Ample Prosecco
Still wittering on
Well this is different....
About 2 years ago an owner on our yard died in very distressing circumstances. It appears she had made plan for all her animals without telling the people the plans involved - ie she made sure each animal had someone who was looking after it at the time of her death. But there was no legal framework around this like a will. And it blind-sided everyone. Mouse was her a very young shire horse mare who had only just been backed. The original owner had arranged for Mouse to be on full livery and had sorted out a sharer. The sharer had only just met Mouse and is very inexperienced. But she felt obliged to keep the horse -which was also the wish of the family - and do her best to respect the owner's clear wishes.
That context explains why her lovely new owner has struggled through no fault of her own - and why she is absolutely determined to address the issues.
Mouse hacked out nicely and was being handled daily by the YO. So things were ok at first. But gradually the new owner ran into difficulties as the horse began to test her. Earlier this year she realised she was out of her depth. She could no longer even lead her in, handle her feet etc. She kicked out at her, striking with a foreleg when being led, to get owwer to back off. When hacking, she planted and napped. New owner asked Joe Midgley for help and I have agreed to ride Mouse for her to get her back on the straight and narrow.
She is now 6 and huge. Joe sorted out ground manners pretty easily, then I got on recently for the first time and realised she has no clue what any of the buttons mean! She feels like an oil tanker. Hard to get moving but then hard to steer or stop too.
The first step was just to get her forward to address the napping, which was straightforward. Then to get her more off the leg as I was having to work WAY TOO HARD to keep her moving. She would take about 3 steps for each cue and then grind to a halt again. But within a few rides we had forward and responsiveness. So it was time for a Joe lesson. She has no sense of moving away from the leg or responding to the bit. She just leans into bit pressure while poughing on forward. And ignores cues to turn or bend. (She does these on the ground but it has not translated over). So in this lesson he got us going with back up and sideways to educate her about yielding to pressure from the bit or leg. Also that leg does not mean forward but 'energy'. So adding leg to back up meant an energised back up, not go foward. And after she started to understand that, we suddenly had stop and steer! Hurrah.
Link to his page where the lesson is discussed for anyone interested.
Facebook
www.facebook.com
I am looking forward to a totally new challenge and hope to show that while we all know Cobs Can - Shires Can too!
About 2 years ago an owner on our yard died in very distressing circumstances. It appears she had made plan for all her animals without telling the people the plans involved - ie she made sure each animal had someone who was looking after it at the time of her death. But there was no legal framework around this like a will. And it blind-sided everyone. Mouse was her a very young shire horse mare who had only just been backed. The original owner had arranged for Mouse to be on full livery and had sorted out a sharer. The sharer had only just met Mouse and is very inexperienced. But she felt obliged to keep the horse -which was also the wish of the family - and do her best to respect the owner's clear wishes.
That context explains why her lovely new owner has struggled through no fault of her own - and why she is absolutely determined to address the issues.
Mouse hacked out nicely and was being handled daily by the YO. So things were ok at first. But gradually the new owner ran into difficulties as the horse began to test her. Earlier this year she realised she was out of her depth. She could no longer even lead her in, handle her feet etc. She kicked out at her, striking with a foreleg when being led, to get owwer to back off. When hacking, she planted and napped. New owner asked Joe Midgley for help and I have agreed to ride Mouse for her to get her back on the straight and narrow.
She is now 6 and huge. Joe sorted out ground manners pretty easily, then I got on recently for the first time and realised she has no clue what any of the buttons mean! She feels like an oil tanker. Hard to get moving but then hard to steer or stop too.
The first step was just to get her forward to address the napping, which was straightforward. Then to get her more off the leg as I was having to work WAY TOO HARD to keep her moving. She would take about 3 steps for each cue and then grind to a halt again. But within a few rides we had forward and responsiveness. So it was time for a Joe lesson. She has no sense of moving away from the leg or responding to the bit. She just leans into bit pressure while poughing on forward. And ignores cues to turn or bend. (She does these on the ground but it has not translated over). So in this lesson he got us going with back up and sideways to educate her about yielding to pressure from the bit or leg. Also that leg does not mean forward but 'energy'. So adding leg to back up meant an energised back up, not go foward. And after she started to understand that, we suddenly had stop and steer! Hurrah.
Link to his page where the lesson is discussed for anyone interested.
www.facebook.com
I am looking forward to a totally new challenge and hope to show that while we all know Cobs Can - Shires Can too!
)
She taught me so much. 
Will be interested to see how she progresses.
My stable neighbour is a Shire cross, also 6 and doesn't seem to want to stop growing either. He's an absolute mountain and it's a good job he has such a nice nature.
