Cartmel Rise Equestrian Centre in Onkaparinga Hills | School

Cartmel Rise Equestrian Centre

Locality: Onkaparinga Hills

Phone: +61 422 805 106

Address: 7 Highet Ln Onkaparinga Hills 5163 Onkaparinga Hills, SA, Australia

Website: http://www.cartmelriseequestriancentre.com

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23.01.2022 Should you train with love? No, absolutely not! But let me explain. I’ve come across various people on Facebook saying that you should train a horse with love. ...These are nice words. Who could say no? But I think it’s a bad way to think about it. Effective training is quite difficult, so we should try to keep the ideas that are useful most prominent in our minds. I don’t think that ‘love’ is a very useful guiding idea when training horses. In fact, sometimes it can be downright toxic and counterproductive. A few anecdotes might help. When I was 10, I was a very lucky girl - I got my own horse! It was my first real experience with them. Most of what I knew about them, I’d got from reading every girl gets a horse story I could get my hands on. I spent hours brushing Tara, combing her mane (and plaiting it into very odd bobbly shapes) and just generally being with her. Because I loved her. In the first weeks of having her, I went to her paddock feeling a bit weepy - I think the other kids had been mean to me. I sat myself down in her paddock and started crying. Tara came up to me and sniffed at me. My heart leapt - here was one of the moments I’d read about - where the horse just seems to know when something is wrong, and consoles you with their presence! I was quite disappointed when Tara, finding that I had no carrots, and the funny noises were of no special interest, sighed mightily and walked off. I felt quite sulky - here I thought I was about to have a magical moment of bonding - and my horse didn’t care about me. Another story. Much later, when I was much more capable with horses, I was helping a lady who was having problems with unwanted behaviours with her horse. I also became aware of how very much she loved her horse - she hugged him, loved spending time with him and would hang out with him in the paddock. Actually, the horse really seemed to like this. But whenever she tried to handle or ride him, it became clear that the situation was verging on dangerous. She was frequently in tears about it, and the horse was stressed and anxious. What she was offering him was not at all useful to resolve the situation. My point in the above stories is that you can’t take your need for love to the horse and expect him to fill it. I can think of three bad outcomes: 1. You feel very bad when what you are offering is not returned by the horse. 2. You are not offering the horse something that he needs. 3. It does not help the horse know what he needs to do in that moment - and horses can get very anxious when they don’t know what to do. But what if you’re thinking: what I mean when I think of training the horse with love is to love him for what he is, and keep that to the forefront of my mind, as I train him. I think that love is a very high bar to be trying to reach, when thinking about training. If you have a horse that stands on your foot, you’re not going to love him very much in that moment. And rightly so - it’s difficult to love a dangerous horse. What the dangerous horse needs is to very quickly find out the behaviours which we have in mind which are safe. It’s not the moonbeams of love shooting from your eyes that are going to get him off your foot. A more effective technique will be yelling AAAAAAAaaaaaaaahhhhh GET OFF MY FOOT! And whacking him repeatedly on the shoulder. True, it won’t be the finest example of human/horse relationships - but it will likely get him off your foot. When training anything, you need really clear ideas, so you reward the horse for progress towards the behaviours you have in mind. The horse will then find that you give him helpful guidance. I think the best thing for progress is to keep a pretty clear head. I have noticed again and again that horses will frequently behave better for someone who they don’t know, than their own rider, who cares about them so much. I think it is frequently because the stranger presents the horse with a clear idea of what they want, whereas the the owner can get in a muddle around their feelings for the horse. To me, it is useful to remember that you cannot expect the horse to offer you any behaviours that you have not trained him. And it is very, very easy to love an obedient, willing horse. So you need clear ideas - to think of every behaviour you want him to offer, and embark on a program to train it to him. This takes calmness, perseverance, patience, and a willingness to really try to communicate - joy at your abundant success, and tolerance and the ability to try and try again when things haven’t gone as planned. And, since the road is long, it is helped by having a sense of humour and being able to be honest when you are the one who is in the wrong, so you don’t make the same mistake again. In the long run, isn’t this what love looks like? In that context, you can ask Should you train the horse with love?, and the answer can be - Yes, absolutely! The picture captures two fellow travellers sharing a love of flowers. It’s Sandra Klein, trainee teacher from Germany and Morning Star, her Connemara gelding. Sandra says Nothing works without humour - life and horse training must be taken with humour.

21.01.2022 Merry Christmas Everyone!!! Hope you all are having a fantastic day and even some Christmas fun with your ponies!!! From the wonderful Cartmel Rise Team

19.01.2022 "What does being "on the bit" really mean?" This is a fantastic article explained brilliantly for everyone, no matter your discipline or level of riding!!! http://www.horsecollaborative.com/on-the-bit-really-mean/

19.01.2022 A foggy winter's night in the arena..... But not a drop of rain for the lesson......love our big arena lights!

18.01.2022 We are loving these nice sunny days for riding lessons....and with these amazing views from our arenas in the evenings!

16.01.2022 Nearly the start of winter with a very wet day but we have a weather fairy just in time for our evening lesson!!

13.01.2022 Our First Jumping School at Cartmel Rise this week!!! Everyone had a fabulous fun time learning to jump, we are very lucky to have such wonderful horses to jump, the horses enjoyed it just as much as the riders!! Check out the link below for some photos from our Jumping School this week at Cartmel Rise 2015!! https://www.facebook.com/media/set/

10.01.2022 First term of 2015 is going by so fast it's time to start thinking about our 3 day Riding School in April. it is the first week of school holidays, Monday 13th - Wednesday 15th April! Bring your own horse or ride one of our well trained school horses! Contact us to book your spot, it will fill up fast!! :D

09.01.2022 Does your horse have a large or sensitive tongue? Find out more about how our Turtle Tactio with Flex could provide the comfort your horse deserves!

03.01.2022 Wow this is how to do it. A beautiful soft swing in the trot and magnificent jump in the canter. Superb passage. Lovely to watch.

02.01.2022 Our school holiday riding school was last week and everyone had a blast! Holiday lessons have gone by so fast they are nearly over! Term 2 of after school and weekend lessons start again first week back! Daylight savings has sadly ended and the winter weather is kicking in but we are lucky enough to have lights on our arena and are usually pretty lucky with the weather through winter! Just look at this stunning view from our Equestrian Centre!