Post by Deleted on Apr 26, 2010 12:02:23 GMT 1
I'm so, so sorry - no photos!!! I forgot to recharge the battery after the mamouth video shoot with Nancy on Saturday.
So, if someone sent you an email and said "I'm completely new to horses but have just bought a 10 month old arab filly", you'd say they were mad, right? I'll confess I arrived at Susan's yard yesterday with a little trepidation, as that was sort of my reaction too. I stand very corrected, though. I have a lovely feeling this is going to work.
Vienna is a real sweetie. All leg and pretty face still, she is a very soft and gentle little chestnut filly with a stunningly fine arab face. Given that she'd had almost no handling at all until just a few weeks ago when Susan bought her, she's doing extremely well. She picks up 3 feet beautifully (one we still have to work on), leads of sorts and is just very willing to learn.
The first thing we are doing is just unpicking some of the standard advice from other quarters about leading from the shoulder and allowing the horse to decide about investigating new stuff. Vienna was a little confused at first when I said I'd like to take the lead, please, but she soon found it not as bad as she'd thought.
She's a very sensitive little girl, so Susan and I spent some time refining her "ask" from a pull to a squeeze of the hand - anything more that that and Vienna gets annoyed. We talked about Vienna needing to learn to respect human space and we taught her how to stop without running her leader over.
One interesting little problem that had been created unwittingly was with the horse eating jump pole. Susan had walked her over it a week or so ago - fine - and again - fine - and then it seems Vienna had clunked her foot on it, worried herself and would now walk up to it, plant and not dare put a foot over it. It took a little unplanting, but we got her walking over it nice and freely. I'm all for horses exploring their world but this sort of thing has to be with us as their leaders. If we don't have that trust and don't give that guidance, we can't then complain if the horse investigates and decides that's not for her.
I wouldn't normally do this sort of thing on a first day with such a young horse but I felt it was a good lesson to cement some of the other leading work we'd been doing, and also will now allow Vienna to go into the school if there are poles around without being scared.
The best news for me came at the end of the session - over a lovely cup of tea in fact. Susan is going on the IH 5 day course next week. Perfect. As Susan herself said, she's like a sponge, just soaking up all this new information. Getting the right information so early on is a luxury many of us missed.
My trepidation has now been replaced by a really positive feeling. There is no reason this can't be a dream partnership.
I'm sure you'll hear more of Vienna and next time, photos, I promise!
So, if someone sent you an email and said "I'm completely new to horses but have just bought a 10 month old arab filly", you'd say they were mad, right? I'll confess I arrived at Susan's yard yesterday with a little trepidation, as that was sort of my reaction too. I stand very corrected, though. I have a lovely feeling this is going to work.
Vienna is a real sweetie. All leg and pretty face still, she is a very soft and gentle little chestnut filly with a stunningly fine arab face. Given that she'd had almost no handling at all until just a few weeks ago when Susan bought her, she's doing extremely well. She picks up 3 feet beautifully (one we still have to work on), leads of sorts and is just very willing to learn.
The first thing we are doing is just unpicking some of the standard advice from other quarters about leading from the shoulder and allowing the horse to decide about investigating new stuff. Vienna was a little confused at first when I said I'd like to take the lead, please, but she soon found it not as bad as she'd thought.
She's a very sensitive little girl, so Susan and I spent some time refining her "ask" from a pull to a squeeze of the hand - anything more that that and Vienna gets annoyed. We talked about Vienna needing to learn to respect human space and we taught her how to stop without running her leader over.
One interesting little problem that had been created unwittingly was with the horse eating jump pole. Susan had walked her over it a week or so ago - fine - and again - fine - and then it seems Vienna had clunked her foot on it, worried herself and would now walk up to it, plant and not dare put a foot over it. It took a little unplanting, but we got her walking over it nice and freely. I'm all for horses exploring their world but this sort of thing has to be with us as their leaders. If we don't have that trust and don't give that guidance, we can't then complain if the horse investigates and decides that's not for her.
I wouldn't normally do this sort of thing on a first day with such a young horse but I felt it was a good lesson to cement some of the other leading work we'd been doing, and also will now allow Vienna to go into the school if there are poles around without being scared.
The best news for me came at the end of the session - over a lovely cup of tea in fact. Susan is going on the IH 5 day course next week. Perfect. As Susan herself said, she's like a sponge, just soaking up all this new information. Getting the right information so early on is a luxury many of us missed.
My trepidation has now been replaced by a really positive feeling. There is no reason this can't be a dream partnership.
I'm sure you'll hear more of Vienna and next time, photos, I promise!