James Roberts Funeral

Ritchie and I went to James' funeral yesterday. It was a very sad, but not sombre day.
The weather was fantastic, hardly a breath of wind and clear skies, if a bit chilly.
We started at the James Roberts Foundation Station where his coffin was placed in a horse drawn hearse with his hat and saddle draped over the coffin. His fiancee, Vicky, was there behind the hearse on James' horse Princess. A horse he loved to bits. Bravely he used to say, in front of Vicky, "I think more of this horse than my fiancée". She would just smile sweetly and get her own back later . James' brother was also in the cortège riding Becks, his show jumping horse. I noticed that even for this occasion they stuck to James principles and did a prepare to ride with the horses before mounting.
They made two rounds of the yard and then set off on the forty minute walk to the church. We all followed. And I mean all. There must have been two hundred followers, and as per the request of the family we were all dressed in western gear. Boots, Stetsons, some in chaps and spurs. I am pleased to say we all walked with a forward walk, 110m / minute pace with heads held high, but a few tears. The people in the local village were amazing. Many had dressed up and stood on their porches. The local shops shut and the staff stood outside to pay their respects. He was not just loved by the horse community, but by the whole area.
We made our way, via his house, to the church where all but close family went inside to wait. The church could hold 280 people, but was packed. There were around 100 who had to stay outside and listen via the loud speakers set up.
James was brought in by his closest friends and family with saddle and hat still in place. We sang the hymn "Lord of the Dance" which seemed especially appropriate for me. It really spoke to me that James had started this "dance" and it was for me to continue to follow in his footsteps. Not the religious meaning of the hymn I know, but I can only report its' meaning to me.
We heard Vicky give a lovely speech about James, with hardly a falter. One of the bravest things I have ever witnessed. It was a beautiful speech as well, with only a little sadness in it, it was a celebration of his life. I particularly liked the fact that James used to leap out of bed every morning and do a silly little dance around the bedroom .
We also heard from his brother, and so got details of his behaviour as a child, From what I heard it hadn't changed much. His brother is a huntsmen and played the horn at the end of his speech. A moving moment.
Vickys' brother also spoke. This was about more recent antics and mayhem, and how close he had become to James, thinking of him as a brother.
After the service the coffin was again placed in the horse drawn hearse to be taken to the crematorium. That was my last sight of James, or at least the coffin, and it finally came home to me that he was gone. That came as a real shock and hit me hard.
Ritchie and I decided not to go to the crematorium, feeling that it was a private time for his close family. We headed to the pub instead.
The pub was packed, just moving around was hard work. It had been made clear by Vicky that the day was not to be a sombre occasion, so whilst there were tears there was much laughter as well. In the corner there was a tv set up showing movie clips from his life. Very few about horses, but much about song, laughter, pranks and fun.
So the night went on. Lots of conversations about James, horses, horsemanship, the future.
I think James would have approved. As I have said before he lived by a set of rules and maintained those rules on his yard with his staff, students and friends. Break them and be fined a pound (though I never saw anyone pay )

1) Don't talk about the past. Horses live in the present, so must we
2) Don't say anything negative. Phrases that include: "can't", "won't","don't", "yea but" were not allowed
3) Always know why you are doing something. If you don't, stop.

Not a bad set of rules to live life by really, especially if you want to maximise your potential and enjoyment as James did.

