And the more I did on the ground, the more I started to
understand, the more I started to figure her out and her unique
little patterns of things that she does, the less I worried
about the riding element. If I don't.
And I actually felt from that like a huge weight had been
lifted, I would challenge anybody, anybody out there that
is currently riding their horse to just rest for a month, rest
for two months, work on all those things.
And it's for me working and getting really good at the
basics of our chapter. We've got to get out of this
mindset that because we can't ride our horses, it's the end.
It's not. It's just the beginning of
something else. It's amazing.
And don't waste your time worrying about what other people
are doing or worrying about any pressures of riding.
Enjoy those moments that you have with your horse, because
they're precious. Hello and welcome to the Curious
Equestrian Podcast with me, Anna Louise.
Today in today's episode, we are delving deep into the world of
unwritten equines and the special journey of 1 Exmoor pony
named Cloudy. Our guest today is Claire Artis,
and she's here to share that inspiring journey, her
experiences, the challenges, and the remarkable bond that she's
developed with Cloudy. Her journey takes us on a path
less travelled in the equestrian world where the value of non
ridden horses often gets unrecognised.
So Claire, welcome to the podcast and thank you so much
for sharing your journey with Cloudy in an article that you
wrote for the Horsemanship Journal.
But for those who don't know, tell us a bit more about Cloudy
and the back story. Thank you.
Thank you for having me. So to give a little bit of a in
depth, ish background story, I've had Cloudy now for coming
up for three years. I've had her for.
I've been around horses for over 30 years.
I've worked with them professionally before I had my
children and Cloudy came along all the traditional senses that
I thought I knew so much about. She kind of changed the whole
plan on that and when she arrived she arrived as a pony
that was broken to ride under saddle.
Totally different story when she actually was physically there.
The first time I bought the saddle out to her, she actually
bolted and everything in a traditional sense that I was
trying to do with her. Nothing was working.
So that got me thinking a little bit more.
Let's go down a slightly different route here and let's
try something more on the psychology based.
So I started researching, looking into as much as I could
about all psychology, their body language, their way they their
minds work and stuff like that. And it opened up so many doors
from that point originally when she arrived, I couldn't catch
her. I couldn't get anywhere near her
ears. She was terrified of anyone
going near her head. So anytime I tried to halter
her, her head would ping up and she'd just be gone.
So over a really long period of time, reading her body language
and starting to understand a little bit more in depth the way
she worked, I was able to slowly get to the point where I could
catch her confidently, I could touch her ears, and very, very
slowly started to reintroduce the saddle.
And a lot of foundations that I've never even heard of, I've
never even used, went far beyond the realms of long raining or
lunging, anything like that. Just the real, real basic stuff
that every horse out there should know.
And while I was going through this whole process, which lasted
about a year, I had the real stark realisation I didn't know
as much about horses as I thought I did.
And as this journey sort of unfolded, I'd spent a year, I'd
put everything to one side. I thought, I've got to go right
back to the beginning here. Don't even worry about riding
saddles. Nothing like that.
Build on that relationship. Make sure I can work on that.
I can get her whenever I want to approach her in the field.
I know I'll be able to catch her or she'll catch me.
And just work on those those things and those all those
groundwork basics and really start to understand how she
ticks, what's going to help her, what's going to benefit her
throughout this whole journey and what I'm trying to do.
So Saddle was put away for about a year, and the more I did on
the ground, the more I started to understand.
The more I started to figure her out and her unique little
patterns of things that she does, the less I worried about
the riding element. And I actually thought, this is
really good fun, this is brilliant.
I'm gaining so much from it. I'm getting a fantastic
relationship and bond with this pony.
But we got to a point where I thought, you know what?
After working a really long time with the saddle.
Because it was a fear that I wanted to get her over for her
benefit as much as mine. One of my passions in life, I
love to take the horse That's not confidence and build on that
confidence to make them amazing and powerful and just to see
that unfold before your eyes. But it was a long process.
