One of the activities our day service clients most miss during this odd time is getting to go to the cinema with together, and have the chance to share their thoughts and opinions after the screening. Our team got creative to tackle this problem, and now the cinema going experience is recreated online on a Friday morning! Each week, one of the group will choose a movie that's available on Netflix, and all participating will watch the movie during the week. Then on Friday, everyone 'meets' on Zoom to discuss their notes and impressions, with the goal of making a group review of the film! The reviews include a brief overview of the plot and main characters, who the cast were and an overall rating and comment on the film overall. Most importantly, everyone's opinions and thoughts are compiled, and as a group a review is written. This gives our students the chance to work as a team, even though they are currently not able to physically see each other. At the end of movie club, everyone gets a chance to share some recommendations of what to watch, before the next movie club film is chosen! If you'd like to check out the reviews, Saol Anois have their own blog which is regularly updated! Perhaps you might find something new to watch? Or be reminded of old favourites? Richard Dwyer Joyce decided on 'John Wick' for the first Movie Club. You can find the film review and movie recommendations from the first week here: https://saolanois.wordpress.com/2020/03/26/john-wick/ Catherine Kidd decided on 'Shrek' for the second Movie Club. You can find the film review and movie recommendations from the second week here: https://saolanois.wordpress.com/2020/04/03/shrek/ The men and women on the day service have also been taking part in mindfulness sessions, as a useful tool to support their mental health. Mindfulness is an incredibly powerful way to release feelings of anxiety or tension, and provide a mental break from the everyday stresses we all face. During the sessions run via Zoom, the men and women are asked to find a comfortable place to lie down (with microphones muted!) and focus on calming music. The staff work through a variety of scripts, incorporating breathing exercises, relaxation guidance, exploring feelings of happiness, and guided mental journeys. It's a lovely opportunity for our amazing men and women on the service to take a break from the everyday, and allow themselves the time and space to fully relax. We'd highly recommend a bit of mindfulness in your day during these particularly trying times.
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Along with lunging (described previously in this blog!), our horses and ponies are also trained using the ground-based method of longlining. At the moment while our riders are away, this method gives us another useful tool to keep our equines fit and their minds busy. ,Often referred to as 'riding from the ground', longlining or longreining uses extra long reins, clipped to the sides of the halter or bit, and then either connected to the sides of the horse or pony via the stirrups or loops on a roller or saddle (to prevent them from flapping about). From there, our team can use voice commands and a long wand to ask the horse to move forward, increase or decrease speed, and bend. Another more practical reason our staff use longlining for the horses and ponies is due to their height - the staff's height, that is. To cater for our clients of all different ages, from very young, we have a number of small ponies (such as Jacobie, shown in the photos and videos). Coaches like Jim (who is over 6 foot tall!) can't ride a pony of Jacobie's size, so longlining mimics the benefits that the pony would get from being ridden, without the physical issues. Jim has been taking the ponies outside as well to explore the sensory trails and enrich their senses - check out our Facebook page for more videos!
For many of us, exercise can help with feelings of tension or anxiety at times of stress or uncertainty. Yoga in particular can help to calm the mind and ground the body. Although our students have had their weekly routines drastically altered by the current health crisis around the world, they've kept up their yoga class with Jessica! Taking place on a Monday afternoon, the team use Zoom to go through their yoga practice from the comfort of their own homes. Using breathing techniques, stretches and concentration, the students are guided by Jessica into a calm start to the week. The final pose is savasana, which may look simple but in practice is anything but! Laying back on the floor, the students use self-awareness and breathing to come to a place of deep relaxation. The weekly yoga classes sets our students' minds and bodies up for another busy week at what is a very unusual time. The students have also brilliantly adjusted to online stable management classes. Held on a Thursday afternoon, these classes are run by Jessica and delve into the myriad responsibilities involved in caring for horses. From mucking out and bedding types to grooming and tack, the students are learning all about how to look after Festina Lente's horses and ponies! Although they can't put their learning into practice just yet, these classes help to keep the students connected to the horses and ponies, as well as encouraging self-confidence and independent learning.