First hack from Manor Farm

It has taken a while coming, largely due to the state of the road outside the farm. They resurfaced it a year ago, but left it so smooth that horses regularly slip on it. When Filly was shod she had road nails put on to help with this, so I now felt confident to take her out the gate. The last thing I wanted is for the first impression she had of hacking out was to slip over.
All the usual prepare to ride steps were taken, with emphasis still on the porcupine yields. They have improved considerably since I last wrote. I now tend to do them as part of the indirect / direct rein manoeuvre. To achieve I walk straight forwards with her on say my right side, I then maintain my ryhthm with my legs but slow down my speed and ask Filly to walk around in front of me. As she does so I lightly press with my fingers well behind the girth to ask for the hind quarter disengagement. As she disengages I walk "through" her hind quarters and use the lead rope to ask the front end to come around. She is now on the other side of me walking forwards as before.
This seems to give a) a purpose and b) a known duration for the yield and as a result she accepts it with less mental brace.
Having mounted her we immediately went for a nice forward walk, she tried to speed up a few times but soon gave up on that idea. We worked on inside leg isolations as usual which are going very very well now.
We did around 5 minutes trotting at one point, again with loads of inside leg isolations. At the end of this she felt to be in a really good place for a short hack.
Ritchie was riding Bonitao in the school and when I suggested a hack she agreed. I managed to get Filly to help me open the gate, which gave purpose to all sorts of little manoeuvres we needed to make.
Once out of the yard I expected Filly to be most comfortable tucked in behind Bonitao so that he could give her confidence. Not a bit of it, she wanted to be in front and to go exploring. Her walk was really forwards and she was thinking forwards the whole time. She got a little worried from time to time, but as I rigidly maintained my focus on where we were going I have no idea what about. She never once spooked, although we did get a few muscle twitches. I was very proud of how she kept herself together emotionally despite all the new sights, noises and smells. Poor Bonitao could barely keep up with her walk and we had to stop a few times. Her sense of exploration really showed itself when we came to a tight bend in the road. I wanted to stop, but she resisted until we were around the corner. Curiosity satisfied we waited for Bonitao to catch up.
All in all a good days riding, which again highlighted the importance of a good focus.

Hind quarter porcupine

I noticed in the stable the other day that Filly did not want to yield her hind quarters when I asked her to move over with my fingers. Did not want to included lashing out with her hind leg, running around me in circles, and generally acting a bit disrespectful.
I felt I needed to fix this for safety of myself and the staff, but also to improve her inside leg isolations when ridden. She cut herself on barbed wire a couple of days ago, not badly but bad enough not to ride for a few days. This then is an ideal opportunity to fix some ground work problems without wasting riding time.
I decided that the confines of a stable were not a good place to deal with a kicking horse so we went to the indoor school.
First a check that it was not a physical discomfort, so I scratched her good and hard in the area I was asking for the porcupine. She didn't like this to start, but gradually seemed to real enjoy it with a curled lip and a look of "please don't stop".
Not physical then, so it must be a mental brace. I like to use my hands for this exercise, although Parelli advocates the use of a carrot stick. The stick does allow you to keep your distance and is probably safer, but with my fingers I could more accurately apply the pressure and also feel for any muscle tenseness in her sides.
As soon as I applied my fingers with an intention to move her she reacted. She did move away from my fingers, but it was an escape not a yield. It was also accompanied with lots of tail swishing and attempts to bite me, blocked by an elbow. Despite the fact she had moved away this would not have been the time to release the pressure, it would teach that this attitude was what was required as well as the movement. Thus I just held the pressure and around and around we went. To be honest I got very giddy, but stopping would have been a huge mistake. I could also feel the muscles under my finger tense into a massive brace. I was intently looking for signs of any relaxation on her part so that I could release, but it felt like an age until it came. Not complete relaxation, just a slight softening of her body, more fluid motion and the tail not actually hitting me.
During this first session she had also thrown in the odd rear as well, which is fun when you have your fingers pressed into her sides :( . By staying close she had no space in which to actually attempt to get me with a leg but it was uncomfortable all the same.
After that first release I went to the driving game with a stick and flag to try and help get the brace out of her body, which did work, but this was the driving game and it was porcupine she was reacting to.
Second round of porcupine and she tried the whole range of evasion to get of the pressure, other than a yield with good attitude. But it took less time to get the attitude I desired and with a sigh of relief I could release again. Of course this whole process was repeated on both sides.
By the end of the session I could give her a good hard friendly game scratch on the porcupine spot then lighten up, add intention and get a yield with half decent attitude, then back to a good hard friendly scratch again.
I guess this was another step in her acceptance of my leadership over her, one of the last I hope, and she was not going to give this precious control up without at least discussing the issue with me. No hard feelings on my part, I would probably have reacted the same. The trade I offered was that nice scratch, followed by a few seconds of control and back to the scratch again. Eventually she decided that as a trade it was not a bad offer and preferable to running round and round in circles :)