Probably took me 8 months at least to get her to the point
where she was confident and happy with the saddle and I was
able to settle at liberty. One day I decided I felt the
time was right. It wasn't prepared or anything
that I climbed aboard, just in a small area just to get on get
off and we just work on that just for getting on and getting
off part on the mountain block, make sure she was confident,
happy to stand and things like that.
But she was, it was great. And slowly we started to peak
out a little bit to slightly bigger areas and we were just
walking around and things were going swimmingly.
Well, probably for about almost a year, things were great.
And then one day we had a little set back and we parted company.
And that particular day, I popped her back into the stable.
I thought, right, that's fine, OK, it's a little blip, it'll be
fine. The next day I brought her out
into the paddock to go and ride, and she completely shut down.
If anyone doesn't understand, very briefly, she's a very
introverted horse, so she'll hold all her emotions inside and
when she shuts down, it's something I've I've seen at the
beginning of our journey, something she'd do an awful lot
of and it's heartbreaking to see.
So she would just drop her head to the floor, she wouldn't
blink, her breathing would change, and you can just see her
into. She's just trying to internally
process what is going to happen or try and understand in her own
way how she's going to respond to what's going on.
And it was at that point there, I kind of I popped her back into
the into the field, and I left it for the day and I went home.
I cried for a while. But in my heart of hearts, the
only reason I got cloudy was so that I could go hacking.
I just wanted to have a hacking pony.
I've done all my competing. That was all done in my early
life, but right, just to have a hacking pony.
And it was at that point. Then I thought to myself, I can
either go back and redo everything that I've done and
get her back to the point where we were, or in her best
interests, I can say, do you know what, the riding part, it's
not important, it doesn't matter.
It was such a big trauma and it was obviously such a big trigger
for her, our partying of companies and I thought I'll
just leave it, I won't ride anymore.
It's in her best interests if I don't.
And I actually felt from that a huge weight had been lifted and
I went out into the paddock the next day and we just had fun.
And from then on I just, I absolutely love it, absolutely
love it. The the things that I've done
with her and the things that we've learnt together.
I've never done anything like that, and I know that I would
never have done anything like that had I've ridden.
And I'm a very big believer. I think our horses, they're
really smart, they're really clever, and I think they only
show us when we're on their backs, a small little glimmer of
that. When you're right there next to
them beside them, that's when you really see what's going on
in that mind and how smart they are and it blows me away.
It really does. And when you say that a weight
lifted off your shoulder in that moment, do you think it's
because there is a pressure in the equestrian industry to ride
your horse 100 percent, 100%? And that's a question I often
query, actually, because obviously a massive part of the
F1 world is made-up from people that ride.
Now do those people ride? Because they we do.
We all love riding. I've ridden for 30 years and I
loved it. But do we ride because that's
what society dictates we should be doing?
Or are we riding generally because that's what we want to
do? And I think there is.
There's a massive pressure on those and it can come from any
walk of life. I mean, for example, my mum's
70, she'll be 70 in February, bless her heart.
She hasn't ridden for a number of years because she lost her
confidence. I've got Golden, Oldie and my
old boy sadly passed when he was 34, so obviously there comes a
point in their life where they can't be ridden anymore.
We've got Suki, she's 35, can't be ridden.
I've got a youngster who's too young.
Well he's 4, but in my opinion he's too young and we still
don't know how his journey is going to go.
I don't. I don't care if he's not riding
pony, that's fine. That's that will be for him to
choose and him to decide. There is so much pressure on us,
I think and I remember last summer, last winter, seeing
loads of comments of posts of people putting on social media
how bad they felt because they couldn't ride their horse.
There's so many other things that you can do, and there's so
many things that you can do in small spaces that don't involve
the riding part. But for me, my relationship with
her has grown in ways that I never thought possible.
Because I'm on the ground right there next to her.
And Claire, I so connected to your story when I was reading
about you and Cloudy because, and I don't know how many people
have been affected by this, but I bought a mare in 2019 and she
was supposed to be backed, ready to go, no vices.
