It has been nearly 2 months since my last website blog. It seems ages, since I was in a hotel in London, writing a blog for August. My U.K. tour went very well and it was wonderful to catch up with everyone in the U.K. To be able to pick the conversation up from where we left off 5 years ago was amazing. Thank you to all those that made it possible. This was also true of my short time in Spain, Rachael also enjoyed her time over there. Her Spanish vocabulary has certainly increased, my Spanish is still very elementary.
Presently, I am half way through my Western Australia schedule. Again it is wonderful to catch up with all over here in W.A. Jenny Jackson welcomes all who come through the front gates and are wonderful hosts. The horse, in the left image is of a young trakehner horse at the current course in Western Australia.
Current Schedule: When I return home shortly, I have young horses coming in plus a home course at the end of October. If you are interested in the home course, message or email me, as these do fill up. Towards the end of the year, I hope to have next year’s schedule up on website.
I have again put together a couple of horsemanship articles below, happy reading.
Getting Down To The Feet: I am not the first one to mention about getting down to the feet and have spoken of the relevance before. When I heard that said 38 years ago, I could say the words, but nothing more. In learning how to be effective in getting down to the feet, I sometimes did too much and other times not enough. Sometimes you could get things to happen on the ground, but not in the saddle or in the saddle and not on the ground. I had to develop my feel and timing and so now as I look at images I can see that I am having an influence on the horses feet.
What does it mean to the horse: On a horse that I was riding recently, I could feel that the horse was tight and bothered. The horse did not try and buck me off or do anything of that nature, but there was a tightness on the inside of that horse and at some point that was probably going to come out in one form or another.
Through working with that horse in the saddle and freeing the feet up, by moving the hind and forequarters and getting to where I could direct those feet, you could feel the horse start to loosen up and that tightness start to disappear and the horse start to tune in to you mentally.
The images above are of a mate’s horse that I rode in the U.K. This was not the horse in the story above that I speak off. The images show a little of how you can get the horse to start reaching with that front inside leg.
Giving a Horse a Purpose: The video below is from a U.K. Cow Working course that I did in August at Sudbrooke Park Cattle Company. I am of the belief that while there needs to be principle, it is important to give the horse a sense of purpose. While cow working does not always have to be that sense of purpose, hacking out or riding horses outside an arena helps to keep their mind fresh.
Details below, for those that are looking to continue your education.
Online Course – The Start
The online course – The Start; is exactly that, it is designed to get you started. There is 4 videos with 2 hours and 40 minutes of video content. The videos include ground and ridden work. In addition there is also a trailer loading, plus a saddling and bridling video. The lessons and notes associated with each of the videos I trust all will find useful.
While this course may not replace attending one with your horse. We sincerely hope that this online course provides information to all that are wishing to progress in the pursuit of developing a nice saddle horse.
While the information is applicable to young horse starting, this is not a young horse starting course.
You have unlimited access to this course for 12 months
