Foundation Training at Warwick

I am sitting here at the Brisbane Airport, waiting for my flight to Sydney, reflecting on the past 10 days I have spent at Warwick. It started off with a Quantum Weekend, http://melsqs.blogspot.com/2011/01/ruth-and-renva-did-wonderful-job-of.html and after that I was straight into some foundation training with Red and Cherry. Red is a BIG Thoroughbred who just required a little help with flexing ALL of his body and learning how to follow the feel of a direct rein. This morning, his owner (another Mel!) came to pick him up. She wanted my help with him with the aim of making it easeir for her to pass her level 1 so I gave her a demo and showed her his wonderful indirect to canter transitions (picking up a canter lead was also another point of discussion that we had during the week)then it was her turn. At the beginning I noticed that Mel was reluctant to let Red go which was memories of what he was like and her not trusting that he would steer for her. I suggested the she try to canter him which was met by a little opposition but in the end she gave it a go. Red did a wonderful job of looking after Mel, he knew what she wanted to do and he was very paitent with her and then they finally cantered. I didn't have to ask her to try again, twice Mel cantered Red in both directions AND he gave her the correct lead nearly every time!! Well done Mel - I feel you have just discovered a new level of trusting your horse and that Red string will belong to youself and Red in no time.

Cherry was a completley different story all together. She had been started at 2 and hadn't been ridden since - she is now 9! She is a beautiful paint/QH type who was very agile and a LOT smaller than Red. With such a big gap between riding times, I was very thorough with our checklists and we had some exciting moments with the first Ride Checklist (which is bareback!!) but we hung in there and each day she got that little bit better - we moved onto the First Saddled ride checklist and of course Canter for the first time was on the agenda!! I was intending on just ticking off the boxes one at a time (hoping that I wouldn't have to canter her on the first go) but as we were trotting around, I felt her energy come up and I thought - now is the time to ask - so I asked and we cantered!! Woohoo! It was pretty fast as she is a very speedy little pony, and thankfully it wasn't bumpy We repeated this checklist the next few sessions and her trotting and cantering improved as we went. This morning, after lots of rain the day before, there was water everywhere which was all new for Cherry and she started off a bit jumpy and needed a little encouragement to go through the puddles(a great chance for a flight test!)but in the end she was walking and trotting through it without a worry in the world. We did our checklist and not once did she slip!

It was then time to hand her back to Renva who hopped on and walked her around - she looked like an old school horse. I couldn't help thinking how far she had come in the 8 sessions that we had together.