Leaving it Down to Luck...
March 21, 2011
I hope you are all enjoying the spring weather today! I must admit I would be enjoying it a little more from Jims yard in Sussex, which is where I should be now. My car has broken down (apparantly car whispering is not my forte) at my parent's house in Oxfordshire. There are certainly worse places to be stranded so I am counting this as 'lucky' - rather than 'unlucky' - but the events of the last couple of weeks have had me reflecting on luck, and the role it plays in our horsemanship.
Firstly, there was Enys. Enys is a lovely grey youngster who had unfortunately had an accident in a horse lorry, and his owners had asked if I would come out to help him with loading and travelling again, as well as some handling issues. I was impressed from the begining by the responsible attitude of his owners, who recognised the potentially huge issues that could have been caused by the accident, and so left absolutely nothing down to luck, in rehabilitating him (body and mind) ready for working and travelling again. Not only had they booked me for a half day, rather than expecting a magic wand half hour, but they had also had the horsebox altered so that it was safer, practiced leading him over different surfaces and standing him in a confined space, had a physiotherapist out to help his body recover, and were very prepared to work at his speed, thoroughly making sure everything was in place so that nothing could go wrong again. We loaded him several times, and took him for a couple of little drives without a problem, and I am confident that they will not take his progress for granted but will practice loading and travelling him a few more times before assuming he is ready to travel in company, or go out to a 'party'. Really, Enys made it all look very easy, but I feel like his owners really earned that, in their thorough approach. It's so true that if you are crossing your fingers and hoping for 'luck' to help you out, you're doing something wrong.
Then there came another session with pig phobic Dawn. I have some brilliant film footage involving running feet (horse and human) blurry grass and the odd 'oink' or Dawns owners exclemation of 'arrghh he's moving!!' I'm going to ask Han to put it up here for me (since I deleted the last brilliant lot of film footage when I tried!) because I think "The Blair Pig Project" could be the next box-office hit. Anyway, the trickiest thing about the training has been that the blooming pig keeps hiding or scurrying away acorn searching during most of the session, and then popping up quite unexpectedly by shoving his head through the hedge just when Dawn is begining to settle down, which is quite unerving for Dawn (and her owner who, despite a previous career involving pigs, seems to have now inherited the pig worries from Dawn!). And its also pretty frustrating for me! I tell you, I'm seriously considering bacon for the first time in years... So, realising that crossing our fingers for some cooperative (or at least consistant) behaviour from Percy Pig simply wasn't enough, we decided to book some time with Percy himself and go behind the hedge. Dawn did fantastically well, she genuinly was very very worried, but the previous dually training really paid off and although there was certainly no friendship forming between the two, progress since this encounter has been really consistant. Dawn is now leading past the pig in a pretty relaxed manner, and so on our next session it will be time to reintroduce riding past.
So finally, luck had one more lesson to teach me this week. I live an exciting dual life (much like banana man) in that not only do I get to do this lovely work with horses, but I am also studying for a degree in social anthropology. Well no less than three essays - totally 10,000 words, were due in last thursday. I worked really, really hard. I stopped answering calls (sorry if one of them was yours, I'm back withthe living now!), Han even had to cut the food up into bitesized pieces so that I didn't have to take my eyes of the computer screen to eat. OK, well not quite that bad, but I was pretty obsessive for a week or so. (Incidentally, its fascintating the type of people in the library at 6am - most of them have been there all night, twitching from caffeine, surrounded by jammie dodgers and lucozade, not particularly chatty) Anyway, one essay ended up late. And I mean seconds late, but rules are rules, at it wasn't in until 2 minutes past 4 so thats a 5% deduction. How could I have let this happen, you ask, (as did my tutor who was not-angry-but-dissapointed)? Well, it was just bad luck - the printers, which had been free all morning, suddenly became busy at 3.20 - ran out of paper and had to wait for a technition. The building where I dropped the first two essays off was busy and I had to queue. My pen didn't work and I had to wait to borrow one, which was blue and the form needed to be in black - so had to wait again. The stapler ran out of staples and we had to wait for the (very very slow) office assistant to find more. I ran like a bullet to the other building, and someone was coming through every doorway the wrong way, I tripped going up the steps, I got through the door at 4.02 and that was that, late. Of course, when I write it out like that I can see that 'luck' really is just a bad justification for excuses, but it wasn't a lack of effort, or a lack of time that made my essay late. It was a lack of forethought, and an assumption that there wouldn't be any bad luck.
Of course I have had my share of very good luck too, so I'd hate it if luck didn't feature in my life again, but the moral of my month is that although good luck can put a cherry on your cake, Delia Smith can bake the cake itelf without relying on even a pinch of fairy dust. Training horses without crossed fingers, four leaved clovers or lucky knickers has to the way only way forward, even if that means going quite carefully and thoroughly at times, because the memories you are constantly creating for your horse are too valuable to gamble with.
