Well, my little Maggie, she's quite a challenge. She bucks, she kicks, she throws herself around. She's very talented, but a difficult ride. My trainer and I have been working with her diligently and she's greatly improved, but she still has some issues.

So, my trainer's father came over from Germany to do some driving clinics, he's a professional 4 in hand driver, very very experienced. He's also breaking some of the horses at the barn to drive. We thought we'd see if there was anything he could suggest to help us with the mare. So, we put a surcingle on her and on went the lines.

And she threw everything she had at him. A courbette for one. She took off. She wouldn't steer. She was cantering to the right, threw a change dead on the centre line and ducked left. I think it was shortly after that, when she found herself changing back and continuing on to the right, that something may have clicked in her brain... He did nothing but continue on, the odd "NO", lots of "good girl", and he kept the contact dead even.

I was absolutely amazed at the speed and timing of this amazing professional. My mare was floating around doing serpentines and generally looking amazing. We know with her that if you can teach it to her on the ground, she'll learn it faster than in the saddle. And we've done some work on the double longe, with sliding side reins, with a side rein on the outside and a line on the inside to help her learn to bend, and it's all helped Maggie get a handle on what we're trying to get her to do.

Once he had her going very nicely, we grabbed my trainer's saddle and on went my trainer. And the driver was on the ground with a whip to assist and get her to make the bridge to under saddle. It was great to watch.

I rode briefly on Wednesday, she was great. Today she was worked in the lines again, and she'll have two more sessions before he goes home.

I was a bit apprehensive when my trainer suggested maybe having her dad work with Mags, I mean I hadn't met him. It only took one minute of talking to him about my girl to convince me we had to give it a try. You can tell he genuinely likes the horses, he just loves Maggie. Nothing but calm, direct and encouraging with her. It was absolutely amazing to watch.

He did a demo, working with two pairs and then putting them together, he's amazing.

Now this is obviously not for the uninitiated, if either I or my trainer had been on the lines with some of the stuff she'd pulled, we'd have had a wreck, it takes impeccable timing and accuracy. But I'm really excited to see what we end up with at the end of this. There's something to be said for explaining things to horses from the ground before you put them under saddle. She'll never make a driving horse (at least for me, that's too darned close to those very fast hind legs), but it's made for a huge leap so far in her compliance.

I wish we had more really truly experienced folks her who could do this stuff. Imagine being a professional driver here. You'd need two other jobs in order to live.