And over she came from Ireland and I was absolutely thrilled
when she came. Very.
Carefully and patiently off the back of a juggernaut, Lorraine.
She'd travelled really well. She was lovely in the field.
She was great on the ground. She wasn't at all vicious.
We then my great friend Tarly, who's been riding and training
horses since before she could walk, she said, oh, and I'll get
on her for you and just see how she goes.
We'll just see what she's like, you know, she's had a long
journey, so we'd given her a few weeks on.
Tarly gets Tarly breaks in stallions.
She trains, you know, horses that have had difficult pasts.
She was on for all of 5 minutes and she was thrown through the
air and Tarly hadn't fallen off for 20 years and Tarly said,
Anna, this horse hasn't been backed and the look of horror on
my face. We started from scratch, but it
appeared just as with cloudy, there was a lot of trauma there.
She didn't like a head touch, she didn't know what a treat
was. I'd hold out my hand, she'd
sniff it and didn't know what it was because no one had ever
given her a treat. She was scared.
She was scared of wits. She was scared of torts, stable
tools. So we had to start like you and
cloudy right from the beginning, to which we did get to the stage
where we could ride Winnie, but now she started bronking.
So we have a whole nother journey that has come up through
the backing process that now she's bronking despite having
had her back checked, teeth checked and vets checked.
So we're now wondering whether that is her saying she doesn't
want to be ridden. That it's linked to previous
trauma. And we're now, like you say sort
of on a journey to investigate what Winnie's happy doing.
Whether she wants to be ridden. Whether this is a trauma she can
overcome. Or whether actually Winnie would
just prefer to be a very large field ornament and another pet
that's a member of the family. Which we're also really happy to
do. Because being on the ground,
like you say at liberty in the field or lunging has been hugely
rewarding and something that I've.
So looked forward to to do that groundwork and we have a bond
like no other. You know, she'll follow me
totally unattached wherever I go, whether I'm walking or
jogging, she will run alongside me, encounter alongside me and I
Throughout my entire life of riding, I've never had a bond
like it. And yet people passing by will
look over the fence and say when are you going to ride that
horse? Have you ridden that horse yet?
And. It's that constant layer, isn't
it, That sort of lands on your shoulder that you're doing some.
You're not doing something with your horse that you're supposed
to be doing. Yeah, Yeah, there is.
Sadly, there is, Yeah. And I speak to quite a few
people that are on livery yards and they've got that outside
pressure as well of when are you going to ride.
And it is. It's for me, when I drew that
line and I decided that was it, I'm not going to ride and that
element had completely gone. For me personally, it was, I
think so many see that individually as a failure or
it's the end of a journey, it's the end of lorry and that's it.
And it's not. It's just a new chapter.
It's just a new way to be with horses and it is something that
needs to be spoken about. It needs to be put out there
more because like I say at some point or another sadly it is
going to affect us at some point and I'm all for the field
ornament truly. I am happy horse out there
enjoying life but there can be and there is so much more.
One of my most incredible moments that I've had with
horses, I was out walking with cloudy one afternoon and my mum
was with me. She often comes around, sort of
just keeps me company with cloudy and we are walking along
the bottom of the farmers fields and the grass was knee deep.
I'm away from any roads in the middle of nowhere and the
stables are probably about a 5 minute, 10 minute walk away and
I've just had this gut feeling. I just thought just going to
unclick the rope, let's just see what happens here.
So I unclicked the rope and she stayed and ate the grass for a
moment or two and I just carried on walking and I just turned
over my right shoulder. I just went, you come in then.
And she just came right with me and she did not leave my side.
And we were knee deep in grass. We had these masses of big, wide
open spaces around us. And she just, she was there,
right there with me. And I know that if I hadn't have
built up everything that I'd built up on the ground, there
was no way that any of. I mean, if I'd have a horse that
I'd have had for 30 years, if I'd have unclipped him, he'd
have been gone. But building that up from the
ground and doing everything and working on that relationship
without even worrying about setting foot on their back,
putting a foot in a stirrup, nothing like that.