Shoeing Filly

It was time to get Filly shod again. She needs special shoeing on the front due to some conformational issues and so I knew it would take a while. Especially so as it was the first time our farrier, Nick, had shod Filly. It seemed that some shoeing preparation was in order.
About forty minutes before Nick arrived I took Filly to the indoor school for the preparation work. She is pretty good with having her hooves handled on a day to day basis, but I wanted to add in some extras for the shoeing.
It is taken as read with our horses that the hooves can be placed on the ground, after picking them out, with the toe down and complete relaxation in the leg. Dropping a hoof to the ground was the one thing that if you were an employee of James Roberts you would be instantly sacked for, it is that important. As he says "if you cannot control where a hoof is going, with no brace, when it is in your hand, what chance do you have in placing the feet where you want when riding and using indirect aids to place them ?" Thus we never ever drop a hoof. I'm not even sure my muscle memory would let me do it anymore. I am pleased to say that the yard staff who look after our horses also don't drop their feet.
However there are other things to prepare. Firstly during shoeing the farrier will put the legs into positions she is not used to, especially forwards and up for the final clenching of the nails and rasping them off. She needs to be just as compliant and un-braced with this movement as the more usual backward flex for picking out.
Not being brave I used a soft thick rope rapped a few times just above her hoof to ask for this the first few times. The front legs were fine, but there was a lot of brace and a few kicks from the hinds. Lucky I used a rope ! All I did was stand in front and lightly pull on the rope to ask the leg to come up and forwards, if she yielded I released by gently lowering her hoof back to the ground. If she resisted then I held the tension until the brace released and she looked relaxed, then lowered the hoof. I also slowly increased the time I held the leg up to get her used to standing in that position for a while. Once this was going well I then transferred to using my hands, which put my body in the same place as the farriers would be. Horses tend not to like predators (us) in their vulnerable spot under their bellys so this was useful for building her confidence.
I also picked the hoof up backwards and simulated the feel and sound of the hammer by knocking on her shoe with the metal clasp of a spare lead rope. Should have taken a small hammer down but forgot.
So after all this how did the shoeing go. Pretty well is the answer. She got a bit bored as it did take over an hour, but a strategically placed hay net helped. She was a bit worried still about having the right hind leg brought forwards, but the farrier was very patient and she soon settled. Given that the last time she was shod at Manor Farm they had to use a twitch (before I owned her), and she was shod once at James Roberts yard with rather more savvy than that I think it was a remarkable improvement. I did discuss the preparation I had done with the farrier. He was very interested and grateful that I had taken the trouble to do this work. In my mind I should present a horse to a helping professional like a farrier, dentist or vet in the best state I can in order for that professional to do his job with minimum risk to himself and also be able to use those skills to the maximum effect to get the job done well. The farrier remarked how few horse owners had my attitude, which I find rather sad.

James Roberts

This is probably one of the hardest posts I've ever had to write. I don't really know where to start.
As many of you may know already James Roberts died in a car crash last night. We were told early this morning and have been in shock ever since. I have thought of all sorts of things to write about James and have decided that I must write in a style he would have approved of. He had rules at his yard which included "You can't say anything negative", "Don't talk about the past", so I'll try and stick to those rules here.
When talking about James it is difficult to find anything negative to say anyway, so that bits easy.
He always tried to encourage me, whatever he privately thought about my ambitions, and had a happy knack of understanding what it was that I needed to hear right now to help me progress as quickly as possible. That is the mark of a true teacher.
He never ever talked down to anyone, and made a point of understanding what point they were in their progress and then impart information in a way that expanded that progress. It would have been easy for him to have baffled me at the start of my time with him but he could put over complicated topics in a way that I could understand, then as my knowledge grew he would explain the same thing but in a more advanced way. Thus it was easy to learn from him, you were never made to feel in awe of him, just that he was a little ahead of you all the time. That is a very encouraging teaching style.
Before I started going to James I really did not understand Natural Horsemanship at all. I had seen the DVDs and had a few lessons, but it was only watching James play with young colts and putting all those techniques and principles to work that I could start to glimpse the whole picture that the little jig-saw pieces I had fitted into. He emphasised so strongly that techniques were not the corner stone of Natural Horsemanship, the principles were. The number of different ways I have seen him start colts was astonishing. When I asked him why he used a certain technique on a particular colt the answer was often "just to show you a different way. Stick to the principles and it doesn't matter how you do it". He was so good at horsemanship he could play with it like this and it was very inspirational to watch. I now try to emulate the same idea, it doesn't matter what you do so long as the end goal is in mind and you stick to the principles.
One of his favourite comments was that the Level 4 pack is the one you should watch until you could see it in your minds eye, even if you were only playing in level 1. Without knowing what level 4 looks like how on earth could you get there ?
I could go on and on about his qualities and what I have learnt from James, but there is a good record of that in previous posts on this blog. I think James would approve if I spoke of the future a bit. I have lost the physical presence of a great mentor, but that does not mean that James does not still have things to teach me.
We discussed whether we felt like riding today, but then I thought of the disapproval James would express if we let he sad demise out-focus us in our horsemanship so went to the yard to ride. 
I joked with Ritchie that now James is in horsemans heaven he can watch us all the time, not just when we are at his yard. And you know the funny thing was that it really felt like that as I rode today. I really had this feeling James was watching me and it made me ride better. I did not want to disappoint him by riding without focus and purpose. It really worked and I had one of the best, most responsive and fun rides I have ever had on Bonitao.
If that is his ongoing legacy to me then I am a very very fortunate man to have known and studied under him. It also means that I don't have to think about the past when thinking of him as he will always be sitting on my shoulder giving encouragement and advice.
Thank-you James. I would say rest in peace, but you still have your students to look after and we never gave you peace in the past.....

