4-5 years

In May, Sky turned 4. I'm still mindful of the fact that her spine has not finished fusing yet, so the ridden work is short and low intensity. She's built up a lot of muscular strength from 70 miles of in hand and short ridden work in the last year, and this was done over some hilly terrain so she feels really pretty balanced under saddle and muscularly she is very well developed.

We hack out once or twice a week for about an hour, mostly in walk with a few trots to work on transitions and lightness in 'the feel' here. I still hop off and walk some of the way on rides over 45 minutes to decrease the loading on her back. I'm hoping to do a little more solo ridden work with her, but I admit, I prefer having company. In groups she is a confident lead horse, and has managed to lead across river crossings, so no more wet boots leading her! We're building up to solo ridden or combo in-hand and ridden hacks though and it's part of the plan for the next 6 months. I ride in the arena once a week to do short (20-30 minute) session on the latest areas of progression. 

At the moment we are working on getting light transitions up and down from trot,  these were very sticky at first, but now post - camp (see Foundational Ridden Work) we have more flow and lightness. She now understands forwards on a lighter cue. So we are combining transition work with stopping and backing up lightly, steering off the legs, a litte leg yielding, and adding in the hindquarters yields and shoulder yields. 

3 months in from her birthday, I'm getting her out and about a little as she is very 'hefted' to the farm mentally, and seems to have thresholds where she finds it hard to leave a certain perimeter from home. Once she is through that with a little encouragement or a lead off another horse, she is fine again, but I want her to feel confident leaving and being away from home, so we're starting to do short trips out locally which will build her experience in travelling (see Training for travel). 

We managed our first solo short hack (with me riding the whole way) from the yard which felt like a big moment, she walked past a tractor and a motorbike leaving the yard, we went down a 'quiet' lane and had to deal with about 10 well behaved cars who passed us and we walked alongside a horse field with a curious youngster. It was only about 35 minutes but she was listening really well, she was a bit 'looky' but overall it was a brilliant try and we can build on that for our future solo adventures. I'm also introducing the bit slowly into some of our hacking work, so she can relax and see it more as 'business as usual', when the demands are low- e.g. on a short walk hack with a friend as that has been an area of concern for her (see Bitting and bridling). Her mouth is quieting down. 

We've been focusing on functional skills, putting the foundational ridden skills into practical use. She developed quickly with gate skills, and seems to click into gear with a physical task to tackle. It's really nice to be the person to take on gates on a ride out. We both enjoy thinking through the steps and negotiating the challenge each (tricky) gate poses. And even if I have to get off, I can rely on her picking me up from the gate, a rock or wall. We've also started working with the garrocha, which helps to show where the subtle holes are in connection and accuracy. Sky is doing really well with this so far as, again, seems to focus more with a task to manage.

We spent some time prepararing for a cow working clinic so we practiced trot to halt and turn back to follow a cow. I wanted to be prepared for a canter in the clinic just in case she decided to follow a cow with enthusiams, so we started adding a couple of canter strides in where safe and appropriate on our rides out (with a sane friend in front, up a short slope that faces away from home). The clinic admittedly was a 'big ask' but I felt she could do it. It involved our first long haul away from home (we had company), staying away and being stabled, being in the company of 7 horses in a new arena, and of course, working with cattle. There are cows on the livery farm, and I knew she was unfazed by them, and could push them, but hoped all the other elements wouldn't trigger stack her. I was really impressed with Sky's ability to manage all these new aspects. Yes, she fell in love with my friend's gelding, and was a little on her toes on the first day, but she listened, gave things a go, and her work at walk and trot in rating the cows, pushing them, and even walking into the herd to cut one out felt really brave and willing. I couldn't fault her try.

In some ways, she's feeling like a more 'grown up' horse, more balanced, understanding of where her body is in space and we're pretty connected. But at times, she still behaves like the youngster that she is, she can sometimes lack confidence seeing new things, and be reluctant to take the lead. I'm still mindful of time spent on her back, opting to be on foot for sections of hacks. We're starting to explore canter on the ground in the arena on a featherline, so it becomes normal and less exciting but I don't want to rush it and want it to feel Ok for her and for the experience to be calm for us both.