Brandy the Brumby
Thursday 10 May 2012
Thursday 9 February 2012
There’s nothing I like better.
There’s nothing I like better than horsing
around surrounded by big grins and smiley faces and I’ve spent quite a few
years doing just that. At the moment we’re enjoying our own version of this within
our circle of family and friends.
Whilst I am having a spell from the
official regular rides, Brandy is also having a spell out in the paddock
showing them all how a real horse, a brumby does it.
Sunday 29 January 2012
I learned much from Carlos
The main hick-ups Brandy and I encountered
in her training were the lack of ‘quality’ time I was able to spend with her
and me occasionally misunderstanding brumby language, being more familiar with
the average horsey language.
I learned much from Carlos Tabernaberri in this respect and he
put my mind at ease with regards to the charging which Brandy would get into on
a couple of occasions during early training sessions. Real street fighters they are, he told me for instance and that
explained a few things away.
It had been hard to reconcile Brandy’s soft
and gentle nature with those few instances, but basically brumbies don’t muck
around. Carlos and I agree that brumbies are so personable and really interact
and are engaged. Overall they also tend to be very friendly horses to those
whom they trust. The people which I’ve spoken to that know and have worked with
brumbies agree that if it were a possible choice we’d only work with brumbies.
Best horses ever.
Carlos is coming over again for another
visit to the Fraser Coast, not sure if there’s any spaces left for his workshop.
Carlos Tabernaberri is from www.whisperingacres.com.au
Saturday 28 January 2012
Does Brandy still want to be an RDA horse?
Time will tell. At one stage during her
training I considered her to be a perfect EFL horse because of her sweet and
gentle nature and her responsiveness to the people around her. She is just so
eager to please.
I can’t remember if I mentioned Equine
Facilitated Learning before but I did a great workshop about a year ago with Franklin
from www.wayofthehorse.org and have come to appreciate
how people learn and progress through their interaction with horses.
What I like about the discipline of EFL
particularly is that people don’t have to ride a horse to benefit from the
interaction. This makes equine therapy available to anyone, not just people with
a desire or ability to ride a horse.
Through the desensitisation process I went
through with Brandy I noticed how alert and receptive she was and I was getting
close to introducing her to my rider friends at the RDA. The plan was to
utilise the EFL training with Brandy and this way slowly incorporate her into
the program. I had noticed how much the riders enjoyed to handle the horses on
the ground and not only be involved with riding them.
Brandy would be perfect in that regard
because she is so pure if you like, un-spoilt with her responses real and as
yet not tainted by bad habits or too much or handling of inexperienced hands.
Thursday 26 January 2012
What about Brandy the wannabe?
Exactly right. Now what? Brandy has been
put out with the herd for a little while and due to access issues such as
overgrown acres of mushy paddock over the last few months, she has pretty much
gone brumby again.
Wednesday 25 January 2012
Reshuffling
As well as Brandy all the children at the
Riding for the Disabled were a priority in my life. There’s been a little
reshuffling in that the RDA centre is no more. At the moment there’s still a
bunch of parents left organizing rides for their kids every now and then, but,
despite them continuing to carry the same name, the centre is no longer
affiliated with Riding for the Disabled Australia.
As a registered coach with Riding for the
Disabled Australia I decided that it is a good idea to stick with national protocols,
policies and procedures when working with children, people with disabilities
and horses and as such chose not to be associated with the the local centre any
longer.
It has caused me a lot of heartache because
I love all the riders and cherished the time we spent horsing around but when
dealing with horses and children, it’s safety
first.
Monday 2 January 2012
Time Management and training?
Truth be known there’s been a lot going on
at the RDA centre which absorbed a great amount of my time and Brandy really
has been on the backburner. This wasn’t the plan from the beginning but I found
myself in a position where I had to sort through an awful lot of priorities all
at once. In the end obviously, people are always on top of my list.
My time management and haphazard training
with Brandy, if you can even call it that, just reflects a rather chaotic
period of time I was going through.
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