Low Stress Horsemanship.

Silversand 2012

Administrator — Sat, 16 Jul 2011 21:07:59 +0000

Here are the dates for the silversand 2012 camp,

6th 7th 8th July 2012, inclusive, this is friday through to Sunday again, This year’s camp was great fun,
and already we have had people who attended this year camp book on to next years, Don’t delay, book now, to secure a place. you also need to tell me if you are a member of the silversand club when you book.
more details will be available soon, so keep checking back.

Lisa

silversand 2011

Administrator — Sat, 16 Jul 2011 21:02:23 +0000

At 2.36am on the 16th June 2011, we welcomed in to the world Hondo, a rather gorgeous looking dun colt foal out of DJ and by Hubble, Both Mark and I were present throughout the birth and it never ceases to amaze us just how well co-ordinated newborn foals really are, at 3 am Hondo was walking and trotting around the stable, coming to greet us, going for a drink followed by more trotting around, He is probably the strongest foal we have bred so far, as it was 5.10am before he laid down and went to sleep! He has continued to flourish and because we imprinted him from birth has turned out in to a very confident young colt, He is 1 month old today and already he’s wearing a halter and is able to lead, has worn a numnah, and had his first foot trim. It is truly joyous work training foals, they are blank canvasses and because they are curious and as yet don’t know how to resist, after an initial half hearted struggle, Hondo has learn’t to yield softly to the halter, move his hips and shoulders, and is able to back up with minimum asking. Mark and I like this colt so much that I am afraid he is not for sale, we have decided to keep him. He is the most athletic foal we have bred so far and his pedigree is full of legendary horses, Peppy San Badger appears on both sides combined with Smart little Lena, Holidoc, Two Eyed Jack, this is only a snippet of the amazing horses that grace his pedigree, he is going to be truly awesome, and even though he is only 1 month old We are so looking forward to working with him in the future.

So after the excitement of Hondo, it was time to get ready for the 2011 silversand camp, the tents were put up, and then it was time to pick Jason up from Manchester airport. Jason is a silversand associate in Australia who is travelling Europe for 5 weeks, the last time I saw jason was back in 2004 when I rode his horse. Mark and I set off in plenty of time but as usual there’s always a crash or roadworks going on around Manchester and so we were stuck in nose to tail traffic jam for about an hour, so poor Jason not only had a horrendously long flight he now had an extra hour to wait for us! Sorry Jason!

Back home and after a long sleep, Jason helped me put the horse pens together, followed by food shopping for the clinic, after all the organising, we could put our feet up for a little while and wait for students to arrive, Not only were we up on numbers with 10 riders, we were up on spectators, some of which had only booked 1 day but just had to come back for the other 2 days! That says a lot about the standard of tuition.

We were blessed with awesome weather, Sunshine and warmth every day, a little too warm in the afternoons, with spectators looking very pink!
We had a great selection of horses, some very young ones on their first clinics, we were also joined by Marjorie! the Dummy cow, ( there will be photos soon, because you have to see her!) Some of the students needed to work on focus, now Marjorie, the black and white cow is hauled along behind the Quad, she has moveable hind legs which you can rope or you can just track her, needless to say no one had a problem focusing after she arrived!
the evenings were also fun packed, with Jason teaching us all to crack stock whips, easier said than done! still no injuries so it just proves everyone was listening, we also had roping sessions, both with Steve and Jason, great fun, and a useful skill to learn and keep practising. SPECIAL THANKS GOES TO DAVID AND SARAH FIRTH FOR BUILDING MARJORIE!

