Jd Horsemanship

Everyone who is booked to come to our weekend clinic should now have been messaged details. If you are coming and for some reason haven't received them please message us and we will resend.

Last night was a lovely evening for a bit of schooling the gorgeous Jonjo we have in for some training. He is a lovely horse with a great attitude so we are looking forward to seeing him develop with his schooling.

Our Weekend clinic is happening next month. Please contact us for more Information or to book your place.

Our next 2 day clinic will be 18th-19th May. Please message for more information.

Have a young horse needing backed or a horse needing to be brought on or schooled? Here at JD horsemanship we don't just help 'problem' horses (or as we see it helping horses with people problems) we also take horses in for schooling and give tuition to help you and your horse reach your goals whether it be dressage, show jumping, cross country or hacking and confidence building, from Shetland pony to shire. Hunters, Race Horses, Eventers or Happy Hackers. What ever your goal or discipline we are passionate about helping horse and owner get the best out of each other. We are currently taking bookings for spring and summer.

Its been a quite weekend due to the icy ground conditions however we have been working away in the indoor arena with some of the horses. We have had a lovely highland stallion in for some training which has returned home today, which has been working away nicely and Poppy the shire horse having a bit of a ground work session with her owners before going home later this week. It has been great to see both horses progressing well and look forward to hearing how they get on as they return home.

As always it's been all go here this weekend..
Under the watchful eye of Duncan, Leanne has been working a highland stallion we have in for some ground work training. She has then also been riding an Arab mare which has been backed this week, today they have been working on going up into trot and working on going forward which went really well. We will now progress to hacking out in the next few days.
We have also had Poppy the shire horses Owner here to go hacking, Which was super and great to see a well suited pair having fun. They did very well together and we look forward to hearing how they get on as Poppy returns home.

Today we have been busy hacking out the shire, riding the Arab mare we have in for backing and working the highland stallion.
One thing you will hear alot when around us is the term "pressure,release" when training horses you can not succeed by using brut force or out strengthening them this is impossible. When you start doing anything with a horse you should start off gently, slowly increasing the pressure until the horse does the correct thing and then you release the pres...sure completely. The quicker the release of pressure when your horse does the right thing the more effective it will be. you must always be willing to reward the slightest try. In the video Duncan is working a young highland stallion showing how gently and subtle you can be to achieve the goal. Here he is aiming to back the horse up. This is the stallions first week of training here and it has progressed well using this method. No matter whether we are halter training a youngster, backing a horse or working with issues from loading to under saddle, from the shire to the Shetland pony the fundamentals are the same 'pressure,release.'
*Please don't try this at home without preparing your horse*
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Here Duncan is riding poppy over the bridge he has a Stick and is moving about this is part of the training we carry out. As we have posted before If he can have the stick in various positions and touch the horse all over then he knows he has created a fairly safe horse. It is a great indication to him as to what level of training the horse is at as well as desentizing them further. Please note No horses are beat up that is not what we use the stick for.
**please don't try this at home with out properly training your horse it could easily end up in a rodeo with out proper preparation**

The answer to Thursdays question:
In the words of Clinton Anderson "new side, new brain" How many times this week have you led your horse or got on and off from the right? When working horses it's very easy for us to see whether or not this has been done. We can work a horse and it go brilliantly on the left and then we switch to do the exact same on the right and the horse tenses up because it is not used to someone on the right. At the moment here we are really consciously ...working on turning out ambidextrous horses who have been worked to the same standard on the left and the right.
** keep your self safe - please if your horse has never been touched on the right do not go and rugby tackle it in the field tomorrow morning or try and mount it from the right with no preparation as we say "new side,new brain" doing this with out proper preparation could be dangerous depending on the horse you are working with **
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Poppy enjoying her hack with Duncan today

Today we have had Poppy the shire away for a hack and then being ridden for the first time by her owner, which all went very well. Leanne and Duncan then worked with an Arab mare also with us for backing, preparing it for it's first rider which it took completely in it's stride.

Just to get everyone thinking this thursday.... One of Duncans favourite sayings at the minute is that shops should sell left handed head collars, brownie points to anyone who can answer why or what he is talking about.

An almost full yard has meant a busy weekend with a variety of horses, Poppy the shire horse in to be backed has had its first couple of rides and is progressing well even with it being rather windy here today. We also have a little fell pony in to be backed which has started the ground work last week, and arriving yesterday an Arab mare who we will be starting to work with this week.

Over the past few days Duncan has been working with Jayne and her horse Hugo and today was their first ridden lesson. It's been great to see a very relaxed Hugo and Jayne enjoying their lessons.
Leanne and Duncan also had our own young horse Storm in the arena for the first time learning some basic ground work. Which we will continue tomorrow with her and hopefully get a few photos.

We've had a busy few days here at Larriston. Today we've been working on a lovely ex-racehorse in for some training, he is learning very quickly and both him and his owner are doing very well.
We have also today worked Bailey who again was doing some very nice work in the arena and finally we introduced Duncans own young horse Storm to the halter, who was a very quick learner and will be starting the ground work over the next few days preparing her for being backed. (Which Leanne is very excited about) we will have lots of photos and updates shortly.

We are very lucky for such a beautiful place to hack. This is heading back down the hill towards home through the ears of Rosie. Brilliant weekend finished off by seeing Charlie a lovely Arab we have had in for training having fun with his owner today.

Another busy weekend with some lovely horses we have in. Leanne brought her horse Slaney over and hacked out on Sunday with Duncan taking an Arab gelding which is in for some training and coming on beautifully. Followed by working on a lovely stallion currently in to be backed who has progressed really well and finally starting to train Tigger the shetland to drive.