Recent content by RachelB

I walked out once - that time we went to camp, and the first two instructors were fantastic and both spent so much time getting B and I going so well... then that one time we had a different woman, who made us trot round like riding school ponies and was convinced that rather than her training...

Transitions, transitions and more transitions! I think I once read that a canter is best improved not by staying in the pace, but by making as many transitions into and out of it as possible.

My mum's horse has reacted twice to her annual jab - no swelling or soreness but she just can't move her neck about as much. This year wasn't as bad as last year as it wore off a lot more quickly, but last year it lasted a couple of days and even though we fed her from higher up, she became...

I like Equine America products - they generally do what they say on the tin. However, I think the VitaBiotic supplement is very over-priced compared to other, similar products out there that do a good job. So I've never tried it - sorry, probably not much help! But I do like NAF products (I...

My mum's horse tore her DDFT below her navicular bone three years ago. A bad tear (2cm along the length of the tendon) in a bad place in a horse with bad conformation. To cut an incredibly long story short, I missed the crucial first two weeks of the injury, she was on box rest for five and a...

I do pilates (at Tam's...) - it's been absolutely brilliant for my core stability and my position. It's good fun too, and relaxing

Not sure whereabouts in Wiltshire you are, but I'm near Salisbury and I use Martin Walls for teeth, and Neil Saunders for chiro. Martin is based in Hampshire though and Neil in Oxfordshire! I wouldn't let anyone other than Martin near my horse's teeth, for what it's worth.

After having my mare (laziest, softest, sweetest thing I've ever met) explode on me a couple of times after five months of box rest, I would always lead in a bridle or chifney. I personally use a bridle with reins taken off, a Newmarket chain, and an extra long leadrope.

Lovely horse, but I'd personally never teach one to do that! What if you fell off in a school and the horse decided to go for a jolly?! Mad...

Solo comb? Not many people can use them competently, but they are pretty good if you have the knack. It can still be a little difficult though, with some horses... I solo combed one horse's mane yesterday who loathes having his mane pulled, so much so that when you grasp the little "finger-ful"...

Sometimes you just have to let them do it - especially in the winter. We have just had our school re-surfaced at work, and we're not supposed to be lungeing on it, but one particular little horse is just a bit too exhuberant to ride at the moment so my boss asked me to lunge her quietly for 20...

Other - firstly, I have no horse. So I suppose secondly it would be the cost... I could use a hireling but I can't afford to. My third excuse is that I wouldn't know what to wear or how to act. Fourthly I don't jump... but then there is a pretty much non-jumping hunt very near to me anyway. I...

I tried what Kenzo suggested with my little pig of a NF pony (she used to nap and rear, in-hand and ridden). One wallop across her underside and she stopped rearing in-hand. If you are competent handling a horse in a chifney, and you've already tried the stallion chain approach, then that would...

The cleaner spray is only really suitable for use if you use some description of soap or balsam afterwards, IMO. It dries my hands out so I don't imagine it'd do tack much good if left like that! I use the Belvoir cleaner, then NAF soft soap - LOVELY stuff

Don't get taken advantage of. I have been, in the past, and it's not nice. If I were you I wouldn't touch them with a barge pole. There is some good advice above.