Horse&Rider - February 2015

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horseandrideruk.com FEBRUARY 2015

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Prepare for

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Pt 1: The perfect canter

10 TIPS for a happier horse PLUS

How to solve your handling problems

easy exercises to try

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Lucinda Fredericks’

top exercises for excitable horses ➤ At home with eventing’s rising star Izzy Taylor

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➤ How to choose the perfect long riding boots

➤ Vet expert: equine nosebleeds explained

PART ONE In this feature... ➤ Identify different equine personalities

As told to Kelly McCarthy-Maine. Photos: Bob Atkins and Anastasia Sewell

Our expert

Eventer Lucinda Fredericks has won Burghley, Badminton and Kentucky three-day events, all on her 15.3hh chestnut mare, Headley Britannia, ‘Brit’. Lucinda now competes on Brit’s children, chestnut mare Little Britannia and Sport Horse GB stallion, Britannia’s Mail.

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In the saddle

➤ Challenge a horse who finds his work easy ➤ Settle a nervous type

The

happy athlete

While every horse is an individual, eventer Lucinda Fredericks has found there are certain types of personality she meets again and again. In the first part of this series, she works with a horse who finds his work all too easy and one who is excitable Individuals of different types

Having said that every horse is an individual, there are types of horsey character I seem to meet over and over again, whose personalities can be eerily familiar. For each of these types, slightly tailoring your stable management and training philosophy can make a huge difference to the

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Super-talen ted I’ll show you how to manage, deve challenge a ho lop and rse who finds everything a bi keep him from t too easy – and getting too ch eeky!

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mindset of the athlete you are developing.

Even with idiosyncratic personalities, if you want to succeed, the end result of any training programme has to be a reasonably compliant, happy athlete who is capable of performing at the level you are preparing for. Here’s how I work with some of the different types of horse I meet.

Meet Miss Emmalu

My first horse was, to put it mildly, quite a handful. But I learnt a huge amount from her. Although quite what my parents were thinking when they agreed a just-backed, four-year-old Holstein mare was the best way for me to make the transition from ponies to horses, I’ll never know. But thank goodness they did, because Miss Emmalu was highly intelligent with an incredible character. She was also tricky, nappy and stubborn, and the only horse I had – so I had to find ways to get along with her.

I spent all my time with Emmalu. Getting to know her so intensely kick-started my education in understanding horses as individuals with highly developed

personalities – and I learnt how to adapt training methods to work best for each character. Eventually, I could free-school Emmalu around me on a perfect circle in a 20-acre hay field and if we had a problem jumping at home, I’d climb off and speak to her about it, then get back on and we’d be fine.

Not surprisingly, no-one else ever got on with Emmalu, but once I figured out her personality, there was nothing she wouldn’t do for me. She was by my side for 24 years, competing up to Advanced level eventing and breeding lots of foals. She came along at the right time in my career and I’ve got her to thank for preparing me so thoroughly for a lifetime of working successfully with lots of interesting horsey personalities.

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pART One In this feature. . . ➤ Be more confident in handling your Jason Webb was born in New South Wales, Australia.

Through his continual work in training horses, he developed an in-depth understanding of horse psychology and behaviour, and has developed a training system based on equine psychology.

His easy to understand teaching methods have helped riders of all abilities train their horses in a safer, more effective way.

How to disengage the hind end When teaching this movement, I start on the ground. It helps the horse learn the movement and the handler can see when it has been performed correctly. The same principles apply whether you’re teaching your horse in-hand or under saddle.

To disengage the hind end, flex your horse’s head towards you with the lead rope or rein. ➤

Photos: Louise Siggers-Solheim. Thanks to Toggi and Champion for their help with this feature, toggi.com and championhats.co.uk. For more information on Jason Webb, visit yourhorsemanship.com

Our trainer

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Mind matters

horse ➤ Gain confidence under saddle ➤ Disengage your horse’s hind end

Diffusing a ticking

An excitable or nervous horse can become a scary problem for his owner, but Jason Webb explains simple solutions to handle any situation with confidence

➤ If your horse is more reluctant to move, either because he is lazy or because he has tensed up, you will need to direct energy towards the hind end by moving towards it and swinging the end of the rope, or even tapping his hindquarters with the rope.

