Day 119: The Puzzle (ment) Game

Emma and Shabby today - working on staying calm, relaxed, supple and confident 

Shabby must have read the training scheme I prepared for Emma because he took the relaxation theme to heart today ;) It really is so rewarding to see this little horse work things out and learn.

In the world in which vets "prescribe" working horses in pessoa to "develop" "correct" muscles and where training often is an equivalent to sophisticated bullying, I find that the best thing you can do to not go crazy is to question everything and observe the horses as if you have never seen the buggers before ;)

It's like a puzzlement game of sorts, all this is, and if you don't dig deep with spades of common sense, you find yourself covered with soiled pseudo facts.

When I posted a little overview of the journey of Shabby's training on Aspire blog yesterday, I got a "helpful" private email from a reader describing how best to attach draw reins when jumping to gain control over Shabby's erratic stride and hollowing and how to teach him to bascule better...

The sad part is that it was actually a very well meaning advice by someone believing in the benefit of that sort of approach.

Gah. Sometimes I feel totally alone in this slower paced training I chose to go by. Selfishly, I wish there were more people brave enough to question the status quo, brave enough to question what we do to horses' mouths and bodies and how we train them because then it wouldn't all feel like such a lonely quest.

I am vaguely aware I am repeating myself on this subject but hey, that's my thoughts today. Perhaps not very original.

I am thankful though for the riders who share the same values because they do make it all worthwhile.

Wx