First proper canter

Another fun day with Filly. All the usual prepare to ride completed with the addition of checking that there were no braces in zone 3 or 4. I wanted to make sure that she was supple enough, mentally and physically, to continue with the inside leg isolation training.
Once on board we started with follow the rail. This seemed to be going a lot better than before, she was really tuning into my inside leg. After a time Ritchie came in with Bonitao and started to play. She basically ignored them. However as I squeezed between them, a jump wing and the rail of the school she suddenly shot forwards and picked up canter. To start I was unbalanced and regret to say that I pulled on both reins. As soon as I regained balance I just went to the right rein and gently bent her to a slower gait. Ritchie then, rightly, shouted at me to keep her going and make her move her feet more than she wanted to. We went onto a pattern of fast trot with loads of quick turns in random directions. As she relaxed I asked for canter and we spent a minute or so just cantering randomly around the school. I did not ask for particular direction, just maintain gait at canter. As we happened to pass through the middle of the school I asked for a downward transition to walk. Phase one of this was to just let out all my energy and breath. Well she responded to that, we nearly did a slide stop !! Wow!
I think that she was really surprised that her introduction of energy was not shut down. I just said "if you are feeling energetic lets use that and have fun". I did it for long enough for her to be asking to stop so she was more than happy to obey my downward transition cue.
Back to the inside leg isolations and a funny thing happened. She was now super sensitive. Barely a thought on my part to ask for a turn created a turn. At most a slight twist in my hips was all that was required, a leg created an overreaction and a sharp turn.
After a time we lost this sensitivity and so we cantered on the other rein, again not worried where we were going just about the gait. Back to walk and the sensitivity was back. Five more minutes of practise at walk and that was enough for the day. We stopped in the middle and just hung out together for a while to make the center of the school a sweet spot rather than the gate.
As always James is correct. I can't get her sensitive and "straight" until I have got her thinking forwards. The brief canters got her to think forwards and then the straightness between my legs just naturally followed

