Be careful what you wish for!

Dealing with an injured horse.......

Well, since Tess has that big ugly wound on her front leg, which I am waiting to heal. She is currently standing in the little paddock, without the other horses, she is very bored and has alot of energy. The vet instructed for her not to be left out in the paddock with the other horses before the wound is healed more, since it is too risky with all the mud and the wound needs time so it doesnt remain open.

I have been taking her out on the riding field, to burn off energy, but she seemed abit bored. Since she has been behaving very nicely, I last week decided to ride her in walk only, since she is not lame or seem to be bothered too much by the injury. This went fine, but she was abit "on her feet". A few days later, she wanted to trot abit under me, and I thought "why not, then she can burn off some more energy"- BAD IDEA. To say the least. I got the full rodeo experience and got thrown off quite forcefully, I then went in to get the rope and let her run around me a little, and then she did it again.... So I decided to listen to her, and give her some more time off. I dont know if it was just too much energy, or if maybe the injury bothered her somehow, but now she has had some more time off, and just been in the riding field to burn off energy on her own.

I tried walking her  by hand the other day, and then she decided she was the "new black stallion" standing on her behind legs with her front legs kicking in the air. Lets just say I was thinking "eeeh is THIS my horse?!" and "what the hell!". She was not my favorite horse in the world after these incidents.

Talked to the breeder, and she hasnt done these kind of "neat little tricks" before, but then again, this is the first time she has been injured. Which sucks, to say the least. But we are looking forward to the future, and hopefully she will return to her usual, sweet self, without anymore bucking, or black stallion moves :)

(Tess being annoyed im taking pictures)

(She can look cute again though)

Today I dont feel like doing anything

Soon Christmas

Soon Christmas is upon us, and I am working hard to get into the holliday spirit. I was supposed to visit my family in Denmark, but since Tess is injured and currently on pencillin (hippotrim) I couldnt leave her in the hands of someone I hardly know, to go visit.  So now Christmas will be spend in Sweden instead.

But my mom decided to give me a little chrismast present before Christmas, and since I have been using regular sneakers in the stables (which is both cold and super slippery on ice), she decided to give me a pair of good solid stable boots, these from Hööks:

They are sold out all over in my size, but luckily I called one of the stores near me and they had one pair left in my size, which I am picking up tomorrow. Lucky me! (a little early Christmas luck ).

So now I am just waiting for Tess to get better, so we can start riding again. Which will hopefully happen in the new year. I am hoping 2015 will be more of  "my year" than 2014 has been.

Tess update

Dearest little Tess got kicked by another horse last thursday and has gotten a nasty wound. So she is not resting in the small field, which she is not too happy about. And is also on pencillin for 15 days. (yeah she is not too happy about it, neither the meds or being alone) but hopefully on monday the vet will give me the okay for her to be out with the other horses again.

Each horse should have its own swimming pool

I think Tess would like that ;)

Last night in the paddock

my new horse is a little piglet ;)

Ofcourse she took a roll in the biggest pool of mud she could find :) This is her first day out in her new home.

When life hands you lemons, make lemonade.

Getting ready for transport :)

Now we are just waiting for friday, the day when she will finally arrive to me in Sweden :)

My new horse!

Finally, after several big bumps in the road towards this goal. I can once again call myself a horse owner!

She is a 5 year old danish warmblood mare after Tailormade Temptation, with damsire May Sherif.

I think she will turn out to be an amazing dressage horse, and have very high hopes for her :)

I havent gotten her home yet, but hopefully she will pass the vet check and I will get her home the 1st of november! (been a long wait, since I agreed to buy her in July!)

May I present my new horse, Tessie(it is not me riding her on the pictures or in the video):

The reason I had to wait for her is because she had gotten an injury that needed to heal, which was really unlucky and unfortunate. But since she is the horse I wanted, I decided I was willing to wait for her to heal up. But now she is finally mine, and I cant wait to share my adventures with her :)

Youtube goodies: Horses that spook

Favorite winter jackets

Here is some of my Winter Jacket favorites this year:

 Spooks Jacket

Cortina jacket JH Collection

These two can be bought at www.hooks.se

Pikeur Jacket Ajala

Eurostar Fleece Jacket Brenda

Can be bought on www.calevo.com

HV Polo Yulia

Mountain Horse Belverede Jacket

Riding

Love this picture, me on sweetie Tapping :)

Youtube Goodies: Free Riding

The youtube goodie this week:

Youtube Goodies: Q goes Country

I have decided to add a new "category" to my blog, thinking that once a week I will share a "youtube goodie" video. Since it is fun seeing other riders and also getting inspired by other amateurs aswell ;)
 I found this video by chance, and it put a big smile on my face. I just think this video really shows both rider and horse enjoying themselves, even though it is new to the horse.

