Blog 15 – “Where there’s a will”
By now we had built and opened Ashen Equestrian Centre
(I’ll come back to this another time), had had our son Max, and had invested in a
riding simulator. A new client came for
a session and as I was showing her out I introduced her to Guy, she took one
look at his surgically shod feet and suggested I meet her then husband, a
barefoot trimmer called Antonio
Checa.
I had always dismissed barefoot, I thought it was
interesting but not for me or my horses.
I liked, needed and trusted my farrier and was fearful of burning
bridges and losing him but the need to find a solution for Guy out weighed my
fears and I booked a visit. I liked
Antonio from the start. He was honest
and self-effacing, he was defiantly more concerned with my horse’s welfare than
telling me how wonderful he was and how terrible my farrier was or what a “bad”
owner I was for my past mistakes. He
started trimming Guy regularly and advised me on some management issues to set
us up for success.
I did a lot of research and changed Guy’s diet to forage
only. I reduced that amount of bedding
in Guy’s stable to limit the exposure to his feet of ammonia and ultimately I
virtually stopped stabling him all together, and I stopped clipping him out and
rugging him up. These were huge shifts
for both of us, I had always clipped horses to within an inch of their lives
believing it, shoes and big beds were a necessary part of being a responsible
horse owner.
Once acclimatised to his
new lifestyle Guy became a much healthier, happier horse and I realised that a
lot of the ways I had managed horses historically had more to do with making me
“feel” good than equine welfare.
I learned that horses benefit having their feet exposed to
lots of different surfaces so, when possible I turned him out on our car park
as well as in the paddock. Of course this
was not always practical and later we put an area down to crushed concreate and
my horses benefit from that addition to the yard to this day. I could
hack Guy, but they were not relaxing or enjoyable hacks. I could “make” him go, but I had stopped
wanting to “make” horses do anything now I was exploring clicker training but
as I was still “sugar-coating” rather than really training in a “clicker
compatible” way the clicker was yet to have the “power” to overcome his
fears. If I hacked him in company he was
no better than when alone and I was concerned that his spookiness and my lack
of control could put another horse and rider and other road-users in danger so I
had stopped hacking Guy altogether.
However Antonio was keen that I hack Guy regularly to increase his
work-load, get him moving more and so that his feet would feel and respond to
surfaces other than arenas. I think my
initial response to Antonio was, “Well if you think he needs to hack then you
can take him out”.
However, it got me
thinking a bit more creatively and at that time I had a small, steady
through-flow of really nice young Irish horses.
They were all different from one another but had one thing in common,
they knew how to just keep going forward - whatever. So I rode one or other of these baby horses
and led Guy out on hacks.
Initially Guy spooked, tried to turn for home, barged into the horse I
was riding and ricocheted around the end of the lead-rope and all of this
behaviour I simply ignored. I kept my
focus on the horse that I was riding and rewarded them for just keep going and
the penny dropped for Guy.
Those lovely baby horses taught him that he didn’t need to spook, spin and run, he could simply go past things. Soon Guy became the ride horse and I would lead one of the babies, and not much later he was happy and confident to hack out alone or in company.
His comfort zone grew and he was thriving, he was more predictable, happier and working and competing successfully at Advanced level.
Next time "Build it and they will come." 26th March
Noni gives Guy a kiss |
Those lovely baby horses taught him that he didn’t need to spook, spin and run, he could simply go past things. Soon Guy became the ride horse and I would lead one of the babies, and not much later he was happy and confident to hack out alone or in company.
His comfort zone grew and he was thriving, he was more predictable, happier and working and competing successfully at Advanced level.
Next time "Build it and they will come." 26th March
For those searching online for more “instructional”
resources than offered in these blogs please make use of my video downloads www.ashenec.co.uk
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