First Touch for a Semi-Feral Dartmoor

 No... it's not a bad case of the cobwebs, and no, I haven't gone mad... well, not any madder anyway!
First touch with a duster allows me to extend the length of my arm, and provide a nice soft, friendly sensation. Using advance and retreat we work to teach pony to stand still, and gradually we can move onto hands... look at the release of tension when we do get hands on!

Loading Training with Chief

Chief Of The Clan (AKA Big Ears) retired as a National Hunt horse before going off to a hunting home. He's a very sensitive chap and it quickly became apparent that he wasn't suitable for his new rider as he began rearing under saddle, which quickly escalated to him becoming a pretty dangerous horse to be around on the ground in general. Luckily for him, my friend Warwick decided to take him on as a project and he is now being re schooled as a classically ridden horse.

 At over 17hh he finds the trailer a bit of a squeeze and tends to be quite panicky about it. Even approaching the trailer sends his adrenaline rocketing and he begins to rear and call out. He is reluctant to go in and once in will not stand still, charging out at the first opportunity, knocking past anyone and anything in his way.


Session one begins in the field asking him to walk slowly and calmly over rubber matting, and then building up to being able to stand still, back up and navigate the corner. The picture is taken towards the end of the session- a considerable amount of work had gone into this!!

Session two investigates how he feels about small spaces. We began with a large gap and slowly decreased the size, at each stage ensuring he was happy to walk forwards, backwards and stand still at any given point. The aim being to gain control of every foot movement. We also used head lowering to encourage him to keep his adrenaline levels down.