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I often wonder what motivates horses to do things for humans anyway, things that are obviously hard work, uncomfortable or downright terrifying. Someone once described horses as being stupid because they let humans ride on their back.
‘Why would a horse not want to carry a human ?’ I asked him.
‘Because we’re predators and they are prey,’ came the swift, predictable, reply.
‘But surely that’s what training is’, I said.
Good training shows the horse that humans won’t eat him and motivates him to want to carry us. Throughout history any horse that didn’t want to be ridden was disposed of so maybe the maverick gene that says ‘don’t ride me’ has mostly been bred out making it easier to ride them.

One pony breed that people say still has a tendency towards that maverick gene is the Exmoor pony. I spent a happy day last Sunday playing with Hawkwell Versuvius who lives with Dawn Westcott up at Holtball on Exmoor. This champion pure bred Exmoor stallion runs out naturally with his harem, rides out every day, hunts and has been working at Horse Agility over the last few months. When we first started he really didn’t understand what all these toys were about so we just turned him loose and let him explore. We learnt more about Bear (his stable name) in that first loose session than we could ever on the rope. Whenever he perceived any pressure either from the scarey obstacle or humans encouraging him he just voted with his feet and left. We used no food as bribes and no stick to drive - we simply learnt how big our signals had to be to encourage him to cross a bridge or go through the curtain, and it is frighteningly little. So we got quieter and quieter until it seemed that we were doing nothing and the less we did, the more he gave us. His motivation was to find stillness so that’s what we gave him. If we did too much, he just couldn’t think it through, so did the most natural thing any pony can do - he went away.
It made me realise that we just ask too much, do too much and just don’t give our horses time.
So instead of striving for more, my New Year’s Resolution is to do less, set up the situation and just let it happen. I am determined that this is one resolution that will not be disappearing out of the window.
Vanessa Bee

Bear practising Horse Agility with Dawn

Like everyone I am going to be very pleased to see the back of merry bloomin’ December. Snow, ice, poo and lack of time will be the abiding memories for me. The month gave me the whole spectrum of emotions from the ‘Aah bless - misty eyed moments’ through to ‘Aargh, frozen water down my wellington boot AGAIN!’

After the first bout of snow had thawed, I was approached by a film company to do a promotional clip to pitch to a major television station. A remarkably good window of weather meant we were able to get out onto the Horse Agility course and make a short film. I looked pale and uninteresting, my hair not unlike a pony’s tail when he’s been having good scratch but my horse looked fabulous as usual and we were able to put a good piece together for YouTube and the TV. I made sure I was viewed from a distance so that I didn’t look too haggard.



Then the snow started in earnest and the real work. Everyone I spoke to cites water as being the greatest evil and as fast as we hauled it the faster the little darlings drank it. At one point, when I as mucking out, I swear there was more coming out of the backend than they could possibly have put into the front end! As with all horse owners breaking the ice and clearing a space for the horses to drink was our early morning chore. I was quite choked one morning to see a few spots of blood on the ice in the trough, as though one of the horses had cut themselves on it, but on close inspection, I could find no damage to any of them. I do know people who warmed up the water for their horses only to be treated like potential murderers by the ungrateful recipient! The horses preferred their water on the rocks.

Although my horses had free access from their yard onto 15 acres of snow covered grazing, they spent most of the time gathered round the haylage bale munching and pooing. To give them something more to do, I threw random vegetables into the yard such as carrots and swedes, but these were just crushed underfoot in the scrum to search them out. So I got out a treat ball which none of them had seen before and put a few pony nuts into it. They were fascinated, they knew food was in there but how did one get at it? I watched, dewy eyed, as they companionably rattled it around generally discussing the ways and means of getting at the food. ‘You see’, I told myself smugly, as proud Mothers do, ‘My horses are different, they share nicely’. All had changed by the next morning as Kelston had worked out that if you rolled the ball in a certain way food came out and woe betide anyone who threatened his ball, he was evil in his defence of this new found friend.

As day after day the temperature dropped, to minus ten on one night, I did begin to wonder what on earth I did all this for. A foot of snow on the ground, everything frozen and seemingly always fumbling around in the dark, it was wearying work. And then one night it was as if the moon decided to turn up the spotlight so we could really see. I had been out and decided to check on the horses on my way home. Unusually they were all out in the field scraping snow away to get at the grass underneath. It was so light I could have read a book by the moon, as they always say in books. The world was completely still, completely peaceful and bright with the white snow and the deepening frost gilding every branch with white icing sugar. As I walked out into the field following the tracks of the horses an owl called and swished over my head in a whisper of wings. I approached the horses and they came to me gathering round blowing sweet breath onto me in the frozen air. I reached out and touched their warm faces and they talked to me in deep rumbles. As I stood there watching the brightness, breathing in the night with my beautiful horses I knew exactly why we were there and why I always will be whatever the weather.
So here’s to more spotlight moments – Happy New Year!
Vanessa Bee