Aqua TB

This is Aqua a horse that I had to trim it's hoofs on Monday. This proved to be a nightmare. So I figured after attending the AEBC clinic ( refer earlier post ) I should put into action something of that I had learned. After telling the owner that the problem was mostly the fact that she was totally unfocused on the horse and the distractions everywhere were the major cause of the problems we got down to discussing what she could do to help/ I told her to disregard her daughter , dogs and all the other horses and stay focused on Aqua to ensure that he stayed focused and did not look around everywhere and to ensure that all four hoofs stayed firmly on the ground and not move ( stay in park ) If he went to move to ensure that she kept him straight and not allow him to move. Well guess what? Aqua was a different horse. Not a foot wrong and was finished in minutes.
Today I shod another horse that every time I have ever worked on him he has been difficult. Well again after a short bit of instruction the horse stood sooooooooooo still. The owner was blown away. no trouble what so ever. I am rapt. Thank you AEBC

Waiwhenua Tahi

This is my horse 'Waiwhenua Tahi'
Tahi is an Appaloosa Arab cross.
Born 16th December 1995.
Tahi is a mare (female )and is about 14.2hh. Tahi is a Maori word that means #1 and Waiwhenua breaks down Wai Whenua Wai means water and Whenua means Land. Waiwhenua is the name of our farm and Tahi was the 1st animal that we had anything to do with that was born on this place after we bought it.
She has the most wonderful nature and moves like a dream.
We call her 'Ta'. Ta was born jet black with white socks and a white blaze but she changed colour on a regular basis until she ended up like this. She has been this colouring for some time now so we think this is what we get.
Ta was out of a mare 'Hokey Pokey'. by an Appaloosa Stallion of unknown breeding. Hokey very much chose her own mate but we did play a part in getting them together.
I will post a photo of her at some time but they certainly don't look alike although you certainly can see the likeness. Ta is big boned and quite solid where as Hokey is quite fine and apart from lots of colour looks all Arab. Hokey is now retired from a quite successful career in Endurance Riding ( long distance horse racing ) whereas Ta has always been quite lazy and never really had the same competitive spirit. She and I did however successfully complete a few 80km rides but not competitively. We mostly now just enjoy a quite and leisurely time together.

AEBC offices

The Beginning of this month we visited
The Australian Equine Behaviour Centre in Melbourne Australia. The AEBC is owned and run by Andrew and Manuela McLean. They work with training and retraining difficult horses. We were Lucky enough to witness them work with two horses that had been sent to them with problems. The transformation was amazing.
Their set up was incredible from the bunk rooms for spectators to the huge indoor arena every detail had been taken care of.
With parts of Australia having the Equine Flu
we were very concerned about going and because of the flu many people did not attend the four day course. So the course ended up quite small and personal. Quite good for us But I guess a bit dissapointing for them. Although the flu has not been found in Victoria.
Before leaving we checked up with the authorities here to ensure all was OK for us to attend.
On leaving the centre we took their advise and washed all of our clothes and washed our shoes in a sterilising solution. Well we have been back now since the 10th and all is well.
We had a great time and learnt lots. On returning home I was able to shoe one of our horses that had previously not been able to be shod without tying up the hind legs . WOW. I am soooooo impressed. I also was able to show a client this week how to make a difficult horse stand to be shod. While I have a long way to go, with lots of practice needed, this all looks promising.
If anyone want to know more about AEBC check out their web site http://www.aebc.com.au/ Their unique training regime is described in their books
''Horse Training the McLean Way " and "The Truth about Horses"