I hope you are all enjoying some good luck this spring, as well as some well earned successes.
The exciting news is that we have a new spring clinic date, everyone is very welcome, please check the website for details.
Rosie
x
Firstly, there was Enys. Enys is a lovely grey youngster who had unfortunately had an accident in a horse lorry, and his owners had asked if I would come out to help him with loading and travelling again, as well as some handling issues. I was impressed from the begining by the responsible attitude of his owners, who recognised the potentially huge issues that could have been caused by the accident, and so left absolutely nothing down to luck, in rehabilitating him (body and mind) ready for working and travelling again. Not only had they booked me for a half day, rather than expecting a magic wand half hour, but they had also had the horsebox altered so that it was safer, practiced leading him over different surfaces and standing him in a confined space, had a physiotherapist out to help his body recover, and were very prepared to work at his speed, thoroughly making sure everything was in place so that nothing could go wrong again. We loaded him several times, and took him for a couple of little drives without a problem, and I am confident that they will not take his progress for granted but will practice loading and travelling him a few more times before assuming he is ready to travel in company, or go out to a 'party'. Really, Enys made it all look very easy, but I feel like his owners really earned that, in their thorough approach. It's so true that if you are crossing your fingers and hoping for 'luck' to help you out, you're doing something wrong.
Then there came another session with pig phobic Dawn. I have some brilliant film footage involving running feet (horse and human) blurry grass and the odd 'oink' or Dawns owners exclemation of 'arrghh he's moving!!' I'm going to ask Han to put it up here for me (since I deleted the last brilliant lot of film footage when I tried!) because I think "The Blair Pig Project" could be the next box-office hit. Anyway, the trickiest thing about the training has been that the blooming pig keeps hiding or scurrying away acorn searching during most of the session, and then popping up quite unexpectedly by shoving his head through the hedge just when Dawn is begining to settle down, which is quite unerving for Dawn (and her owner who, despite a previous career involving pigs, seems to have now inherited the pig worries from Dawn!). And its also pretty frustrating for me! I tell you, I'm seriously considering bacon for the first time in years... So, realising that crossing our fingers for some cooperative (or at least consistant) behaviour from Percy Pig simply wasn't enough, we decided to book some time with Percy himself and go behind the hedge. Dawn did fantastically well, she genuinly was very very worried, but the previous dually training really paid off and although there was certainly no friendship forming between the two, progress since this encounter has been really consistant. Dawn is now leading past the pig in a pretty relaxed manner, and so on our next session it will be time to reintroduce riding past.
So finally, luck had one more lesson to teach me this week. I live an exciting dual life (much like banana man) in that not only do I get to do this lovely work with horses, but I am also studying for a degree in social anthropology. Well no less than three essays - totally 10,000 words, were due in last thursday. I worked really, really hard. I stopped answering calls (sorry if one of them was yours, I'm back withthe living now!), Han even had to cut the food up into bitesized pieces so that I didn't have to take my eyes of the computer screen to eat. OK, well not quite that bad, but I was pretty obsessive for a week or so. (Incidentally, its fascintating the type of people in the library at 6am - most of them have been there all night, twitching from caffeine, surrounded by jammie dodgers and lucozade, not particularly chatty) Anyway, one essay ended up late. And I mean seconds late, but rules are rules, at it wasn't in until 2 minutes past 4 so thats a 5% deduction. How could I have let this happen, you ask, (as did my tutor who was not-angry-but-dissapointed)? Well, it was just bad luck - the printers, which had been free all morning, suddenly became busy at 3.20 - ran out of paper and had to wait for a technition. The building where I dropped the first two essays off was busy and I had to queue. My pen didn't work and I had to wait to borrow one, which was blue and the form needed to be in black - so had to wait again. The stapler ran out of staples and we had to wait for the (very very slow) office assistant to find more. I ran like a bullet to the other building, and someone was coming through every doorway the wrong way, I tripped going up the steps, I got through the door at 4.02 and that was that, late. Of course, when I write it out like that I can see that 'luck' really is just a bad justification for excuses, but it wasn't a lack of effort, or a lack of time that made my essay late. It was a lack of forethought, and an assumption that there wouldn't be any bad luck.
Of course I have had my share of very good luck too, so I'd hate it if luck didn't feature in my life again, but the moral of my month is that although good luck can put a cherry on your cake, Delia Smith can bake the cake itelf without relying on even a pinch of fairy dust. Training horses without crossed fingers, four leaved clovers or lucky knickers has to the way only way forward, even if that means going quite carefully and thoroughly at times, because the memories you are constantly creating for your horse are too valuable to gamble with.
I hope you are all enjoying some good luck this spring, as well as some well earned successes.
The exciting news is that we have a new spring clinic date, everyone is very welcome, please check the website for details.
Rosie
x
Posted by Rosie Jones.
