Guide to Choosing Your Perfect Horse Course for DASH

Today we held one of our courses especially for members of the Devon Association of Small Holders (DASH). The course is perfect for anyone looking to buy an equine, a process that can seem a bit daunting, or even like a bit of a minefield...but this course is here to help - people really enjoy this course and it helps to put them at ease. We help participants to create a realistic "shopping list" to narrow down all the possibilities to the sort of equine they should be looking for on their search. Then we look at how to assess the physical, behavioural and skill elements in your potential equine...and, of course, we look at some of the pitfalls that should be avoided.

Our course participants really enjoyed their day, and we received "excellent" ratings in all elements - including the quality of the teaching, the theory content of the sessions, the practical tuition and the overall experience on the day.

This was our feedback:

"Relaxed, friendly atmosphere. Easy discussions/questions + answers. Informative, practical, realistic approach. Interested in horse pshychology/body language. Thanks, great course".

"I enjoyed the practical side - one to one and generally talking about problems. I'd like to know more about animal behaviour".

Laminitis Watch

Spring is well and truly upon us, and for the last 2 weeks the grass has started to shoot up. With spring arriving so early this year, lots of horse owners have already been caught out with horses and ponies coming down with laminitis.

Anyone with susceptible ponies and horses needs to start taking action now. Important steps to take are:
- Restricting grazing.
- Monitoring your equine's weight - use a weigh tape to take measurements.
- Monitoring digital pulses.
- Looking out for signs of footiness, particularly over stony ground that your horse is usually sound to cross.
- Looking for signs of lameness.

Remember that if you suspect your horse or pony has laminitis, you MUST take it off the grass. You will need to thoroughly soak hay (for at least 20 minutes, or even double soak it) to remove sugars and provide a soft surface for your horse to stand on in its stable. Wood shavings can be a good supportive surface, or you can put pads on your horse's feet to provide support. "HoofKind" feeds suitable for laminitics are available at feedstores. Seek guidance from your vet and/or farrier/barefoot practitioner who should be able to advise you on treatment and whether you should administer pain relief. Your equine will need to be kept off the grass until they have recovered, and then grazing will need to be carefully managed.

You might like to consider some of our Understanding Horses courses this year, being run in conjunction with a vet, that can help with preventative medicine and how to manage laminitics through feeding and nutrition.

Talk for the Newton St Petrock Women's Institute

Early in February I was asked to step in as an emergency speaker for the Newton St Petrock WI in North Devon. Their guest speaker had been taken ill, and because their specialist subject was "The History of Tea", there was also a pre-arranged teapot competition for me to judge as well as giving the talk...I have to say that teapot judging was definitely something I have never done before!

"Horse-Whispering" was rather a different topic to that originally scheduled...but the ladies were lovely. They felt that one of the most interesting aspects of the talk was that humans take for granted that animals see, react and perceive things the same way as humans do - and actually the ways animals see things can be really quite different, and that is why we sometimes think that animals, such as horses, are unpredictable.

Talk for the Shebbear Womens' Institute

On 12th January, I was invited to be the evening guest speaker for the Womens' Institute group in Shebbear. I had been asked to give a talk about my work as a "horse whisperer", which I was very pleased to do. I always aim to keep my talks as interactive and interesting as possible. The talk was about how my training and experience working with horses and ponies, and a special group of once wild ponies came together to provide specialist training for the firefighters. There was a slideshow and little video to accompany the talk...there was even a mini quiz in the middle. It was lovely to meet the ladies and it was quite tricky judging the "Best Picture of a Horse" competition because there were so many lovely drawings, paintings and photos!


There was lots of lovely feedback from the ladies, including this email - "Dear Faye, Thank you so much for our interesting talk. As one member said ‘ I’ll never look at horses the same way again.’ We really admired your enthusiasm and commitment".

We're featured in Devon Life magazine...and we've had excellent feedback for our training

Take a peek at the newly published January 2011 edition of Devon Life magazine...and you'll find a 3 page feature (from page 72) entitled "Training on the Hoof". It's an article about the Animal Rescue Unit of the Devon and Somerset Fire Service, and features the training day we held for them in September...

...And we are delighted to report that we had excellent official feedback about our first Equine Animal Rescue training day. We received 100% ratings for the quality of the staff, and the relevancy of the training for their role...closely followed by 27/28 for participants feeling equipped to directly apply knowledge gained on the course.

The Unit gets called out to some extremely dangerous situations, many of which are nightmare situations for horse owners. It's great to know that there are people you can call on for help in an emergency.

Merry Christmas!

Well, we've certainly had festive weather! With two separate fallings of snow over a couple of weeks and multiple nights when it was -10°C by 7pm, conditions have been somewhat challenging! Getting to the farm has been rather like going on an arctic expedition, but the ponies are so well equipped for the conditions. Their thick, woolly coats have done a brilliant job of keeping them warm and extra rations of hay have kept them busy. This time the snow was a "non-clingy" type so we didn't need to rescue them from snowballs accumulating on the ends of their tails!

We (myself and the ponies) would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a very happy and healthy 2011. We've had great fun in 2010 and have really enjoyed meeting so many lovely people and equines.

Understanding Horses plans for next year are currently in progress and will be posted here very soon!

The magic of wild ponies

I must say that wild ponies are very special, and will always have a special place in my heart. Much of our work is based on what we learn from them and their instincts, and for that I am very grateful.