Rare Breed Fell Pony Merlin - November

Here is my monthly update on how I am getting along with training my rare breed Fell pony Merlin.

Transcript

This is the next podcast letting you know how I am getting on with my Grey Fell pony Merlin.  In the last podcast I talked about him getting shod, getting a new saddle and me starting to ride him again. After riding out a couple of times with one of the girls from the stables on her horse, I decided to take Merlin out on another hack on him own, I had previously ridden the same route and he had been perfect, however this time he took a dislike to some goal posts that were in someone’s garden and we had the rearing issue going on again, it was a busy part of the road and every time I nearly got him past he would mess about then another car would come along, a couple walking past who had horses had offered to help me, stupidly being as stubborn as Merlin I didn’t accept the offer. But after spending another 5 minutes trying to get him past, a lady came out of her house and said I can see you are not going to give up, do you want me to lead him past, I kindly accepted this offer, which she did and he was fine, she went to leave and he planted himself again, refusing to move, so he ended up very kindly walking all the way along the road with us until we turned off and I managed to get him moving along this road on her own, she had an old cob of her own.  There are a lot of horsey people in this area, which is great in this situation.  

I then took Merlin in the school the next day and had the same issue of the mini rear so I hopped off and lunged him for a bit before getting back on and just doing something in walk with him.  He did keep stopping and refusing to move and was not great in one corner of the school, there is always a spooky corner in every school.  The next day I lunged him in the corner he was being spooky in and then when I rode him in the school the day after he was fine in that corner.  It is sometimes a bit like putting together a jigsaw puzzle when it comes to horses and no one is the same, either.  I took him out for a walk up the road and he was fine, then got on the next day and we had the same attempted rear issue, so I decided that the issue was that he had lost confidence in his rider.  He was fine when I was leading him, but when I got on him this seemed to be the issue.  So as he is just a pony I decided to load him into the trailer on the Sunday morning and take him off for an 8 mile off road walk and hack, I would walk and ride him all the way around, practice getting on and off to go through gates etc, so that if he did anything on a normal hack I could just get off and then get back on when there was something to climb on, that way I would not be making too much of a big issue about things.  

He walked into the trailer ok and off we went, he unloaded fine, I tied him up to the trailer and he snapped the string, freeing himself but just started munching the long grass, so I re tied him, tacked him up then led him off up the hill.  Walking up and down hills would also be a really good strengthening exercise for him as well and would help with getting his back end stronger.  After a couple of miles, I found somewhere to get on and he immediately started whinnying which he hadn’t done before when I was leading him, I stroked his neck and chatted to him to reassure him.  We carried on for a bit, he did plant himself, but I managed to get him moving again.  I then hoped off to get a gate, got on again, rode to the next gate and did this for about a mile.  We got a bit lost he ended up pulling me up this really steep hill, while I grabbed hold of his saddle although he did nearly fall on top of me at one point.  My intention was to do some rider pony bonding with him and this was certainly a good way of doing it, I then had to get back on to see where we were and he was fine, he did stop but I just waited a bit and then got him walking again.  We then ended up on the last 3 mile stage and I did the same, getting on and off him and that seem to work well.  We got back to the trailer having been out for 3 hours, he was not keen to go back on, but I managed to load him after a short time and I had really enjoyed the experience. 

I gave him the next day off and they led him out in the morning, before the vet came impressed with his condition, remaking that it was nice to see a Fell Pony that was not overweight, who gave him his vaccination, which is a yearly booster.  I then lunged him the next day, gave him the next day off and then rode him in the school, I decided to lunge him for a few minutes first before getting on, I just worked on getting him listening to me rather than concentrating on what his friends in the field were doing.  I popped on him and he was not tense this time which was great so I continued with this theme and just spent time getting him to relax, doing what we call half halts which is basically getting him to slow down nearly to a stop but just as he was about to, riding him forwards again.  I also did some figures of eight and riding in circles, just keeping it simple and getting him to listen to me and I have to say it was really therapeutic, I feel very relaxed and chilled after doing that this evening. I remember now that schooling horses is a bit like yoga, you need to get them to relax and listen to you, concentrate on what you are asking them and in return you are concentrating on riding them, doing transitions and movements and this brings you into the moment.  That said after all the work that I have been doing on myself this past couple of years means that I now have the confidence to work with this pony, I don’t think that I would have been able to do this when I was in Ayrshire, I had lost all my confidence.  The yard that I am on helps though, the owners are actually really great, which is not always the case and the people on the yard really nice as well, it is a nice place to be and have a chat with people and Merlin is really happy there as are all the horses, it is a very chilled out place.  

I do Merlin’s stable at the weekends, I enjoy doing it and he is very tidy, some horses are really messy and tread every piece of horse manure into the bed until each piece is the size of a sixpence. I opted to ride him early this Saturday as it was going to be hot, but also because there was a warning of thunderstorms in the afternoon.  Moving on from my success of yesterday I popped him on the lunge for a couple of minutes in each direction  before getting on.  I had decided to attempt hacking him on his own again.  He was a bit hesitant leaving the yard and did his usual refusal to move tactic, but this time, I held the rein in such a way that meant he couldn’t turnaround and could only walk backwards and there was no attempt at rearing today which was also a bons, I chatted to him giving him a reassuring stroke and managed to get him moving, I went straight into some moving side to side along the road to get him focused on what listening to me, he stopped a couple times, then walked a lot more forwards, so I managed to have a couple of trots ups some hills, I opted to take him that way as there are some gentle hills for him to go up and down.  After a mile I about faced and headed back, I know its a mile as it is part of my running route.  We had no issues on the way home, so I am hopefully that I should just keep doing what I am doing as everything is heading in the right direction.