Further progress

I have ridden Filly 3 times now and I am now becoming really comfortable on her. We have continued to work on forwards and inside leg isolations. Rhythm and relaxation at walk seems pretty much a given now but is checked out each time.
Filly has been testing me with the inside leg isolations, pushing into the leg or just ignoring it. I needed a more effective phase four so resorted to a riding crop. Of course I make sure all the phases are still there when asking for a turn. Eyes turn first, the belly button which twist my hips in the saddle, then leg, then more leg. If this fails to have the desired effect of getting a turn around the leg I then resort to the stick. A few sharp smacks on my own leg to get her attention and if there is still no response some taps on her side just behind by boot. Not hard taps but ones that increase in frequency, not force, until I get a response.
As you can see there are way more than 4 phases here and I stop at whichever one gets a response. I could tell that she was just testing my leadership with the lighter phases because after just a few uses of the stick she was responding to very light phases. It is not as though we have had a gradual improvement in the quality of the response as she learned the aids. She knew the correct response but was just seeing who was going to be the leader.
I noticed after the last ride on Sunday that she was a little lethargic so she got yesterday off being ridden to recover. That does not mean that we could do no playing however. In the evening I went to the yard and we played in the indoor school for a while. I started out with circling her and making sure that she had no brace in any of her zones that could be hindering the riding. I felt that there was a brace in zone 3 / 4 and so spent sometime getting her to circle for a step or two on three or four tracks (i.e slightly sideways). This actually required quite high phases of pressure with the stick and flag to get her to move her hind quarters out. We played with this until I could get her to cross her hind legs over on just my body energy.
I also played a lot with sideways along and across a pole. This was to again make sure that I had control of the placement of each individual foot. As a real test I got her to stand with a front leg either side and a hind leg either side of the pole. This requires that I can control the accurate placement of each individual foot.
To date I have been mounting from the ground, but in future I also want to be able to mount from a mounting block or fence. This requires that Filly comes to the mounting block and positions herself so that I can easily get on. I am not one who is willing to move the block to her, stand on it, have her move, get off the mounting block, move it to her new spot etc.etc. And besides you can't do that with a fence. To aid in getting her into the correct position to be mounted we worked on her sideways towards me. I had done this in the past and was amazed at how well she remembered. Pretty soon I was standing on the mounting block and able to get her to come over to me at liberty and then manoeuvre her into a suitable spot to be mounted. Just to add a nice purpose I then used the stick and flag to drive her head around away from me in a neutral lateral flexion, leant over her back and fed her a treat on the other side to where I was standing. This got loads of stuff done in one hit. Driving game in zone 1, lateral flexion, carrot stretch, friendly game above zone 3, all with a decent standstill.
After the time I have spent at James I am really beginning to get a much better idea as to how all the ground games can be used to get better ridden results. This make the ground games even more fun as they have a much stronger purpose.

First ride at Manor Farm

On Wednesday my new saddle arrived. I managed to get a second hand Parelli natural performer of the same size as the one we rode Filly in at James Roberts, so knew it would fit. Second hand saved both money and a 3 month or more wait.
On Thursday I therefore had no more excuses. It was time to ride Filly at Manor Farm. I admit to being a little apprehensive, but with the "plan to ride" that James has instilled in me over the last few years I also had a tool kit to cope. And thank God for that tool kit, it was needed !
When we got to the outdoor school it was clear that Filly was in a very hyper state. Rather than just try and shut it down I decided to use that energy and, remembering the clinic with Michael Grohman, we had some really high energy play for a while. She obviously loved the idea that I wanted to play "properly" and we were soon both running around the school with many twists and turns. My common theme in these situations is to make her think to her feet. To achieve this involved lots of hind quarter yields, fore quarter yields, backup. Anything that involved complicated leg manoeuvres and not just straight forward gaits.
After around 5 or 10 minutes of this (time has little meaning when playing in this fashion !) she settled down and stood still. I could then start the familiar pre-ride pattern of Touch All Over, Place Feet Down etc. Of course saddling took some time as it was a new saddle and we had to adjust the girth lengths and the stirrup length. She stood very calmly and we soon got to mount with savvy. A perfect mount, except the stirrups were too long. This was odd as the literature on the saddle suggested my leg length was the maximum allowed. Two adjustments of the stirrups later and I felt comfortable on the 8th hole up !
Once I started to move she was a little upset, and very forward going. With Ritchie shouting advice we worked through the problems which involved lots of circles and straight and my first canter on her.  Not asked for but as it turned out very comfortable. At one point I asked her to canter towards the corner of the school. She was not slowing even slightly as we approached, so, scared that she might jump out, we made a quick turn. Note to self, don't try to bluff Filly into stopping, she'll call the bluff. I had markers down in the school and used those to give me focus and work on weave patterns and circles as I calmed her down.
My major fault was to pull back on the rein (just one) to slow her down a little. As Ritchie kept reminding me the trick was to lift it up vertically.
After the excitement she settled right down and now we had rhythm and relaxation at walk we could move onto straightness on the circle. Forwards is rarely a problem for Filly. Again I had markers to help visualise a 10m circle and spent a long time using inside leg isolations and my focus to try and get a round circle out of her. Not easy without touching the reins. Towards the end we did get a few but not of good quality. I felt that this exercise was not engaging her mind enough, so used the same markers to go onto the Stacey Westfall clover leave pattern. That worked like a charm. She now had lots to think about as we did indirect reins around the outer markers and direct reins around the middle marker. She became mentally much more engaged and made a much greater effort to listen to my focus, hips and legs. We actually mannaged an entire clover leaf with the reins draped over her neck. I was not even holding them !!
On dismounting she was so calm and very very cuddly. She seems to really enjoy our time together and after a taxing session nearly always becomes very soft in her mental state.
All in all a very good session. Nervy to start but left me with a real confidence to progress next time.

