DAY ONE TO FIVE

Roman has been sat on many times but has never been ridden properly with full tack on and made to work as a big boy , near on the age of five he has to learn to earn his keep .

Tack went on fine , he did not flinch as we did the girth up tighter , no problem and then ???? his face was a picture , what am i expected to do ?? he was told to walk on with gentle pressure from the riders leg , after 5 mins he was told to “get on ” in a louder voice , by this time his rider was kicking him on , all he did was to stand enjoying his sides massaged .

After 10 mins we took a little branch from the hedge and tapped him on the bottom , you would have thought he had an electric shock , when i say a little tap i mean just that , much more would have sent him onto orbit , working with Gypsy Horses esp Stallions is great fun , on the first day we got him to walk on in the end just by voice , ok it was a bit all over the place but so long as he was going forward we were happy , we spent the next few days going over the same thing , it came to the point as it does with Stallions, he became bored .i go back to choosing the right bit now , as with all good Gypsy Stallions he has a small pony head and a pony mouth so we had to choose the right bit , we chose what we call a Chery Roller in the UK it had d rings and the roller consists of copper rings to get the horse to mouth on them , the first time we rode him in this he twisted his mouth and pulled a face like he was sucking on lemons , he soon settled , and than came the day to ask him for his first trot with all the tack on and the sour lemon in his mouth .

What a giggle , he had no idea how to balance , feet all over the place , probably wanted to buck off the offending person on his back , the sour lemon thing was acting as it should , he  shook his head this way and that but the tack and rider were not going away , in the end we had him doing a steady trot for a few strides , we then called it a day as he had been a good boy .

The next day we took him out and about , two pretty fillies took his eye , he bounced on the spot for a few seconds but when told to walk away he did , however he did turn around many times to see if they were still there .

We aim to get him ready for ridden showing in the UK , the next step is canter with no bucking we hope , please stay with this story and have fun with us , we took some family photos with him yesterday ,  we take pride in how we bring on our Gypsy Stallions , hope you enjoy .

Tags: Gypsy Horse Training