Richard Boatwright

Are you working the code with this mare before riding or do you bring straight in from pasture or stall, tack up and ride? 

How old is she? 

Do you a have a 1 stop rein built into her yet? it’s a sure fire way to stop them running away with you

I know Richard will respond, but I always (with my younger horses) give them a bit of time in  the round pen now to ensure they are switched on to me and get any silliness out of the system. 

Richard Boatwright

Richard Boatwright

And lastly I took Moony out to work the code and see how she responded, as a traditional English trained mare she associates the round pen and flag with lunging (previous life) so just just goes in circles until she gets tired! 

well it took a while and several dozen laps before I got an eye and ear, immediate release for her and same on other rein, but writhing minutes I had her giving me full eye and head and turning in, just shows you can teach an old dog new tricks, more mouth action than me at an all you can eat BBQ!

It may be bank holiday mo day but time to do my VAT return and accounts

Enjoy your day all 

Due to the inclement weather today we opted for the kids to have a slumber day and stay in and save them tearing up the pasture so I had fresh horses to work…..

Using my brain for once I opted to work on speed control for Sarge and really drill it home, great results & had him working from voice commands only in trot whilst obeying the code, wish I had videoed as the rear end action was quite spectacular to start with but great results, getting somewhere I think in moving forward!

Stan out next and he was full of himself but continued ground driving and it was fantastic from the goof ball, nice trot action and soft head coming in whilst moving forward, again wish I had the video on as I was over the moon with him

Opted to use the roller today as opposed to the saddle which worked just as well, I’m going to harness him soon to be able to work the harrow in the round pen and also maybe put him on the cart, no hurry to ride him away as he is still growing but at least all the basics in play

Beat me to it! 

Hope you all enjoy the time with your families and horses, Happy Easter 🐣 

I’m also interested to know what to look for in a bit when moving from a snaffle, anything beyond a snaffle I have zero knowledge about 

Lovely looking mare, good luck with the ground driving, took me a while with Richard’s expert advice to grasp it and get my hands sorted but once Gus and I worked it out and he melted and went soft it all made sense, we will see how my pig headed Vanners do with it!