It just the possibilities are endless.
And every day, every moment I get these, wow, did that
actually just happen? And it's not happened because
I'm riding, it's happened because I'm right there.
And if you think of the very small element that riding
actually makes up anyway, there's so much more to the
horse than just riding. And Claire, what do you think?
Judging by how your understanding of Cloudy's
developed, what do you think happened to her in her previous
life? I think she was probably backed
too early, and I also think it was rushed and thresholds
ignored. Again, probably comes down to
the fact that people don't. A lot of people.
I mean, I came from a very traditional world and we're not
taught to listen to the horse. We're taught that the horse is
there to do what we want it to do.
And I personally, where I'm at now, I don't agree with
leadership. I don't believe that I want to
be the boss. I believe I want a relationship
on equal terms, and that works two ways, and I'll give you a
lot. In the early days, when I first
had cloudy, we had to walk across the grass area to get to
the training paddock, and she'd get halfway and she'd just plant
her feet and stop. Now, in a traditional sense, we
probably would have pulled, pushed, done everything we
possibly could think of to get that horse to go forward.
What did I do? I let her eat grass, so there
she stood, eating the grass. I'd eat, we'd eat the grass for
a few moments, then we'd walk forward another few steps.
We'd eat a bit more grass and then we'd walk forward a few
more steps. We'd eat a bit more grass.
And then, lo and behold, we're at the training paddock game.
We've worked together, so I saw her needs.
We'll eat grass, OK, We'll eat the grass and then we'll move
forward a little bit. And that, to me, is working in
two ways. And whatever I do with my horses
now, wherever I am, whatever I want to do, whatever I'd like to
achieve, what's in it for my horse.
What can I do in whatever it is that I'm trying?
What can I do to make this better for them?
How can I make this experience something that they're going to
want to remember in a good way and want to do again?
And they're going to be waiting there at the field gate for me
tomorrow because I've thought, how can I make this better for
them? What other sort of trust
techniques have you used, Claire?
I mean, you sound like you've just thought about your horse as
you've gone along, but what have you put in place to sort of show
cloudy that actually not all humans are the same and that
you're worth trusting? I listened.
So by going into the more
psychology side of horsemanship, it taught me when to step back.
So watching all those little changes in her body language,
watching where her ears were, watching if there's any tension
in her nose, and just slowing everything down South.
In my mind, I thought I was going slow, but that wasn't slow
enough to slow it down even more.
And there were times where she'd just turn her bum on me and go
and plant her head in the corner of the stable and, OK, that's
fine, we'll just wait. And just by giving her that
moment just to step back, give her that space, she'd turn
around and go, oh, OK then what's going on?
What we doing now? Just slowing everything down.
And I think for cloudy especially, dignity was a
massive and still is a massive thing to her.
So it's watching out for the little things.
Like if I'm going round one side and she's tipping her nose to
block me, I'll just wait a minute.
It's about not saying and and telling the horse we're doing
this. We ask, do you mind?
And in my head I'm always thinking, is it OK if I do this?
Do you mind? It's all good.
OK, we're fine. Then we'll carry on.
Claire, I was going to ask you, what techniques did you use?
You used time, you used listening.
What other techniques did you use to gain her trust with her
problem ears that she didn't want you touching?
And with things like allowing you into her space to deal with
things like thorns and laminitis?
Yeah, I mean, originally with with arrears there was a lot of,
they say approach and retreat. I used retreat and approach.
So it was a very slow process of just trying to see if I could
just touch her ear and then I'd move my hand away.
But all the time, just watching for any little signs, anything,
little tiny shifts of weight. If she'd be trying to shift her
weight and lean back, then I'd obviously retreat.
Just watching for little tiny things like that.
