A Catchy Poem

By Neil Davies When you cannot catch a horse It’s hard to keep your cool You get so close, he walks away And makes you feel a fool Some say each horse must come to you “Chase him, make him move Be the boss, don’t give up You’ve got a point to prove” Forget the … Read more

How to Catch a Horse

If you walk into the paddock and your horse runs away, guess what? Your horse isn’t bad, naughty or disrespectful. It’s absolutely nothing to do with being his leader or showing him that you’re the alpha horse. The plain fact is, your horse is worried and nervous and doesn’t want to come near you. Never … Read more

Teach your horse to mooove forward

The same theory applies to your horse. Instead of cow; think horse. If you want to move a  horse or cow forward, you must apply pressure on his rear end in the ‘flight zone’. Pressure in front of the ‘point of balance’ will  move a horse or cow backwards. This is a very simple concept. … Read more

Respect and Desensitisation

I recently watched a video of a trainer trying to handle a horse’s legs. The horse was seven years old and kicked quite badly when anyone  attempted to pick up his hind legs. The trainer was obviously frightened of being kicked, so he flapped a rope around the horse’s legs to ‘desensitise him’. Though the horse kicked … Read more

Don’t Follow the Leader

There are about 23 million people in Australia and about 75 million sheep. If you drive out into the countryside, you’ll soon see sheep in the paddock. It’s common to see a flock of sheep heading across the landscape. One sheep starts off for a drink or a feed and a hundred others follow blindly. … Read more

Here’s The Rub

My wife Christine always spent lots of time rubbing and scratching her horses. Our grey horse ‘Kip’ soon learned to come to her and present the spot that he wanted rubbed or scratched. Sometimes it was his rump, sometimes his ribs, withers, neck or head. He’d back up to Chris to have his tail scratched. … Read more

The Horse’s Lament

THE HORSE’S LAMENT‍ By Neil Davies He puts a dreadful halter on, it’s made from rope and knots And when he jerks and jerks my head, it really hurts me lots ‍ He flaps a stupid flag each day, I don’t know what to do And though I try to please him, he hits me … Read more

How to lunge a horse

If you want to learn how to lunge a horse, don’t use a round yard; your horse will simply run round and round the fence without learning anything. To lunge a horse, start in a twenty foot square yard with a plain headstall and lead rope on your horse. Teach him to walk a circle … Read more