Endorsements

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TWO HAFLINGER GELDINGS RISING SIX.

Nearly three years ago - when we were both old enough to know better – we decided to fulfil a dream of owning a horse.  What breed and what age we wondered and where would we find this special horse.  We were told to get an older sensible one, not a rescue and not a youngster.  Then fate took a hand.  We had always admired the Haflinger and discovered by chance that a local farmer bred them.  The breeder admitted he only had youngsters but we decided to look anyway.  The rest as they say is history.  We bought the first chap who was three and had been backed and lightly ridden.  What about company we thought?  By chance his half brother was also for sale so after our vet had done his exanimation we were the proud owners of two lively ponies without much of a clue as what to do next.

We had been to a couple of natural horsemanship clinics, read books and watched videos about natural horsemanship and had horsemanship help from a friend and a family member.  I had ridden as a child and we had both had lessons at a riding school (expensive and did not learn a thing) some lunge lessons from a local instructor (rather like a wall of death and didn’t learn much there either).  I had worked with horses as a teen, had two accidents which left me hospitalised and been runaway with.  We decided to leave riding them for a year, have them re backed when they were older and do ground works and get to know them.  We tried Parelli;  one got scared and confused with the pressure the other obstinate so that absolutely nothing would move him and he was still able to bully me.  We took them to a natural horse training clinic over two days; there were several horses and riders with mixed abilities and we were totally out of our depth.  We leant then that training can be expensive and you don’t always get what you think you have paid for.  About this time I was thinking I am way too old for this, don’t like the intimidation, I should have got an older sensible mount suitable for my years and was pretty depressed with other folks’ negative comments on my efforts which made me feel pretty foolish.  Then a chance remark by a friend brought Lewis into our lives.

I had already emailed Lewis having seen his website and he had tactfully not made any comment about them being sent away for rebacking.  I understand a bit more now why. We agreed a time for his visit and he duly came out to us.  I looked at this big guy from Texas wearing a Stetson and chaps, at our ponies and wondered, with some misgivings how this would all work out.  Having had orthodox tuition in the past, been yelled at and various other negative experiences, I was surprised that he did not get us to mount up to see what our riding was like.  But lo, he spent time with the ponies on the ground seeing what they understood and what we did, talking and explaining how we would work with them, that I would be safe and he would teach us how and that many riders he worked with got their confidence back.  I have to say I felt a bit cheated.  Where was the riding instruction, the control the formula to make it all right and what were we going to do to make them behave and get the magic results that I saw other folks get with their horses?

Perhaps the best way to describe Lewis’ way of teaching is organic.  He works with the horse as an individual and always has the utmost care and respect for them.  He takes the time to work with them and us so that they understand and so do we.  There has never been any loss of patience on his part, and he must have it tried to the limit sometimes with all the questions.  If something doesn’t work or the horse does not understand he will find another way, if that doesn’t work out he will think of something else.  The pony once described as like a land rover with your foot to the floor is changing into a responsive ride that is starting to collect and is quick to understand what he is asked.  We understand now that he has a huge ego and likes to be asked nicely.  He gets stubborn and difficult if he is not.  The other chap worries but if the cues are clear and consistent he is happy to oblige and tries hard to do what you ask. We have learnt to lunge in the correct way, they are able to move to the softest touch with their ground work and we know how to do leadership skills from the ground and in the saddle. It is a long journey we are making but we are off the lunge and when we are ready we will ride out and enjoy the partnership that we have. There is no rush and it doesn’t matter what other folks think about what we should or should not be doing by now.  It takes the time it takes unquote.  It is true that I am still nervous (sorry Lewis but I am mature and habits die hard) but I believe in time I will be able to do good turns, redirect the energy if I need brakes, maybe jump a little and hack out. There will be more challenges ahead I am sure – as teenagers the naps are many and varied but we will work through them as we have done before and not get frustrated as Lewis has said on many occasion. 

We have been working with Lewis for about a year and half now as he instructs both us and the boys.  In all that he has never failed us or the ponies;  he has helped in so many ways that it is hard to remember them all.  We are very fortunate to have a horseman like him to work with us.  He could help just about anyone at any level.  As my partner often tells me “Lewis is the real deal”.  He sure is right about that.

Christine and Julian,
Accolade and Arim

March 08

I found Lewis by googling natural horsemanship trainers and finding a link to his site at a place I had already looked around. I noticed he was based in Essex and decided God was liking me that day! Since my first lesson with him I haven't looked back.