I mean the thorn that was a whole nother level because I
actually had to use a stick and it's right a distance away to
try and use the stick to just rub her with the stick near
where the thorn was. And it took me rubbing her with
this stick before I was able to finally get my hand in there and
just gently pull this thorn out. So it it's just constantly just
watching for any tiny little and you become almost, I want to say
hyper aware of it. It's not because for me now it's
everyday life and I just assume that everyone else out there in
the world is doing what I'm doing and they're not.
So it's just a really very gradual slow, just watching for
any tiny little signs. I mean at the moment she's
really suffering because she's been on box rest for quite a
while. So she's suffering with getting
that movement in her back end and she's very sore.
Her front feet were very sore and her way of telling me that
she's sore, other than obviously I can physically see it when I'm
trying to go to the areas she's trying to bite me.
Now obviously, in the normal sense, we'd see that as maybe
being a bit rude, a bit disrespectful, but for me, I
understand that she's telling me she's hurting, it's sore.
But at the same time, there's still things that I have to do
for everyday care just to make sure she's recovering.
So by watching and just slowly retreating and just taking my
time and something as well, I think we're often taught in the
more traditional sense is when our horses get angry, it
escalates because when they get frustrated, we get frustrated.
When they get angry, we get angry.
And it's building, breaking down those walls so that when they
get frustrated or when something bothers them, it doesn't bother
us. So we learn then to control our
own emotions, and, as stupid as it sounds, remember to breathe.
Claire and you've been telling us throughout the episode of all
these different exciting things that we can do with our unridden
horse. Can you list off some of the
things for inspiration, for those listening, who think
actually I might like to try something different?
Yeah. I mean, we all know that the
normal realms of things, like we could go out for a walk, we can
play in the arena, we can do some liberty things, but how can
we advance on things like that? So when I say we could go out
for a walk, for example, Cloudy and I last year we were walking
out across the farmers fields. We have permission walking out
across the farmers fields and we were going from field to field
jumping ditches. Well, I think we were jumping
ditches waiting. I was clambering down and then
asking her across. So we were jumping ditches.
And the I think for me, when I'm going for a walk especially,
it's quite easy to kind of switch off almost and we can
maybe walk ahead of our horse and the horse just kind of plod
along behind, completely disengaged to what we're doing
and not really connected to us. So for me, it's making sure that
I'm walking right there with her like I would have if I went for
a walk with a friend. I wouldn't leave my friend
trailing behind. So I'm right there next to her,
just soaking up the atmosphere so we might just stop taking our
surroundings and what's going on and just having a breather and
making sure also that I've got a nice long rope.
So if it's safe to do so, she can roam a little bit, she can
forage for things that she might not be able to find in the
field. So that's a great.
That's one of my favorite things to do actually going out for a
walk but from a in the arena kind of element in a training
paddock, I like to very much use play.
So anything that I can tap into we've got like a giant Jim ball.
We might get that out. She can push it with her nose.
She can pick it with her legs. Also works really well with the
baby. He's four.
He loves the giant ball. Gets them used to things going
around them. You can bounce it, it gets them
used to things either side of them.
You can throw it over the top of them and things like that.
And from a I don't like to use the terminology desensitise.
I prefer to build confidence. So if you think of something
your horse might be most fearful of, you can then take that into
the training paddock and use different things to try and help
them get over those fears. Like Claudie wasn't very good
with anything that flapped anything that moved.
So my first well, let's lay down some tarpaulin.
So we play walking across the tarpaulin and then can she stand
on the tarpaulin? Can she go backwards on the tar
pulling? Can we put a jump on the tar
pulling so she can jump over it? So I think it's for me, it's
taking various different obstacles, anything from cones,
tyres, pallets that I use as pedestals, just reinforced with
a bit of MDFS and carpet over the top.
So that's not slippery. Poles do lots of different pole
work barrels, which I've got. My barrels are just recycled
water baths. We can go sideways over the
barrels. We could open the barrels up and
we could squeeze between the barrels.
We could put the barrels one on top of the other and we could
knock them over. So I think it's and once you
start on that little journey of different obstacles, you think
of different things that you can do with each of those obstacles.
