The Story of Hewey - part 9

Hewey's riding training begins...

It was time for the next stage in the life of Hewey. The beginning of his ridden career.

Clearly we did not need to worry about introducing rugs or human contact to Hewey! We started out just putting a normal snaffle bridle on with a KK training bit. This presented no problems so after a couple of minutes to acclimatise a little the lessons could begin. I try to follow the philosophies of the Australian Equine Behaviour Centre as I believe that they are scientifically and practically sound.

We do not have a round yard so the initial work was carried out in the day yard (15m x 30m) to which Hewey was now confined to curb his escapades!

Firstly Hewey had to learn the concept of stop, go and turn responses from the bit and whip signals. I had to be very careful here that he was not just following my movements but actually responding to the cues from the bit and the taps from the whip. I also jumped up and down beside him as a precursor to jumping on him. Being the athlete that I am I also introduced him to the idea of standing beside the mounting block with me on it towering over him.

On the second day I was able to jump up and lie over Heweys back and then also lie over him from the mounting block. I then encouraged him to move a few steps with me hanging over his back by turning him and so getting his front legs to move. This was no problem but I was happy to move very slowly with Hewey so I did not actually sit on and ride him until the next day.

Wednesday the 8th of August was the momentous day when I first rode Hewey bareback around the yard! What a long way we had come from that tiny foal! All we did was ride around in walk in both directions and practice ‘stop’ and ‘go’. Each session was started with ground work to be sure that the responses were entrenched.

This was repeated on Friday the 10th and again on Sunday the 12th. This time when I had finished riding, I introduced Hewey to the saddle. He was quite unconcerned but I only led him around to let him feel the girth and the stirrups hanging by his side. As you can see from the dates his training was interrupted by other things, like having to update my first aid certificate and teaching, however we were still making progress.

On Monday the 13th (poor choice of date!) I rode Hewey for the first time with a saddle. I am most comfortable in my dressage saddle so that is what I use. Again we started with in hand work and then we simply rode around the yard in walk and trot. The location is not ideal as the yard is 15m x 30m which makes for a very tight turn in trot at this stage! Hence the next day after a short ride in the yard we ventured out for a walk around the driveway and onto the arena. This is a very short distance but still a good step forward.

On Wednesday we actually tacked up in the stable like a real grown up horse, and then rode on the arena in walk and trot. We also weighed and measured. Hewey is now 14.3 1/4 hands and 461 kilos, simply huge!

Over the next week or two we only managed a few rides but these were in the arena and around about a little to introduce different scenery. He also had his first set of shoes on the 24th of August. On Tuesday the 4th of September we had our first canter. Hewey is not a speed demon by any means and is much happier to walk or, unlike many youngsters, stand and have a chat! We only cantered to the right at first and then a week later on the Wednesday we did canter left.

Those of you who read our foal watch pages will know that by Saturday the 22nd of September Hewey was very grown up, allowing me to ride and make phone calls at the same time! I was riding him when Lucy decided that foaling was nigh. I phoned Richard who led her past in her ‘stringhalt canter’ while I was riding Hewey on the arena. I should say at this point that Hewey had been very good to do everything with. His only real objection was to the idea of cantering which he thought was too much like hard work causing a few ‘handstands’ along the way. Other than that he had done everything that was asked without protest. His education continued pretty smoothly with a few rides outside the arena and also the introduction of poles on the ground to walk and trot over and cones to go in and out of.

The next major event in the life of Hewey was on Friday the 26th of October. He was introduced to covering mares! We were all interested to see whether he would foal-mouth the girls as he did with us. He was a little reserved but with a little encouragement got the job done and 14 days later Penny (aka Money Miss Spent) was pronounced pregnant! In the mean time Hewey also covered Better Pine and Stylish Odds both on the same day, twice! This wore him out and when I tried to ride him on the first of the two days he said he was way too tired. By now he thought he knew exactly how to do the job and became over confident so we had to have a discussion about how this should be done.

His next task was to cover Lucy whose stringhalt had improved enough for us to have a try at live cover. We had previously inseminated her with chilled semen but were not surprised when she was not pregnant as we had tried to synchronise three mares to share one collection and her ovulation was a little late. Initially we thought that live cover would be too difficult for her but with our vets agreement we decided to try with Hewey as he would hopefully not be too heavy for her.

He was of course the perfect gentleman and she coped without any trouble. Hewey covered 7 mares and after the first couple was a dream to handle, practically asking me for permission to proceed. The only one that did not conceive on one cycle was our own 20 year old Lilly.

The training of Hewey continued intermittently through the stud season (as we have trouble fitting everything in). I was not concerned that rides were infrequent as Hewey is only young and I always feel that as long as what you do is correct, the frequency is not critical. For us the season is ridiculously long with the last foals born in February and mares therefore still being covered and scanned in March. We were able to get consistently underway again at the beginning of March 2008. However he had a major interruption just after Easter in late March when he cut both hind legs. As Hewey had spent so much of his early life in a very confined space literally propped up on me or pillows, he was quite happy to lie down right up against things. This had resulted in him being caste in the stable in the past and I believe that he cut himself by laying down against the fence and then rolling over into it. Fortunately his injuries were not severe but were across the front of both hocks necessitating about 2 months of stable rest and dressings.

However that is all in the past now and Hewey has been back in work for a couple of months. He has not yet been off the property but much to his surprise has had a rider other than me on his back! Although his first foals are very close to being born, he still foal-mouths Richard and myself.

It is a race to see who has the first Hewey baby to arrive. Our Penny is due now but does not look close. Lucy is due in about 3 weeks and looks closer than Penny. Stylish Odds looks like she may beat them all by going a few days early so we are keeping the phone turned up like nervous grandparents!

Hewey now is a fully fledged member of the Aurum Stallion Band and you can see his page here!