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What is Feel? Part One
Jenny Pearce 29 August 2016
Feel and connection are twin beacons of hope for the horse and the humans that work with them. When Jade asked me to do an article about feel for Cavalletti, I said “Yes!” thinking that this would be so easy to do. It’s easy for me to teach “Feel” for your horse, so it should be easy to write about it hey? Well it turned out to be not so easy to write about as I thought. Good Feel is in EVERYTHING worthwhile having with your horse. Feel is that thing that turns a plain horse rider – even a good horse rider – into a real horse person. Tom Dorrance talked about it being “the inside of the man knowing the inside of the horse.” Nuno Oliveira considered that Feel came even before learning the rein aids because applying the rein aids without Feel is a recipe for developing
Read MoreClicker Training – How to Click with your Horse
Hayley Chambers-Holt 1 August 2016
Clicker training refers to the method of teaching a behaviour using a “yes” signal or conditioned reinforcer. This tells the horse precisely when it has done something right. The “click” in clicker training refers to a small plastic noisemaker that makes a distinctive sound upon pressing the metal part into the plastic case. Immediately after pressing the clicker, a food reward is offered to the horse as a positive reinforcer to encourage the horse to continue displaying that particular behaviour. Clicker Training has a long history in marine parks where dolphins and whales needed to learn specific behaviours to perform for the public, however how do you harness or ‘halter’ a dolphin?! Hence a positive and rewarding method evolved in order to reinforce the animals to jump, dive and show off with the result being a fish or food treat so as the animal would want to repeat the desired
Read MoreHow herbs benefit horse and rider
Angela Davison 25 July 2016
Plants have been used for healing since the beginning of time. Horses, like humans were treated with herbal medicines up until the 1930’s; in addition horses would often self medicate as herbs grew freely in the fields and hedgerows. With the advent of the industrial age however, came synthesized drugs and changes to agricultural practices which, over time, destroyed much of the natural flora. Since then, we have almost come full circle and many owners now feel it appropriate that themselves and their horses can seek the best of both worlds – having vets, doctors, medicinal herbalists and complimentary practitioners collaborating to get the best outcome for the individual. Clearly if either horse or rider is sick then seek the services of your doctor or vet and a fully qualified medicinal herbalist to ensure a positive outcome. There are many well intentioned amateurs out there offering advice but everyone should
Read MoreHorse Archery in the 21st Century
Hayley Chambers-Holt 25 June 2016
An ancient form of warfare is now a rapidly growing equestrian pursuit. Today, John Downes and Hayley Chambers-Holt explain what you need to know about horse archery. Are you ready for a challenge? A real challenge?? There is a new horse sport in town but it’s not that new. As a matter of fact it’s been around longer than showjumping and even dressage. Actually it’s been around for thousands of years! We’re talking about mounted archery. The Greeks, Mongols, Samurai and many other ancient civilisations had mounted archers. Time and developments in warfare (including massed archers on foot who could shoot bows of larger draw weight, thus shooting further) and finally, firearm, saw the demise of mounted archers. However some countries, including Japan and Korea kept the martial skill and made a sport of it; from these countries we have the sport of horse archery. Horse archery is now practiced
Read MoreCleveland Bays
Jade Salpietro 16 June 2016
When I returned to riding as an adult, I was smitten with the world of dressage. I wanted to immediately go out and purchase a Warmblood and start competing. At the time, I had a very wise friend who gave me a lesson on her Elementary dressage horse. Monty was a magnificent Cleveland Bay, and he quickly pointed out that I needed many more lessons under my belt before I would be riding a dressage test. I still remember my friend exasperatedly shouting, “outside rein, outside rein!” Ever since, I’ve been a big fan of the Cleveland Bay – a rare breed in Australia – and have enthusiastically followed the progress of any I saw out and about locally. Luckily, the Cleveland Bay Horse Society of Australasia is a really active promotional group, and I’ve been able to satisfy my curiosity about the breed through President, Brenda Boaden. Brenda told
Read MoreHow I balance horses, kids and the rest of it!