Steve always does an awesome job teaching and it is always good to watch horses become calmer and students more focused, effective and confident around their horses. We are especially proud of Helen Rushforth, back in 2008 she bought the first foal we bred named Philli, she is at livery with us but Helen has started Philli all by herself, we were there for advice but that was all. we had no physical contact with Philli at all during her starting period, and so to see her do the whole clinic was a real pleasure, and it was such a joy to see Steve then get on philli and do some roping of the dummy cow on her, something she has never done before, but in her usual calm way, coped very well indeed, Well done Helen, you’ve done an amazing job and you should be very proud of yourself and Philli!
Mandy Callicott also did a tremendous job with Sunny, another foal by Hubble, and one which we started last year, again Mandy did an amazing job working in a field among lots of other strange horses, Sunny stayed calm, and confident and looked amazing. well done Mandy.
Thanks also to Mandy for producing a keg of ale, named Silversand special, and very special it was too, tasted refreshing like pop, but when you have had nothing to eat all day like I did all clinic it became rather potent! by the end of the clinic there was only half a glass left ! it went down very well Mandy thank you!

We can relax a tiny bit now though, 3 days is never enough, it all seems very empty here now, there’s a big build up to the camp and then poof! its over, Jason is over in Germany now joining some of the german associates, hope you have a great time over there Jason. we have young horses in for starting which is keeping us very busy, and of course Hondo to play with, who we will keep you all posted on his progress.
we will be publishing dates for next year very soon, so please keep checking back.

bye for now.

Administrator — Mon, 30 May 2011 19:55:06 +0000

Mark and I are back home from the States now, having had a wonderful and inspirational time there, it started with the Californios, a favourite event of ours involving roping events using vaquero trained bridle horses in various stages of their training. There was also a large selection of trade stalls, and needless to say we stocked up on goodies for our horses! We’ve been to this event before, and so knew what a treat it was to go there, this year though, it was great to see Steve and Irena there as well as our friends David and Sarah Firth from the UK. We had an awesome time catching up with friends whom we hadn’t seen for a long time and also meeting new friends too, the ranching community is a very special one, you are immediately made to feel welcome and made to feel that you too belong to that community, lessons can be learned from these folks! When we could tear ourselves away from the trade show, we managed to catch a glimpse of some of the events from calf roping to Bull doctoring, and the new event called off the ropes which involves ranch horses who haven’t been ridden for a long time, many only having just a handful of rides on them, and the cowboy who has never seen the horse before, has to assess the horse, be able to groom, saddle, ride it for a while and be able to rope off it, all to be done in 16 mins! This class simulates the life of a real working buckaroo, who would have just been told which horse to go and ride, he wouldn’t have had a choice! the standard of horsemanship throughout the whole event was amazing. There was also another class for youth riders, again a ridden show and a roping part, its good to know that young riders are interested in bridle horse training!
Next stop after a very foggy and snowy trip from Reno to Santa Ynez was Light hands Horsemanship, 4 days of museum trips and education, we enjoyed talks from Dr Robert Miller talking about imprinting foals and the horse’s mind, watched numerous demos from young horse starting to western dressage, and the highlight form me was meeting a lady who is very inspirational to me, arabian breeder and vaquero horsewoman Sheila Varian.
A quick trip south followed to then spend a few days training with Bruce Sandifer, an awesome horseman, who gave me SO much to think about. He gave me a wonderful horse to ride named Rhett, Rhett allowed me to take the time to learn the lightest feel on the rein and also to experiment with weight aids which is crucial in building the bridle horse. I knew i had used my seat more as i had managed to gain HUGE blisters on each butt cheek right where my seat bones are so there was no way of not sitting on them!! I did manage to ride the first day, but we had to make a quick pit stop in Walmart to buy a pair of padded cycling shorts to go under my jeans for the next day. Bruce also allowed me to ride his beloved horse Mooney,now I’ve seen Mooney at various events before and I ADORE that horse, he is truly stunning and extremely intelligent, it was an absolute joy and honour to ride him.
Mark rode also, again he rode Rhett and he did some reata roping, a reata is a rawhide rope rather than a nylon one, it has way more life to it and takes more skill to throw, Mark did a fantastic job and caught the dummy calf a few times, Hank (the dummy calf) was then dragged around the arena behind the ATV so we could have a go at tracking a cow and getting the horse to hook on to it, great exercises to get your horse and yourself to focus. We learn’t so much from Bruce, i hope we can spend more time with him in the future. Back to reality now and time to put it all in to practise on our own horses.
The silversand annual clinic is roughly a month away, so we will be busy getting ready for that, along with waiting for the arrival of Hubble and DJ’s foal mind June. Busy time lie ahead!

