Progress Day
I have a new horse. "Ruby" is a bright bay Fell mare of 9 years, 13.3 hands high (and when she arrived she was 78" around the middle - we are working on that!). She has a lovely eye, and a quick brain, and the big thing is, she has been handled right from the start by people who understand Fells and their clever and keen nature. At the moment she is a typical cob shape - head like a lady, bottom like a cook - or as more than one person has said, "she's built like a brick outhouse!" She has bred 2 foals and although she had been broken to ride she was just being a pasture ornament and so came up for sale. Don't assume though that this mare is a dead-broke, placid plod - far from it; she is a long striding, quick stepping, BIG pony. I took a big gamble on her as she was only " backed and ridden away", not broken to drive; and I have not ridden for some time.... But, she's a Fell, and bred from some similar lines to my first mare who was a smashing driver and is STILL doing it well, if more slowly, at the age of 24; also carrying lines going back to relatives of my present old boy, who just wants to please you; so it was a pretty good bet she would take to it.
I took delivery last Sunday night. Ruby was raging in season, and jumped into the horsebox thinking her birthday had arrived! She was a bit confused when we got to Tebay, because though there was indeed a stallion about, responding to her whinnying, she was immediately taken indoors and didn't get to meet him. So for the last 7 days, she has been dieting (a little), listening to the stallion shouting (quite a bit), and learning (A LOT) about carriage driving. The yard where she is staying is about 4 miles from my house.
DISCLAIMER What follows here is a true record of what we've seen happen this week. It's NOT a recommendation of a schedule for breaking every horse. It's just an amazing example of an intelligent, mature animal learning extremely fast because she already had secure foundations. Read on!
My friend David Trotter has tamed and taught a lot of utterly wild Fell ponies over the years, and with his experience and confidence, and Ruby's maturity and intelligence, we: Ruby, David, our helper Chantallamy, and I, have made huge strides this week.
By Monday night Ruby had worn and accepted the major parts of the harness (including the crupper, which must have given her a bit of a shock; in the last five years, she has only ever been transported away from home to the stallion - a crupper will not have been quite what she expected when a strange man lifted her tail). She long-rein-lunged to David's voice commands, hardly needing the reins. We think that - since her previous owner bought her first Fell from David - the commands had been learnt by the owner of the older gelding, and thus taught to the young mare, and now the mare was with the originator of the commands and everything had come full circle!
By Tuesday night Ruby had stood between the shafts, in an open bridle, and been walked about in the vehicle inside the building. It's a low exercise cart made of piping with pneumatic tyres - not what I would choose to use for regular work over any distance, but easy to handle and very easy to get in and out of. It has lots of room for the horse's ribs and hips, though the shafts were a bit of a "nip fit" at the tugs for her " plumpitude" - but she thought nothing of it. By evening she had gone quietly down the yard to the (quiet) road and back with the (empty) cart, being led by David with Chantallamy handling the plough cords "just in case" and keeping an eye open for any traffic. Now THAT was the bit that shocked me when I heard it... going out in the carriage after a day and a half... but I know David would not have done it if Ruby had not shown him she was handling everything in her stride.
She did the same again on Wednesday, and then went a bit further down the road in long reins without the carriage. You could see her thinking things through and making sense of what was going on. We were all getting quietly excited and pleased about her progress.
Thursday, David's busy day on his fruit round, I worked with Ruby in the same pattern as David, with Chantallamy helping us and David supervising for the first twenty minutes until we got out of the yard (safely away from the stallion); then with Chantallamy " leading" - in reality just walking beside with the attached lead-rope in her hand, to give the mare confidence - we drove down the road for a couple of hundred yards, and then back, with me sitting in the cart and giving Ruby the commands to walk on, turn, halt and stand still. Then we took the cart off and went for a really long walk on the long reins. Ruby met traffic and passed excited young stock in fields, and met another horse in a carriage, and she behaved sensibly. We kept telling her how clever she was! We kept talking to her, reinforcing all those commands in "my" voice rather than David's. She didn't want us to leave at the end of the session; she wanted to go on doing things, because that way she'd have our company.
Friday, again she harnessed and yoked no problem, and this time I got into the cart and drove her over the same route as we'd walked on Thursday; up and down a decent hill to the next stableyard and back, accompanied by Chantallamy on foot; she passed the daft young horses and traffic and people with dogs, all in her stride - if somewhat talkatively. Then, in long reins without the cart, we walked to the motorway roundabout to watch the heavy traffic. She had one minor tizz about a big truck that revved as it went by, but nothing else - other than wanting to eat grass as she walked!
Yesterday David drove her the same distance without a leader - Chantallamy was sitting in the cart beside him!
Today Ruby whinnied when she heard me arrive (I think she had eaten all her hay < VBG>). I harnessed and yoked her up by myself and drove her about inside the building (yes it is quite big, but not big enough for a horse to get up any speed if problems occur). She has learnt the routine now and is feeling pleased with herself, and after a few circuits she was waiting for Chantallamy to appear to open the sliding doors and let her be going! However, the young lady was not there because she was spectating at the Lowther driving trials with David. Ruby was being so helpful that I might well have been tempted to take her out, but the stallion yesterday was getting rather frustrated because this new "bit of totty" was being led in and out under his nose every day and she wasn't being allowed to have anything to do with him! She is not in season any more, but David made me promise not to try to handle the sliding door and the gate and the mare and the cart and the potential stallion advances on my own, so I didn't (damn, I thought i WAS Superwoman). David has now come back from the driving trials (which finish today) so I daresay that Ruby will be going down the road again with him and Chantallamy, as I write.
Well, I really didn't expect to have so much to report today, when I came home with my very sweaty in-season mare, only LAST Sunday. Like I said earlier, "don't try this at home kids"... this is remarkable progress by a very intelligent and mentally well balanced, mature and physically strong mare, who already knew the commands we were using, and who is bred to co-operate as well as thinking things through for herself. She was ready to go on and learn. We're not rushing her; SHE is pushing US.
The other good news - progress of a different kind - is that my older Fell gelding, who has been a touch lame for six weeks, positively asked me to yoke him up this morning. He whickered and squared up for the carriage as soon as he saw I was bringing it out of the shed! He walked sound and trotted sound on the road. He IS showing his age though, and will be more than happy to let Ruby take his place in the public eye, and himself retire into being a much loved and respected schoolmaster.
Sue in the English Lakes
Intelligence is no defence against one's own stupidity