Kandoo-Kansay

I was planning to write about expectations today. The post was going to go something like this....

We never get more than we expect out of our horses. By simply raising our expectations we allow the horse to meet those expectations – improving performance in any field and helping the horse reach his full potential.

The importance of this was bought home to me today with the two horses I worked. Both far ‘out performed’ my expectations – telling me quite clearly that I need to raise the bar.

The first of the two was Kam, Kandoo Anything Mr.

  Today was ‘weaning day’ – a very big day in a little bloke’s life. Kam, a spotless Appaloosa colt, took it all in his stride and even behaved marginally better than the ‘babysitter’ yearling in the stall next door!

Kam will be featured in a DVD to be released later in the year – Training Your Weanling. He will be joined by Magic, more poshly know as Springfield Park Kandoo Magic, pictured below.

 The other horse I worked was Harry. Having had 6 weeks off, in the Bahamas you may recall, I was expecting Harry to be anything from a little distracted to quite a handful. Well, I couldn't’t have been more wrong. He was absolutely delightful – completely attentive, light, soft, elevated; just love that horse!

2011 is definitely going to be a very good year!

Did you have any New Year resolutions this year? I had a few myself that I thought I would share with you here and keep you updated with on this blog as 2011 progresses.
NY resolutions usually involve giving things up for me - here are some examples: 
2006 - give up moving countries. Settle back home in Australia and stay put.
2007 - give up smoking. No-brainer really.
2008 - give up ..... marriage. SLF husband made this easy (Second, Final and Last, if you were wondering).
2009 - give up grog. 2008's resolution evaporated the requirement!
2010 - give up coffee. The only thing that gave me a headache!
You see what I mean? All very negatively stated. Don't get me wrong; very positive results but certainly time to start doing something differently.
This year I decided to make my resolutions more positive and focus on DOING something rather than not doing something. To that end, I have decided that my new year's resolution for 2011 is to 'share more'.
Don't worry, this is going to be quite specific 'sharing'.
I spend at least 5 hours a day working horses. As I am sure you know, training horses and working with horses is my passion. It is this passion that I would like to share with you through this blog for 2011.
With every horse I work I learn something that will be useful for another horse or another situation. Rather than just filing them away in my head, in 2011 I will share these useful snippets with you. Let me give you a couple of examples taken from the week before Christmas, just before my horses went on holiday (yes, they are all out there standing by their dams pretending they are in the Bahamas!).
1) I was starting Harry's flying changes and he was having great trouble changing from left to right. The usual repertoire of 6 different change exercises didn't seem to be assisting him and I came up with a 7th involving canter half-pass, travers and the arena fence that really seemed to help him. When I get back to this I will share that new exercise with you here on the blog.
2) I was brought a young horse for a week's in-house training in December. This horse had been ridden around the farm but the owner didn't feel that it knew very much and felt a little unsafe. He seemed like a sweet little thing but just from the initial handling it was clear that his training resembled a good swiss cheese (full of holes). When I put the surcingle on him he went off like a bronco. There are many things that I would like to share with you about this horse - from expectations and intuition to safety and the importance of foundation work.
I hope you will join me here from time to time and I welcome your comments, feedback and stories.

Both Tally (Wellsdale Kandoo It All) and Bear (Ima Little Rustler) had their first ride today at the Marulan Kite Festival Demonstration. They both did very well indeed and ended with a relaxed trot both directions in a nice soft and safe frame.

Special thanks to the Australian Stock Yard Company for the round pen!!

Oh, if you were wondering, yes, that is a helicopter landing behind us – both horses did very well being about 100 metres away from the scenic flights!