Direct energy to the hind end

As soon as your horse flexes to the inside, moving his hindquarters around his forehand, release the tension, let him relax and give him a pat.

➤

➤

If your horse is energetic and ignoring your cues, you may need to be strong with your aid.

W

hile some horses are more excitable than others, even the most placid character can become ‘lit up’ when the circumstances are right, no matter how well-trained he is. And as humans, our natural reaction to this behaviour is to stiffen up and grab hold of the lead rope or reins in order to keep our horse under control. This reaction only makes things worse, causing your horse to feel more tense and claustrophobic. Older, established horses may react with a little jog or spook before settling down again. But a youngster or more sensitive horse may have an adverse reaction, potentially leading to the development of unwanted behaviour, such as napping, rearing, bucking or bolting.

Using a technique that I call disengaging the hind end can help keep an excitable or anxious horse under control and his rider safe. It’s a movement similar to a turn-on-the-forehand and is used to control your horse in a volatile situation.

Using one rein, the aim is to get your horse’s inside hindleg to cross in front of his outside hindleg. The inside foreleg becomes a pivot, with the outside foreleg moving around it.

A stronger aid

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Tales of the

Unexpected

Readers tell us their true-life stories As told to Lucy Turner. Photos: Alastair Langham at The Studio 17, courtesy of Leicestershire Fire and Rescue Service

All’s well

that ends well

H

&R reader Mark Badge’s daughter, Amy, was lucky enough to have found her horse of a lifetime – Foxy, an 11-year-old Irish Sport Horse mare.

Amy had owned Foxy for about three years, but had left her in the care of a fellow livery while she was at university in Bath. On this particular day, Foxy’s carer had left her in the paddock safe and sound, or so she thought. Mark continues the story...

Foxy had been recovering from a knee injury at the time. As part of her recovery, she needed to be

kept on restricted turnout, so she wasn’t being turned out in her usual field and had been out in some of the smaller paddocks at the yard. Foxy had recently been turned out in a new field and left to enjoy the good grazing.

Chance sighting

Later that day, by sheer chance, one of the girls at the yard, Tracey, spotted something that appeared to be flapping around in the field.

Suspecting something wasn’t quite right, she wandered up to the paddock to investigate, only to be faced with the horrifying sight of Foxy’s head

A technical rescue Mark Edwards from Leicestershire Fire and Rescue Service’s Technical Rescue Team attended the incident and tells us more about how they extracted Foxy from the well...

“This was one of the most unique and difficult rescues we have ever had to undertake. We needed to come up with a plan to get Foxy out safely, but there was no room down the well.

There was a considerable amount of discussion that took place as to whether it was a viable rescue or not, and there was divided opinion as to whether we were going to be able to achieve the rescue

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within animal welfare guidelines. We decided to go ahead, but requested armed police back-up in case we couldn’t safely release Foxy and needed a marksman.

“We fed the harness down and around Foxy’s back, hooking it under her front legs. This method is usually used to drag trapped horses who are lying on the ground and isn’t a technique we’d use for lifting a horse, but it was our only option. The biggest problem was getting the harness around Foxy so we could achieve a vertical lift. Once it was in place, she was lifted to safety by a mechanical digger.

“We could only get the harness around Foxy’s front legs and chest, but it’s believed this may have caused her some veterinary problems. Unfortunately, this was the only way we were able to get her out quickly, but we’ve learnt a lot from it and have taken the information away for training and future rescues.”

Ask a vet

If there’s something to get stuck in or caught on, it seems horses will find it, as one Horse&Rider reader had the misfortune of finding out to Water needed t ou d pe be pum of the well d before she coul ed as be rele

Do you have a ‘Tale of the unexpected’ about your horse?

Maybe an unusual ailment or a miraculous recovery?

Send the details to Lucy Turner, Horse&Rider, D J Murphy (Publishers) Ltd, Marlborough House, Headley Road, Grayshott, Surrey GU26 6LG or email lucy@djmurphy.co.uk

HHH Rate

this feature

Go to tinyurl.com/RateFeb15 for a chance to win a Mountain Horse Crew jacket (see p9).

just above ground level and the poor mare struggling to free herself.

