Recent content by RosieJM

A tiny circle is one of the best tools to have in your tool kit for a nappy horse - but it has to be ridden quite specifically to work. It's not good pulling him round and kicking away or he'll go dead to it. You need to get your rein fairly short, and then bring your hand out away from his...

I lost a pony to GS several years ago, the following year my best friends horse got chronic GS and I thought she was going to loose him too - but she nursed him through it, it took months, and at points he could only eat liquidised food which she syringed into his mouth, and he lost the ability...

I'd call her High Tide and then call her 'Tidy' for short (because I have welsh family and they all say 'tidy' as a complement!)

Casino Sweet Caroline (Cas for short? or Caro? or sweetie for that matter?) Slapdash Cas (because of the splash?) or Cascade Call Me Callie Calon Lan (means true/Pure heart in Welsh)

It sounds like she needs further education in terms of a) accepting the movement/noise/sight/feeling of a rider on her back and relaxing about it and b) what legs mean and c) being bold enough to move forward. I would definitely be longlining, if you are experienced with it to help with...

Thanks for the replies so far! more questions! I wonder whether you have more control over a young horse than a more trained one? Also, is it easier to think about if you can think of an example of somebody you have seen who really has the control ratio badly wrong one way or another?

Hello all. I am still fairly new here. One reason for joining is that I am spending three years studying horse/human interaction within British equestrain culture, and so am embedding myself very happily within it! This means learning new disciplines, talking to lots and lots of horse people...

You could try Sue Palmer - she is a very good ACPAT physio and author, as well as a behavioural specialist/trainer, she has a DVD and a course teaching horse massage for owners, and she is currently writing a book and running courses called 'brain, pain, or training?' - I think she specialises...

You don't say how you handle it when he does spook? Sometimes, I think 'serial spookers' have fallen into a pattern of spooking so much and holding onto all that tension. A good way to break the pattern is to get them really thoroughly fine with some of the stuff they will come cross, you say he...

Oh, and its quite fun if you can get hold of a copy, to read a transcription of Xenophon for some VERY old (and not that unfamiliar!) horsemanship x

I guess the horse will tell you - if he is getting better, then something that you have changed must be working for him. I often find with the spooky ones, progress has to be made in steps half the size you would normally take, but you set out to take the smaller step deliberately (rather...

so.. I know this is totally uncool of me, but I have just had a horsey book published (30 October 2015) and am still so thrilled about it that I am happy to plough through normal British modesty to tell everyone about it. It's about horse training, based on my travels to various places looking...

I sympathise with the hind gut woes as my tb has had ulcers (treated) and I have ongoing worries about his hindgut health. I really rate a very good probiotic - but you have to read the labels as they all have very different amounts of active ingredients in them. I went for one called Gut...

Sounds as though he is moving really loosely and thoroughly accepting of you on his back, which is great. Lots of good points mentioned so far, so I wont repeat, but one important thing is that I find it isn't a good idea to use your legs for the first few transitions at all - if he is voice...

Had a really good time at YHL this year. I was helping with the Intelligent Horsemanship demo and we worked with some lovely rescued horses from Horseworld, with some spooky obstacles in hand and ridden. I thought it felt like a lot of the key messages from different demonstrations fitted...