| Billara Beersheba - In the process of being broken in! Bill was sent down to the breakers in August 2008, and is going really well so far. Trent (who does NOT want to do breaking in for others, Bill is just a very special one who gets to be done by him! Which we are eternally grateful for!) has been working on him for a couple of weeks now and on the 9th September we got the chance to get down and have a look at one of his sessions. |
| The reason we sent him to Trent to be started under saddle is that all he knows is Craig and I as 'mum and dad'.... we wanted him to experience other people, another property, other horses etc... not just our lot that he knows inside out! He is going over stuff on the ground and under a piece of poly pipe with a rag on it without any reaction to it.... hes not fussed at all! |
| Trent likes to get them used to having all sorts of things dropped in front of them and run over them while they are going along... As soon as Trent asked him to stop and come in, he did, and stood there quietly and dropped his head to be bridled. He stood rock still while Trent went and got the saddle blanket, threw it on him and then went back for the saddle, and again, stood dead still while that was put on and |
| girthed up. Trent then stood in the stirrup a couple of times before swinging a leg over... The whole time Bill just stood there quietly as if he had been doing it all his life. |
| You can see Trent holding a strap in his right hand - its his 'hurry up' strap... if he gets a bit sluggish, he gets a little 'hurry up' with a little tap from it. Bill is very responsive to the reins and |
| has a beautiful soft mouth. He holds himself beautifully as well, which is lovely to see - he always has done on his own - nice to see it is continuing under saddle. The photo at right isnt a particularly 'good' photo, but you can see him really bending his hock and bringing that hind leg right underneath him. |
| Bill has only had a handfull of rides under his belt, but he is striding out really well, and looks very relaxed about it all. Trent has been working him almost every day and he is quite pleased with how he is coming along so far. He seems quite balanced under saddle, which is great to see. When asked, he just pops into a lovely slow lopey canter. |
| Craig cant wait to get on him himself and start riding him! Bill will be going to the Wudinna Show on the 21st September, and will be shown in hand, and Trent is going to ride him in the Rodeo Arena by the sounds of it just to give him some more outside experience. |
| This will be Bills first outing and of course his first show. It will be interesting to see how he reacts to all the strange sights, sounds and horses! Will be a bit of an eye opener for the boy! |
| He is just coming up to 4 years old, so he still has a bit of growing and a lot of maturing to do. We expect he will thicken up a reasonable amount, though we quite like him the way he is right now! He stands at 16.1hh now, although you wouldnt know it with Trent on him - Trent is 6 ft 8. |
| After being worked, Bill stands still to be unsaddled, and then hosed off. In the photo below left, you can see he isnt even being held while hosed off! Normally he has a roll in the sand too! |