Well done to Jessica and all the students for such amazing creativity and flexibility! While our riders are away, we’re keeping our horses and ponies busy and fit with a specialised programme of exercise and training. Each one of our horses and ponies has an individual plan to work with them on areas of improvement or to teach them new things. For Panda, one of our younger ponies, has a training plan that includes a whole new experience for him – walking through water! As part of our facility we have sensory trails, which our horses and riders can move through to experience different sounds, textures and smells. One of our trails includes a pool of water, which provides interesting sounds for riders to focus on. For young ponies like Panda, water can be a scary thing! In order to overcome his natural inclination to not walk through the water, our team have been using positive reinforcement training to encourage his learning and teach him there is nothing to be afraid of. Positive reinforcement training works on the basic concept of rewarding the behaviour we want to see. The pony is asked to do something, and if that request is met, a clicker sound is used along with a reward. The clicker combined with the reward makes an association for the pony, in that he associates what he is doing when he hears the clicker with something good – in Panda’s case, a mouthful of food. As the training progresses, the pony learns that doing the behaviour that results in the clicker noise means good things happen!
To help overcome Panda’s distaste for walking through water, we began the training by getting him to touch a cone with his muzzle, resulting in a click and a small treat. From there, as he approaches the water, he is asked again to touch the cone with his muzzle, which is just out of reach and he moves forward to reach the cone. As his hoof enters the water he is given a click and a small reward. This is repeated until all four hooves are in the water. At no point was Panda forced to do anything or made to feel unsafe or frightened – instead he was rewarded for the behaviour we want him to show, and allowed to back off if he was overwhelmed. The most important element of this training was timing. The click needs to happen immediately once Panda demonstrated the correct behaviour, so he can relate the reward to what he’s just done. If the click comes too late, the connection between the behaviour and the reward is lots – so our team have to be very quick with their clicking! Positive reinforcement works brilliantly for training our ponies as it is low stress, allowing them to remain in a learning mindset and to learn at their own pace. It’s a powerful learning method as the horse or pony receives immediate feedback when they do what we are training them to, reducing confusion and cementing their learning immediately. The outcome of our session with Panda resulted in a relaxed pony standing with all four hooves in our water pool, rather than a pony who is worried by water and uncertain as to what he should do. With some more training sessions scheduled, soon Panda will be taking his riders through the sensory trail with no hesitation at all! We have some exceptionally creative people in our Festina Lente community, and none more so than our Saol Anois and Transition Training Programme Teams! Both our students and staff have gone above and beyond to create learning opportunities and explore their creative sides in these particularly strange times. Normally our students in the Saol Anois Day Service and the Transition Training Programme are based onsite at Festina Lente, with work placements, trips and courses happening on a regular basis. This dramatically shifted once schools and universities were closed and our Services were required to stay home due to the covid-19 pandemic sweeping the globe. How would our students keep up their learning and keep their friendships strong in the face of such disruption? We're excited to share the clever ways our staff and students have used technology to keep those connections strong and brains busy! Deirdre Creasy is one of our Saol Anois facilitators, and she runs literacy classes and art workshops with our students. Art class normally happens on a Wednesday morning, and Deirdre and the students have done some amazing art challenges through Zoom to stretch those creative muscles! They've had the challenge of portraiture, drawing Deirdre from a photograph; and have had a really fun experience where they had to guess the famous character Deirdre had set them by asking questions, and then draw the character! They've produced some amazing art - see below for some examples. The group also take part in weekly literacy classes, now in a new virtual format via Zoom on a Monday morning. The students are practicing their reading by using scripts from their favourite shows and reading them aloud for each other - some of the scripts used have been Father Ted, Home Alone and Only Fools and Horses. Martin and Richard are particularly keen on this great learning activity! Discussing word patterns, such as words with suffixes like 'ion' have resulted in some really interesting conversations, and they've been using the words discussed in sentences to really cement their learning. Next week there'll be some creative writing so watch this space for some highlights! All the Saol Anois gang love as much creativity as possible and they have adapted brilliantly to the new way of attending classes. We look forward to showing you more ways our creative and adaptable team have changed up their daily routines during this unsettled period.
