The start of something

Well, last attempt at a blog went by the wayside, so much so I think I only managed one post and can't even remember the name of the blog or the password!!

I'm not one for New Years resolutions, in fact a few years ago my resolution was never to make a resolution again, however for some reason this year feels a bit different, don't know if it is starting the new year in a new job, and investing some time and money in some training that may enable me to work with horses full time or just that the weather is better and the evenings are beginning to show some hope of getting lighter.  Whatever it is it all feels like now is a good time to start things.

So, I am the owner of seven barefoot horses and the responsible person for one other, our full livery.  The horses are a mixed bunch, some in work, some capable of being in work and some retired.  My riding horse is Max and like the majority of the others he has had the winter off due to lack of time, lack of light and appalling weather.  We have a teenager that comes and helps at the weekends and during the school holidays in return for lessons and rides her name is C and she mainly rides Charlie Too who is our Welsh Section C, he is the only one that has been in work throughout the winter as C is happy to ride in all weathers although not sure Charlie is so keen.

This weekend I decided that as we seemed to have an extra 30 minutes or so of daylight and if I was going to start riding Max it would be a good idea to do a month or so of in hand work first.  I love in hand work, I never was one for lunging in circles although I think it has it's place, instead I like to work around the school and do different shapes and routines.  Marji Armstrong calls this distance work and Peter Laidely calls it dancing.  On some of the horse forums I go on there has been quite a lot of talk recently about the work of Marijke de Jong, she is a Bent Branderup student and has some great videos on Youtube.  Marijke advocates working the horse in hand with the neck low, a bend through the body and stepping under with the inside hand, she calls this LFS.  The technique is quite similar to some of the exercises I have been taught in hand in the bridle but the work starts in the cavesson with a long line which is a bit easier to start with.

So the plan on Saturday was to start with some gentle circling work to try and encourage his hind end to step under and then maybe to do some baucher flexions.  As my horses often teach me, what I intend to do and what I end up doing are often two different things.  Max has not been in the school for a couple of months and since that time two pallets have been put on the other side of the fence at the furthest short end of the school.  Max decided these were the scariest things he had ever seen, obviously horse eating monsters and did his headless chicken impression which a friend of mine describes as giraffe on crack.  This basically consisted of whizzy past at high speed snorting and trying to change rein on the lunge and disappear off in the other direction.  I am so glad I wasn't riding him because he was being a complete pain.

So, 20 minutes of circles getting closer and closer to the horse eating pallets we eventually had a calm walk past them on the left rein so we called it a day.

C had an in hand lesson with Rosey and she was very good, she always likes to start the session with a bit of a boing but settled well, we are also doing some of the LFS work with her and she struggles with straightness and since her colic surgery last year struggles to engage her stomach muscles.  C enjoys this work and has a good feel for it.

C also hacked Charlie Too around the fields and he was a good boy, he can be a little bit nappy but she is getting a bit firmer with him which is helping.


Today was a repeat of yesterday except Max was a GoC on the right rein and it took 15 minutes for a nice walk past the pallets.

All three horses comfortable on the surfaces they worked on nothing exciting to report there really.