We have had lots of firsts in the last few weeks ( Read more... )

Jackson is seven now. Age 6 was not a great year for him - he had lameness problems, a lot of vet treatment, and then a move of field that he found very upsetting ( Read more... )

We discussed this synchrony in horse movement and behaviour - and the next day, evidence of it was all around us, as we watched the horses grazing in step, and a colt foal and his father dropped down and rolled in perfect synchrony. Social facilitation in horses is quite powerful in shaping behaviour, and Lucy explained how she uses this in ( Read more... )

Lucy had a number of topics she wanted to discuss, and we were keen to try to cover all of them. They included a discussion about biomechanics, and how different training systems and methods either work with or against the biomechanics of the horse. She was superb at giving concrete examples and illustrating with drawings and analogies: the analogy ( Read more... )

After the first day we stopped recording agonistic encounters, because they just weren’t happening, leaving one group with a lot less to do, whereas the group recording affiliative interactions was a bit overloaded with data ( Read more... )

Sometimes, you don’t have to be with your horse to learn something that will benefit you both. Last week, I left Jackson in the care of friends, and went away to Spain to spend a week with Lucy Rees. Lucy wrote a very influential book called The Horse’s Mind in the 1980s and I had always been alert to any mention of her. When I heard that it was ( Read more... )

Occasionally, I stop, look and Jackson and myself, and think "I'm not making any progress ( Read more... )

Some research has helped us to find out a bit more about Jackson. He was born on the 30th April 2002 in Galway, and is a registered Irish Sports Horse. The missing passport had all these details, including his sire (Jackson's Drift) and his dam - but a few hunches and some help from someone who knew a couple of half-brothers helped to narrow him ( Read more... )

And he has had a lot of changes in his life over the last few months. He has moved quite a lot, which has been unsettling for him: first from his herd to the farm where he stayed while his feet healed. Then back to his herd. Shortly after that, the whole group moved to a new field, although most of them moved about a week before Jackson which ( Read more... )

It's been a long time with no posts. Jackson has had one thing after another since the end of December - it seemed to be recurring foot abscesses, but last weekend things finally came to head when he was very lame on his right front and left hind foot. We suspected laminitis, found him a stable and called the emergency vet. It was his third vet ( Read more... )