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Hovis and Helen
I have had Hovis for 5 years and owned him since a 2 year old. He is a
Clydesdale cross, basically a Clydesdale with short legs. (Went out to
buy a safe cob to have fun on and came home with a 2 year old, who was
sold as a 4 year old).
Once I realised just how young he was I backed off and did lots of
ground work and long lining around the farm where he is kept. All this
time he was continuing to grow both upwards from his 14.2 when bought
and in depth and width across shoulders and around girth. He now touches
15.3HH
Ended up using 4 different saddles in short space of time as he grew.
Even had one specially made – which he grew out of in 6 months. By the
time Max came out I had given up on traditional trees and invested in a
Torsion treeless – and haven’t looked back since.
We went together to the Yorkshire Riding Centre when he was 4ish for
rebacking which went really well and meant that I was able to start work
in the school. However we still had issues when I was getting on –
moving off, back up, jumping up and down on the spot and bucks or
planting – this was the real start of our progress through the number of
saddles, back physios etc,etc.
Once I had the Torsion and Hovis realised that the saddle wasn’t going
to hurt we started to make progress in the school. He was continuing to
grow and mature. We did some dressage at a local centre, sometimes he
was good to excellent and others he was horrible. During all of this
time, what I really wanted to do was hack out and do endurance/Le Trec
events.
I was able to ride around the farm, but needed someone to walk with me
to give me confidence and help me if we had one of our incidents -
plant, squeal, try to turn round, leap about and generally frighten me.
Leaving the yard to try and go out on a ride was awful and took ages.
I had used a pressure halter on a previous horse for loading issues so
decided to buy Max’s book, DVD and a new halter and start from scratch.
At the same time as buying these I also sent an email asking for help
and finding out when Max would be in the area. I decided that if this
didn’t work I would have to sell Hovis as I wasn’t brave enough to help
him through his problems.
Several days later when all had arrived and book read, DVD watched, etc
I began work again with ground work. Pressure and release, rope
circling, etc. This seemed to improve his respect for me and we were
making progress. I was able to use the pressure halter under the bridle
which meant that my long suffering husband who spent hours walking with
me was able to be really effective if we were out hacking and Hovis
planted. Initially this happened quite a lot and as time progressed and
as we went out more, the halter was needed less and less – just putting
the halter on seemed to have a calming effect – almost like Hovis knew
it was there to help him in the same way that it acted as back up for
me. During this time I spent a lot of time riding in circles in our
yard, doing lots of backwards work and sideways turns – on the basis
that if he didn’t want to go forwards we would go backwards. Eventually
Hovis seemed to cotton on to the fact that it was easier to go forwards.
(I took this advice from the book and someone else who had similar
problems)
While I was doing all of this and making small progress we still had
some issues about mounting and first moving off. Max was booked to come
about a month after the arrival of book, DVD and halter.
Max arrived and we had a cup of tea and chat – which was a non stressful
way to start. Max worked with Hovis with the halter in the school and
was able to make Hovis’s reactions much sharper than mine with the rope
circling and backing up- and was able to teach me how to create the same
effect. i.e. do it now, not when you think you will.
I had talked to Max about the issues with mounting and Max suggested
that this probably stemmed back to the original backing before I bought
him. Max spent a long time with a stick with a rope attached – flicking
it over Hovis’s back and letting him move away from him – only taking
the rope away when Hovis stood still. Eventually Hovis realised that a)
the rope wasn’t going to hurt him and b) if he stood still the rope
would be taken away. Max explained that this was teaching Hovis to cope
and deal with fear and emotions. Max also explained that he used this
technique with Jo and still used it if Jo had had time off or became
emotional for any reason.
We then tacked up and Max did some long reining. The conclusion was that
in the KK snaffle I was using Hovis was leaning on the bit and could
pull forward when stopping. Max tried a Pelham bit with a forward curve
from South Africa. Hovis seemed happy in it straight away – he just
looked happier in his mouth.