Festina Lente strives to have the highest equine welfare standards possible for our hard-working horses and ponies, and these standards don't slip once our equine colleagues reach retirement age! Once our horses and ponies have reached the stage in their lives when full time work is no longer appropriate, they live out their days in our retirement field. Here they get the same amount of care and attention as our working equines do, but without the workload. One of our retired horses holds a particularly special place in the hearts of both our staff and our students and clients - the wonderful Ranger. Ranger came to Festina Lente in 1996. He's a dark bay cob and stands at 14.2 hands high, and has a truly incredible nature. He is absolutely bombproof (meaning he is totally calm and unlikely to take fright) and was brilliant across all our equestrian activities, from lessons to vaulting! Ranger was one of our first therapeutic riding ponies, as he was amazing working with all manner of people and didn't get distracted by bright colours, sounds or sudden movements - essential for providing a calm and secure experience for our riders with additional needs. He also worked in both group and private lessons. Whenever there were photo shoots at Festina Lente, Ranger was always the first to be called up for his handsome looks and lovely nature. Ranger worked at Festina Lente for 20 years, and was loved by many of our staff and students. One morning, he walked into the yard as usual but, unlike usual, he wouldn't move any further. We took this as a clear signal that he was ready for a well-deserved break. He was retired that week at the age of 24, and he's now 28 years old, enjoying the sunshine and fresh grass as well as plenty of attention from our students when they take care of the retired horses and ponies. We can't thank Ranger enough for the amazing work he's done for us over his lifetime at Festina Lente.
While all our horses and ponies are special in their own ways, three of our equines have a particularly unique set of skills. Along with taking part in lessons, Jelly, Monkey and Ginger are our super special vaulting horses! Vaulting is a mix of gymnastics and dance performed on horseback. Its origins can be traced back thousands of years, right back to ancient Roman games where Roman athletes performed on cantering horses. Modern vaulting developed in post-war Germany to introduce children to equestrian activities, and has since developed into an equestrian art of its own! It was recognised by the FEI (the governing body of equestrian sports) in 1983 and has rules and regulations like any other sport. Vaulting today involves working as individuals, pairs and teams. All vaulting routines include compulsory movements as well as freestyle segments, showcasing the skills and creativity of the participants. Depending on the level of the participant, the movements can be completed while the horse is in walk or, for more advanced vaulters, canter. And of course, not all vaulting is competitive! As an activity, it encourages creativity and teamwork, as well as challenging flexibility, strength, balance and coordination. A big part of vaulting is, of course, the vaulting horse. Vaulting horses and ponies need to have reliable calm temperaments and be responsive to cues. Vaulting is done with the horse on a lunge line (see our earlier blog about lunging!) and it’s important the horse moves smoothly and easily around the circle so the vaulter can complete moves smoothly and safely. We are incredibly lucky to have two amazing vaulting horses and one fabulous vaulting pony on our team. Jelly and Monkey are our two vaulting horses, and came to us from Scotland. Jenny Leggate is a renowned vaulting trainer, and trained Jelly and Monkey with their amazing skills for vaulting. Jelly is a 16.3 hands high gelding. He’s an amazing bright bay colour with Appaloosa markings on his hindquarters – he is hard to miss! Despite his size he has a sensitive disposition, and likes his riders to reassure him he’s doing a good job. Jelly works with our vaulters on a Thursday evening and also does private lessons with our more advanced riders. Monkey is our tallest horse at 17 hands high. He competed internationally as a vaulting horse prior to coming to Festina Lente, and he is a true character! He is a bay roan in colour and loves a good neck scratch. He is incredibly experienced and gives great confidence to our vaulters. He works with the vaulting groups on both Wednesdays and Thursdays, as well as private and group lessons with our advanced riders. In 2016 we bought two Norwegian Fjord ponies from County Wexford, Ginger and Toffee. Ginger has since had three years of vaulting training with us. Although most vaulting horses are taller, Norwegian Fjord ponies suit vaulting brilliantly because of their lovely natures, wide backs and strength. Ginger is dark dun with a dorsal stripe down her spine. She is friendly, excellent with children and is particularly popular with our younger vaulters! We can’t wait for our vaulting teams to be back in action soon – watch this space!
We've recently profiled our longest-serving equine at Festina Lente, Prince, so today we'll get an insight into our newest member of the team - Sunny! Sunny arrived on trial to us two weeks ago, and it quickly became clear that he'd be the perfect addition to the team. This handsome chestnut has an incredibly relaxed temperament, and can turn his hoof to all manner of activities. Sunny came from a yard in County Waterford and he passed his trial with us with flying colours. He's quite young so prior to us had done a few shows in Waterford, as well as trying out a bit of hunting. He stands at 13 hands high and one of his most defining features is his little white moustache! While we are closed for lessons and pony activities, our staff are working hard with Sunny to build on his already excellent training. We are thrilled to have Sunny as part of the team, and his sunny disposition and lovely nature means he'll be working across lots of our activities - for term lessons with children, for therapeutic riding lessons and for pony camps. We can't wait for you to meet this lovely little pony when we are open to the public again.
