Adventure park clinic

Collingham horse adventure park is basically an obstacle course/agility/spooky training area. I signed onto a clinic here with ROSCO Horsemanship. The morning was meant to be groundwork and the afternoon ridden. With Estrid’s back still recovering I decided that I’d still go to the clinic but continue on the ground into the afternoon, not a bad thing as we don’t really struggle with ridden obstacles but she does struggle to keep her cool on the ground.

It’s a testament to Ross that in a group of horses I came away having done something entirely different to the rest and not really quite the description of the clinic either. We did exactly what we needed to do and that was practice doing nothing.

Estrid has been getting much better with her anxiety at venues, but keeping an eye on that many horses and what they’re up to is quite stressful for her. It was made so clear in the clinic, we had 7 horses, who she’d never met and if one went out of sight she’d start whinnying and spinning, no wonder an endurance venue stresses her out.

She did all the obstacles, if not sometimes a little rushed and stressed as she was so focused on what everyone else was doing. The obstacles and her bravery aren’t our problem, but her focus definitely is. So Ross had us working on our connection and her focus, whilst everyone else carried on with the obstacles around us. At times it looked like we were just standing there doing absolutely nothing, but we went from her screaming and spinning when just one horse in the group went off to do something else to standing still quietly when everyone left her behind. Now she was still tense about it and her focus wasn’t entirely on me but it was miles better than she was at the start of the day and I’m so excited to continue that work with her.