USA

Administrator — Fri, 13 May 2011 15:51:32 +0000

So here we are three plane flights later, sat in our room in the silver legacy hotel over looking Reno and watching the sun rise over the Sierra Nevada mountain range, Our first visit for this morning is to D Bar M tack store, and then off to the Californios event, looking forward to seeing all the bridle horses, and also to meet old and hopefully some new friends.

Administrator — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 21:23:35 +0000

Spring is around the corner! the ground is drying up, we’ve finally got the rugs off the horses and now they are moulting like mad! Lots of things are happening here and there are lots of things to look forward to.
Right now we are over-run with horses in for work, from starting youngsters to horses here for a “tune-up” We’ve also got Twiggy’s first foal, Summer back here for further handling and traffic training, Time does fly by! She will be 2 years old this july, it doesn’t seen like two minutes since we saw her being born. She is turning is to an awesome young horse, still as beautiful as ever and with a really nice mind. You’ll be sat on her soon Lesley! Talking of foals, DJ is due to foal mid June and Twiggy has just been covered again for an early 2012 foal. Hubble is the father to both, and as usual, it is always exciting to see what colour his foals turn out be!
We are also getting ready for our trip to California, this will be a fun packed time, we’ll be meeting up with friends from all over the place, here in the UK, Italy all our USA friends and also Steve and Irena, it will be a truly international event!
When we return, we will be then getting ready for the silversand summer clinic, we have had a fantastic response to this camp, ALL the rider places are now taken, and so there are only spectator places left. Thank you to all who have booked.
Stay tuned, we’ll post again soon.

Administrator — Fri, 08 Oct 2010 21:37:51 +0000

Well the weather is turning and we are planning for the winter, next year is going to be busy, Pepper will not only be shown but she will be helping Steve Halfpenny out with his demos also so I have to get her ready for that. At the moment she is helping me out as usual by ponying out the babies who are in for starting, her incredible temperament and calmness filters through to the youngsters and once they can find out that they can move freely alongside her they too become calm and braver. She is an incredible asset to our yard. We are also nearly ready to wean Twiggy and her foal, this shouldn’t be too difficult since the foal seems to be forever wandering off to the opposite end of the field to her mum, neither seem that bothered about each other! Once we’ve got the foal away from Twiggy we plan on bringing her back in to work, and maybe even get her out to a show or two before putting her back in foal. Skeeter is becoming more and more awesome, he is virtually giving me self carriage in all gaits in the hackamore, he is becoming so light I am just having to think about something and he’s gone and done it. we just need more hours in the day to work on this more.
Mojo had the abscess from hell, and for a moment I thought he’d broke his leg, as he could not put any weight on it at all, after three days of poulticing it, it finally burst and boy did it burst. It never ceases to amaze me how they can go from not putting any weight on a foot at all to being sound and galloping about again within hours. Im glad to say he seems fine and I’m back riding him, again. Hubble frightened the living day lights out of me the other day, I went to check them in the field to find a HUGE swelling on the inside thigh of his leg, (the one he injured before!) The original injury left his with a very odd gait, he could never stride out as far in walk as he did with his good leg, in trot he looked lame and in canter he favoured one lead, when I saw this new swelling my heart sank, I thought he’s done something similar and was busy grovelling around looking for a puncture or some other wound when he’d had enough and ran off, but he ran off sound fully articulating his leg, completely level in trot and using his leg fully with the same length stride as his other. WEIRD! So I rode him and he was fine, and have ridden him regularly since and he’s still fine, I think because of the rain we’ve had the fields have become slippery and when they all go goofing around I think Hubble has done the splits and released whatever it was that was stuck. I’ve still got the swelling but that is going down with daily lasering, but I cannot grumble, he’s sound and able to work again. Now we must take it steady with him and build him up gradually. Inwardly I’m ecstatic but I would really like to know what’s going on inside that leg.
WES area 5 ar having a training day with me on the 17th Oct at askham Bryan college, the response was so great that there was a waiting list for that day, So we didn’t disappoint we’re going to go back the following week and do another training day. This too is now full, Thank you to all who are coming!
So enough for now, hopefully the weather will be kind to me and allow me to get all these horses ridden on a daily basis, we’ll have a report from the WES clinics soon.

