Well, it’s certainly been an exciting morning! Here is ALL the drama….

At about 9am, I went out to feed the horses. It wasn’t raining (yay!). And as usual I get a whinny from Matilda when she sees me – awww 🙂

Ozzie & Matilda have been out in our front paddock for the last week, as there was fresh grass in there I wanted them to graze down. 

So after their breakfast, as all the grass had been eaten, it was time to bring them back to the larger back paddock again. 

Seems simple, right?

I turned off our electric fence (known across Ireland for its ‘zing’, you don’t want to touch it!), caught Matilda & opened the wire fencing. The idea was that Ozzie would follow us out and both horses would calmly walk to the back paddock, for the fresh grass.  

Ozzie was hilarious. I would describe him as an economical, sensible, calm horse. He is in great physical condition, happy & as always is very curious & sociable. If there is anything going on he is never far away. 

So I’m leading Matilda over to their next paddock. Ozzie is loose. Will he follow Matilda & I?

Nope. Of course not! 

He instead goes straight over to our retired horse Dougal, who is in the field next door. 

Dougal is about 28 years ago, and is nearly 17 hands. A few years ago, he badly damaged his hindquarters (we suspect a broken pelvis) somehow in the paddock. It was touch & go for a while, but we eventually got him better. But he still is an old horse. He doesn’t have the same athletic ability as he did when he was younger. 

He is the same color bay as Matilda. And from a distance they can look similar. 

So Ozzie & Dougal start “play fighting” together, and then Ozzie decides he is not economical anymore. Instead Ozzie & Dougal start doing gallop races together along the fence, with a fair amount of delighted buck jumping from Ozzie. 

Poor Matilda couldn’t figure out what was going on!  

Anyway, long story short – I walked Matilda to the back paddock & closed the fence.  

Then I managed to catch Ozzie (who was still galloping around having the best day of his life!), and put him also in the new paddock with Matilda.

I do love to see my horses feeling great & galloping around. I know what it’s like to have a very sick horse, and so I appreciate it when they are all well! 

So now everyone was where they should be, all the gates were closed & the wire fencing was turned back on. 

So I thought the drama was all over then. 

But it wasn’t!

About an hour later, when I was back in the house, Dad walked into the kitchen. He was just back from checking the cattle on the farm. 

He said:

“Elaine, Matilda has jumped out of her paddock & is galloping around the pond field!” 

“Oh no” I said!

Matilda has been known to jump out of paddocks! So I thought maybe all the excitement from this morning had finally got to her!

“Elaine, I took a video of her. I have it on my phone.”

So yes, Dad had actually taken a video of Matilda galloping & buck jumping around the field. So he pressed play on his phone, so I could watch it. 

I watched it for a few seconds, and then I said:

“Wait! That’s not Matilda – that’s Dougal!”

Dougal, our 28 year old retired horse, with a previously broken pelvis, had taken off across the field in a gallop, and was happily bucking & jumping his way around his field. 

When Dad was coming back on his quad, he noticed this athletic bay horse galloping around the field, and automatically assumed that Matilda had jumped out of her paddock. 

He was literally stunned when he realised it was our old horse Dougal!

The video just warmed my heart 🙂 It was so nice to see a horse, who had kind of been informally classified as ‘old’ and ‘slightly past it’ (!) to be able to feel SO good! He literally looked like a young horse. 

And to do all of these crazy athletic moves!

So what has this to do with your horse? Let me tell you. 

A lot of horse owners that I meet have horses that are 13+ years of age or older. 

Horses that maybe never had the opportunity to get educated in self-carriage or lateral work when they were younger. 

Horses that they owners might think were ‘too old’ to learn new tricks. 

To learn new ways of moving. Or new ways of carrying their bodies in motion. 

But my lovely 28 year old horse Dougal, proved to me this morning with his dramatic and beautiful acrobatics, that it is never too late to teach an older horse new ways to move!

And when YOU make the decision to try, your horse might surprise you in a very wonderful way.  

Every horse – regardless of age –  has unlimited potential to become beautiful, light & soft riding horses. 

You can start teaching them balance & self-carriage when they are 5. 

And you can start teaching them balance & self-carriage when they are 15.

AND – if they are healthy, you can even start teaching them balance & self-carriage when they are 25!

If helping your horse to move more athletically, become more balanced when you ride & carry LESS weight on their forehand, then I’d like to invite you to join our Shoulder Out Training class.  

I can’t wait for you to be our next success story.

Elaine.