And it is, it's mind blowing what you can do with one pole.
It's being imaginative. Oh, it is.
And it just, it gets really taps into your creative juices.
I mean, I've got my paddock is never free of stuff, There's
always stuff in it, and whenever I'm going out there I'm always
thinking of something that I want to focus on something in
particular I want to do that day.
I've also got a backup plan in case that doesn't work, or the
horse for whatever it isn't in the mood to do.
Whatever I'm trying to achieve that day that I've got something
else there, but it's having that little goal to work towards.
Clare. Your decision to transition
cloudy from a ridden horse to an unridden horse is so interesting
and I think a journey that many people haven't been on but maybe
want to consider. What would you say to those who
are thinking possibly about trying to move into the world of
unridden horses and try different activities but might
still feel that pressure that they need to be riding?
Yeah, it is definitely a tough one to try and overcome I must
admit. I mean what helped massively
from my point of view is I knew that it was in the best
interests of cloudy, so putting my own thoughts needs to one
side. But there is unfortunately there
is still that big pressure around us to ride because I
think obviously that's primarily the main focus of why people get
a horse. But for me, I think it's just as
I've said. I think before it's elaborating
more on that journey and making that transition, I would
challenge anybody, anybody out there that is currently riding
their horse to just rest for a month, rest for two months, work
on all those things and it for me it's working and getting
really good at the basic stuff. There's so many horses out
there, for example, that struggle to even stand still.
So it's working on those little things.
And when you start working on those things, it does amazing
things for your connection with your horse, which will help
massively when you're in the saddle anyway.
So for me, it's getting really good at those basic things.
So even if you don't think, break it down into smaller
pieces, if you don't think I'm never going to ride again, think
of it. OK, well, let's just try it.
Let's try it for a month. Let's try it for a couple of
months. See what happens to your
relationship with your horse. Because I'm you will never
regret it. It will be a decision that you
will never regret. And personally, every day now,
there is not one single element of riding that I miss.
I'm having far too much fun to even worry about that.
And we've got a herd of five. None of them are ridden.
We are loving life. I go out to my paddock, I do my
training bits, we go out for walks, we forage.
I feel completely free of pressure.
I'm relaxed to enjoy my pony because, let's face it, the
majority of us are in it for recreational purposes.
Today's world, we're all rushed. We've got things that we've got
to go out and do. Our moments with.
Our horses are so, so precious. Don't waste your time worrying
about what other people are doing or worrying about any
pressures of riding. Enjoy those moments that you
have with your horse, because they're precious.
And what do you do when I know this happens to you when I have
people stick their head over the fence?
They're not even horsey. They are just villagers.
That want to say, when are you riding?
When are you going to get on that horse?
Why are you not riding that horse?
For me, I'm constantly trying to explain that these horses are
either on a brake or we're trying something different or
we're doing groundwork. What do you say to those people,
whether it's friends, family, equestrians or just nosy
villagers that stick their heads over and and try and criticise
what you're doing? It is a real, real struggle and
I'll be brutally honest it's one even to this day that I do
struggle with And we've got there's a lot in the village
where I keep crowding. There's a lot of horses and I've
not quite often we'll go venture down our lane and we'll just,
we've got a lovely patch of grass.
We'll just stand and let the horses eat some grass and you
might get the one or two passers by on their horses riding and
and you can see them looking. And the odd ones kind of stopped
and had a chat and it's just something that's just unheard of
in a whole village that of horses.
I've never seen anyone hand graze their horses and it is
because you almost feel embarrassed in a way to say, Oh
well, I'm not riding and you do almost have to justify that fact
of why you're not riding. But for me, I've come to the
vast realisation that it's my journey, this is for me, this is
what I'm doing and I'm loving what I'm doing and I'm enjoying
what I'm doing. If you want to ride, that's
obviously completely, entirely up to you.
But for me, in this moment and for what my horse needs, this is
what I'm doing. And for me, I think once you
start doing the things you're doing for the horse, everybody
else's opinions and assumption of what you're doing, they don't
matter so much. But it is to.
