hi it's josie and today i've got something a little bit different for you but before you
look at what we're going to do or hear about it and think it's not for you this is for everybody
that has anything to do with a horse this is where your relationship with your horse starts before
you even get in the saddle so i'll give you a little bit of background of what's going to happen
this is ava this is spider's sister his little sister so i started ava under saddle she was
always a sensitive mare she was a little bit of an opinionated mare she's a chestnut mare after all
and she has taught me probably more than all of my horses put together because of that she's
given me more compulsory dismounts than any other horse i've ever ridden which is your rude get off
and i get off whether i wanted to or not anyway over the course of her training how long was she
under saddle for i don't start my horses really till there four five six seven nearly three three
and a half years she started off beautifully and then she started getting uh worse in her
attitude and her behavior she would run up and down the fences here and roar like a stallion she
was difficult to do anything with on the ground and i began to actually doubt myself and i began
to think that i must not be a very good horse trainer if my own horse is behaving like this
in fact one of the last straws was she went to the farrier and she was so badly behaved for him
that he just said i don't think i can shoe this horse anymore and she was pretty bad that day
and i remember i'm driving home from the farrier and making the decision that i had to do something
about it i needed to find out what was wrong with my horse or or i was going to give up um
horse training i truly was at that point i was so doubting myself so anyway i i booked her in
for a vet check and over the course of that vet check we found that ava had what's called a theca
cell tumor one of her ovaries had turned in to a tumor and it was a testosterone producing tumor
so it actually retarded the other tumor of hers uh sorry her other ovary and other ovary
was like the size of a walnut and this was a very large testosterone-producing tumor so
ava had so much testosterone on board which obviously mares shouldn't have because they're
mares not stallions and was sending her absolutely crazy for me that was such a relief for two things
because one i didn't feel so bad about myself as a horse trainer and two it was completely
treatable so it's not cancerous and it's not hereditary it's just something that happens
so she ended up having her ovary removed and then they told me to give her six months off to let
all the hormones settle down well at six months she still didn't look quite right to me and i
wasn't happy and then i have to be really honest before you knew it it's now two and a half years
but ava is um her beautiful self again so today's video i want to show you
how i bring a horse that hasn't been in work for a long time back into work and it starts at the very
beginning so you're going to see day one on what i do with her and then over the course of a few
videos i might actually progressively do some for you anyway it is important for you to know this
stuff if you handle a horse if you ride handle i don't care if you're western jumping
dressage or just pleasure riding you need to understand these uh the way the horse learns
and what you should do around him because it builds your relationship with them all
right i'll just give her a brush and we'll head out to the round yard so i'll see you out there
okay so we've made our way over to the round yard hasn't been used for a little while as
you can see by the weeds in here so ava's doing a little bit of weeding work for me
so the first thing i'm going to do with her is make sure that she will give me her attention
and i may not be able to talk to you whilst i'm doing this because i do need to concentrate
i'm going to be a little rusty i'm going to make some mistakes but that's fine because
we all make mistakes so the first thing i'm going to do is send her off but the aim of this is not
to run your horse madly around a round yard until they i guess some people call this join up i will
for want of a better term but you don't it's not to run your horse madly around a round yard
the minute she gives me her attention i am going to take the pressure off of her so remember
i have taught you guys horses learn from the release of the pressure so this morning i'm
using pressure and release there are other ways that you can train a horse you can use positive
reinforcement pressure and release is negative reinforcement now i really want to make a point
here because i hate it because people get carried away with the word negative and they're like oh
that means you beat your horse or you're nasty to your horse it's not negative in this respect means
to remove something negative minus so i put pressure on her and i take that pressure away
when she gives me what i would like and today that will be her attention and in
the very beginning her attention may just be an ear flick in my way or a slight look in my way so
i'm and she is actually a really sensitive mare so you may not see me actually or i might look if
you've not got a practice eye i might look like i'm doing nothing so my body language so horses
pressure can be pressure on a rope pressure from a rope or also body language so if you look at
the camera and i do that to you can you feel that that is pressure and if i do that i've taken that
pressure away it's very very subtle with horses so that's what i'm going to do to start with so
i'm going to send her quietly with as much energy as i need to get her moving her feet
and the minute she looks at me i will take that pressure away from her so let's just see how we go
by the way just before i get going with this horses have a driveline about where your girth
sits on the horse when you're on that driveline normally they will they should keep going at
the pace you've got if you get slightly behind that driveline and notice that my belly button
went that way you send them forward if i to a a more energy if i get slightly in front
i would like my horse to literally slow down stop or turn and face me so if you've got a horse that
you're lunging and it turns to face you chances are you've gotten in front of that driveline just
a little tip be aware of that all right let's see how we go so as much or as little energy as i need
good girll good girl good girl she looked at me then i just want a bit more forward
before i do this she's got an inside ear on me guys can you see that so i'm aware
there's a bit of food in here she's happy okay now she's a good girl so she turned to look at me i
took the pressure off and i literally really took the pressure off her by turning myself sideways
turning my belly button and all my energy source away from her and she came in now she
should be pretty good at this she's a sensitive mare see if she will but there's food here so
that might be a little bit more interesting than me so if i walk away and she doesn't follow me
i am going to go behind there the drive line and i was going to push her forward but
she turned sorry i got to concentrate otherwise i'm being unfair forward so