My horse Finn is a 9yr old whose breeding is anyone's guess! I think of him as an Arab x TB, however he has warm blood traits and looks a bit quarter horse ish, aside from being too tall at 16.1hh. He also has a habit of standing just like a Morgan. He also displays rig like behavior and muscles up more like a stallion than a gelding. He's fairly dominant! He came from Ireland as a 6yr old and I bought him the week he arrived in the country. He was very mal nourished and somewhat withdrawn, but had a beautiful face and kind eyes. I laid him off after riding for a month as he needed at least two months rest to put weight on. He had been difficult to bridle and fidgety to groom from the start, but ok to ride. Well I missed a lot of obvious signs that he wasn't happy with me! To cut a long story short, I took a very bad fall and was lucky to escape serious injury. Finn was very stressed by my sudden fear of him and he decided he had to look after himself, and three different yards and their staff couldn't convince him otherwise. He was never dangerous, just very difficult. I tried Monty Roberts ways which I could see put far too much pressure on my sensitive guy, and although it helped to 'handle' him on the ground I couldn't ride him often, and when I did he was about as uninterested as you can get! By this point I'd ditched ordinary saddles and gone for treeless which helped a lot, and ditched the bit and gone for a Dr Cook, which he also seemed to be pleased about. Still he didn't trust me if something scared him, which happened a lot!

Enter Lewis......The first session he stayed for 4 hours and charged me about the same as I'd been paying for two 45min lessons with other trainers. Finn immediately responded to the leadership & join up work Lewis did with him in the round pen, after getting to know him in his stable. At last someone was being the leader Finn was looking for and he loved it! He was cheeky and happy and engaging with Lewis, and basically playing. Lewis explained everything he did and why and what result it was having which is so very refreshing! After an hour of ground work, and a quick bite of grass for Finn and drinks for us all, I was on board! Something I never expected as Finn hadn't been ridden for almost a whole year! Lewis was complementary about all my tack, and he showed me the magic cure all bit! A straight bar Mullen mouth loose ring happy mouth snaffle with a chin strap (not a curb strap)! Great for horses to chew when stressed and my horse can't get enough of it! The secure seat with a lowered center of gravity and the yielding and disengaging to a halt Lewis showed me in case of trouble sent my confidence soaring, especially since he was attached to us by rope! I smiled for an entire week, every lesson since has been better than the one before. We're coming on in leaps and bounds. After another yard change(and hopefully the last for a while) Lewis picked up that Finn seemed to shut down on his left side and ignore everything on that side. He spent a whole lesson carefully examining the strength of this blocking with different stimulus every 5mins or so, and whilst working. He discovered that a floater in his eye a vet had told me was no problem, caused reduced peripheral vision, and made things blurry on that side in general. When the right eye caught something the left eye had blocked out, Finn would explode! This explained about 90% of everything Finn had ever done!

Lewis has showed me how to be firm and polite about my riding and handling, to always ask something of a horse using release of pressure as reward, not demand it. Finn now looks to me for reassurance all of the time. I even noticed when his sight on the left is not so good, he actually nudges me over to that side (when doing ground work) and uses me as a surrogate eye, which makes me very proud! I'm still riding on a loose line at this stage but I'm confident about it, which in anyone else's hands I previously wouldn't have been. Lewis has had a few goes on Finn to show me what he's been having me do and it's fun to watch how sensitive Finn is to his slightest command. Last lesson Lewis tried the start of a real cowboy spin on him and he took it in his stride!

I think the biggest difference Lewis makes to a rider/horse partnership is instilling trust between the two. He's never negative with either student and encourages me to praise Finn when I ask for something the wrong way and Finn gives me what I was asking for instead of what I meant to ask for, as its rider error not horse! I constantly get praise from Lewis for the horse I've got, for his lightness and sensitivity, for the suppleness I taught him, for his willingness to try and work his socks off, and for my horse's big heart. He says Finn will take care of me once he knows I'm able to take care of him. This might not sound big but for someone whose been told their horse is a monster and dangerous by almost everyone else and been told to sell him by every trainer, it means the world!

I will be posting more praise in the future, when I trot, and canter, and ride free range and when mine and Finn's first hack goes swimmingly etc!!

Thanks for everything Lewis! You're a fabulous find!

Jennifer and Finn

Chadwell Farm Stud

I have always been a big believer in natural horsemanship, but had never really had the bravery to attempt it on the horses at my stud. I attended demos etc, but they always made it look so easy and once I was faced with one of my own horses in the round pen I was clueless!

