Archive for November, 2009

We have a little boy staying here at the minute, Jack, who has written this brilliant poem on bullying as part of his school work. We thought you might like a read.

I Am A Bully

I am the bully who leaves people out of games
I am the bully who calls people names
After a while it doesn’t feel good
People don’t like me they will take action, they should

I am the bully who feels sad
I am the bully who makes people mad
Maybe I should be nice
Maybe I shouldn’t call them mice.

Wow it has been such a long time since I spoke to you last.
The weather here is pretty awful, although it did hold out for us last week when we had a group from Halifax High to do one of our Activity Days for Kids. The picture above is of some of the girls taking part in a blind walk. The girls had a real good laugh but learnt that they had to trust their partners to get them from the School House to the indoor school doing obstacles along the way. There was the odd bit of cheating going on but on the whole the girls did well. They also got to ride Honey, a lovely Welsh Mountain, who was very calm and looked after them well as none of the group had ever ridden before. All in all it was a good day and the girls all said they would like to come back if they had the chance.
On the School front we lost one of our boys at half term due to him moving out of the area but have kept in touch with him and he is doing well. We miss him a lot and wish him all the best for the future.
On the upside we have one new full time student and three new part time students who are come either one or two days per week and are taking Agriculture, Mechanics and Construction and Equine Studies. They’ve all had their first day this week and so far seem to be settling in well, fingers crossed that they want to come back next week.
I think that’s pretty much it from me for today and I will try not to leave it for so long before jot a note to you again.
Have a fab weekend.
Sarah Midd

Hi all
Sorry, I know its been a while again!
I’ve put together a little video of some of the work the students and horses have been doing over the last week or so, but I haven’t been able to capture it all.
The Appy is Raf, who was in for starting & riding away
The Chestnut is Moo, the jumping pony. Check out the tension he’s holding through his mouth in that little clip
The coloured mare is Pheobe, who belongs to one of the students and came for riding away
And the black horses are mother and son, Lady & Gillie. Lady was here for traffic work as she used to bolt when anything came up behind her.
The brilliant students were Maxine, Cathy, Alex, Cressida, Luke & my lovely Jodie.
They’ve all gone home now apart from Moo, who is staying another week. We’ve got Sarah’s Mum’s horse, Jessica, here this week for some traffic training and a big weekend next weekend so we’ll take the rest of the week to catch up with ourselves!
Cath you soon
Alex

Raf’s owners Angela & Tony came to see him yesterday and had their first ride on him. Check out this photo of a happy Tony grinning like a Cheshire cat! I’ve got Raf for one more week to fine tune some little bits with him so there might be some more photos soon.

Just a quick update from me on how the horses in training are getting on.

Raf is doing brilliantly, hacking out like he’s done it all his life! We passed cars, horseboxes and inconsiderate drivers to which he barely batted an eyelid. A real pro. The only problem we are having is getting him to trot - he’s so laid back that he’s just not fussed! Not that we are complaining. He had another Bowen last night so he’ll take it steady today.

Amber is doing really well too. She’s been acompanying Raf on his rides, being what we call The Rock. Luke is about to take her out on her own this afternoon for a good ride out and see how that goes, but she’s cool to be behind or in front at the minute so I’m happy. Unfortunately her owner Sarah has broken her collarbone so we can’t teach her alongside Amber, but maybe there is something else she needs to focus on at the minute.

Lady is doing well with the traffic, but I think her bigger issue is anything behind her. She was very anxious when Luke rode her in the school yesterday, nevermind outisde with a trailer driving up behind her. So we’ll look at that some more & see where that road takes us.

Moo is doing well too. He had a Bowen treatment last night. Although he wasn’t sore as such he was very tight and this morning he seems to be feeling the difference, walking out with his nose on the floor instead of prancing up the drive all stressed and worried. So a good move I think. We’ve been doing lots of obstacle work and I long lined him yesterday too to see how he felt about that. I think the biggest thing for us to help him with is going to be his confidence when leaving others and being on his own.

We’ve moved all the LTL horses and liveries further down the fields today to rest the land around the yard ready for Christmas time. We’re really lucky that we have access to so much land that we can keep them out - I don’t fancy mucking out 15 stables a day on my own!

Heading for lunch now - Jeanine has made an amazing smelling soup,  a proper Winter warmer
Alex

Hi Becky,
This is a short clip for you so you can see what we have been doing this morning. We hope to meet you soon.
Take care
Sarah & The Learning To Listen Team

I’ve put together a little video of some of what the students, Raf & Amber have been doing this week.
It includes bombproofing, obstacles, dummy work, long lining, riding (Raf’s first ride), napping work with Amber, and they’ve done plenty more too, including living in the bag pen!
I’ve got more horses arriving this weekend so I’ll keep you up to date with their progress too.

Thought I’d try and keep you up to date with how the horses are down here.
Raf has been doing lots of bombproofing, dummy work and long lining to prepare him for the ridden bit once we get there. Vicky Rawle, Bowen therapist, came this morning to give him a treatment as I felt he was sore and didn’t want to upset the apple cart before we’d even started really. He’s been doing really well and we’ve worked through some of his misunderstandings about pressure on the bit and turning left and right. So he should be in a better position now to go on with the ridden work.
Amber has been working through some of her issues too. We worked lots yesterday on having her in the school with Todd, then Todd leaving one step at a time and coming back. After some rearing in hand and getting upset we worked on the floor, followed by on the long lines and eventually back up to ridden work.
We then took her out for a little ride, playing the caterpiller game - where one horse trots past the other and out front a little whilst the other walks, then changing places again. We’re doing it all one step at a time to build lots of confidence and keep out of the fight - I don’t like fighting at all, nevermind with someone half a ton bigger than me!
So Raf has the rest of today off and Luke and I are going to work Amber again.
I’ve got the students in for an assessment day tomorrow so I’ll be back as soon as I can.
Have a good day
Alex

Evening
I’ve had a great day up here today, although I have to say I think the jet lag is kicking in.
Have you watched the videos from Aus? I didn’t sleep as much as it looks like, honest, it was only when we weren’t doing anything else!

Maxine & Cathy have been up here today to work the horses with me.
They set up some good, creative environments in the indoor to work on bombproofing and de-spooking which worked really well.
We then long lined and rode them both.
Check out Raf on his first ride….

Hey all,
This is our last blog from our trip down under. We just had the most amazing time and have so many stories to tell. We have found ourselves a wonderful place to open another branch of Learning To Listen with Luke in the Blue Mountains, 1 1/2 hours from Sydney. 2000 acre ranch with 200 head of horses, motel and corporate facilities. It’s perfect. We recommend that if you ever get the chance to go then take it. We are back in the office now, making plans for the future. We look forward to seeing you all soon.