Just to explain in a little more detail what we have to do before we can take a mature horse through the routine of stock work, when i say mature, i mean horses that have been bought in, normally the yongsters have had this done on a halter, so they dont give this a second thought once thay are riding.
I call this 'Booger' training, because i like to take the booger out of every day things that these horses dont normally have to work in close contact with until they come here,
One thing a lot of people dont realise is that there is a lot of difference between a horse grazing with stock and actually working stock, and there is a lot of difference between a horse passing a bike on a main road and actually working in close contact with one, so i like to try and make it as easy as possible to desensitizing them to what could potentially be an accident waiting to happen,
In the picture above the bike is running and all i ask is that she stand as close as possible, i then get Andrew to drive up to me slowly, and then ill walk along side the bike while Andrew revvs it some more, and keep practising that until they are comfortable,
Driving, as ive mentioned before is one of the easiest things to start them off on, and Poppy on this occasion was glad to take a back seat, while i concentrated on Lucy with out anything getting in the way,
It is an exellent opportunity to teach a horse to rate its speed, as you may have to speed up, and then slow right down, or even stop and wait and then speed right up again, depending on how the stock are behaving.
Lucy being really good girl, drops her head feeling relaxed enough to get on and keep driving, concentrating on the job in hand, as she is a long way from being finished for the day.
Lucy having to up her speed again as another group of sheep are being moved.
Even though Lucy hasnt got much natural stock working flair, which you dont know until you try them, she has plenty of stamina, which held her in good stead on this occasion.
Now i know that most people i guess would be happy if thier horse would walk past this without too much of a fuss and that would be the end of that, but no, never one to back out of a 'booger 'opportunity, the best time to tackle this is after a few hours stock work,
I cant tell you how windy it really was, and having a bag over 6 foot hanging off the front end loader blowing back and forth, like it was alive, was too good to miss,
I never start something i cant finish, so its best to allow yourself enough time, no matter what the lesson,
To be fair to her, she did look suprised, but i wasnt going to be happy until she was standing there as close as possible, relaxed.
And with some patience and an encouraging pat, keeping the leg contact on her until she relaxed, she did really well, dropped her head and realised it wasnt going to eat her.
I like to let the horses see as much as they can when they are out, as there is different machinary with different implements parked in different places every time the horses have to walk through the yard, so the sooner they get used to change the better.
To end on a good note, i let her check out the Tractor too, If i can i let the horses have time to smell whtever it is they are investigating, as they are not going to be afraid of something that doesnt smell offensive, they may even like the smell, and the soil an these tyres isnt so bad, so Tractors are,nt so scary after all.
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