My first meeting with Lewis was after a lengthy conversation with him regarding a TB yearling filly I had here called Twiggy. She was foaled and brought up here, and despite regular handling, she had started to become aggressive. Everyday simple jobs would turn out to be a fight, having her feet done was just dangerous and my vet used the old adage ‘ chestnut mare syndrome’ once to often. She was very difficult to catch in her box and had to have her head collar and a lead rope on permanently. A lady I know had been having sessions with Lewis, so I figured it was really the only thing I could do to help Twiggy have a future.

Lewis’ first session with Twiggy was fascinating. At first she didn’t trust him, but after some time and awful lot of patience and horsemanship on Lewis’s part, her whole persona started to visibly change. Lewis explained to me that Twiggy wasn’t nasty, she was autistic and had great difficulty remembering things. He assured me that we could work with her but it would have to be repeated everyday in small section.

From that first session myself and my staff were hooked. Lewis visited my stud every 2 weeks to work with Twiggy and left us excersises to do everyday with her to help her learn. By the end of the 2nd session he had taken her headcollar off, bitted her and was in the round pen. It was truly amazing. Over the next few months Twiggy really changed, we could catch her in the field, remove her headcollar without incidents.

She improved so much that shes now in training at a small yard who uses similar methods to Lewis and shes thriving.

Since then I have kept up the sessions with Lewis and have learnt so much. He has helped one of my staff learn to ride on an ex racehorse, another one to ride her horse whom she had given up on due to its behaviour. Over the past 12 months Lewis has worked with 27 of the horses I have here and it’s been amazing. Just learning and bringing out and understanding their quirks and natural characters is wonderful. I love using Lewis’ way of lunging even if I was sceptical at first! I now have confidence in myself to do the groundwork with the horses here, and if I ever get lost I can always phone Lewis for help and advice. Im looking forward to continuing learning from Lewis for the foreseeable future.

Zoe Arrowsmith

Chadwell Farm Stud
July 2007

PEPPER - 15hh, 10 year old, Thoroughbred, Mare (ex-racehorse)

At the time I stumbled across Lewis's advertisement in the Essex Rider, I was having to seriously consider returning my ex-racehorse to the re-homing centre I had got her from, as her behaviour had become so unmanageable and she was dangerous to ride. I desperately wanted to keep her, but was running out of ideas, having already worked patiently with her for 18 months. My horse had had a lot of physical problems and seemingly had found her previous experiences in her racing career as mostly negative. Her reactions to the most ordinary of things could be extreme. During these moments of over-reaction, she would be in a panic stricken state and would do anything to escape the situation, unaware of her surroundings, danger etc. I considered myself to be a reasonably confident rider and very capable handler but was finding myself unable to cope. To be truthful, I was also quite frustrated as I had always been extremely kind and patient with her and had never hit her or even raised my voice to her, so couldn't understand why she behaved the way she did. She was napping, rearing, bucking like mad and generally difficult. I couldn't tie her up, couldn't shoe her, couldn't keep her stabled, she'd panic if turned out in the field alone, but was aggressive if out with others, she would panic if horses were going in a different direction to her and so on.

Anyway, I called Lewis one evening and we discussed my horse for over an hour. By the end of the conversation Lewis assured me that he would be able to resolve all of the problems we had discussed in just a few sessions. Bearing in mind how reasonable the fees were, I felt I had nothing to lose and everything to gain. Knowing how difficult my horse's behaviour could be, to think someone could come along and transform her into a quiet little horse seemed unbelievable, but I already felt like a weight had been lifted as someone was going to help me help my horse. I read some of the endorsements and longed that I too would be able to report similar miracles.

Lewis arrived a few days later to meet us. Initially she was terrified ( as she is of all men) but after a few minutes I could see her little mind working. She knew something was different about this person. Lewis changed some aspects of my tack – making it far more comfortable for her and then did some ground work with her using the rope halter. He then showed me how to do the same and then repeated some of these exercises with me riding her. Lewis showed me all sort of tricks to deal with her antics – all of which I have found work 100% of the time. As I'm writing this, it's hard to remember exactly what Lewis did and even harder to understand why it should have such a profound effect on the horse – but it does and that's all you need to remember.

I continued with my training exercises for the next 2 weeks until Lewis returned and we spent more time with ridden difficulties. Again, I practiced the training exercises most days until the 3rd session. After which I had only one more session before it was quite clear that we didn't need him anymore. Since that time, my horse has become the most perfect horse I could ever wish for. I can honestly say that she hasn't put a foot wrong in the last 6 months. She has grown in confidence and trust and subsequently so have I and so this trust and confidence is constantly growing and being reinforced by each other. I now have a thoroughbred that I can ride out on the buckle of the reins (or even without a bridle - just a rope halter) that will pass anything, go at exactly the speed I want her to and is a complete joy to own.