i'm using my hand no i've asked her to go forward now and she ignored it good girl
just remember it's two and a half or three years since she's done any of this
she's got her ear on me can you see that i'm aware good girl good girl good
all right so what i wanted was her to take a little bit more notice of me
she didn't she's still got a the food's very interesting i'm not so interesting
that's not very nice ava good girl so i used a little bit too much energy there i didn't
want it to canter but so i'm sitting in the driveline here i'm slightly behind
the girth to keep her moving forward good girl i'm watching her eye and her ear
and i just want you guys to uh to be aware that out there is the mare paddock that she
spent the last couple of years in they're all standing on the fence line watching her
good girl she's got her ear on me ear on me face coming towards me good girl
oh very good girl good girl i'm just going to sit here for a minute with no energy letting
all the energy out of my body if you can't see her i can she's doing a lot of blinking
so now i'm going to see if she'll come with me this time and she will
good girl and if i get left behind if she gets left behind i'll just send her
i do not want her to go past me
and she's now not coming that was too much energy i use then i want you to go and watch that with
my hand and the rope i did and if she's a bit stuck notice how i just cross my path good girl
the food in here is very interesting she's in a sand paddock at the moment
now she's not coming so i'm going to send her no and now i've told her that way i want her
she's got me in her left eye i'm going to get around here good girl go that way okay
good girl i'm going to offer her a chance to come in again good girl
good girl good girl see if she'll come with me i probably didn't pause long enough then
and i want to go this way so notice i turn towards her back end
and as long as she keeps that coming away and the front feet coming towards me which they're
not she's being a cheeky little devil she wants to eat come on that way no that way good girl
she just has an opinion she's allowed to have an opinion
good girl now i'm just sitting on her drive whoops i nearly got in front of it there i'm
right on her driveline here good girl and i'm giving i'm taking the pressure
away and giving her an opportunity to come in and follow me good girl
good girl hey what a good girl we're gonna just go this way yeah good i want the front feet to
come yeah it's good that she moves her hinds but i actually want her front feet to come towards me
and here they come if i feel off them like now
i'll just send her on a bit it's okay she can have an opinion off you go
go my fault okay perfect example of my fault i got in front of her and so there she turned and went
to go the other way that's exactly what she should have done that was completely my mistake so i just
say sorry yes sorry i forgot how sensitive you are good girl you go that way good girl
good girl that was way my fault guys good
now i'm gonna just come in front of a good girl good girl good girl
that's okay all righty that will do for that bit so
the other things i want to check with her are all of the basics that i put on her when i started
her under saddle i use rope halters i once upon a time used the clip-on ropes but this day and age
i prefer these that are actually knotted to the halter because when you wriggle the rope a bit
they get clunked in the face with those big catches and i think that's awful so the first
thing i want to know is that she will follow the pressure down which i just know she will do
because she's such a good girl aren't you good girl i don't mind that she ate because she see
i put the pressure got her to go down then i let go i want her to bend on the halter without
moving her hind legs now she may move her may turn in a circle here and all i will do in that case is
hold the pressure on the rope with her bent until her feet stop and then i will release the pressure
remember you want to release the pressure when the horse does what you want it to do so i want her
to come this way and here she goes so i just stay with her with a very neutral energy and the minute
her feet stopped i let go of the rope my energy was down so that i did i wasn't driving her you
have to be very aware of your internal energy around a horse and let me tell you if you're a
little nervous or a little scared you got a lot of energy happening and they are so sensitive so i'm
going to do that again because what i want is for her just for me to be able to bring the rope here
good girl and trust me when i broke this mare in or started this mare under saddle
i needed that bending i needed a one rein stop she was extremely sensitive and she's very athletic
and i'm just going to ask her to bend again because she took a step then i
want her to bend until she bend for me now that she's leaning on the rope
i just want her to give me a soft feel on that rope for a minute she's just lit yeah good girl
there was a split second of a soft feel do i mind that she's eating
um the weeds here not really because i actually haven't told her that she can't
all right i'm going to do the same thing this side i know you can't see me but oh good girl
good girl yes good girl good girl so we're going to go back on this side good girl
nope no see there she went oh you can't see sorry because of the pole
but there she actually went for a weed whilst i had pressure on the rope i wasn't going to
allow her to do that because i'd already had a feel on the rope that i wanted her to give
to we just go back this way again i'm just double checking oh nice good the other thing i would like
to know that she can do is back up off a soft feel there's a feel there now good and release
release good girl so i release the pressure the minute she steps backwards
she's moving just because i'm moving now so do i worry about that no don't worry about that
just come up and pat her to make sure because i need to be able to walk towards her without her
backing up and then put the feel on the rope which is there now good girl and you don't keep pulling
you just put a feel and hold and every horse is different as to how much feel you're going to need
that's the start of what i'm going to do with ava so i'm going to spend the next few days
doing this and a little bit of ground work and then i'm going to pop her on the lunge
and do a little bit of lunge work with her if you're interested in seeing how we go with ava
please put your comments below i'd love to hear that you want to see more of this and
i'll put more out here i want you to notice that she's licking my hands guys it doesn't
mean she's going to bite me those people that say oh don't let your horses do that
drive me insane every horse is different ava is a licker she will lick lick lick lick lick
she's never bitten in how old are you now love 11. she's never bitten in 11 years it doesn't
teach a horse to lick i absolutely hate the dogma of horsemanship that says every horse must do this
every horse must do that there's no place in my horse training for that my horses are individuals
i hope you've enjoyed this don't forget hit the subscribe button hit the like button and tell
me in the comments if you wish to see the rest of ava's journey thanks for watching