worked on the obvious.
As a foal she had staked herself in the front right shoulder. And she seemed to be lame on the front right leg. The scar tissue from this injury was pretty obvious and one of the tendons was very tight. So we have spent the last year or so doing "Filly Yoga". Basically this involved stretching all her limbs at various angles and getting her to relax deeply into the stretch. Clicker training worked a treat for this and after a while she found she liked the stretch. Especially the front legs up and forwards. Often when I pick out her feet she will ask for this stretch by putting her leg out in front of her and expecting me to pull on it. She'll then hold it with a lovely look on her face and maybe chew her chestnut a bit ! This does cause a bit of trouble with the farrier, but he knows her now and is patient.

After a lot of this she was definitely getting better, in fact we were worried we had over loosened the shoulder joint at one point and had to quickly build up the pectoral muscles to stabilise them again. We did this with trotting poles. I taught her to go over a set off poles at liberty with the command poles. She quickly caught on. If she missed one she didn't get a reward. I've seen her miss one out, realise her mistake, turn 180 degrees to do them all then come over for her treat. I really think horses are smarter than some would give the credit for.

Again there was an improvement, but not enough. We decided to get the vet involved. A few weeks ago the vet, osteo and I met at the yard. She was still lame on the right front so we decided to take her into the vets and have a proper nerve blocking investigation done. Trailer training followed as I waited for the appointment. To be fair she loads very very well, but the travelling is not so good. I make a point of loading her as soon as she gets off the trailer so that her last memory of it is loading and un-loading confidently. This pays dividends when we have to load to go home.

Leaving her at the vets for the day was emotionally hard. The results came in during the afternoon and I went to collect her and be briefed on what they had found. The first nerve block had done the trick pin-pointing the navicular area. That is a word to bring dread to any horse owners heart. But the vet had taken x-rays and reckoned the navicular bone was not too bad. What was bad was the fact that the heel on the hoof was too low. The farrier has been working on correcting this fault for the last year. The front left is now pretty good, but the front right had not responded so well.
The result of having the front right heel low was that it was stretching the deep flexor tendon to much, and probably placing stress on the navicular bursa. He reckoned this area was inflamed. To counter this the vet injected steroid into the area and asked for her to return for a check up in two weeks time.

So we returned to the vet on last Monday. And I left her there again. This time they checked for lameness again and found that she was almost perfect on a straight line, but not yet right on a circle. The front shoes were removed and x-rays of the navicular bone itself taken. These revealed that the front left navicular bone was perfectly ok, but the front right had what the vet called a "change" in it. The external surface is very good, but maybe the internal was more ossified than it should be. He said that it was not a great worry as he had seen much worse in perfectly fit horses, and thorough breds are particularly susceptible to this problem.

Back to the farm and the farrier arrived the next day to put the shoes back on. Fortunately the farrier and vet know each quite well and the farrier had been emailed the x-rays and also had a long chat on the phone with the vet. It's great to deal with professionals who care that much about the horses in their care.
Armed with these x-rays the farrier can now continue to fix her hoof conformation.

Filly is no longer on box rest. I put her out today. She cannot be worked for at least the next two months other than some very light in hand stuff. I'm actually not at all worried by this. There is so much to train that I have neglected that can be done at a walk or even standstill that it will still be a busy two months I'm sure. And at the end of it I will have filled in a few holes and I'm sure be rewarded with an even more dependable partner.

For interest here is a link to her x-rays. The first two are of the right hoof and the second two of the left. The difference in angle are obvious !

Fillys x-rays 

Thursday 13 February 2014

Fruits of my labour

Those of you who have been following the blog will know that I have been teaching both Filly and Bonitao to be much more responsive to moving their front legs around whilst being ridden. Basically I've been asking with the inside rein and the outside leg in front of the girth for the front legs to move around the inside hind leg so that they pivot on the spot.
They have both been getting pretty good at this. It takes a lot feel with my legs and reins to get a clean turn. Sometime asking for half a step of backup before asking for the front leg to step over helps. We have gotten to the point that we can make pretty good 180 degree turns with the inside hind barely moving.

What I have noticed is how much more responsive this has made both horses to general riding. Bonitao in particular had a tendency to fall in off the rail towards the centre of the school. Now I have an aid that keeps him on the rail without resorting to the reins, I just use a little inside leg ahead of the girth.
In fact just about every facet of both horses ridden work has improved. It's like magic :)

I would add that I have become very particular even when leading them around, mainly with myself. I am very concious that when I ask for them to turn sharply on the lead rope (in the stable or where ever) I release the pressure as the appropriate leg responds. If I have to apply it again to get more of a turn then so be it. I actually look for opportunities to ask for this yield with an emphasis and being really really polite about it. It's gotten so that it is now a habit and not a chore at all.

