One New Horse and One New Start

Although I have not done much with William over the last few months a lot has happened and little William has now become big William, he has filled out, changed shape and is now ready to come back into proper work again!

I gave him a few session on the lunge to get him used to the idea of working again, luckily he was perfectly well behaved. He is so much happier to tick along on the lunge now, transitions and all :)

So yesterday came the day to get back in the saddle!
He was surprisingly well behaved, even when the dog jumped out of the trees his reaction was reasonably chilled, which is promising.

Overall things couldn't of gone better, let the walking sessions begin :)

Today we introduced some poles one the ground and he was happily picking his feet up over them, turning round them and practicing halt transitions. He is rather well co-ordinated for a three year old and our straight lines aren't far off.

I have also been doing lots of ground work with him, he is a little star at it, and it should be very beneficial.

All I can hope is that he will always be this willing to learn :)

First Canter :)

He has been progressing really well over the last couple of weeks, with trot work, poles and bending. I am very pleased with him and it is obvious that he is enjoying himself as he is always excited to come in and do his little bit of fun work :) He chases Flea away as he wants to be the one who comes in and gets all the attention!

Although this day he was obviously mid sleeep when I went to get him in :D poor boy, wouldn't stop yawning!

He has had the physio come down and give him some wonderful massages too, which he thoroughly enjoys and it means he should be using all his body properly now that work is beginning :)

So today I decided that he was ready to try some canter and he was pretty good for his first time at it with a person riding him. He went down the long side on each rein, and we left it their as he is probably not quite balanced enough for cornering and seeing as it was his first time I didn't want to push him.
However, we will work on it, as once summer is over his work load will decrease due to me having less time being back at school, so I would like to have him at a reasonably good stage before he has the winter break :)

I will say though that I think he is the slowest race horse in the world, bless him, moves in slow motion at times I am sure of it! haaa. I can't complain though as I most definitely prefer that then for him to be some crazy machine!

The Arena Work Begins Here

Here's a picture of the first time I got on him;



I'll try get some more now as we have started doing some proper arena work :)


He is walking over poles, around blocks, and today was the first day of trotting with me riding him!
He was a little resistant to trot but I picked up a schooling whip, (brave I know) which he actually didn't care about, and with a little tap on the shoulder he broke into trot and did a few strides down the long side in quite a controlled and balanced manner :)

I will work on trot work and getting him to respond to my leg more but he is doing so amazingly well!
He is Mr. Chill now, such a different horse to when we got him..maybe a little too chilled at times, ahahaa.
He is very responsive when it comes to turning and stopping, all that long reining has come to good use and surprisingly he can manage to walk in a reasonably straight line!

I think the arena has become a safe zone, somewhere where he feels confident and is happy to do anything. Some more long reining around the fields and hopefully he will start to feel safe everywhere, and will make him a bit more spook proof.

He's Broken in :D

Today was the day, the day that I finally got on William. After 5 months of living out, becoming a horse, lunging, longreining, de-spooking and generally building up trust we've got there.

He was such a star!

He didn't care, he was chilled and by the end of it I was walking round on him on the lunge practacing some basic aids. He is very good at listening to me so now I'll have to start backing up my voice with aids from my leg too but I think it will all come quite quickly seeing as he is soo chilled. He is a new chilllaxed hosss! lol.

He was so sweet to be on, feels like a big pony. Suprisingly he held himself quite nicely when I got on him as well as I was expecting him to be very up and stiff but instead he was stretching his back out and was extremely relaxed, which was perfect :)

I love him so much, and he has proved to me that he has really buitl up trust in me :)

I am going away until thursday so he will just be lunged to keep up his stamina and give his brain a rest after that big step up, so he is prepared for some more riding when I return!

I can't wait to start to see his true potential and what he is going to be like, it's all so exciting, haha.

