Last week I popped along to Kelly Marks’s demo at Sparsholt College.
Kelly Marks founded Intelligent Horsemanship in order to help horse owners get practical help without the huge price tag attached. Kelly is mentored by the very well known Monty Roberts and promotes respect and understanding of horses through courses, demonstrations and educational materials.
During this demo Kelly worked with a very spooky horse to help him and his owners work towards overcoming his fears of all sorts of unusual objects. By the end of this particular session Kelly had successfully introduced him to tarpaulin and after patience and quiet persistence she happily ended with him stood quietly on the big blue plastic sheet.
Kelly also worked with a difficult loader and began by walking him under a sheet of tarpaulin to establish if he was concerned about things being above his head, which didn’t appear to be an issue for him. Kelly talked about pressure and release and the importance of using the right equipment when loading and not standing in your horses path whilst walking him into a trailer or lorry. Within no time at all Kelly had quietly loaded the horse and then worked with the owner to do the same. The horse that had taken 4 hours to load to get to the demo would be loading in a matter of minutes on the way home.
Kelly concluded the demo by bringing Pie into the arena; the problem pony turned winner of the SEIB BHS Pro-am showcase TREC competition at Royal Windsor on 16 May. Kelly demonstrated some of the moves that lead her to victory in Windsor which was a real crowd pleaser and a fantastic way to end such a lovely educational evening.
Sarah Weston is a Recommended Associate of Intelligent Horsemanship and the holder of the Monty Robert’s Preliminary Certificate in Horsemanship. Based in the New Forest and covering Hampshire, Wiltshire, Dorset and the Isle of Wight, Sarah trains horses and their owners using logical and ethical techniques motivated by the welfare of the horse.
My day with Sarah began with a little Stallion watching on the Forest followed by an introduction to Sarah’s own horses and ponies as well as a couple of clients lovely ponies that she is currently working with alongside their owners.
We then took Jack the Dun New Forest Pony for a walk in the local enclosure where he pottered alongside us like a big beautiful dog, followed by some work with Sarah’s clients and their ponies that are currently staying with Sarah for some training.
Later we took Sarah’s stunning Quater Horse x New Forest Pony, Theoden, Long reining followed by an introduction to clicker training with Perta the Welsh Cross.
What a beautiful weekend we have just had and perfect for a little potter around the lanes in an effort to keep little Sam fit and healthy in preparation for the Summer showing season.
Most motorists are absolutely fine and we regularly get waved at by families with young children and bring a smile to peoples faces as well as being regularly stopped for photographs but on the flip side, also experience some very ignorant drivers who think it’s amusing to drive as close and fast as possible whilst overtaking to see if they can scare the ponies.
We are all entitled to be on the roads so should therefore respect each other and enjoy the countryside around us without being intimidated by others on the road. But overall 85% of drivers are kind, considerate and appear to enjoy seeing us out and about on the country roads.
We would love to hear form other carriage drivers and their experiences on the road and in the show ring ……….
Well I’m definitely hooked! The carriage driving bug has bitten me good and proper!
I survived my first carriage driving show class and even came home with a Rosette and of course Jack and Buster did too.
This season I am driving the wonderful Sam AKA Easton Hill Mandarin who at the tender age of 24 is kindly teaching me to drive and is giving me confidence in the show ring. Sam is a standard Shetland who used to be one of those fantastic Shetlands that we all cheer on in the Shetland Pony Grand National…….. and fantastic he still is!
In our first driving class we gained fourth place and Jack and Buster came second; another good result for the good o’l Shetlands and a big thank you to our grooms for looking so lovely on the carriages.
There are a number of scams going on, on various equestrian websites at the moment.
Please remember the following:
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NEVER accept a cheque for over the asking price. Their aim is to give you a forged cheque for over the asking price & con you into sending the difference, which you will lose. Many of these are from overseas con artists.
If you are suspicious, type the senders email address into Google and if it is a scam you are sure to see lots of people saying the same thing regarding that particular email address.
DO NOT give personal details. Our site enables you to hide your details so you can then make the choice whether to respond or not.
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We DO NOT phone you for payment of your classified adverts.
Please keep us informed as soon as you think anything is suspicious
To be updated with examples of real scam emails ………………………………..
Little Clover has settled in beautifully to her lovely home away from Georgie and regularly comes on walks around the yard with me. Being only 2, it is far too early to start any serious work but thought it might be nice to let her loose in the school to have a look at her paces and introduce her to being asked what to do. She is rather pretty …….
The girls are happily settled at their separate yards and generally enjoying an easy life at the moment.
Georgie is currently sporting the most stunning dapples and is awaiting the delivery of a brand spanking new saddle and Clover is now officially 2 this month and is continuing to grow in height and generally maturing in personality.
Recently we have been working on introducing Georgie to harness and as ever she happily took it all in her stride. Many horses and ponies can be a little unsure when first being introduced to blinkers and a crupper; but not little Georgie. Being the little gem she is, the harness went straight on with no fuss or bother.
An important thing to always remember when a horse is in harness is to make them aware when you are approaching then as wearing blinkers of course effects their vision. Remembering to say things like ‘coming by’ is always a good phrase or just generally making them aware when you are approaching their head.
Here is Georgie in her breaking harness being introduced to working on long reins in harness ………….
For a while now I have been having the odd go at carriage driving my friends ponies, but decided it was now time to get a few lessons under my belt to help me build up my confidence.
The long term plan is to have one of my New Forest ponies broken to drive as I have ongoing back problems from an old riding injury; so learning to drive is a fantastic and alternative way to enjoy your horses.
Here is a little clip from my first lesson this weekend ………
Just a short blog as I thought you may appreciate a funny photo or 2 of Georgie whilst at New Park in the New Forest on Sunday.
I just popped off to chat to a friend for 20 minutes whilst at this very big and noisy show and came back to find Steve with Georgie curled up on the floor light a little dog.
On a sunny day Georgie will regularly lie out in her paddock in the early afternoon snoring her little head off, and apparently being at a show on a hot sunny day is no different. Although I am quite aware this is not ‘proper’ practice at a show I couldn’t bare to get her up for a few minutes as she was so content and promptly closed her eyes and started snoring.
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During this demo Kelly worked with a very spooky horse to help him and his owners work towards overcoming his fears of all sorts of unusual objects. By the end of this particular session Kelly had successfully introduced him to tarpaulin and after patience and quiet persistence she happily ended with him stood quietly on the big blue plastic sheet.
Kelly concluded the demo by bringing Pie into the arena; the problem pony turned winner of the SEIB BHS Pro-am showcase TREC competition at Royal Windsor on 16 May. Kelly demonstrated some of the moves that lead her to victory in Windsor which was a real crowd pleaser and a fantastic way to end such a lovely educational evening.
