A riding horse

[glenatron]

Today Zorro and I went out on our longest solo trail ride yet, once we hit the common we did a lot of trotting and more cantering than we ever have before as well. There was one point where we ground to a halt, but there wasn't really any anxiety there and I felt confident to push him a little bit to get on. We also had one very rapid trot-to-halt so Zorro could stare at a deer, but aside from that it was a really smooth ride. Well, even with that it was a smooth ride, and nice to see the deer so close. We felt as good going out alone as we ever have riding in company and our confidence and trust in one another is coming along in leaps and bounds. Or perhaps more accurately in the absence of leaps and bounds...

The clinic was really good. I forgot my notebook, so no report as such to follow but many pictures...

Comments

[http://users.livejournal.com/blitzen_/]

what a wicked little pony. it's great that ur getting out and making him face things. so need to do that with beej! but its EASY in the arena.

argh!

[penella22.livejournal.com]

:-)

You guys are rockin' and rollin' lately...so nice to see. :-) It's a great feeling isn't it, when you finally hit on that way of thinking that works well for you and pony? Seems like you guys are really getting this riding out alone issue well sorted out.

[glenatron.livejournal.com]

The thing is that you do need to trust each other and that trust doesn't just happen- it has to be earned in both directions. Riding out on Zorro as he was a few months ago and trusting that he'd be alright would have been a pretty dense thing to do. Now that we've both shown one another that we can be consistently comfortable and keep each other safe it can happen a lot more and then we can spend more time enjoying ourselves...

[glenatron.livejournal.com]

It's also easier with a horse who doesn't go straight from alright to "ZOMG END OF TEH WORLD!!!" without any discernable middle ground.

Maybe the book Mugwump is talking about here (http://mugwumpchronicles.blogspot.com/2009/07/you-can-always-learn-something.html) would be helpful for you guys...

[skiesfirepaved.livejournal.com]

"Trail ride"? Oh dear, you have been Americanised!

Well done for the long ride anyways! How far did you go? Clever little Zorro pony. :)

[glenatron.livejournal.com]

Not long by any real standards, only a few miles really, but it was one of the regular loops we'd do when we were riding out with him and Small and it was just such a pleasure to have a soft and happy horse to travel with.

[teadog1425.livejournal.com]

Hi, I'm here via Buymeaclue's friendslist, and I've really enjoyed reading your horse riding and training posts. May I friend you? I am currently sharing an Icelandic gelding who is kept in Cobham, Surrey. I was also thinking about trying to make it to the Steve Halfpenny clinic in September, just to watch probably as my pony is a bit elderly. Please feel free to friend me back if you would like - I haven't been posting very often recently, but I'm trying to get back into the swing of it!

Tam

[glenatron.livejournal.com]

New friends always welcome! I work in Guildford so you're not far away at all.

It's well worth coming over to watch Steve work if you are able - I think he's doing the August bank holiday this year.

[teadog1425.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I didn't realise that he was over in August as well - I will have another look on the website. The one I'd found was the 3 day clinic in Fordingbridge in Sept... It sounds really interesting though - I hadn't come across him except through your posts, but I'm keen on Mark Rashid's work and it sounds like there are similarities between the two? I've also enjoyed Chris Irwin's Dancing with your Dark Horse.

Guildford is very close! We've got fairly good hacking near our yard - with Wisley, Ripley and Ockham commons, so we're pretty lucky, though they get very busy with people and dog walkers in the summer!

[glenatron.livejournal.com]

He teaches in europe across the summer ( or "winter" as they refer to it in Oz ) so he does a lot of clinics then. Fordingbridge is probably more nearby than where we go to usually, which is over by Tunbridge Wells but ( *whispers* ) we have better clinics.

Steve does have crossover with Mark Rashid indeed, as do Tom and Sarah- the latter more directly as they are students of Mark's. Steve is very much influenced by the buckaroo guys whose methods became what we talk about today as "Natural Horsemanship" but really it's just the california spanish tradition of working a horse. Probably the best known representative of that type of work now is Buck Brannaman, who Steve is strongly influenced by.