While our lessons and camps are not running at the moment, our horses and ponies are being kept busy with a training programme with our experienced coaches. This makes sure they stay fit and healthy while their routine is altered, keeps their minds busy and ensures they will be even better prepared for lessons once we are back to our normal routine! The coaches have a range of training methods they use with our horses and ponies, and although you might think they would all involve riding, this is not necessarily the case. One of the training methods we use with is lunging. Although this may conjure up images of someone in athleisure doing aerobics, in the equestrian world lunging is a method of training and exercising a horse from the ground. The horse is on a long lead line, and moves around the person, (who is in the middle of the circle.) The horse is trained by using voice commands and the movement of a long whip, which moves around the horse to emphasis commands (it is in no way a punishment, and it does not touch the horse). In fact, we prefer to call the whip a ‘wand’ as it conjures up a more appropriate image. We use side reins on our horses and ponies when they are being lunged. A side rein is a long piece of leather which attaches from the lunge roller to the bridle, which gives a light contact on the bit, mimicking as if there was a rider holding the reins. We use side reins with rubber ring inserts, which stretch and allows a softness within the contact. For our horses and ponies, lunging is a great way to improve their flexibility, balance, impulsion and suppleness in their three paces. As they move around the circle in each direction, their backs and legs loosen as they improve their way of going. It also encourages them to be more responsive in transitions. This means they will be more responsive when we ask them to increase and decrease their speed. To begin with, if we ask one of our horses to move from one pace to another, it might take three to four strides before they change pace. By the end of a lunging training sessions, the horse/pony will more likely respond within one or two strides when given the command. The outcome of this for our clients is that our horses react rapidly to their requests to change pace when asked. The horse/pony is also more balanced and supple so that the rider will be able to develop their skills more effectively. The horse/pony can bend smoothly and easily, and is more even on both the right and the left rein. Like us, horses usually have one side of their body that is stronger than the other. Lunging helps to strengthen both sides of their bodies equally and gets them to move more correctly in both directions. At the end of a session, our horses and ponies should have nice loose muscles, are should be using their legs and backs to their full capacity, and should respond to change pace when asked. We hope when you come back in for your lessons you find riding our amazing horses even more rewarding!
To make sure our clients, students and staff stay safe and healthy, on 13 March 2020 we made the decision to cancel our lessons and events in the Riding School due to the escalating covid-19 situation in Ireland. While we miss having our hard-working students and pony-mad clients around, we’re using this unexpected change in our routine to get our horses and ponies even better trained and our yard jobs all fixed up. We thought you might like to see what we’re working on as well, and give you a behind the scenes glimpse into our horses and people. To start with, let us introduce you to our longest serving equine friend – the loveable Prince. If you’ve been to our yard, you might have seen Prince clearing up any hay in front of the stalls, or basking in the sun. He’s one of our oldest working equines, at around 28 years of age, and he takes some of our small clients for their therapeutic riding lessons. Other than that, he’s our free-spirited equine granddad who has free reign around the yard, and chooses whether he wants to go out to graze or not (if it’s cold, he’d rather stay in this nice warm yard thank you very much). As with all of us, as he’s aged he has developed a few health conditions which we carefully manage to keep him well. Prince has Cushing’s Disease, which is a condition affecting the pituitary gland and is common in older ponies. This means he has a very long coat which doesn’t shed fully, and isn’t able to regulate his temperature well any more. We make sure he is kept cool in summer and warm in winter. Prince’s age has also affected his teeth. As ponies age, their teeth wear down from the grinding motion they use to work through grass, hay and hard feed. Prince’s molars (which are used for this grinding action) are so worn down they no longer meet! So while he loves the taste of haylage, he can’t grind it up to digest. He now eats a fibre mash which he can gobble down without chewing. Prince’s best mate is Maxwell, another of our more elderly equine team members. They both have sweet itch, which is a really common allergic reaction in ponies to fly and midge bites. This makes their skin itchy, and while we have treatments for this, Prince often takes things into his own hooves. Most mornings he will potter down to Maxwell’s stable, lean over the rope and the two of them will have a good scratch of each other’s itchy backs and necks. Prince is such a fan of Maxwell he’s been known to join in a lesson that Maxwell is doing, with no rider – he just follows Maxwell around like a devoted puppy! Prince keeps watch over the yard and always knows if there’s food to be hoovered up. We’re lucky to have this special pony working with us! |
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