It's Clicking

Charlie Poshcob and I are learning clicker trading together I click and treat as I feel appropriate and he teaches me if I have done it correctly. Ok it goes a little deeper than that but we are both still learning. Over the past few weeks we have learnt that you do not have to gallop off when being brought out of the field if someone has left a rug on your gate or heaven forbid brought a rug down in a wheelbarrow and abandoned it in full vision.

More importantly we have learnt that chainsaws are not that frightening. Always having my bag and clicker is paying dividends as no matter how much Mr Farmer chuckles at me and my clicker meeting him by the barn busy massacring logs was a bonus. It was so much of a bonus that on Sunday on our hack a chain saw started up right behind the hedge. He twitched ARGH CHAINSAW and then oh yes I remember it's fine. We got a repeat today as we returned to his paddock Mr Farmer with his pet chainsaw again. He offered to turn it off and I said no it's fine and Charlie had a quick huff and then looked at me with a look of ' Brilliant it's a chainsaw give us a click and a treat'.

Smaller snakes and Bigger Ladders

Its a while since Charlie and I have updated our blog and looking back to last year I said an x KS horse was like a game of snakes and ladders but I will confess the snakes are smaller and the ladders bigger.

Hacking continues to be mostly positive I stick to going out in company as that is where we both feel most confident  and in fact at times Charlie takes the lead when others balk at small dragons.

We are now riding in the bottom fields happily and hacking back up the road as a relax I also try to take him for a buckle end chill post lessons down to the bottom paddock and letting him steal some grass.

We have now cantered in the Grove which was the scene of disaster in 2012 and i must say he was a very nice boy indeed.

We have had short solo hacks and one slightly longer which started badly and ended well.

We were all set to enter some small dressage competitions but then I had a run of bad luck. I think in hindsight he tweaked somthing but it involved me being bronced off in July so the old saying listen to your horse was not adhered to. I was schooling in the bottom field and worked too long he got grumpy and so did I.

I have had his saddle adjusted and his teeth checked and feel it may be saddle numnah combination which caused him to dump me as since this was done he has felt a nicer smoother ride.

Dont lose the concentration

We have had a marvellous few weeks together and some awesome hacks. Charlies canter is finally starting to show some promise and hopefully soon the bottom fields will be open so that we can work  on this outside. it has mostly been indoors on the lunge. We have had some lovely hacks with some little hiccups including one on our own whoo hoo.

Last Saturday we attended a Massage and Stretching Clinic at Putloe Court and here is a picture of my handsome boy relaxing in the break.

 

We have had a few little hiccups but that i feel is because I wasnt quite so accurate with his Equifeast supplement. Hopefully we are now back on track.

 

Big grins

It's been a lovely week with Charlie. I rode in the field and did in hand thus week. Here is a photo of us hacking back up the track with happy ears. He is such a contented boy.

Today we hacked out with his field buddy Munchkin and the boys took it in turns to lead.

Joy of joys on the way back through the bottom fields we popped a jump not brilliantly but with dressage length stirrups. Must add more holes. He was lovely. It just keeps getting better.

Lots of Light Bulbs!!!

More and more Charlie's confidence is growing out hacking and so is mine.

The Equifeast Cool Calm and Collected is definitely helping tone down his reactions to things he is frightened of and he isn't so jumpy this in turn helps me be braver.

My lessons with Alastair again bolster our confidence as Charlie listens to my seat and leg aids and Mr A teaches me not to use my hands so much and drop my shoulder at the wrong time.

So schooling is going well and my confidence is growing but still pretty flaky due to our history.

Now the icing on the cake.....

Jenny Rolfe. I have joined her Facebook group BREATHE LIFE INTO YOUR RIDING and bought the book. It takes some reading as my Kerataconus and corneal scarring make black print on white challenging you cannot triple click and reverse colours like you can on an Ipad but that's another story.

So with Jenny's support online her book and her friends and students I am focussing on my effect on Charlie's confidence. Everyone keeps telling me he is fine it's me that needs fixing but that's easily said unless you are standing in my anxious shoes and no one who has never had their confidence smashed  as much as mine can really give an opinion, in my opinion.

My fellow liveries have me in hand and I am getting lots of hacking with good company.

Following Jenny's advice on breathing I have slipped into a new way of going.

On hacks instead of concentrating on what Poshcob might do I concentrate on my breathing, my relaxed seat, my relaxed legs and a very very light contact. Going on a loose rein and having me a bit looser is having a major effect on his confidence and mine. In fact it is only now I am becoming more relaxed and looser I can recognise how tense I was before poor Charlie.

I still have my anxious moments but confidence is growing and we have had happy mud splashed hacks cantering along tracks and wrapping my arms around his lovely neck to duck under trees.

Our diet continues and we have now split the paddock in half so he and his field buddy can diet together. Here the boys doing a bit of mutual grooming.

12 April

 Hacking yesterday he was much more confident. He went out with a horse that spooked him before and, apart from a hiccup because of black fertiliser bags near the beginning which I tensed at, he was a good boy riding parallel with his buddy,leading past several things his buddy didn't like and only jumped in behind him once. Neither of them liked a man up a ladder with a hedge trimmer but who can blame them.

Canter work - Alastair tried him in canter today in the school and it has become obvious that while he canters well on the lunge when he has a rider on board he does one or two correct strides then the hocks trail out the back and he hollows badly. He did, however, have some nice moments. We will work on this in the field.

I have taken to pootling down to the field after lessons and letting him mooch and graze buckle end so that he sees the bottom field as a relaxed place to be.

Rolling....interestingly I washed him down after our lesson and pootle today.

He stood by the muck heap patiently while I washed him off and remained quietly stood when I chucked the last if the clean water over him. I should add that he wasn't tied up he just stood there for me. then turned him out naked and while I was chatting to someone on the subject of rolling he got down for a roll. Now hear this .......  he rolled and rolled and then flexed his back and flipped over so he did both sides. Whoop whoop result!

 

 

Saddlery Doo Dah

We had our Saddler out today and it is so interesting to see your horse through another pair of eyes.

Firstly a fellow livery also had another saddler out and was being advised about the balance of her saddle. Her saddler demonstrated how her horse had been bracing himself and built up muscles in his lower neck and had dropped his back by constantly hollowing. Both boys were tied up together and I looked across at Charlie and thought 'ooh Charlie's back looks so much flatter than it used to'.

As this thought entered my head my friend said 'look how nice and flat Charlie's back is'.

Next my saddler turned up and I discussed the fact that we had lost weight and the saddle was tipping forward. 'You know why that is' he says. 'Charlie now has withers'. Whoop whoop and more Zipidee Dooh Dah. Then he says with our rate of shape change I may need checking every three months. Pah a saddler with pretensions of my paying for a Ferrari in quarterly instalments.

 It was interesting to see that when he got his bendy template out and put it across the withers what we have built between us is a nice wither shaped V. Last year the same bendy template came out almost dead flat.

Unfortunately as he is so careful with our saddle he wouldn't top up the flocking in situ and has taken it away to make it perfect. So I am grounded for a few days. I don't really want to give him time off so I may well be doing some major walking.