Sunday 9 February 2014

It's very wet !!

I've not been writing much recently as there is little to write about. Everything is so wet at the yard there is not much we can do. The outdoor school is a lake, literally, and the indoor school is well used as folks try to give their horses a little exercise.

However the beauty of Natural Horsemanship is even under these circumstances I can still do little bit and pieces to advance our horsemanship.

I'm having to be a little careful with the riding. The surface of the indoor school is pretty poor. Thin sand on a poor concrete base in the most part. The rest is so deep with sand even I struggle to walk. The problem with this is that we can only do slow work and I am loosing my nice forward walk I had with Filly. She seems reluctant to go forwards with a nice overtrack and frankly I don't blame her. So I'm having to be very careful that this lack of forwards does not become a habit that will be hard to break later.

Thus I am mostly working on yields to leg pressure at standstill. Hind quarter and fore quarter yields. This is coming on pretty well, but I am also having to be careful not to dull her to these aids. It's all a balance.

On the upside this enforced slow time has made me concentrate on these little yields, both on the ground and ridden. It's not about getting the yield as such, but the attitude that accompanies that yield. Filly has always had a mental problem with yielding to steady pressure and so this is the current focus. Get to accept the pressure and yield from it willingly. The trick is to not release the pressure on the yield, but on the attitude, even if the yield was not that good.

We did a fair bit of this online yesterday. I just walked her in a circle and then asked with my fingers for her to just side pass onto a larger circle and bend her body around my hand. This was much better on the left side than the right and we did make progress. Not perfect yet, but definite progress.

As for touching her belly, that is now just a part of my routine. Any opportunity I get I touch and hold her belly. She barely reacts now, maybe a tail swish or two. I hope over the coming months to get her totally relaxed with this. This will of course help with the aforementioned exercises as well. It all comes back to "touch all over" on the plan !

Thursday 30 January 2014

Ouch again

In the past Filly has been very very touchy being touched in certain areas. Particularly in the area between her hind legs, and the inside of her hind legs. These are areas that need to be touched for two reasons. Most commonly just to clean the mud off, particularly this winter, but also in case medical treatment needs to be given there.
Her reaction was generally one of fear and opposition reflex. Lots of tail swishing, kicking out with the hind legs, muscle twitching and tenseness. So a pretty ingrained and strong reaction.
Over time I've managed to use approach and retreat to get to the point that I could put my hand in the area, then remove it when she calmed down. This could get pretty exciting so I had always done it in the indoor school to give us both room to move. We got to the stage where she was ok ish with it. Not totally accepting but maybe not scared for her life. I had even done it at liberty so she was totally free to wander off if the pressure became to great.
Time to repeat the exercise somewhere else.

Last week I went into her stable to prepare her to ride. I checked her belly to see how muddy she was. Very ! So I started the process of getting some of it off. She was fine with the belly, but not with that sensitive area between the hind legs. As she reacted I could have backed off, but that would have rewarded the reaction. So I persisted in just holding my hand there. She got pretty agitated and then I made a mistake.
If a horse is trying to kick you you're safe if you are close to them and next to the hip. But she moved too fast and I got out of position. Result was a really hard hind leg kick on my left upper thigh. Very very painful. I had to sit down for a fair while to recover and the leg stiffened up making walking difficult.

Lots of thought as to how to fix the problem with less pain. I decided to try using positive reinforcement training to overcome it initially. But what to reward. Lowering of the head helps horses to relax, so maybe getting her to lower the head whilst I touched the sensitive area, then rewarding with a click and treat would be a start.
That worked well, but she still held resentment as the tail swishing showed. So the click was now withheld until the tail also relaxed. Again that really helped.
It took a few sessions in the school to get it solid, but now I can touch the area with only a little reaction from her. I wouldn't say she loves being touched there, that will come with time.

Back to the stable and repeat. More reaction than the school, but not like last time. Further training and she now puts her nose on the floor and waits for the click.

This is not the way I would have liked to have overcome this problem. I would have preferred to have done it in a way that worked more on her understanding that she was not going to be harmed. This way feels a bit like bribery to me. However it has gotten the job done and given us a base to work towards understanding from. I'll phase out the treats pretty quickly and won't require the head to be lowered. That was really only done to try and induce and indicate relaxation.

Head lowering is something I use a fair bit to help get a horse to relax when they are tense about something. The trouble with using clicker training to achieve this is I am never sure if what I have achieved is relaxation or just a trained physical response. It does get us started down the right road however and for that reason I find it effective so long as I remain concious of the pitfalls.

