The Art Works for some.

 

As people come down the driveway, they often shoot a sideways glance at this piece of wood log art work and ask not only “What is it?” but “Why is it there?”

It is my attempt to work with the mind set of those horses who are just starting under saddle. So often people have trouble in the early stages under saddle because riders find the horses appears reluctant to leave home or it wonders off and we seem to always be working to keep them on track.

In the early stages of educating a young horse I do a lot of in hand work or working from the ground. Walks up the driveway and into the surrounding bushland become regular adventures for the young horses as they develop their confidence in dealing with the depth of their new surroundings. These adventures are used as opportunities to reinforce and rehearsals for already acquired skills. We walk, stop, trot, we do walk trot transitions up and down. We use the spacing between the trees down the driveway to practice inside and outside turns. These exercises give the horse the chance to work from a feel with the lead rope or as practice for moving their hind quarters. The opportunity for variation is endless. As a result, these exercises drip, drip, drip information into the horse’s brain to the point where is says” This is what we do” No fuss.

So now to the Art Work at the entrance of the driveway. Not long after the backing phase, I walk the horses down the drive to the Art Work which now doubles as a mounting block. I slip on and walk the horse back down the driveway to home. No trouble here with direction or steering. They walk home straight as a die. Over the weeks I gradually interrupt the walk home and practices stopping starting, trotting, transitions up and down, we back up, we turn around trees with the feel of an open rein, we cross the driveway yielding the hind quarters as we move around trees. With these things established I feel more confident in riding the horse and we can begin to tackle the bushland beyond the driveway.