Carola Colson: horse trainer, coach and instructor

15/08/2021

Super proud of Sue Feast, riding her lovely horse Chispa for the first time. 🥰

Chispa was with me for two weeks …I did 13 sessions with him…preparing him to be ridden from the ground up. I took it slow and gentle…groundwork for the first 6 days, knowing that he was calm and confident and ready to be ridden.

His range of movement in walk and trot (both on the ground and ridden) have improved…he has grown mentally, emotionally and physically.

I will keep supporting them both online and with live lessons.

❤️

13/08/2021

Just found this pic - lovely Kaylib at liberty 🥰

09/08/2021

Chispa is with me for training for his first rides. He's with me for 14 days. This is his second ride (in his life!). It's day 7 of our training...We're riding the southern cross pattern (dice of 5). He's doing so so well, following my seat and energy already, I only had to go through an indirect rein into release in forward a couple of times. All in one rein. Super proud of this boy 🥰

14/07/2021

Beautiful memory popped up 🥰.

Jill was my farrier/ trimmer in Holland…

Here she is with my beautiful Chiara after a trim at 4 months old. I teach young horses to do everything at liberty before the halter goes on (which is never before they are 1 yr old in my book).

Jill was very patient and lovely with my horses - Chiara had a great start in live ❤️.

Look at the special one Alexia Goulandris ❤️

04/07/2021

Barclay's rehabilitation exercises seem to have a positive effect on him already. His range of movement is definitely improving :). Bearing in mind that he's recovering from 7 fractured dorsal spinous processes...look at him go! He's the big bay in the video.

Here, the horses are getting access to the grass for a short period of time. Most of the time they are living on uneven terrain in gorse paddocks and bits of forest. The uneven terrain is helping him too.

His owner Sam and I have been working with him for nearly two weeks now. For now, I have been concentrating on improving his range of movement. When he's supple and soft enough, I will continue to more collected and strengthening exercises - all in groundwork of course :).

03/07/2021

We had farrier Ricky Gache Farriers over to trim all the feet today. For 2 yr old Rapidash it can sometimes be a bit of a challenge for his concentration span to stand still for such a long time …not if he has nice scratches though. Positive reinforcement doesn’t always come in the form of treats 🙌.

28/06/2021

Copied and shared from Equitation Française - I feel the same x

In Portugal with Nuno Oliveira (Dressage Magazine, August 1974)
′′ Why not take part in official competitions?"
Nuno: - ′′ I'm not interested in competition. On the one hand, it destroys the horse's spirit by mechanizing it to the extreme. I'm interested in trying to understand the horse's character, see the evolution of his behavior, create something with him, and these things can't be judged on punctuation, sometimes when I'm with a horse, I feel like I'm not nothing to know about riding, that I need to rediscover everything, and that's what's exciting. In the international dressage competition when I see the horses reciting their lesson so perfectly that they look like soulless machines... ′′

25/06/2021

"Confidence giver wanted"

Who should be giving confidence to whom?!

These are some snippets I found during a quick search on a horse-ad website.

Please don't get me wrong, I totally understand that you can be scared. Maybe you had a bad fall; were dragged around the field or a horse didn't stop galloping when you were out riding. These are all very valid reasons to be scared.

However ...should we be asking our horses to give us confidence? Should they be holding our hands and tell us that it's going to be ok? That there's nothing to be worried about?

First of all, most accidents with horses happen, because of the horse's lack of confidence...simply, because humans haven't put enough time and effort into understanding how horses think and react; how horses feel and what to look out for when a horse is starting to feel a bit nervous. It's not the big reactions that I'm talking about...it's the subtle change of a facial expression, a small tension in their body, or registering the energy change when your horse feels disconnected. It is our responsibility that in those moments, we know how to let the horse know that it's going to be ok; how to calm him down and to offer him a connection with a calming energy.

Secondly, I have seen calm and confident horses change into fire-spitting dragons when they are sold to someone else. Again, it is the human's responsibility to understand that the horse is going through a huge amount of change when being moved to a new field/ yard and herd environment - horses can be pretty scary when they're not confident, so if you've just bought yourself a confidence giver and he's just not standing still for the mounting block; bracing up, not listening to cues, being herd bound etc etc., are you able to give that horse the confidence back that it needs? Are you able to step up and be there for him? Or are you going to think that the horse must have been drugged when you went to view him?

Please do not look to the horse to give you confidence. We all know that horses pick up on fear. As soon as you're approaching them, every vibration that your body and feet make, will be felt. If you're projecting fear and dread, you will be scaring the horse. No matter how calm and confident he might have seemed to be at his old home and with his previous owner...horses are designed to pick up on danger and when you're scared, the horse picks up on this and thinks that it's in danger. It's a simple description and common knowledge, but sadly still very much overlooked.

If you are scared and nervous, which is totally understandable, please work on that first, before buying your next horse. There are amazing mindset coaches out there that can build confidence and self-belief. Then, make sure that you learn how to recognise when your horse is scared and how to help him out...this way, when you grow your skills, you will grow your and your horse's confidence too :).

You will help yourself and with that, any horse you will be working with in the future.

🙏❤🙏

24/06/2021

🙌

▶️ A veces en los caballos 🐎 es solo cuestión de perspectiva 🔎…subirse a un taburete y ver 👁 el dorso de tu caballo 🐴 desde otro punto de vista 👀 puede ser esclarecedor…

⚠️ No hay ningún ser vivo simétrico 📏 pero a veces las diferencias entre ambos lados son exageradas ❌….¿Qué hago?

✅ Busca un profesional que investigue si hay dolor detrás y corrija esto. Con dolor es imposible que rehabilitemos nada de manera coherente ‼️

✅ Plantea un plan de entrenamiento correctivo con objetivos medibles en el medio y largo plazo. Actúa, mide y decide.

✅ Olvídate de trucos, atajos y remedios milagrosos…nadie adelgaza para verano el 1 de agosto ☝🏻🤷‍♂️🤦🏼‍♂️, cambiar perfiles musculares requiere tiempo ⏱ y esfuerzo. No veras resultados antes de meses en el mejor de los casos.

✅ Comenta todos los hallazgos con todos los profesionales que te rodean…podólogo 👣 , dentista 🦷 , jinetes o, saddle fitters…solo con la sinergia del trabajo equipo llegarás antes y mejor a los objetivos 🎯

🏇🏻 El caballo de la imagen había competido en raid años…ahora ya no sufre dolor después de su sesión de osteopatía y quiropráctica y está empezando con su plan de rehabilitación. Lo veremos en 4 meses para revaluarlo.

21/06/2021

Motorbike in my arena! Keeping your horse soft and thinking through movement.

We have not done this before and I do not desensitise my horses! This was a funny thing we tried when I heard my 10yr old riding his motorbike in one of our fields.

As you can see, Chiara is attentive and responds to me asking her to stay soft throughout ...she has some moments of not being so sure, but the way I’m asking her to move is keeping her with me, soft through her body and calm and thinking. She has nothing on her head and I’m not holding her at all - only asking her to move her body in a way that contributes to calmness. Her calmness will then in return also contribute to better movement ☯️