Recent content by alonerawnut

To find more people, you could post on the Sussex Horse Community facebook group

You could put some battery-powered fairy lights on the fence around the school, perhaps just where the markers would be or just in the corners. That should be enough to give you an idea of where you are for flat schooling.

If you were Gandalf, you could have a long grey / white robe covering the saddle - perhaps some carefully-placed velcro to help it stay over the pommel? I saw this on Fb the other day and thought some of them were brilliant! I would love to have seen the other horses' reactions to the spider :D...

Is there any way you could get some experience with a youngster of that level before going the whole hog and buying one? Do you have any friends with youngsters you could ride / look after for a weekend? Maybe search the online ads for local people who want some help with theirs - then at least...

I have to echo NZJenny: I spent 2014 in New Zealand and would add a note of caution to the idea of riding the length of the country. It would be quite complicated to organise permission to ride across private land and you might end up riding a lot of the way on roads, which would be less than...

I suspect it might be due to the back-up training he's had: it sounds as though he's confused by your aids as you go to open the gate and thinks he's being asked to rein back. There have been some great suggestions so far: I'd add an intermediate step when you're out and about, to have someone...

I haven't been at my current yard thru winter, but we also have an unlit school. My plan is to wrap some battery-powered fairy lights around the fence planks and perhaps some battery or solar lights at each of the markers. If you don't have to negotiate obstacles, I don't think you need a bright...

A brilliant source of sensible, practical information is the Phoenix Barefoot Horse Forum: loads of threads on diet etc from people who've had a lot of experience. If you post some photos on there, your horse's current diet and workload, they'll be able to reassure you that you're doing the...

It's a small facebook group I started to link people together who might want to share transport / training / meet up. Not limited by horse-height but more by a hairy-pony-type ethos :D If you'd like to share your info, I can put it on the map for everyone to use.

https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=10jv5ScFqMuBYX2aSxRT52wus_Bg I've made this map which includes some recommended hacks / trailer/box-friendly car parks. You should be able to switch off some of the layers to make it clearer.

Here's my girl Juniper, turned 3 last week.

http://www.intelligenthorsemanship.co.uk/recommended-associates/ They're pretty well-spread over the country, so hopefully there's one near you.

That's fair enough: if you've had bad experiences with trainers before it can be hard to trust someone new and pay out for something that might make things worse! All I can say is that in my experience the RA's don't just solve the problem themselves and leave, they make sure you are involved...

Just going by your description, it sounds like she gets very stressed when she's in the trailer, both when at a standstill and when travelling. I know you've described that she's just "having a game" but I think she's trying to avoid something that she finds very unpleasant and stressful. I'd...

With mine, if she plants I use an elastic-feel on the line (like bump-bump-bump rather than a constant pressure) off to the side so she gets a little unbalanced. As soon as she shifts I release the pressure. It's just enough to un-stick her and we don't get into a pulling battle.