Video Footage of Lunging the Beast

Ok so I have been meaning to get some video footage of William for a long time, and here it is :)

He is doing amazingly well on the lunge at the moment, and this was taken on the day that I introduced a pole on the ground and asked him to trot over it, which was a first time thing for him and he attacked it successfully :D



I know the lunge line is a little droopy at times, bad me! lol


Doesn't he look all grown up in his tack, and he has grown in height more too. He is now 15.2 and a bit hands at withers and 16.1hh at his bum...what an interesting horse he is. but with the saddle on he becomes a lot bigger. Luckily it does look like his withers are starting to come through now so hopefully the end product will be a normal looking horse! Bless him.

Oh and I know I look like an idiot with the hat on and all but it had just finished thunderstorming, haha.

The New Horse - Rehabilitated.

Look at these two sweet identical beasts!

William has become a complete new horse compared with when we got him. It has been amazing working with him and seeing him progress he has learn his job and knows what we want from him. He has become brave and loving and has grown a tremendous amount of trust in me.

He has had just over a weeks holiday, so today I lunged him and I was ready to accept for him to not be perfect, however he was more than perfect :) I lunged him in a saddle and with side reins..he looked like a proper horse, rounded as well instead of being in the horrible hollow shape. He is starting to manage to hold himself in a rounded shape in trot as well now :)

Towards the end of the session I pulled down the stirrups so they could bang around on his sides. He didn't take any notice of them in both walk a trot, which was very pleasing to see.

The decision is that I will be riding him by the end of July, how exciting :)

I took him down to the yard and got the steps out so I could lean my weight over the saddle and pat around his sides where my legs will be in time to come. I stood up above him and made lots of movements, but no matter what I did he didn't even bat an eyelid. Hopefully this means that he will be a good boy when I come to get on him!

Also he ate an apple for the first time today! That is a major break-through and show that he is now basically fully rehabilitated into a super new horse :) I must say that he made interesting work when eating the apple, he used to just sniff then and walk a way but today he attempted to eat it. It took him a while to work out the best way to do so. pahaa, bless him :o)

Super Progress

Recently William has really chilled out (whether it is simply because of the excessive heat we will have to wait and see) he is doing soo well with the side reins on and he has even started long rein hacking. He has gone a little bum high again though, his withers best start to rise up soon! haha.

When lunging in walk with the side reins on he softens beautifly, and in trot he is building up slowly but it is obviously hard as his muscle needs to build up before he will be able to hold himself like that properly for a long time.

At points when he does soften he looks amazing, and it gives a great idea of what sort of a horse he is going to be (an incredible one) :D He has lovely floaty paces and listens to me :)

His character is growing as well, he drank out the hose the other day which is a big step from anything he would have done when he came. He has grown pure hatred for the horseflies, and spends close to the whole day in the field shetler along with the 3 other horse and sometimes the 2 ponies he is out with..must be a tight squeeze! I think he thin thoroughbred skin makes him more sensitive to bites bless him.

As for long reining he is a genius at it! He is really good at hacking out with it too, not scared just the odd spook at a bird but he is easy to control, which hopefully reflects him being a simple ride too in time to come. I have had him walking over poles which can be a little confusing but he is very clever at them now.

All in all it will be very exciting when the time come to get on him as I think he will make a wonderful horse if he carries on like he is with super improvement and progress :)

Long Reining :)

Cheeky little William did really well on the lunge with me today, only a little unwilling to return to walk sometimes...amazing how things have changed from when he couldn't trot round to now when he will go round and round with me just standing there :)

So todays sessions was focused a lot on transitions and getting him to listen to me more again instead of singing along in his little brain as if he is out on a day trip! lol

He was doing really well, and he is a lot softer and more relaxed and happy to round instead of fighting the side reins, which is a big improvement.

Hence why we thought that it would be a good time to introduce William to the long reins. It went down interestingly...the poor boy had no idea what it was touching his back legs so he ran, and ran trying to escape it as it was quite blatantly going to kill him. ahh dear.

Eventually he chilled out I I managed to lunge him using them with the outside one across his back legs and he wasn't running.

Then it progressed to me long reining him :) He was rather good at it I must say!