Foxy had fallen into a one-metre diameter well situated at the boundary of the paddock, and only her head, neck and knees were visible. Keeping a cool head, Tracey raised the alarm and stayed by Foxy’s side, reassuring her until help arrived.

Stuck fast

I was called to the yard around 4pm and arrived to find a huge rescue effort in progress – I couldn’t quite believe the scene unfolding in front of me.

There were three rescue teams, two vets from Chine House Veterinary Hospital and even armed police. There was much discussion as to how best to get Foxy out and, worryingly, whether they would be able to get her out alive.

Eventually, the team managed to get a harness around her chest, and she was hooked up to a JCB and lifted free. Knowing how much Foxy meant to Amy, to say I breathed a sigh of relief that she was out of the well is an understatement. But the relief was short-lived when we realised the extent of Foxy’s injuries.

A difficult decision

The harness wa s secured around Foxy’s chest...

as ...and she w ted lif ly al eventu B JC a by free

As Foxy was hauled to the top of the well, vet Jonathan Bryars sedated her heavily so she would keep calm and lie still while he assessed her injuries. There was a very real risk of fractured legs. She had severe injuries to all of her legs, particularly the right fore, where the cannon area had been ‘degloved’ – the skin was completely torn away from the underlying structures.

The sedation began to wear off and Foxy was slowly helped to her feet. The responsibility then fell with me to decide what to do next. Her injuries were extensive, possibly life-threatening, and having Foxy put to sleep was a very real option. I knew how much this would devastate Amy, but if it was the best thing for Foxy, I’d have had to make the call. And if we were going to try to save her, we needed to act immediately.

While Foxy was looking understandably sorry for herself, she had remained calm throughout and hadn’t showed signs of distress. I had to give her a chance. So arrangements were made to take her to Rossdales Equine Hospital in Newmarket.

➤ HORSe &RIDER 79

10 tips

Photos: Bob Atkins, David Miller. Horse&Rider says always seek your vet’s permission before engaging a physiotherapist for your horse

for a

happier horse Alongside your horse’s regular maintenance regime, there are things you can do to keep him comfy, says equine physiotherapist Lisa Brooke

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Management know-how

Our expert

E

very horse has a schedule of routine maintenance – at the bare minimum this will include foot trimming and/or shoeing and teeth rasping. But there are other checks that you should make to ensure your horse is comfy, fit and happy to do the job you ask of him.

Regular check-ups with a qualified equine physiotherapist enable small muscular niggles to be treated quickly before they become a bigger problem.

And while it is important to use a qualified veterinary physiotherapist to treat and maintain musculoskeletal issues, there are a number of things that, as a horse owner, you can do to keep your horse feeling comfortable and performing to the best of his ability.

1

Lisa Brooke has a BA (Hons) in equine studies and a diploma in veterinary physiotherapy. She is a member of the National Association of Veterinary Physiotherapists and is trained in equine sports massage. She enjoys competing in affiliated dressage and hopes to take her youngster all the way to Grand Prix.

Baited stretches You might know these as carrot stretches. If done on a regular basis, baited stretches can help to improve the suppleness and range of motion in your horse’s neck, and they have been shown to increase the mass of the small spinal muscles in the back. They must not be done with horses who are suffering from undiagnosed neck pain – so if in doubt, speak to your vet.

There are four stretches in the series. It is important to run through all of them each time. Your horse may well find some stretches easier than others, so it is important that you don’t ask him to reach beyond what is comfortable. As his suppleness improves, he will be able to reach much further. And don’t forget to watch your fingers – long slivers of carrot or hand-held licks will help prevent you from being nibbled!

How to

➤ Ask your horse to reach slowly around to his elbow by tempting him with a treat. ➤ Once he is in position, with an evenly curved neck, give him the treat. ➤ Allow him to eat it with his neck straight, before doing the next stretch. ➤ Repeat on the other side. ➤ Ask him to reach down so his nose is just between his knees. He mustn’t bend his front legs and cheat, though! ➤ Now tempt him towards his sternum. ➤ Finally ask him to reach forward to elongate his neck.

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