Kirkcarrion Highland Ponies
As a subscriber to the Scottish Equestrian magazine, I enter a lot of competitions and was delighted to hear I'd won a place at a NH clinic being run by Mike Barker, an Australian who uses Pat Parelli NH techniques. While I'd not heard of Mike, I'd read the Parelli NH book and liked what I saw, but the venue, in Aberdeenshire a good 2 hour or more drive in the lorry plus an overnight stay for an early kickoff, didn't time well with the arrival of my 3 Section A Welsh colts, as disappearing overnight with Aidan or Dragon would not be a good idea!
After much dithering and a couple of emails and phone calls, I went in the end, but rather than take Aidan or Dragon it was agreed that I'd take Rhys, the oldest of the colts and the least handled, so the least suitable to be turned out and left in a field while I was away! With the usual Sod's Law applying, it took 3 hours in the morning to get the indicators and fuel gauge on the lorry to work, and I've no idea what it was that got them working in the end. Anyway, it took 2 minutes to load Rhys, who travelled well loose in the back section, with 2 straw bales blocking his way to the other partitioned areas. This was because he'd not been taught to tie up...
Found the place ok, greeted by a cup of tea and a ready made stable for R with a haynet bigger than him in it. Though it took him a while to settle, he did remain reasonably calm (for him) and I spent 2 one hour sessions with him at various stages of the evening, and another one in the morning, so using the time profitably. I was introduced to 2 of the yardowners horses, which I enjoyed as always. One had been started by Mike the previous year, and the other is a large orange snooty looking TB type which does dressage among other things but is actually a very nice horse.
In between playing with R in the stable and so on, I set up camp in the back of the lorry after mucking it out, and did some homework by reading my Parelli book while picnicking on French bread, hula hoops and black coffee (not sure of transporting milk safely and can't drink black tea). Pleasant evening, only marred by midges. Slept ok but not well ;-] and got up to feed at 7am, had breakfast (rest of coffee and a fruit slice) then spent an hour in the stable till I was found by the owner and force fed another 2 cups of tea and a couple of eggs on toast after begging use of the shower.
Mike turned up at 930 and people were ready by 10, so he did R first for an hour and then the Anglo for another hour. He'd mentioned bringing R out again if time permitted, and we'd been told the event was 10-3, so I was a bit disappointed that I didn't get a go at any of the stuff myself, and the anglo's owner had around 5 minutes but clearly wasn't getting that much in that time (lead too long and attitude not positive enough). It was all over by 1215, around 5 minutes after Ali's arrival (!) so we went off for lunch at a pub which didn't serve food on Sundays, bought pasties at the local Alldays and sat on the lorry ramp to eat it before loading up again to go home.
As for the guy himself, fairly classic stuff from a very down to earth Aussie with a good sense of humour except when it came to camcorders, which he banned. Again disappointing cos I have no means of recalling what he did precisely, but the magazine girl took a couple of stills shots of the more showy stuff with the Anglo (see later) and it felt like Rhys was more of a warm up for the main event. To be honest, he wasn't the right pony to take, as in one hour all the progress made I could have done myself in a few sessions at home, but there's a limit what you can do to a 2yo scaredy pony in one session without overfacing him, and he did make progress, particularly in handling him from the right side and picking up front feet etc. Aidan or Dragon would have been more profitable to watch however, and the Anglo was certainly good viewing material.
This horse does endurance with only the one guy riding him mainly, and is fine under saddle or in the stable but aggressive in his own field when being caught or approached ie on his territory. Given they couldn't replicate that territory, and didn't try him in a paddock on his own, but only worked in the sand arena, it is hard to say whether the session will have helped the situation as I felt from the few minutes I saw the handler trying the stuff out himself, that he wasn't confident enough yet and the horse would still be in charge of that situation. But anyway, Mike did the circling stuff, backing away, standing still, coming forward etc, standing to be tacked up and mounted etc etc. Jumped on bareback and did walk trot and canter with the halter and single rope, demonstrated the neckrein and removed the halter to show it better, had a stockmans saddle on and repeated with more precision, untacked and did things like sliding off his bum, standing up on the horse etc. Demonstrated (saddle and halter) about dealing with flapping coats, rolling barrels and noisy buckets coming at the horse, ditto how the horse would then go forward as the noisy things retreated in front of him etc. This was quite useful as the horse is also bad in traffic and you could see improvement in dealing with scary monsters generally.
So that's about it. I have his card/phone number and may try and arrange a session with the older and more relevant ponies at some stage. I didn't have any qualms about anything he did or the way he did them. It was pretty much what I'd do myself, but done better and with more effect in a more concentrated fashion. As I say, I was disappointed not to be given a chance to try the stuff myself, or have any instruction, but normal clinics he has up to 18 horses and handlers doing this stuff in the arena simultaneously by the end so obviously this was a bit of a rush job ( he had another demo down the road at 3) and more of a demo than clinic for the benefit of the magazine and assorted spectators, some of whom were previous clients, some prospective clients, who then booked up, and a couple of friends of the Anglo's owner.
That's about it. We got home in 3 hours again (6ish), and R argued about going back in the stable, so obviously not totally people friendly yet. Other colts fine, came in overnight and out again next morning. Got home and had a quick reminder session with Aidan, which went over the basics and got to side passing over a pole (hinds behind it, fores in front) a couple of times which I was very pleased with, but then spoilt by going on to reversing over a pole, which once he got the hang of it he then confused with sidepassing and reversed instead. Lesson in not getting too keen after a clinic and overfacing yourself!
Note: this is an account I wrote just after the event in late 1999 and is more detailed than most of the reports done so far because the memory was obviously much clearer. Several months on I can see the benefit in Rhys - while still not the friendliest of ponies, he clearly learned that people mean business and that resistance equals harder work than the thing being asked. I've used NH tactics I picked up at this and other clinics, and from books, videos etc, to address other minor problems he shows from time to time and he's definitely a long term project rather than a quick fix, so I was and am grateful to Mike for the concentrated help we got in that brief session. With the benefit of hindsight, it really wasn't the right pony to take and my disappointment isn't to be laid at Mike's door but just written off as one of those things. A month or so later and I'd have been able to abandon Rhys overnight and take Aidan instead, or Dragon, and probably have got much more out of the session. Maybe next time!
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E-mail: a.douglas@dundee.ac.uk
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Copyright ©A Douglas 1997 |