Overall I am very very pleased with him, and today has been a massive step in the right direction.

Up Up and Away!

The little boy has grown, he is now 15.2 1/2 hands :) although still slightly bum high but hopefully he will make about 15.3hh. Would be nice!

Anyway, he has progressed loads now and is really showing what a super horse he should make.

Today was day one of full on hard work for him. "William, now it is time to meet the roller and side reins" ahh he was a good boy.
He was watching with his beady eyes and ears to see what we were intending on doing with this odd contraption, and when it was done up he insisted on making it seem like it was a huge drag and he was about to fall over, as of course we can pull him over just doing it up..haha. Silly boy.

He is excellent at trotting round now, he just has to learn to really use his back end and accelerate himself forward :)
The side reins were a little weird for him and definitely weren't friends of his, as when he walked forward he had a bit of tension on his mouth which proved somewhat confusing! Couldn't understand that he just needed to round his neck. lol.
Eventually he started to get the idea and when he did soften he looked fabulous :) Just got to keep at it and the muscle should start to build up, and then it will be a lot less tiring for the little boy!

Everyday is a Step in the Right Direction :)

The little boy is doing well :)


To think that just over a week ago he was confused and not really listening to me, and now his ear is on me all the time.


His circle has improved tremendously, he will walk over poles on the ground with out any fuss, and he walk and halt is great. He is such a sweetie - he'll come to a halt and then stand there with his front leg twitching waiting for the command "and William, walk on", and off he goes again.
Occasionally he gets a little worried so stops and gives me the "confused eye" so that I know what going on and I can sort things out, and off he sets back onto the lunge :)

I am taking things slow as trot is still a little worrying for him, but there is no rush and by just doing a few strides a day we will get there.

He is changing shape all the time, although getting a little on the podgy side...someone is enjoying tea a little bit too much. ahaa. Still doesn't understand why he would want to eat and apple or polo, unsurprisingly Mayfly is more than happy to have them seeing as he isn't interested though!!

Amazingg! Love him :)

Third day of lunge work and he is close to perfect.

There is no more confusion. He has picked it up so fast and now knows his job and understands that it is very simple and at the end of it he gets his new favourite thing...tea :D

I was unbelievably happy with him, he now will go onto the lunge and walk out in a near perfect circle and we even did trot today for the first time.

He was a little "stop and go" in trot but that is to be expected all I cared was that he didn't run away because it makes sense to him now :)

The next step is to put a pole on the ground and see how he tackles that.

The poor boy also had his teeth done today, I arrived to him all sedated and sleepy. The vet was also taking his wolf teeth out. I have kept one as a little memory, disgusting maybe but oh well! ahaa.

It is becoming obvious that he is changing now; gaining some character, and learning to trust me. He will follow me around the arena and he is listening to me a lot more.

Lets hope he continues to amaze me and progress this fast, because with trust anything is possible :)

Day one :o)

Here he is, the new boy William :D

He is a 3 year old, 15.2 bay thoroughbred. He is a very pretty boy, with a little pony face. He was bred for racing but at the age of two when he began it was decided that he didn't have the speed to make it in the racing world, so the little boy has ended up in my wonderful hands with thanks to someone amazing :)

He has been in the field, for some "growing time", but he is now officially 3 years old and the time has come to start work with him.

I think it is fair to say that he had not been lunged before, as it seemed a rather confusing concept to him..
So, we decided that he could have a little mooch around the arena and loose some of that confusion and energy, and generally just to let him realise that the arena is a friendly place :)
It was really sweet watching him suss out everything, and he popped over the poles that were on the ground!
Once he had settled down we attempted the lunge again and he did it a lot better, so we ended it there for the day.

He was absolutely filthy from living out so we gave him his first shower (with us anyway). He surprisingly liked it, a little fidgety as expected but I think as it was a hot day he came to the decision that it was rather nice. And he very much enjoyed his yummy large feed!

He is such a lovely boy, and I am really looking forward to the times ahead!
This is the beginning of something amazing :D