Fir Tree Stud / Natural Horsemanship Update!

First, sorry for break in the blog. We have been too busy to get around to it!
Where do we begin...
Toby the lovely Section D pony we had for sale sold almost immediately to a lovely home in North Yorkshire.
Rubin, who you will remember is the remedial horse we have been working with. When we last wrote about him we had him long reining in the round pen. As this work continued Rubin struggled with the confidence to work with the two lines. We came to the conclusion it was best not to stress him by insisting that he followed the 'expected route'. Instead we looked at his strengths, he had no problem with dealing with the plastic bags on a stick, infact he was one of our best performers where that was concerned. He worked loose in the round pen with Janice beautifully, it was almost like dancing, and to say he was joined up, was an understatement!
With this in mind we introduced him to a dummy rider which he took to easily, and then trained him loose in the round pen with his friendly 'auntie lil' as she is affectionately known.
From here, we tried to introduce the real thing in the shape of Thomas. Rubin knew the difference and was too dificult for Thomas to mount in the round pen.
Knowing Rubin as we now did and having sucessfully introduced new concepts to him in his stable, (saddle, bridle & dummy) which is the place he feels the safest. Our instinct told us that if he was going to let someone mount him, that would be the place it would most likely happen. We were right. Rubin allowed Thomas to mount him.
The work we had done with the dummy was invaluable because the first time Thomas put his leg over and sat on, Rubin slightly relaxed, and seemed to understand what we wanted and stayed with us.
It clearly wasnt going to be a quick fix to progess from the stable to the round pen and his owner felt it was time to take him home with the view to returning when they can.
In his time with us we helped Rubin to:
Accept a headcollar easily
Pick up his feet
Allow the farrier to trim his feet
Have rugs taken on and off easily
We taught his owner strategies for catching him in the field when he resisted
How to lunge & long rein
Work loose in an enclosed area with people
Accept the saddle and bridle
and finally
Allow someone to sit on his back

Natural Horsemanship / Rubin in the Round Pen

Rubin has been struggling with the concept of the two lines, however, today he took a massive step forward with his mum Michelle.
It has taken patience and perserverance, but Rubin settled enough for us to feel like we were able to begin communicating with him when he is being long lined. He very much goes into the pressure, so we have to be very careful what connection we give down the lines. This means that we have to rely on the body language that we have used previously to move Rubin around. Using these techniques we are able to change his direction and by doing so, are gaining more control of the situation.
Here are some pictures of Rubin and his mum Michelle, long lining in the round pen.

Natural Horsemanship / Rubins Progression

Today was a very windy day, so it was a good opportunity to introduce Rubin to the bridle.
We used a straight bar rubber bit, which is soft. He chewed on it and then when something distracted him, he forgot it was there, which is great.
The real issue he had was how the bridle felt around his ears.
Rubin is very wary of anything he does not understand, so we took the introduction around the ears very carefully and used the same desensitisation techniques as before. He allowed us to put the bridle on but there is still some work to do.
He is settling nicely into the saddle, and we have been lunging him with it on.
Lets hope for quieter weather next week!