NEWS GALLERY

WE needed to encourage Murphy to work through and over his back, something that he was most reluctant to do due to both previously injury and general stiffness. He was generally very stiff throughout his whole body and a visit from our Chiropractor, Georgina Sim, confirmed our thoughts with regard to what we felt was physicaly amiss with Murphy.

ALTHOUGH he began to "drop" well, then was inclined to go onto his forehand, preferring to pull himself along rather than propel himself from behind. He was not "off the leg" and this did not help our cause.

MURPHY proved to be quite tetchy in the mouth and was reluctant to take a contact - and when he did, he went over the bit rather than onto it. We switched to a Myler Combination bit (comfort snaffle mouthpiece) to encourage him to go forward from the leg and into the hand. Canter work initially resulted in much tension and disuniting as Murphy felt he couldn't canter unless he trotted fast first with his head in the air! Using the Myler enabled us to "hold" Murphy in the trot but without him feeling mouth pressure therby teaching him to break to canter from a regulated speed.

OK, so there is still plenty to do, but Murphy is looking a transformed horse.

PILOT had had quite a period of time off so when he arrived with us, we needed to get some general fitness in place before we could commence schooling work.

ALTHOUGH he has exhuberant moments,Pilot lacks forwardness at presentt, but really because he is not off the leg and is also weak behind.

UNTIL a horse is forward-going he cannot be taught to flex properly so early work has been based around getting more leg response from Pilot.

PILOT is coming along nicely but he still lacks strength behind the saddle and therefore finds it difficult to engage properly on turns and circles so since his competition he has been working on lines to help this.

GETTING him comfortably and happily bitted has taken a while but mission now accomplished. As a result his head carriage is much stiller and therefore he can be ridden more effectively. He is also more forward off the leg now so leg yielding work can be introduced.

GEORGINA SIM has seen Dylan and, as we suspected, has been very uncomfortable in his body due to all manner of misalignments, etc. Such were her findings that Georgina is coming again to give him another treatment. However already we have seen an significant improvement in Dylan.

PREVIOUSLY he slammed his feet into the ground taking all the impact on his shoulders; there was no spring to his stride. Generally he moved as if his legs were tied together but he is now freer.

WE have been long reining Dylan in order to loosen the tight muscles and slowly build them up. He has been ridden in a vulcanite pelham which has resulted in him breaking at the poll and drawing himself up and in rather than flexing correctly. This can be quite a hard habit to break so we shall see how we progress in the next few weeks.