20 February. A hairy hack

20 February

Once again we are on our way to see Josephine. Today she is having a lesson with Jean. On our way we had a discussion about what makes a good team. As our thinking develops on this I will share it with you in another post.

The lesson with Jean went well. They were both much more relaxed. However, the mare continues to run out occasionally. Always to the right. Jean said that it is because Josephine gives away the contact too soon before the fence (at least that is what I have understood). I have observed two other reasons: Firstly, Josephine is right handed. She is therefore liable to have stronger contact in her right hand than her left. If this is true she needs to work on keeping an even contact. Secondly, I have noticed that she is poor at preparing her line to a fence. This is partly because at times she doesn't look where she is going....but also because she hasn't thought about the preparation beforehand. In my thoughts, if I was her coach, I would have her working over a "course" of poles on the ground instead of jumps. Working on keeping the rhythm and contact even and meeting each bar in the centre. Once she was able to do this I would start to introduce fences to replace the jumps. But I am not a showjumping coach!

Back at Le Frelut, Willy had us prepare Eric and the 2 dutch horses for a hack. Willy does nothing by halves. When we trot it is full on either medium or extended trot. I nearly came off when Eric bolted down the road after I had relaxed and lost concentration and a big black dog ran at a garden fence! Luckily there were no cars and I got him back under control. I was terrified he was going to slip and fall on the road.
Francois nearly fell off when the mare he was riding cantered up the hill near some running horses. He fell onto her neck and she stopped bless her and let him get back in the saddle. Horses will always be horses and therefore fearful. It is essential that we remain concentrated and on contact when we hack.

Eric coughed a little bit when we first started trotting but then he was ok. I am so relieved!

Tomorrow we leave for Holland. We had a group discussion about our next steps with Tamtam.....Willy said we must work on his behaviour in hand. We will take him out and about in hand and we will expect him to trust and follow us...walking through the rivers and past the pigs etc. It will be a big ask for him after all the trouble yesterday!