Eat, Sleep, Ride , Repeat.

There just doesn't seem to be enough hours in the day at the moment. Stella is doing brilliantly and is more relaxed under saddle every time we do something. Still only doing small rides but she loves it, as do I! We have had a couple of little centers and jumped a baby cross pole in the school. She is a little wary still when it comes to her jumping but yesterday she managed to stop leaping and jumped really nicely a couple of times. 

She is also taking good care of the other half!! 

I didn't think she would be one that he could ride, but walking around the school she is brilliant for him. 

We also rode in the school with another horse last night, just to see what Stella thought of it, turns out, she doesn't mind at all. 

On that note, meet Daisy, the little super cob that I borrow most weeks for Nigel's sister to ride.

She is simply awesome, I have never a met a pony that looks after her riders so well and adjusts to their ability so easily. She will look after a beginner perfectly, yet if you are more advanced and push the right buttons she can seriously perform.

She will probably pop up a fair bit, but more often you will see her field buddy, Robbie.

Robbie is a fairly young ( about 7 I think.... not that I can really remember off the top of my head) Friesian cross welsh cob. He is a lovely sweet and friendly chap but he does struggle a little with nerves. As long as he is stuck to Daisy he is fine but he struggles to do things on his own. 

He is liable to plant himself when led away from Daisy, and you can see the worry on his face when he has to think about something for himself.

He also slipped coming off the lorry recently and tweaked his back, so he is now a little nervous about this too. 

It would be easy to mistake him for a pushy horse that had few manners as he can try and tank towards home... or rather back to Daisy. 

I worked with him for just ten minutes last night, just to help is owners as they want to be able to lead him without issues. 

I was decidedly impressed with him. We got him away from the yard and down a short track to the paddock. He then got through the gate and stopped.

I decided to give him a few minutes to think about it and then instead of asking him to walk in a straight line, I turned him across the paddock. 

In short, over the space of about five minutes, we made our way to the lorry , across the paddock in zigzags. The changes of direction seemed to give him something to think about that wasn't Daisy. 

Once we reached the lorry I let him just stand at the bottom of the ramp on a loose rope. 

He was allowed to fidget and move, just not walk back towards Daisy and the yard.

His owner has already spent time with no lead rope, just letting him step onto the ramp for treats and having a bucket of feed up in the actual lorry.  He stepped on and off a few times by himself and by the end of the session he had walked right in and backed out, no pressure on the rope or him and lots of praise and reward. 

Leading him back was more of the same, putting boundaries in place and letting him know that he couldn't rush for home. 

All I did was halt him when he started to rush and backed him up. 

He picked up on things really quickly and was walking on a totally loose rope back along the track to the yard. 

I was really pleased with him, I was only with him for about fifteen minutes and he made such big improvements. 

Next time I will take photos and let you all see how he progresses as I hope to work with him more in the future.

For now it will be ground work but he is just as nervous on his own with the ridden work so hopefully it will be transfered onto that.