We are half way there with breaking in our six Ratamill charges.
Ratamill Geoff of coarse was the first, being the only one who was handled he was easy as can be and is now going beautifully on the flat and starting over jumps. He is such a sweet horse with an out there character, full of funny tricks like throwing empty feed bins at unsuspecting passers buy and staying laying down in the paddock while you scramble aboard!
Ratmill Eric the little grey arab has been a star. We were ready for Eric to be the hardest to get through to by far as he is 7yrs old, but to our surprise right from day one he has been the first for everything from being able to be caught in the paddock to being backed. He is still pretty jumpy on the ground but to ride he is a joy! Great movement and attitude.
Then came Ratamill Gerko the lovely rangy chestnut, Gerko is the quietest of the 5 wilds by FAR, he was never spooky of flighty however wild horses without the flight instinct often have the fight instinct! And Gerk did. We did all his initial handling in the crush so his bites and front foots only damaged the railing rather than me! We had to be respectful but never scared of him and above all never get mad with him, he was only defending himself the same way the others were in running away from us. Anyway within a couple of weeks his guard came down and that was that, We are mates now and I can jump on and go for a ride, he is lovely and quiet and learning fast.
We are thinking Ratamilll Rodrigo the 4yr old grey is not far behind he is quite quiet and has had his gear on and been lunged, Ludgar too is starting to come around, we can get right up to him and he is calm in the crush. These two are out in the big paddock having a breather at the moment. Then there is Steve.. Steve is a bit feral, we can’t really get up to him yet even in the round pen, he is flighty and distrusting however he has no aggression and is not a fence jumper under pressure which is a big bonus! So slowly but surely we are getting him used to having us in proximity.
So we are happy with progress, especially seeing we are flat out with other horses and they don’t get enough of out time!
Waiting for the draught to break! Aren’t we all.
Looking forward to a wee break at HOY this weekend, HOY doesn’t normally spell R and R for our team so should be nice!