After some long lining, Max got on – and after much exclamation about
the width of Hovis and damage to hips (hence treeless saddle) Max showed
me how to use circles and turns with shoulders in the same ways as with
the rope circling to get Hovis really light and forward. Max did walk,
halt, trot, turn back, halt, turn, back, trot etc in a light soft way.
Max was really impressed with his paces as he doesn’t move like a
Clydesdale at all. What I hadn’t told Max was that when I asked Hovis to
trot in the school he would frequently plant, squeal, kick out and be
generally unpleasant for a while before giving in and eventually
trotting, if I hadn’t got too scared and backed off. It was quite
incredible to see him moving forward in such a light way with no
arguments. ( I did remember to tell Max about the trotting problems
after this)
Then it was my turn. Got on with no hassle – which having seen the way
Hovis was when Max got on I didn’t worry about, as I normally would
have. By this time I didn’t even care about my standard of riding. Max
got me to do the same as he had, turns, halts, back, walks and trots –
it felt like I had got on someone else’s horse and I was grinning like a
Cheshire cat and couldn’t stop smiling for ages.
Then we got to the real crunch issue – hacking out. Hovis was completely
shattered by this time. Max felt that Hovis would respond well to the
backing and the turns and that we should continue using that method. He
recommended that if we had planting problems while out then turn round
and go backwards in the direction that we wanted to go. We talked about
the wip wop and Max showed that just moving my hand from side to side
over the neck would have the same effect on Hovis. At that point we
finished, put Hovis in his stable for a sleep and lots of haylage and we
had lots more tea. Max also had to change the wheel on his car –
accomplished while the kettle boiled.
When Max left I was shattered but felt positive about what had been
achieved and what was to come. I also knew that there was a lot of
homework to come.
Max recommended using the stick and rope every day until these was no
reaction. I also continued with rope and halter work and long lining. I
continue to use these today – 8 months after Max’s visit.
I also found a Hartwell mouth Pelham which has a similar port and
forward curve to the Pelham that Max had. I have also been able to find
a straight bar snaffle with a forward curve from South Africa to use for
dressage.
Hovis has not moved when being mounted or shown any signs of tensing up
when mounted since that day – I was able to stop using the rope and
stick within a week, although still have it ready in case I should need
it in the future.
Hacking out successfully has taken a lot longer, and I am writing this 8
months after Max’s visit after my first successful longish hack on my
own - cannot describe how happy I felt when we got back to the yard.
Although legs were somewhat wobbly when got off, which was nothing to
how they felt the next day!
For several months I continued to hack with the pressure halter under
the bridle and someone walking with me, only needing to use it
occasionally. I have to say that the getting Hovis to walk backwards in
the intended direction did not really work, he just ended up getting
worked up, sweaty and argumentative. But the turns, halts and backs
enabled me to stop safely when I said so and if we were in a dodgy
situation with traffic etc to stop and stand still until the car passed
before we continued with our work. Previously I didn’t really feel that
I had control and felt at risk of ending under or on a car. Feeling safe
enables me to accomplish a lot more.
I found that if I used my hand in a wip wop action across his neck,
which included the reins hitting on the neck, then we were usually able
to achieve forward movement – sometimes he would shoot into trot – so I
just carried on in trot until I was happy to ask for walk again. I have
continued to successfully use this approach instead of the “walking
backwards” approach.
Last Sunday my husband walked across our local bridle path with me to
open the gates. Then we trotted for a mile and a half whilst he ran
beside us. After that David went a different way (returning 3 hours
later from his run – he is into adventure racing and marathons – and
they say horse people are mad!). This meant that I rode home on my own –
which was another 4 miles and took about an hour. We had one minor stop
to investigate a horse in a field and apart from that we walked and
trotted whenever I wanted to. Finally the horse that I went out to buy!
I am sure that I will continue to have good and bad days but I can
honestly say that without Max’s book, DVD, halters and visit I would not
have had that successful ride. To anyone with horse problems of any sort
I would thoroughly recommend Max. He was worth every penny and gave me
the tools to progress with Hovis.
Thanks again.
Helen |
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