Stardust and Leigh sharing a hug.
Circe "chasing the tiger " -- get that tiger!
The three amigos...note Stardust mugging for a treat! Bad boy!
The three amigos take a bow.
Stardust is a 16 year old Selle Francais -- a French warmblood, and Circe is a 3 year old Haflinger, which is a small draft Austrian breed used for many years as all around farm horses.
Institute Fellow Susan Kelejian has been a gold mine of wisdom, support, teaching, and general cheerleading since Leigh got Stardust four years ago, helping her to figure out how to bring him back from the brink and beginning to work him using dressage techniques. Stardust had suffered severe chronic pain for a number of years under heavy training, and was both completely physically out of whack and suffering from an equine version of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. He's come a long way! A year ago, Leigh got Circe, the little blond bombshell, both as a herd mate for Stardust (she's proving to be quite the equine psychologist -- nothing like a pushy little sister to convince you to play!) and because Leigh has discovered gravity and decided that a smaller horse who didn't come with emotional baggage would be just the ticket for trail rides! Circe is just now being introduced to a saddle and riding, and is being such a good girl about it!
Stardust had panic attacks about traditional tack, so Leigh has experimented with a variety of options, finally discovering a treeless saddle (that is soft and fits on the horse's back without a rigid infrastructure, helping Stardust past pain in his shoulders), and a bitless bridle. (And yes, you can stop a 17 hh horse with no bit in his mouth!) Leigh uses the Bitless Bridle from Dr. Robert Cook, a veterinarian who taught at Tufts University for many years, and is a specialist in the mouth of the horse. You can find out more about his bridle here.
At this point, Leigh is working with them both using techniques that she's learning from an amazing group of people who are developing something that they call "The Art of Natural Dressage," working with rewards-based play and training to help the horses discover their own natural balance and collection. It's very different from traditional training, which teaches the horse to submit to pressure, but instead is an effort to work together with horses in a true sense of partnership. Many of the people playing with AND are experienced clicker/targeting trainers, some work with bitless bridles, and some work with no bridles at all -- instead using a "cordeo," a rope or strip of leather that is looped around the horse's shoulders. Leigh and her kids have yet to start that!
You can find out more about this remarkable approach to horses here. If you're interested in this training, be sure to check out the forum -- it is an absolute gold mine of ideas, techniques, experiences, and wisdom from this group!