Lewis's training is as much more about retraining the owner, than it is the horse. His methods need only be practised for a few minutes a day (if that), and are extremely effective at bringing about permanent change. I found Lewis to be punctual, an extremely gifted horseman – and he made training enjoyable - taking a lot of stress out of the situation and injecting a bit of much needed humour !

If you are looking to resolve difficulties with your horse, I would urge you to contact Lewis. The only hurdle I have left to overcome is trailer loading and I'm looking forward to working with Lewis again in the next few weeks to resolve this problem.

Jo (January 2007)

I bought Dancer 6 years ago as a 6 year old, with the aim of bringing her on to event her. She is ID x TB, 16.1hh and weighs over 600kg! I realised there was no way we were going to achieve that dream quickly, or possibly even ever at all, since she was extremely unbalanced and was an absolute nightmare to ride. I had bought her more for her confirmation and attitude than for what she was able to do at the time, as a project to bring on. I now realise that we were meant to find each other, as we have both taught each other so much!

Since then, I have embarked on a revolutionary journey, which has changed me as a person as much as it has changed Dancer as a horse! I came so close to selling this mare, on a number of occasions, after many personal “guru’s” in my life over those years had labelled her ‘dangerous and difficult’, told me NOT to hack her under any circumstances if I valued my own life at all! When such people whom you trust, and have grown up learning all you know from, say such things to you, its impossible not to begin to believe them. I became so fearful of her, although I never actually fully admitted this to myself, which enabled me to keep persevering with her, but her behaviour when ridden was not getting any better. The only reason I did not sell her back then, was because I firmly believed I could not as no one in their right minds would want her!

I had begun to install some basic manners with her in the stable by a year later, such as moving back when I went in, and respecting my space to some degree. She was quite happy to remember these things when she was calm and quiet and nothing was out of the normal routine. I should add at this point, that she is not and never has been a malicious or nasty horse in any way. She is very kind and has never bitten or kicked or shown any deliberately nasty act towards any human being in all the time I have owned her. But when she became stressed (a very frequent occurrence back then!) it was a totally different story. Again, no malicious nastiness, but manners from the ground were completely non existent, and she would barge through you, jump ontop of you, attempt to take off, and take you skiing behind her. If you applied any pressure to her head to try to control her, she would simply lift you off the floor (I only weigh 9 stone) and you would fly through the air and come back down to earth quite a number of metres further on!

Under saddle, it was the same – apply any rein pressure, and she would open her mouth to evade the bit, throw her head up to loosen the contact, and then plough straight through the bridle, getting faster and faster. She was completely on her forehand with her hindquarters trailing out behind her, trotting as fast as she could in little paddling pony sized strides. If you applied inside leg to go round a corner, she would speed up even more, and you would feel like you were going to go over sideways, so instinctively would apply pressure on the rein to slow down. She would throw her head, and get faster still, and so the cycle would go on!

Hacking was horrendous, she would be continuously trying to turn round, and once you had got her to go forward in a more or less straight line, a blade of grass would move in the wrong way, and she would drop and spin through 180 degrees without an ounce of warning; totally unseating you. At best you would have lost both stirrups and be hanging off the side, at worst – sitting on the floor with a lovely view of her backside disappearing over the horizon. She did this once and the force of her hitting my sister and her pony as she spun, knocked my sister clean from her pony, and both Dancer and the pony galloped home. Other than knocking my sisters confidence so much that she has never sat on another horse since, luckily there were no serious injuries during this awful period of time.

2 years ago all this stress eventually produced mouth problems and back problems, so I soon found I did not have a horse who was willing to have me on her back at all. After many vet visits, and dentist bills etc., I began to research into buying a new saddle. We could not find a treed one to fit her shape, and she was very obviously still upset at having a saddle on her back. We had at least established by this point, that it was no longer injury/pain related, but more likely had become a psychological issue where she associated the old pain with any saddle.

My research continued, and I eventually came across what used to be Ansur treeless saddles – took a leap of faith and bought one, after riding bareback for 4 months. Immediately, I began to see a difference. She was instantly happier.

