Archiesmummy
Well-Known Member
After my desprate plea for someone come help me overcome my nerves and come meet me and Archie I was very fortunate to be put in contact with Tarrsteps.
We met today and she straight away put me at my ease. She is lovely, lovely, lovely. She listened to me, spent time with me and my boy, took him off for a wander in the forest, came back and told me things as she saw them. She was understanding, encouraging and instilled some confidence in me because I even offered to pop up on Archie and her see me ride.
Tarrsteps has given me some homework to do with him and hopefully over the next month improvements shall be made. Archie is fabulous but because he has been such a good boy for me I have never schooled him as such - we almost telepathically communicate, ridden bitless for the last 3 1/2 years. If I want him to stop he does, he stops when he wants to to have me scratch his itch and until recently things haven't really been a problem.
But having had someone come ride him for me it became evident that if he is ridden by any other rider (and they are usually much more educated than me) and they ask him to do something very fundamental, like move off with their leg, he's not sure what they are asking. Also, its gots me thinking about if I did encounter a problem how we would cope ... and I think in fairness to Archie, if he did use his flight instinct I probably wouldn't stand a chance in hell, whereas if he was more schooled I would - once again, classic case of rider error/ignorance and truly not his fault one jot.
I feel more positive, which is great and am going to do my homework and see what happens.
Thank you, thank you, Tarrsteps for taking the time to come see us and spending the time with me and Archie x
We met today and she straight away put me at my ease. She is lovely, lovely, lovely. She listened to me, spent time with me and my boy, took him off for a wander in the forest, came back and told me things as she saw them. She was understanding, encouraging and instilled some confidence in me because I even offered to pop up on Archie and her see me ride.
Tarrsteps has given me some homework to do with him and hopefully over the next month improvements shall be made. Archie is fabulous but because he has been such a good boy for me I have never schooled him as such - we almost telepathically communicate, ridden bitless for the last 3 1/2 years. If I want him to stop he does, he stops when he wants to to have me scratch his itch and until recently things haven't really been a problem.
But having had someone come ride him for me it became evident that if he is ridden by any other rider (and they are usually much more educated than me) and they ask him to do something very fundamental, like move off with their leg, he's not sure what they are asking. Also, its gots me thinking about if I did encounter a problem how we would cope ... and I think in fairness to Archie, if he did use his flight instinct I probably wouldn't stand a chance in hell, whereas if he was more schooled I would - once again, classic case of rider error/ignorance and truly not his fault one jot.
I feel more positive, which is great and am going to do my homework and see what happens.
Thank you, thank you, Tarrsteps for taking the time to come see us and spending the time with me and Archie x
It was lovely to meet both of you - Archie is a doll and you're much more than competent, you've both just had a little blip in your confidence and lines of communication. A little bit of review - a riding MOT, as it were - and you'll be back on track in no time. Now all we need is the sun to shine . . . 
