To Have a Beginning, There Must be an End.
The Rubber Curry Comb
by therubbercurrycomb
2y ago
Happy New Year readers. It’s been a while, I apologise. Such a while in fact that this feels like a novel experience. Life has been busy. I’ll summise 2021 briefly, but there was a lot of work (mostly enjoyable albeit exhausting), not a huge amount of going out socially, but sufficient for a wallflower like me. We enjoyed the good weather, did some DIY, met up with family, enjoyed our family time. Not much to complain about really. The horses are fine; Otis still enjoys his retirement, and I’ve finally worked out Phoenix’s winter management in terms of timing her clips, feed, and everything el ..read more
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In The Box
The Rubber Curry Comb
by therubbercurrycomb
2y ago
I’ve been working on a new analogy recently, which has been positively received and greatly helped several riders. So here it is. So often riders get overly focused on what’s going on at the front end of their horse, as it’s easier to see that rather than feel what’s going on behind them, that they become handy and forget to ride from leg to hand. Some horses, when a contact is taken up, shrink in the neck and try to hide behind the bridle, either by hollowing or becoming overbent. Putting the two together makes a difficult combination. In walk, I get the rider to gather their reins – not too ..read more
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The Rubber Curry Comb
by therubbercurrycomb
2y ago
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No Foot, No Horse
The Rubber Curry Comb
by therubbercurrycomb
2y ago
Have you heard the old saying “no Foot, No horse”? Where if comes from, nobody knows anymore. But it’s still as relevant today as it was a hundred years ago. In a nutshell, it means that if your horse’s feet are in poor condition then they will not stay sound for very long. The length of soundness varies depending on how poor the feet are, and the workload expected of the horse, but it is limited. So when looking to purchase a horse, you should always look at the conformation of the horse’s feet and the quality of the shoeing and trimming. As well as many other factors. When you buy a horse, y ..read more
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A Trachea Scope
The Rubber Curry Comb
by therubbercurrycomb
2y ago
During August I had a slightly concerning time with Phoenix. She was doing well under saddle, but something wasn’t quite right and I couldn’t put my finger on it, but the result was that I was riding cautiously, and I felt that Phoenix was quite flat when I rode her. I was carrying her around the second test at competitions, and after jumps she readily fell to walk unless I actively rode her away. There was nothing to see, she moved well. Then I wondered if she wasn’t fit enough, so I upped her canter work. One day in mid August I took her for a canter around the fields, which she was most def ..read more
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One Step Ahead
The Rubber Curry Comb
by therubbercurrycomb
2y ago
It’s a tricky process when teaching a child rider and a pony when the pony is clever. And keen to work. Recently I’ve been helping one of the Pony Club members who is in this situation. Her lovely pony has the expected attitude of a Welsh chestnut mare, and is easily offended if the rider is heavy handed. And likes to work. They’ve had a couple of bad experiences in their short relationship, which has made her rider nervous, which is how I ended up being involved. The crux of their problems, I believe, is that the mare anticipates what they’re going to do next, gets faster or turns sharply, an ..read more
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Confident Cross Country
The Rubber Curry Comb
by therubbercurrycomb
2y ago
Last weekend I had a very enjoyable and satisfying cross country lesson. We were focusing on developing the partnership, building their confidence and ultimately overcoming the inevitable refusal on the first attempt to every jump. Their last session with me hadn’t gone particularly well. The last time I’d seen her cross country she’d been flying round, but unbeknown to me she had had a blip and we had a miscommunication. So once warmed up over some logs, I sent her towards a house. Where they had a problem. So, knowing the full story, we met up again. After she warmed up, and had a look at th ..read more
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Biting Off More Than You Can Chew
The Rubber Curry Comb
by therubbercurrycomb
2y ago
A couple of weeks ago I booked a cross country venue for the afternoon, for a variety of clients to come for private, semi private and group lessons. Mostly, it was successful. But one session in particular really challenged me, taking all my teaching skills as well as human and equine skills, to make a success of it. Unfortunately, I think there was a bit of bad timing involved. This horse can get a bit, err, over excited in company, and a little clingy to other horses. He has a solitary life – more on that another day – because he’s such a playful acrobat in the field that no one wants to ri ..read more
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Changing the Rein
The Rubber Curry Comb
by therubbercurrycomb
2y ago
At what point do you introduce the complications of trot diagonals in a child’s riding journey? For me, the right time is when a child can maintain rising trot for a decent period. That is, they’re sufficiently balanced they don’t regularly double bounce, and the pony is sufficiently forwards that it doesn’t break into walk and the rider doesn’t have to give huge pony club kicks to keep the pony going (which causes double bouncing) Then of course, you factor in the child’s cognitive level and if they are able to understand the concept of trot diagonals, and will be able to think about navigati ..read more
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Imprint Horseshoes
The Rubber Curry Comb
by therubbercurrycomb
2y ago
The blog is rather neglected (still) at the moment. I’m finding either subjects I think of writing about have already been blogged previously. Or my brain is so busy thinking of hundreds of different things that have happened, or will happen, or are happening that I can’t clear the brain space to blog, or just need to vegetate in front of the TV. Writing a blog is cathartic, and I definitely found it helpful as I negotiated the ups and downs of my twenties. Perhaps I’m more settled, in a better brain space, with less frustrated opinions, and therefore don’t need to write? But I have a short li ..read more
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