Hacking out, she simply refused to go, employing her favourite trick of stopping dead, rearing and spinning round.  She had got that down to a fine art!

Schooling was fine on a long, loose rein, but as soon as you picked up the contact, she fought it.  That was no good.  Her jumping was OK, but fast and furious.  She would jump anything you put in front of her.  But take her to a competition and show her the ring and it was a definite "Not today thank you!"  She was determined she wasn't going near it.

We had work to do, and plenty of it.  We started with hacking out.  We always start with hacking out!  It is by far the best way to build a trusting relationship.  With all the spirit of a highly bred performance horse, she resisted every step of the way. 

It was a long and incredibly slow process, but about six months later, she hacks out beautifully - most of the time.  She still has the odd tantrum, but that's Ellie!

Using our gentle 'no fighting, no fuss' approach, we had her going into the ring at competitions from the start.  That wasn't a problem for us.  But once faced with a course of jumps, she was a bit of a lunatic, rushing around with her head in the air.  There is still work to do in that department.

Schooling was the big one.  Getting her to accept the contact seemed like a distant dream.  Then it came one day, warming up for a competition, working hard in canter, practising flying changes on the figure eight.  Just like that, she stopped resisting, dropped her head, became light in hand and accepted the bit.  I love it when things happen by themselves!

Mission accomplished.  Ellie now hacks out, alone or in company, competes and accepts the bit in schooling.  It's all still a bit rough round the edges, but mutual trust and understanding has been established.