The brainache section of this blog is all about a rather big decision I have made- not to ride on the upcoming Monty Roberts UK tour. “Madness!” I hear you shout! It certainly was my dream for a very long time to be a tour rider for Monty, my riding idols for years were Dan Wilson and Grant Bazin (the names will be familiar to old Monty fans!) who seemed to be able to get on, and stay on, anything in demo's. And it really has been a highlight of my career so far, and something I am very proud of, to be the first female demo rider for Monty. In fact, its a lesson that I have learned in my time around Monty, and certainly Kelly, that has made my rethink my options this time around. It seems that in order to succeed with horses (and life) things need to be completed not just super-keenly, with childish enthusiasm and energy drinks, but thoroughly. With my third year of uni starting this autumn (I'm studying social anthropology), and a very loyal, busy, client base that I don't want to abandon for three months, riding for Monty seemed like biting off more than I could chew. And remedial riding, whether one to one in home visits, or in-front of hundreds, isn't the sort of thing you can do as an optional extra in life. It is something you need to completely commit your body, brain and energy to. Ultimately, I simply have too much respect for the job itself, and for my clients, and my degree (and my own horse and my relationship!) to try to patch them all together with sticky tape and power through on optimism and pro-plus. I absolutely adore riding in Kelly Mark's demo's, and so I'm simply looking forward to the summer when they will come around again. I know I sound very together about it, but really there have already been several moments when I have been squirming inside at the thought of tour preparations going ahead without me. So far, though, I have not actually regretted my decision and fingers crossed it stays that way! It helps that Monty's brand new tour rider, Alex, is such a lovely guy. I suppose if he wasn't it would be easier to set up some sort of twisted ego rivalry, but that isn't really my bag anyway so I'm glad that we can genuinely get on without any weirdness! He is very humble and eager to learn, as well as brave and able, so I'm sure he'll have a great time on tour.. He's pretty new to the whole thing, and only 19, so please do say Hi to him and give him a good welcome to IH if you see him on tour!

So – what else have I been up to?

This morning I lost my car keys – it turns out I left them in Hannah's car last night. Thank goodness Harvey now lives close enough that I could walk 45 minutes in the sunshine to do him this morning. I was worrying that with breakfast being so late he might be cribbing like crazy but he had just decided to have a lie in and was fast asleep when I appeared. Thank goodness also that I only had one appointment today, since this week is “file the tax return” week in my diary. Luckily my client has been very understanding about moving the appointment to a day when I am less, ahem, incapacitated by my own stupidity. So, I decided to use this time wisely and take Harvey out on the long lines to explore the new hacking (since the saddle is in the locked car, riding was out). It really is absolutely beautiful around here, and Harv was in a truly wonderful mood, swinging along, making friends with cows, ducks and even a deer and fawn – all dappled sunlight and butterflies. Must loose my keys more often!!


In terms of clients, and on to the 'Babies' section of this blog; this week has reminded me how precious an un-ruined youngster is. That's because it is so much easier to bring a baby along and watch them turn into generous, obedient adults than it is to try to turn the clock back working with older horses who already have established problems. The star horses this week are Layla, a young quarter horse and Delilah. Layla's owner has never had or backed a youngster before, and so asked me to help start her under saddle over the summer. With weekly sessions and homework to continue with, Layla has grown this summer from a slightly hot headed red head, to a patient, cooperative working partner. Often people ask “how long does it take to back a young horse” and its always a bit hard to answer -not only because each horse is different but also because its hard to define when they are 'finished'. Is it when you sit on them for the first time? When you can ride in an arena without help from a leader or ground person? Is it after the first canter? When they can hack out? And because of the very gradual process, sometimes it can sneak up on you where all of a sudden you have a moment of perspective where you realise how far you have come. That happened for me with Layla this week, as her owner mounted up and rode down the lane for her first hack, which went beautifully. The delight of it is, its been easy at every stage, as with many raw babies, everything just falls into place one brick at a time. Well done Layla and Susie! Delilah has not been quite so simple, another chestnut mare but in the Ferrari model! Delilah was tickly with the saddle, and initially took a while to pick up her confidence with carrying a rider – she's been interesting to work with since she became very reliant on the ground-person when a rider was on top, and more than once she has taken a little lateral thinking and patience. However, over the summer she too has settled into a really very mature and predictable person, and quickly became my favourite ride at Jim's place. She is now being ridden by her owner every day for a week before going home, and I had a text yesterday to say she had had her first canter and all went well. The joy with youngsters, even the tricky, or sharp, or worried ones, is that everything is new and so you can immediately see the effect your training is having and adjust. Its easy to get them on side, if they have no reason not to give it a go.

My tricky horse this week is last Blog's star – Tutti, who naps and rears. Her owner has been incredibly patient in leading her out in hand to get her trust, confidence and obedience back before returning to riding. We have had a handful of rides out now which have all been successful, with someone on the ground to support her, but unfortunately I have had a message from her owner, and it seems things have taken a step back again this week. I really feel long lining is the solution for this mare. She leads nicely, really fights a rider, and sometimes thinks about stopping, but works through it on the long lines, so it will be back to the long lines for my session on Friday. I have a sizeable (and growing!) array of tricks and techniques for riding rearing horses up my sleeve, but Tutti is almost unique in that I could feel that not many of them were going to work from in the saddle, it is so ingrained in her to fight the riders aids. I think it is going to be a fairly long road to bring her round to being a happy and obedient horse, and I cant help wondering how easy she might have been with a different start in life, Tutti and Delilah really are quite similar people after all, and I wonder if they had changed places where they would have ended up?

And so, my advice to everyone is to value your youngsters! They only have one first go at things, and although they are so forgiving that they can, and do, often recover from mistakes, the attitude and education they get early into their career is powerful – for good or for bad.


Rosie

xxx