Last year I met a lovely lady called Julie, and a lovely Welsh Cob called Ynysgerwyn Dylan, Dylan to his friends!

Dylan was a young 3yr old who had been started on the lunge and introduced to wearing his tack when we first met. After a few sessions we had just made progeress when Dylan unexpectedly had to have a fair time off work as he had been kicked in the field, purely accidental but annoying to say the least! So poor Julie had to endure a fair wait before work could commence again. Luckily Dylan made a full recovery.

During this spring Julies yard manager and groom, both very capable riders, had the task of backing Dylan and after only 3 weeks, Dylan was happily hacking out in company.

This is where I come in again, Julie had started Dylan off very well but was now in need of someone with not only a "cob" background but someone who understood the needs of a show cob, as their training differs slightly from conventional training, so as I tick both boxes, I started teaching them both, up to then, 4 weeks ago, Dylans training had just been walking and trotting with a rider, but now only a few weeks on, we are working on the canter, which from the right rein is rather good, as opposed to the left rein which Dylan still has the odd wobble on. As he is a large build horse he is still growing and his shape changed from one week to the next, so the work we do has to be planned carefully at each session.

 

I hope to give regular updates on Dylan and Julies progress and to follow them into their showing debut next season.

 

 

This is me riding Dylan 2 weeks ago, just learning to canter. (sorry about my looking down, a habit i must break!!!)