We're keeping that old stuff on their manes, to stop them pulling it out because obviously when they're lurching about like this and you've got harness sliding up and down their necks
you can be pulling manes out and all sorts before you know it.
So we're doing the best we can but that's as fast as we can go.
How long have they been here now? Coming up 4 weeks is it?
So I don't think they're doing bad.
They stand here nice and quiet, nice and patient.
This horse, the white socked horse is on the outside here... You do... Pack up, pack up. Good boy.
That's a prime example then with him, did you film that?
For no reason at all he'll do that.
But I reckon that's where his problem was before. He'll come round there, touch that pole with his
quarters,
a hundred times,
never bother.
And every now and then he'll do that.
So these 2 Morgans are now going as a pair.
The purpose of putting Roly out the front at the start of the film
is to give them a lead and help with their confidence by letting them follow an experienced
horse.
This is their first time being driven as a pair
just to show that they'll leave the yard calmly at the walk.
They're very well matched not because they're identical in colour but because
they have almost identical strides and paces.
We're not concerned about their head carriage at this stage; we want them to go
happily together without feeling restrained or confined by undue pressure on the reins.
to speak a little consent that we should we just saw cutting rains in cases like
People have often said we should adjust our coupling reins in cases like this, but that's not correct; they don't understand what we're trying to achieve.
By adjusting the coupling reins to stop the nearside horse turning his head in
you would apply more pressure to the outside of his mouth making his mouth harder on that
side.
Once he settles, his head will come straight to how the reins are adjusted now.
The whole purpose of what we are doing is to have them soft on your hands with a little light
contact, and still produce horses that will answer the bit and have a good head carriage
on one of our soft rubber bits.
This is the first lorry they've met
he also lets his air brakes off as they pull alongside but
if you watch the inside horse, who we've done more work with on the long reins
he responds by leaning into the offside horse. If we hadn't worked with him on
the long reins, when the offside horse pushes into him he would have shied as well
and they both would have gone right onto the pavement,
onto the grass and ended up in the hedge.
So what we're showing is that they're controllable bearing in mind they're still only being
driven in soft rubber bits.
We can control them without needing masses of metal in their mouths.
If we'd had stronger bits in then
they might have stayed on course better but
we want to improve their actual reaction to traffic and not create a false impression
by holding on to them.
This shows they're happy to obey voice commands without us forcing them with hard
metal bits or curb chains.
Now we're entering Stockbridge, we've got more traffic passing.
This is the second lorry they've met
being driven as a pair and you can see much less of a reaction.
They're gaining confidence being driven together obviously with the different horse
alongside them. The offside horse was used to having Roly alongside him.
So you can see now we've got traffic passing close by the horse
at the stand still; his recovery rate is better -
before he would have been barging into him violently
which would also have unsettled
the nearside horse.
Now, even though he might have a brief startle every now and then,
he's soon back standing with his leg at rest on a loose rein.
The driver isn't having to hang on tightly to the reins to stop them from moving.
Also bear in mind there's no groom at their heads to distract them -
they're facing the problems all alone out in front by themselves.
We've also put Fletcher on the reins, so its their first time
with a different driver too
which is another big test for them.
They're confident enough to listen to Fletcher who's a different voice and a different feel
on their mouths.
As much as I can guarantee it, he's done this out there
out in the states he's done that,
he's come and rested his arse on their
and what he's done, he's probably gone to step back, either lifted it up and he's fell over it
bearing in mind it wouldn't be straight down through like ours
it wouldn't be horizontal it would be laying down on a fence so the
high bit would be at the back.
So as he's come round he's blinkered up
he's got his arse out there, they've pushed him back, he's missed, gone down and sat on it and frightened the life out of himself. He's possibly snapped the pole at that point,
fell on the ground,
or dropped off, snapped the point, but he's just laid on this here
So
you can see the mark on his quarters where he's disturbed the hair where he's sat on it that hard
Now I reckon the only reason he's forgiving, and not started kicking
is because the pole is padded. Heavily padded. So he can't quite figure out is this the
hard lump of wood that was there, do you see where I'm coming from?
And I've had a couple of these...
I had a team from the States
over here...
But what I've done I just put the brake on
put the front brake full on to lock it up because right by the side of us here is
(just film that car there)
this is where we're standing
Now if you look on the road here, see those scratch marks there?
That's where he was scraping and fighting, but standing here as quiet as a Christian now. Its going to take some time to get him over
the traffic side of it
but its like when one thing goes wrong everything goes wrong in their heads.
But they're both standing here...
Yes one thing goes wrong and its like...
Just this second got a motorhome coming past
so I'll just see if he...
now he's just had a little look,
lifted his head up but he's back standing still
and he's still got his leg at rest.
Still got his leg at rest.
B: I mean I can't do any more than that, I'm not a miracle worker.
M: Being that close to him was obviously a big step
Now this one here, a squeaking van, just moved a bit, but he's stood his ground.
Some people say you need more contact when driving a horse
but if these horses who've had a bad experience
can be driven on a slack rein then they must trust the driver and be listening to the driver.
And therefore the driver must trust them. Once their confidence is built on a slack rein
then we can sort out their head carriage and start producing them for the show ring.
But at this stage their head carriage is a minor issue compared to actually
getting them relaxed and happy out on the roads. Here we've got our riverkeeper coming up
on his mower to keep the verges clear
for the fishermen and we're very pleased with that reaction because
its a very unusual vehicle coming up the road.
Now we're taking them in the river which is another big things for their
confidence.
They've got to go in at speed which shows they're willing and happy to do so
they've got all the branches snapping where its a bit overgrown, the splash of the water,
different sights, different sounds
and yet they're still controllable
and happy to do what we ask them to just on our soft rubber bits.
This shows that their own confidence in themselves is growing and this comes from
having confidence in their driver.