It's something that needs to be more accessible.
We don't need to with the questions need to feel bad or
that we need to justify the reasons of why we're not riding.
But it is. It is something I do still
struggle with, sadly. Through your journey with
Cloudy, what have you learnt about the value of non ridden
horses in horsemanship? Oh yeah, there is so much and I
think when you stopped riding. So when you make that decision
to stop riding, you start looking at every single other
aspect of how you can enhance your horse's life, how can you
keep making it better? And that it, for me at the
moment, is all that matters. Nothing else matters but trying
to create the best environment that I can for her with what
facilities and what I've got available to me.
And I think when we're so focused on the riding part, it's
very easy to forget those parts because we all have limited
time. We only have a certain to get on
and we must ride this horse. When you take that out of the
equation, think about all that more free time that you have to
put into other areas of sort of looking at the way that you're
doing your basic things, looking at the way your horse is living
that might otherwise be taken up and focused with things like
going riding. It's interesting, isn't it?
Because often we all start all of our journeys with horses
initially, whether it's as children, teenagers or adults.
Usually begins in the arena, doesn't it?
At a riding school or riding a friend's horse.
So it always begins with riding. Do you think we almost need to
go back? Or riding schools maybe need to
look at kind of what they can offer and include groundwork in
those lessons so that we appreciate that just as much as
the written element massively. Yeah, 100 percent, 100%.
And if even if not thinking from the horses perspective, from our
perspective as well, what we're teaching in riding schools at
the moment, because they are so riding focused, we're not
teaching people how to be safe. So we've lost a massive safety
element of what we're doing because we don't know how to
read the horse, we don't know how to look out for signals of
anxiety, stress. We're not taught that because
we're taught just to get on and ride.
We're missing a massive valuable link because we're not focusing
on the groundwork and getting those skills.
And also I think because there's so much focus on the riding
part, our young horses are missing out on those that
valuable time because there is so much more to ground work than
lunging and long raining. I very rarely do.
It's so much bigger than that and it's getting into the horses
mind and we're so focused on getting our horses moving that
we forget the mind element and you can't work on the mind
element if you're not working on the ground.
That's so interesting. And also, I love Claire, that
you go walking in hand with your mum, who's 70.
I go walking in hand with my Winnie, my mare and my mum, and
we go foraging the hedgerows and we walk around the country
lanes. And it's so interesting, isn't
it, watching people's reaction as you come round the corner,
probably. People expect you to be walking
a dog and then they're startled to see a horse coming towards
them, aren't they? And often we're stopped for
people to say, you know, people stop us and say.
Well, why are you walking that horse?
You know, is it injured? No, we're we're walking because
we love it and it's time off for Winnie.
And she doesn't have to be thinking she's in work mode and
carrying us on on her back. So it's trying to change
people's perspectives. Even those that are out walking,
their dogs are walking around the corners who are sort of
confused by what they see. It's so important to bring
topics like this to life because it is definitely, and I hear
about it so many times. I've got a friend of mine who
sadly can't ride because she's injured, and that's a long and
progressive thing for her, but she can't ride.
She hung up her riding hat and she felt awful.
And I said don't think of it as a bad thing, just think it's
another step to your journey. It's another you're expanding on
things that you've already done and you're just going to keep on
making them better. It's a new chapter.
We've got to get out of this mindset that because we can't
ride our horses, it's the end. It's not.
It's just the beginning of something else that's amazing.
And the things I've achieved with cloudy, I've never achieved
with any horse before because I've always focused on the
riding path. Now I've got all the time in the
world to go sideways over barrels.
Can she go on the pedestal? Can we go on the pedestal with 1
foot? Can we go on the pedestal with
two feet? Can we turn around on the
pedestal? But there's so many more
elements to things that that we can do and we can achieve.
And that anyone can transition because it sounds like yourself.
You know, you competed from a young age.
I was that child who was counting down the days to the
next riding lesson and completely riding obsessed.