Back to Manor Farm

Once back at Manor Farm I had to go straight back to work for a few days, then became sick with a very bad cold. Thus Filly had a welcome holiday after boot camp at James'.
I did go and visit everyday but didn't have the strength to do much. However on Wednesday I decided I had the energy to take her for a walk on line up through the village to the main road. The purpose of this was to accustom her to traffic whilst safely on the ground. I knew she was happy with slow light traffic, but the main road with lorries, coaches bicycles and of course fast cars would be a different prospect.
The corner between the main road and the village road has a largish grass verge so I had space to allow her to move her feet if she needed to and then some grass to eat once she settled.
She was not happy about the road at all, very very nervous and spooky. My answer was to make her move her feet a lot. A combination of indirect/direct rein direction changes to make her think to her feet and the squeeze game to modify her flight distance from the traffic. We slowly started to have moments of left brain behaviour where she could stop and think about her situation instead of just reacting. In the process we did a good job of tearing up the grass verge ! After around 20 minutes or so she started to eat the grass and chew at the hedge. This meant that she was becoming more confident about the traffic. I hate the word "desensitised", "confident" is a much better description and lasts longer. Desensitised means that she does not even know the cars are there, confident means she is aware of the cars but understands that they will not harm her.
Yesterday I rode her which is worth a seperate post soon.
Today we took both Filly and Bonitao up to the road. I hoped that the presence of Bonitao's confidence would help finish the work started earlier. And indeed it seemed to help. She very rapidly settled today and ate the grass with a slower action which shows relaxation. After a while she was pushing her nose towards the edge of the road, just feet from the traffic to get that special green blade of grass. We let her graze for around 20 minutes before walking gently back to the yard, practising our transitions on the way.
When you use imagination it is amazing how many ridden skills you can practise just walking your horse around on line. To and from the field, for example, need not just be a chore but an opportunity to promote a forward walk with good halt to walk and walk to halt transitions. I don't have enough time with Filly to ignore this potential training time. Even just standing on the yard talking to a mate gives the opportunity to practise standstill.