Mark becomes a Silversand Associate

Administrator — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 17:32:22 +0000

Congratulations must go to Mark, On thursday 8th July 2010 Steve and Irena asked Mark to become the latest Silversand associate, and I am pleased to say he accepted.
Mark’s bio will appear soon on the main Silversand website.

Silversand 2010

Administrator — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 21:22:25 +0000

The run up to the Silversand clinic was hectic to say the least. Twiggy decided that she had had enough of being IN foal and wanted to get rid of it, and so She decided to foal 4 days earlier than her due date, at 1.35am on Monday 28th June She provided us with a stunning filly foal, which we think may turn out to be a Dunalino, She is palomino with a dorsal stripe and black on her legs. Mark and I were there for the whole birth, you know you never tire of seeing a foal being born, and it is truly amazing how quick self preservation kicks in, within half an hour the foal was stood up walking around and feeding. When we could finally tear ourselves away from foal watching we had our work cut out, renovating the house along with building pens and putting tents up in preparation for Steve and Irena coming. The foal kept drawing us back however and then the neighbours came to see her along with all the family and friends, BUT we did get everything done by Thursday lunchtime just in time for the 1st horse arriving in the afternoon.
We were blessed with fantastic weather and had a great turnout of both riders and spectators, Thank you to all who came, the progress made was just brilliant, and there was a real calm but progressive feel to the whole weekend, Angi, one of our liveries came to spectate but after the 1st day couldn’t sit watching any longer and so decided to ride instead, Sarah another one of our liveries, made HUGE progress, I am so very proud of her, it has been a long road, but Sarah you looked truly awesome. Dawn, Sarah (another Sarah) Sue, Claire and Helen learnt a lot about feel, there were lots of light bulb moments going on among those five. Gordon also came again, with his horse Rosie, you have come such a long way Gordon, Rosie does look like a totally different horse. A great time was had by all, BBQ’s friday and saturday and apart from smoking the neighbours out with the fire, they were a laugh, So thank you guys, YOU made the clinic, and thanks to Angi and her mum, for baking millions of buns, they went down a treat! Mark and I hope to see you all again next year.

2010 silversand clinic

Administrator — Fri, 21 May 2010 21:21:21 +0000

The 2010 Silversand clinic is now full. All rider places are now taken however there is still room for more spectators. If you are interested in coming to watch then please get in touch, it’s a great way to learn, spectators are very much included in these clinics, there’s plenty of chance to ask questions, and it’s a good idea to bring a note book along with you. Meals are also included, along with snacks and drinks. The cost to spectate is £40 per day. Don’t delay though as numbers are limited.

Congratulations Ella

Administrator — Sat, 03 Apr 2010 21:24:25 +0000

Congratulations go to Ella Goelitz on the purchase of Shady Lady ( chilli).
Chilli will be put in foal to Hubble, so Ella will also receive a 2011 foal, in the meantime, Chilli will be brought back in to work, and we may even persuade Ella to do the odd competition on her.
Ella, Mark and I wish you the very best of luck with Chilli,she is a super little horse and we too can’t wait to see a foal from her and Hubble.