And I've written all my life, and yet still I am enjoying the
groundwork and the liberty and The Walking just as much as life
in the saddle. Yeah, absolutely.
Absolutely. And I think for me it was almost
a pressure to ride. So for me, once that was gone
and I had all that extra time, it was, yeah, amazing, amazing
thing. And before you go, Clay, you've
described your relationship with Cloudy as magical.
Can you take us to a magical moment for you that summarises
that or that harnesses that feeling that when you're
together, it's to be honest, it's the everyday things that
people don't see. It's the everyday stuff and it
still blows my mind. I mean, I've mentioned, touched
on, she's quite poorly at the moment.
She's sadly been on box rest for a little while and it's
something as silly as I can take you to.
Yesterday I was in the stable, she was just outside her stable
with her bottom to me and I needed her back into her stable.
I can stand at her back wall and just go and she'll back up to
come to me. So it's little things like that.
I can use the most simplest of gestures and this is every day.
If I need her to just relocate slightly, I can just stand next
to her and just tip my head slightly and just say just go
that way a little bit, just with the most tiniest little movement
and gesture. And she'll she'll carry it and
she'll do it for me. So every day is a magical day.
I'm not going to lie, and I'm just, I get blown away by the
things that unfold every day, even when when you're locked
down as it has been now. And I can honestly say she has
just been incredible throughout. And it's interesting, isn't it?
Because we love our dogs and we spend every minute with our dogs
that live in houses. But there's something about
working with a horse, asking your horse to do something that
has a whole nother feeling. Because they are such huge
beasts, aren't they? They don't have to listen to us.
They they could do whatever they wanted.
But they choose, like you say, to listen to your voice or your
the tiniest of gestures. And that connection is is is
like no other. It really is.
It really is, and even just I've got a friend of mine who has a
pony that Once Upon a time she couldn't lead it anywhere
without a bridle and a hard hat on because she feared for her
life. She's spent a very, very long
time doing grand work. She's now riding that pony out
in company in a bit less bridle loving life because she spent a
long time on the ground building on all the things that I've I've
guided her to do. She's built on all of those and
her connection now is that brilliant that she can go out on
a horse that was once dangerous, bit less with company, loving
life. What do you think that you can
do that we can all do to, to communicate the journey of an
unridden horse and make it exciting enough to appeal to the
wider equestrian industry? Well, I mean, you've definitely
got to work on that connection for sure.
And it's the little things that we implement every day.
You've got to try it. You've got to try it.
Take Claire's instructions. You've got to try it.
As I say, I would challenge
anyone to take a month, two months off from riding their
horse. Take away the pressure.
Winter's coming. Take away that pressure, work on
other things, go in the paddock and just let your creativity
flow. Because I think our horses are
very much like when you you're schooling young children.
When they first start their foundation years at primary
school, for example, they learn through play.
Play with your horse. Don't train.
Go play. And then that takes the pressure
off of us if we see it as playing, not training, where we
have to achieve certain things. Yeah, I'm not a big fan of the
word training, but it's one of the ones that's that's
mainstream, isn't it? But also when we play, our
horses feel that energy. They feel that positivity and
they're learning things as we're teaching them.
They're learning it through the play and they don't even
realizing. And that's again, it takes the
pressure away, as you say, it takes the pressure away and it's
it helps to build on that connection and you end up with
amazing things at the end of it. For those listening Claire who
want to follow your journey with Cloudy or who are seeking
inspiration for their own horses, How do they find you and
get in touch with you? Yeah, I'm on Instagram at Claire
Artis horsemanship and also Facebook Claire Artis
horsemanship. Claire, thank you so much.
I think you've inspired us all to go and put the training to
one side and go and play with our horses in the field, in the
paddocks, in the arena. Thank you so much for coming on.
You've been fascinating and I've certainly connected your journey
with my journey with my mayor. Winnie and I wish we could go
walking together with our horses.
We need to. Let's do it.
Claire, thank you for coming on the podcast.
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