Duchy College, Cornwall  demonstration for Lyd Valley Riding Club - 27th July 2008

On the 27th July Dan ran a clinic for Lyd Valley Riding Club. It was a boiling hot day and we'd like to thank the audience for sitting in the heat and for being so quiet and attentive - we hope you enjoyed the day as much as we did! We would also like to say a big thank you to Helen and the Lyd Valley Riding Club for organising and helping us on the day.

Some of the issues on this day may seem smaller than we usually work with, however these issues are not small to the owners! Many smaller issues can develop into bigger problems! We worked with four horses:

Finn

Finn is a 3yr old 15.2 gelding who came to us for starting. He had never had a saddle or rider. Finn accepted the starting process very calmly, he didn't mind the saddle and was relaxed when Dani rode him. A great start for him!

Secret

Secret is beautiful chestnut mare who also came to us for starting, however Secret was known for being bolshy on the gorund and her owner needed some help to move forward with this. After dan had established some ground manners and respect for his space, we moved onto the starting process. Secret bucked hard with the saddle, but accepted Dan as a rider. Secret moved slightly wrong behind due to her pelvis being out of alignment and therefore we limited the amount of work we did with her. Secret will hopefully therefore continue with this work at Dan's place, after treatment from a chiropractor. Owner's Comment: Fantastic result, I never knew her pelvis was out, i learnt so much!

Bodger

Bodger is a gorgeous 14.2h gelding and although broken western he lacked confidence and would nap and spin when ridden. Dan worked with Bodger both on the ground with longlines and then ridden to gain control of Bodger's movement and turns. We hope Bodger's owner will keep in contact to further his training.

Gem

Gem came to us with a loading problem. Her owner always needed help from someone else when loading her, and it therefore proved difficult to go to shows on her own. Gem was loading well by the end of the demonstration however we hope to be able to work more with her owner. The next steps are teaching  Gem to want to load with partitions in, and then to stand while the back ramp is put up.