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 for this next 6 months. 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 takes a turn as a lead horse, and has managed to lead across river crossings, so no more wet boots for me having to lead 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 after her birthday, I'm trying to get her out and about more 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 in the trailer to 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 did a little work with the garrocha, which helped to show where the subtle holes were 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 enthusiam, 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). 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 and motivation. We started exploring canter on the ground in the arena on a featherline, so upwards transitions feel normal and less exciting. This is helping her fitness too. In the autumn I got a free flowing canter across an open field on a solo ride, with no silliness, which felt like a milestone. I also experienced my first gallop, following a friend's horse who got a little excited on a short grassy track, and again, Sky showed she CAN move forwards just fine, and we did OK with this. After a spell of girthiness and grumpiness, I had her checked for ulcers, but all clear there, phew!

Winter in the Peak District with no indoor school means less time in work, but we're pretty hardy, and we try to ride at least 3 times a week. We focused on timing, transitions to get her lighter off the leg, pole work, obstacles , complemented by hacking solo, and some rides with friends. In the new year I got a 3.5 ton van, so as she heads towards her 5th birthday, she's getting used to travelling being part of the 'day job', with weekly training drives.  

We attended a working equitation event in a local indoor school in January, Sky's first time being indoors, and she took it all in her stride- I was very pleased with her 'try' and her confidence with the obstacles. We've started working on canter in the school. Many trainers establish canter in the initial backing process, others don't do any canter until at least aged 5. I wanted to wait (for us both) and I think our timing is fine- she's strong, we have good communication at walk and trot, and now she's ready to go up the gears. 

Sky struggled to transition into and maintain a canter with a sense of forwardness in our home arena which is small. But we had two breakthroughs: my trainer hopped on one day and got some canter with momentum, which I then repeated, and I hired an indoor arena for a lesson, we had more space so she had more flow before a corner. It felt like something was clicking. Since then, the work at home has shown she understands the cue. We're building up her 'work' within canter gradually, not drilling but chunking learning and revisiting. We've also found that giving her something to focus on helps her motivation- poles down can help and she's slowly building up her endurance in the gait, and feels pretty balanced in it, and able to pick up the correct leads.

We've shifted into the snaffle bit which she is accepting and understanding. 

In her last month as a 4 year-old, other shifts are happening. Solo rides from home are less sticky at last! I found that if I did the same ride once a week for a few weeks, initially starting with another horse in front, then with her in front or side by by side, then solo, her confidence buildt and by the third week she was more confident. Brain science suggests that as these initial rides show her that nothing bad happens, her brain lays down neural pathways that support that and confirm to her that all is well. 

We've got the beginnings of softness on  a contact at trot now, and glimpses of this at canter. She's popped a couple of cross poles, and logs, and we've been out and about with friends, travelling solo in the van, so it finally feels that I'm getting a 'riding horse' and the hard work is paying off.

Although looking back, I think 4-5 are not the easiest of years in horse training, chipping away at the parts starts to really change the whole picture. As I did a solo ride one beautiful April morning, walking, trotting and cantering, opening and closing gates, and having a horse I trust, I felt the work we've done so incrementally is starting to pay dividends and I felt excited about what's next.