I then came across Dr Cooks Bitless Bridles and bought one of those, which allowed her to work happily into a contact for the first time. And so we continued for quite a while. But something still was not right, hacking was better, flatwork was many times better, and the bond had begun to form between us. She was generally more respectful on a day to day basis, but there was still something missing. I could not put my finger on it, but when working on the ground in difficult, stressful situations, I still did not trust her and it was quite obvious she did not fully trust me. When hacking, she would still drop and spin; I had just got better at sitting it, but it was still not a particularly enjoyable experience, and the idea of doing x country on her, scared me to death!

This is when I came across Lewis! They say, when the student is ready, the teacher will appear, and this was certainly true in this case. After a long conversation one night, Lewis was absolutely adamant he could help us.

The first session, he brought a rope halter into the field where she was grazing, and began working with her immediately, to which she responded immediately. He made her move her feet, forwards, backwards, sideways, disengaging the quarters; explaining in huge detail everything he was doing and why he was doing it. It made perfect sense to me from the outset – you have to be their leader in order for them to trust you fully, which increases incrementally over time, the more situations you deal with as a 2 part herd. By moving their feet and thanking them kindly when they aquiest your requests, you become their main focus and their leader. One of Lewis’ catch phrases is “The key to a horse is to move it’s feet”.

This in turn, enables them to build trust in you as their leader, to believe you are not going to put them in a situation which is going to put their lives at risk, and if something is scary, then this gives them the confidence to listen to you first and look to you for guidance. If you say its ok, then it is, and they can stoically deal with their stress during that situation. It’s showing the horse a way of dealing with the stress of day to day life, by giving it someone to follow, believe in and trust, as they would naturally when part of a herd. The horses they adhere to are ones higher in the hierarchy than them; their leader. Dancer is a lead mare, so I had to take on the behaviour of the next one up in the hierarchy to her; the stallion. She would be the one who would spook first, to warn the rest of the herd of a potential danger – hence why she is so much spookier than other horses. So I had to be a very strong character in her world in order to achieve ‘stallion’ status and therefore leadership.

Another aspect he explained was how important it is to allow them to release this stoically held stress, as they would in a herd environment on a horse lower down the hierarchy. In much the same way as people need to offload the stress of day to day life, and if they don’t, then eventually they will blow a gasket over the smallest of thing, which simply pushes them over the edge!! Horses are similar, and if they continually hold onto their stress, eventually it just bubbles over! We have all seen horses completely loose it – this is their way of saying they just cant cope any more. Lewis showed me techniques to take her stress levels up, and then bring them back down again – all in a safe and controlled way, allowing her to release her stoically held stress, meaning the likelihood of her completely loosing it reduces dramatically, and all the while I am developing my leadership skills with her.

She thoroughly enjoyed the session, as did I, and Lewis must have got bored with all the questions I had!

The second session focussed on the same techniques but from the saddle with a rope hackamore and a bit bridle over the top. Even just after one session, it was apparent that Dancer was listening to me more, and had more trust than previously. The equipment Lewis advocated and what he taught us in those sessions has proved exactly what we needed to fit the last piece of the puzzle in place in our relationship – 6 months on, we can happily hack, school and even jump now! I’m a dressage fanatic at heart, and I have been out competing and getting placed in the top 3 every time, in all the traditional British tack.

But moreover, we now can neck rein, stop, backup, leg yield, shoulder in, half pass etc all from the rope hackamore in an enclosed space or out in the open country whilst hacking. And we both thoroughly enjoy and have an awful lot of fun doing so many different things with all different kinds of equipment; western, english – makes no difference to us now, and even sometimes with no tack at all! This is our new goal – tack free!!

So in conclusion - she is most definitely not difficult, she was just totally misunderstood, and hand on heart, I can say she is one of the most beautiful animals I have ever had the pleasure of working with now I understand her and can talk to her in her own language. She is without doubt the most expressive horse on our yard now, and I am sure this is because she knows I understand what she is saying to me!

This journey has had profound effects on not only our relationship together, but all my human relationships too. I am extremely honoured to have had this opportunity to work with and learn from such incredible individuals as Lewis – those trainers who teach us as people to listen and understand our horses naturally, but more importantly – to learn from these beautiful creatures themselves! After all – it is us who must learn to communicate with our equine friends and NOT the other way round!

Every time she sees me now, she is literally falling over herself to get to me, huge excitement and comes charging over whinnying her head off!

The difference in her and I and our relationship together is simply tear jerking to any spectators and especially me. When I compare it to where we started out all those years ago, the only regret I have is I wish I had embarked upon it sooner.

Thank you Lewis, for your patience, understanding and knowledge, and for empowering me to build the relationship I now have with Dancer. I cant recommend you enough!!

Johanna

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