Nicole Donnelly 12 May 2016
Having a very busy life, which includes looking after my two gorgeous kids (a three year old girl and a one year old boy), working four days per week, looking after the housework, riding two horses (almost) daily and being a wife to my amazing husband, Andrew, I tend to try and have the view on life “I will do what I can”. After all, my horse needs to be fit, but my kids also need their Mum. Recently I competed at the Australian National Polocrosse Championship. I played in the Senior Mixed team for Victoria. It has been a long, hard road for the past 7 months to get to Nationals. I had 2 horses and myself needing to get fit enough and strong enough to be selected into a team in January, and the fitness needed to be maintained and built on until Nationals week in April. Most days I tried to
Read MoreHelmets – personal choice?
Anita Marchesani 6 May 2016
Every now and then something happens to stir up the helmet debate. This year, it’s the changes that are being brought about in terms of what standards are permitted at competition, and what standards no longer qualify. Here’s a link to the EA statement on this. https://www.equestrian.org.au/news/ea-statement-helmet-standard Confused? Yup. So we know that for most competitive events in the equestrian world we must wear a helmet. How the stewards are to know if the one we are wearing is current, up to date, not more than 5 years old etc I have no idea, as in Australia we do not have a helmet inspection and tagging system, like they do for eventers in the UK, and I believe in NZ and the US as well. But that’s competition days, and probably less than 5% of the time we spend riding our horses are at competitions. What happens the rest of
Read MoreHaving trouble finding buyers for your horse?
Jade Salpietro 2 May 2016
We know how hard it is to sell your horse. Apart from the emotional trauma of the sale, finding genuine buyers is the next hardest thing. Advertising your horse is an art. We think that advertising falls into two categories: ‘stable’ and ‘unstable’ advertising. You can advertise in an equestrian magazine or website. It is a paid ad and it is stable. The ad can be managed and updated and is directed squarely at equestrian audiences. It is there the next time you look at the magazine or website. Unstable advertising is trickier. It is free and is often an advert placed on social media or general free websites. The majority of these are free, but can you find the ad the next time you visit? More importantly can those genuine buyers find your ad when they visit? Did you know that some social media “gurus” say a post dies
Read MoreThe Arabian Horse
Jade Salpietro 22 April 2016
What better time to find out all about Arabian horses than in the midst of the 2016 Australian National Arabian Championships? This year the four-day event was held at the Sydney International Equestrian centre and attracted 300 competitors from right across Australia. It’s a rather high profile event too, featuring Dr Harry Cooper as an event ambassador (he owns Arabian derivatives) and a performance of the National Anthem by the original Man from Snowy River, Tom Burlinson, while riding an Arabian stallion. Cavalletti spoke with Chair of the Judges Committee for the Arabian Horse Society of Australia (AHSA), Karen Fletcher-Grieve, while she was on a quick break from ring marshalling. The purchase of a partbred gelding in 1980 established Karen’s love of the breed and since then, the majority of the horses she has owned, bred and shown have had at least some Arabian blood. As a way of demonstrating
Read MoreTaking Risks: What I Learned From Grooming in the UK
Anita Marchesani 22 April 2016
Anita Marchesani goes on the ride of her life in the UK…and learns some life lessons on taking risks and reaping the rewards. My boss was riding next to me on her young chestnut gelding, and I was on her experienced, 4 star eventer. We had spent the afternoon hacking around what they call a Hunter Chaser course in the UK – basically farmland with some fairly basic cross country fences of various levels that the farmer hires out to make some extra cash. She wanted to give her youngster some experience, and I was basically just a passenger on the big bay I was riding, who certainly knew his job, going along to keep them company. We turned off the track and she chatted away at me, we laughed and joked and walked through the trees and afternoon dappled shade. She led me round a sharp turn, almost doubling
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