As for my leg. It is now pretty much healed. I've ridden and had two evening Aikido training. No bruise in the impact area, much to my wifes' annoyance (she thought I deserved one), just some swelling that has gone down. Interestingly there was a small bruise on the inside of the thigh on the opposites side of the leg.

Like they say "a mistake is only a mistake if you don't learn from it. If you do learn from it it's a learning experience". Well that was a painful learning experience.
My instructor, Josh, said "pain is just weakness leaving the body". Very deep. Thanks Josh ;)

Monday 20 January 2014

Ponying at home

A few nights ago I decided to continue my practise of ponying with our two horses, Filly and Bonitao.
As Bonitao is the more advanced riding horse my wife and I decided I should ride her horse Bonitao and pony Filly.
Ritchie did the prepare to ride on Bonitao whilst I did a little pole work online with Filly. Once Bonitao was ready I mounted and made sure that he was responsive when ridden, especially to the leg aids as my hands were to be fully occupied  
Once handed Filly we started just leading her around. The aim for this was just to get her to walk alongside us in a calm way, not getting behind or in front. Zone 3 driving form horseback. I started with all turns away from Filly as this seemed easiest, but didn't want to do this too long as I am then giving Filly the impression that she is driving Bonitao away all the time.
Once this was established we went to turning into her. As expected she did not like this so much and gave a sour face. Bonitao was not entirely up to the task of countering her on hos own so I used the flag, in my free hand, to help him out. One of the things Josh impressed on me was that I was responsible for looking after both of them. So if Filly tried to drive Bonitao I should protect Bonitao. If Bonitao tried to drive Filly then it depended on the circumstances. If I had asked for it then let him and back him up as needed, if not defend Filly. But also don't let Bonitao get too strong with Filly.
Pretty soon they both understood their jobs and we had some nice circles in both directions.
I also tried to do an indirect/direct rein exercise. This is very tricky, and more so with Filly. To explain the manoeuvre I'll start at the beginning
1) Have horses stand next to each other.
2) Filly stays still whilst I ride Bonitao around her nose and then aim his nose into her opposite flank
3) Drive Filly's hind quarters away by riding Bonitao's nose into her hind quarters so that she steps the near hind under her body until she has turned enough to give me her other eye.
4) Ride out in a straight line so Filly has to step the front legs over in a fore quarter yield.

The snag was that whenever I started to move Bonitao around Filly's nose Filly did not stand still. She is so good at stick to me that she just moved off with us  
We did manage it once and it was pretty good, but definitely work in progress.

One of the other problems was getting Bonitao to understand when the flag we being applied to him and when it was for Filly. I asked James about this once and he said that over time they start to understand where the intention is aimed and then see the flag as a helping hand.

Monday 13 January 2014

Learning to pony colts

Just back from a day at James Roberts yard. I took my friend Liz who I have introduced to NH. I thought it time she saw a proper professional at work so arranged with Josh, who was James apprentice, to go there for the day.
Josh has just got a new Andalusian mare. Bought her on Saturday. She's ten years old and has hardly been handled. He knew we were coming and also knew that Liz had started a fair few colts using traditional English methods. He started by ponying the new mare form his other horse Mocho. Then did the first saddling and first sit on the saddle as a demo for us. Liz seemed very impressed as to how relaxed and calm it all was.
After lunch it was my turn to try ponying another horse for the first time. I was given a quarter horse to ride and another quarter horse to pony. As always I ran quickly through the Plan prior to mounting and then checked my horse, Dalton, out before being handled the colt.
That is where the fun started ! I now had Daltons reins and the lead rope to the colt in one hand and a carrot stick in the other. Josh told me to work out for myself how I found the reins and lead rope most comfortable to handle. I needed to be able, with one hand, to use the reins on Dalton and adjust the lead rope for the colt. On top of that I had to use the stick to direct the colt if the pressure from Dalton was not sufficient, protect Dalton from the colt and vice versa.
This was not just straightforward leading you understand. I was also using Dalton to get the indirect/direct rein response established in the colt. This basically consisted of driving Daltons nose into the flank of the colt so that he yielded his hind quarters then once the hindquarters had yielded away sufficiently walking forwards to apply a direct rein and step the front legs of the colt through.
On top of this I had to be sure that neither horse got claustrophobic against the school wall and both had the ability to move away if worried.

To say this was tricky was an understatement. By the end I had started to work out my hand on the rein/lead rope, and we got a few yields achieved.

I can't wait to do more of this. It gives all the yields I've been working on with Filly and Bonitao a true purpose other than just looking pretty.

Liz remarked how great it was seeing me struggle with ropes for a change after I have spent many hours helping her with the intricacies of 22 foot rope handling. At least I only dropped the stick once :) .