The rest of the time at JRFS

The following 3 days at JRFS just passed in a blur. Lots more riding on Filly, including another hack out with Josh. She was more confident on this hack and we trotted briefly.
On Tuesday John Hankinson examined her again. At the time she was apart from her field mate, Chester, and so was a bit upset. In truth I think Chester was the more upset and his whinnying was setting her off. In any event she was almost uncontrollable in the box and Josh had to help holding her for the treatment. The good news is that her pelvis which John had manipulated three weeks earlier had remained corrected. John was concerned about her behaviour, however, and thought it might be feed related. We had only owned Filly 6 weeks at this stage and so had left her on the feed that the yard, who owned her previously, gave her. John got out his dowsing pendulum and used it on Filly. He then took the pendulum to our feed bin and dowsed over that. Then without knowing what sort of feed it was announced that she was intollerant to the sugar and starch in the feed and, in his words, it was "blowing her brain". We checked on the feed we had been given and sure enough it was full of sugar and starch. Fortunately we had more or less decided already to put Filly on the same diet as our other horse Bonitao and when we told John he said that feed should suit her well.
On the Wednesday the ride mainly consisted of trotting, and trotting and more trotting. 10 minutes in each direction with a minute break in the middle. During the first session one of the other horses spooked, the rider came off (unharmed) and the horse ran around the school bronking. Now I know better then to loose focus on my task in front of James so I just kept on trotting whilst the others stopped to watch. I was very impressed by Filly. Even when the horse bronked past her she just carried on trotting with the smallest amount of encouragement. James then looked at those standing watching and asked why they had stopped ! He is pretty tough in this way, but boy it gets results.
On Thursday we had the saddle fitter arrive to see if they had a saddle that would fit. As a result I only did half the lesson with James and then missed out on the hack. The saddler did not seem to have a good saddle so that was a bit of a shame. Ritchie was there that day and we had asked James if she could ride Filly. The answer was "off course". So once the experience week folks had finished Ritchie hopped on and had a ride.
Filly has a learned behaviour of tossing the head whilst she is being ridden. Unnerving to start with, but once you realise there is no malice in it, it's just annoying. James has a solution, of course. Whenever she starts tossing her head make her move her feet...a lot. By this he meant lots of circles, hind quarter yields, figure 8 patterns, transitions. Anything to get her mind on her feet and use up the mind capacity to toss her head. Make her concentrate on something else. He quickly got on Filly to demonstrate and within a minute all the head tossing stopped. Ritchie then had a go with a similar result. This was quite a revelation for her as she is used to going slow with our other horse Bonitao. She now had to think fast, change directions on an instant and keep Filly guessing. I think they both found this really good fun and both looked like they were grinning at the end.
And that was the end of my time at James. She loaded into the trailer almost quicker than I wanted her to and travelled home like a star. Compared to the ball of sweat that got out on the journey to James she was as cool as a cucumber. Even the hay net (untouched outbound) was empty.
Her time at James has really really helped her. She is so much more confident at our yard now, walking through deep mud as though it was a pavement, remaining cool when other horses act up and becoming more of a partner to trust. We still have a long long way to go, but there is a solid base to build on.
Thank-you James, Josh, Kim, Becca and all the others at JRFS. 

Day 2 on Filly

Rode Filly in the afternoon under the watchful eye of Josh. She was pretty upset having been separated from her field mate for a long time and so it took a while to get her thinking to me at all during the prepare to ride. To start I just wanted to get her following a feel on the circle, so every time she leant on the halter to look outside the circle I just stepped backwards until she softened and then let her walk on again. Once I had her attention (i.e have horse catch you), we continued the plan to the saddle part. Some trouble with stand still here, but Josh helped by making my phases softer. I am still struggling to adapt from Bonitao to the incredibly light phases Filly needs. Not that Bonitao is heavy, 4 ounces or less for most things, but Filly takes severe offence at anything over 4 ounces and starts to argue.
Once saddled the prepare to ride was mainly zone 3 driving with transitions followed by lots of indirect/direct rain to really get her soft and thinking to her feet. Then it was time to mount. On the first attempt she drifted a lot and I had to lift high on the rein until she stopped, then step down again. The next attempt was all but perfect.
Once on board we went to the usual of lateral flexions, just hanging in there until she stopped moving and yielded with her neck. This didn't take long to achieve. Then on to indirect reins, waiting until they were soft and relaxed rather than just mechanically performed prior to releasing the pressure. This took a fair time, during which it started to rain, hard !! Still I was not going to be out focussed by the weather and we just kept going until we got some really nice yields.
From there we moved to inside leg isolations to get some good circles. Filly bends around her leg well but also takes the leg aid as a cue to start trotting. It took a while to convince her that just one leg meant bend her body onto a circle, not go faster. Again I found that lightness was the key.
We then moved to linking circles via the figure 8 pattern which was a challenge, again the problem being maintain gait at walk not trot. Once this was done to Josh's satisfaction we had some free time, which I just spent trying to follow the rail at walk. Follow the rail was easy but, Filly, not everything has to mean trot ! Once I had managed a whole lap at walk we left it at that. I then spent quite a while just sitting and chatting with Josh while we got a nice relaxed standstill from her. As soon as she softened at the halt I jumped off to reward that behaviour.
In summary; A fun ride which followed on from the last one in emphasising how much I have to focus and how light I have to be with my cues to get a nice response from Filly. To build rapport I turned her out as quickly as I could, then took her feed to the field next to hers, re-caught her and took her to it. Then spent a chilled ten minutes watching her eat and just enjoying her company.