Harly came to me in June ’05 after being seen on www.projecthorses.co.uk. I went to see him the day after I saw the advert and had him delivered the next day. Harly was described as “Having off days” in his advert on project horses, but when I went to see him it was explained that the problems were ones around mounting.

I saw Harly being lunged but not ridden when I went to see him and saw just how tense and uptight he got when someone put a mounting block near him and stood on it. As soon as a saddle cloth was on his back he grew a few hands and went as stiff as a board. Not to be deterred I thought I could do something with him after all I had worked with horses since leaving school and had successfully completed my BHS exams!

When he got to the livery yard where I was going to keep him he seemed contented. He had travelled for about an hour and did not seem bothered. I let him settle in for about two weeks before attempting any work with him. Harly was always wary of sudden movements about his head and was reluctant to have his head touched.

My first attempt at riding Harly started with trying to mount from the floor, foot in the stirrup and pulling myself on. No sooner as I had put my weight in the stirrup Harly was off. He shot away around the school with me holding on for dear life, eventually ditching me in the sand. This was tried again a few more times with the same outcome.

I sought some advice from Horsey friends who suggested starting by leaning over Harly from a high mounting block. This worked after about the fourth attempt, I could stay on his back and be led around the school. The next step was to swing my leg over and sit upright in the saddle which was done over the next few days culminating in being led around the school satisfactorily.

Thinking that all was well I began to try and school Harly, still getting on by leaning over and gradually swinging my leg over. However on a repeatable basis Harly would buck and spin around at speed until he got me off. He clearly was not happy with me being up there. After a number of trips to casualty to stitch up wounds I decided that professional help was needed.

That is when I decided to apply for Harly to be part of the up and coming Monty Roberts Demonstration at the Hand Equestrian Centre in Clevedon, North Somerset ‘05. He was selected but my worst fear was that Harly would do nothing on the night and make me look stupid.....but he showed everyone just what I have had to endure for the last few months.

Monty could see from the outset that Harly had been beaten in the past, hit about the head, twitched on the nose and the ear and kicked in the ribs to make him comply.....I thought he may have been abused when I got him but you don't ever want to think of that for your horse. I just hope the people that beat him are happy with themselves and can sleep at night.

Monty did Join-up to start followed by Grant preparing him to be ridden bare-back with their single roller bareback rigging. Harly went off on one with the roller on when Monty sent him off on a circuit of the round pen, bucking and trying to get the strange thing off his back.

Then Grant got on and Harly objected to that for the first couple of circuits of the pen, with some little bucks. As soon as Grant got him into trot and canter Harly put in a couple of his trademark big bucks and headed for the side of the round pen with Grant sitting there like he was on a leisurely hack. Harly quickly became happier with Grant on his back but was still a little unsure. Then Grant got on with a saddle, to which Harly was still a little unsure but did not try and get them off. The session was ended with Dan Wilson mounting and dismounting Harly from a mounting block to which no objections were made.

The evening showed me just what was possible with Harly. I made arrangements to send him off to Grant in November ‘05 for some follow up training hoping to get back a perfect horse.

Harly spent a total of four weeks with Grant at his peaceful yard in the Oxfordshire countryside, with as many visits from me as was possible. I witnessed after the first few days of Harly being there the start of a change. Harly looked so much more relaxed after such a short period of time and was less worried about his head being touched.

Grant could get on from his mounting block, walk Harly around his round pen, and get him to take steps backwards all without a hint of trying to chuck someone off.

The last two weeks of Harly’s time with Grant was based around getting him to hack out safely. I followed in the car a number of times taking with me the mounting block so that Grant could mount and dismount in different surroundings.

After doing this a few times Grant sprung it on me that I was getting on and promptly led me the mile and a half back to his yard. This followed days later with me hacking Harly out with Grant on his horse, which we worked on until the day he came home.

In the first month of having Harly back I followed Grants instructions to the letter, reinforcing the work he did and letting Harly enjoy being a horse again. In total he has hacked out for about 30 hours since returning from Grants, all trouble free.

What a fantastic job Grant has done with a horse that has been passed from pillar to post in his short life and was once to be sold for meat.