Outlook on life on horseback

Looks pretty good :)

Horse Jumping with Malin Baryard - H&M Life

About her horse missing one eye: http://www.chronofhorse.com/article/even-better-without

Shopping

My latest purchase- a Autumn/spring jacket. Got it half off, and I like the material. Even though it isnt so easy to see on the picture :)

Puppy loves horse

Educating The Rider's Eye - ART2Ride

I enjoy watching Will Faerbers videos on youtube, because I think they have a lot of good points, and combine good horsemanship with dressage.  I may be very critical of things from time to time on my blog, but that doesn't mean I don't enjoy watching dressage (as long as it is proper, and not at the expense of the horses well-being) . I just think the basics should be in order, and the goal should be to "dressage" the horse into using itself correctly. This should be done so the horse wont maintain injuries while ridden (which in my opinion is the basics of dressage). I think a lot of what I see, is where people have moved away from this goal, and instead decided to "take the easy way out" to be able to compete faster on their horses and gain "results" more quickly. Or a lot of cases where the amateurs doesn't know any better and end up doing it, simply because it is what they have learned to do by their trainers. (been there myself).
This is why I like sharing articles, because I find them interesting myself, and I figure that people reading my blog, are kinda on the same "wave-length" as me, and therefore will find them interestign aswell ;)

Well enough talk, here is a video I found today and I thought I would share it:

Dressage Naturally

I stumbled upon this website, and was immediately intrigued.

http://dressagenaturally.net/

The background (copied directly from the homepage):

About Karen Rohlf

 

Karen Rohlf trained over 20 years in dressage with Anne Gribbons ('O' dressage judge, International Grand Prix trainer and competitor) and studied Parelli Natural Horsemanship directly with Pat and Linda Parelli.

She has trained horses and students to the upper levels of dressage, represented the USA 4 times on the Young Riders team, passed her USDF 'L' Education (judge training) Program test with distinction, and was accepted into the USEF 'r' judge program.

She now divides her time between traveling the world giving clinics and training at home at her Temenos Fields in Ocala, Florida.

Karen Rohlf began in Pony Club, evented to the Preliminary Level, and learned her original dressage training with 'O' judge, Anne Gribbons. Karen studied closely with her for 2 decades, In the early years, she became one of the youngest riders in the US to train her own horse to FEI. She assisted, and observed Anne, as horse after horse was brought from the pasture and, over time, transformed into a Grand Prix horse. She has a solid understanding of a progressive gymnastic training system. Even in those 'strictly dressage' years, Karen developed a reputation for enjoying the 'special cases', showing unusual patience and curiosity towards trying to figure out how to make each individual horse and rider the best they can be.

In this video, Karen describes her background in dressage and her introduction to natural horsemanship.

Her students and she competed locally, nationally and in the International Young Riders Championships. Karen Rohlf  was selected 4 times to represent the USA at these championships, twice as part of the silver medal team and once earning the individual bronze medal. A student of hers also was selected for the team twice on two different horses trained by Karen. There are also multiple National USDF Horse of the Year placings, Regional Championships and Reserve Championships earned by her and her students. So although currently Karen’s top priority is not to compete, she is certainly no stranger to the show ring.

She was well on track to become a dressage judge, when Karen realized that although she thoroughly enjoyed the training process to become a judge, and has a lot of respect for that skill, it just wasn't what she wanted to do. Somehow she knew she would be making a different contribution to dressage.

Here are some words from Karen Rohlf: "It's funny to me, that there is so much debate about whether natural and dressage can be combined. It probably is due to people's differing pictures they have when they hear each of those terms. I started out very natural with horses. I was lucky enough to have had opportunities to just be with horses when I was young. I learned to ride bareback before I rode with a saddle, and I learned to just hang out with a horse before I rode at all. When I had my first horses, it was with my best friend in a very private and secluded property. There was lots of room for play (and thank God, I survived it!). I did crazy things like climb on them in the pasture and sit backwards, then get them moving to see what it would feel like. I went on adventures with them. They were friends to me. One of my first teachers, in the 1970's, was a wonderful woman who was in her 70's, with great experience in the hunt field, who taught us to ride with no reins, including jumping.

Even later as I began doing dressage, I still had times where my horse and I went on trail rides and I would let my horse make all the decisions. One horse, Brave Tom, absolutely refused to do dressage on Mondays. I thought that was reasonable and so never challenged it. This horse was very injury prone, and I can remember when he was lame I would just go and sit with him, holding the injured part in my hands ... for hours.

This horse had not passed the veterinary exam for dressage. I got him when I was 15 and he was 7 years old. Neither of us had done dressage. He ended up going all the way with me. Time and time again he came through for me in the show ring and in general. I am still amazed at how much "above and beyond" he went for me.

As I became more "professional", I stopped doing these "silly" things with horses. The horses I was responsible for were more and more expensive; they were treated royally and well ... according to us humans. I got much more serious about my training, and it paid off. I learned a lot! In those years with Anne Gribbons, I had great opportunities to ride horses of Olympic caliber. I trained the easy ones and the challenging ones. I taught countless students of all levels. But I do remember thinking, how none of these horses gave me what Brave Tom had given me ... and he had only a fraction of the natural talent that these super athletes I was working with at this time had.

I will make this long story short, but it wasn't until I took a retiring Grand Prix horse to a Parelli clinic that I realized that all the things I instinctively had done with my horses when I was young, were actually something valuable that I could do on purpose even now. Those seemingly silly things I did had a powerful effect on my relationships with those horses. As I gained knowledge in dressage techniques, I had forgotten many of my natural horse partnership techniques.

It was with this Grand Prix horse, Vivaldi, after playing with natural horsemanship principles, that I felt something I hadn't felt since Brave Tom ... partnership. It is hard to describe exactly what I felt. Vivaldi was a horse who had retreated inside himself. I met him when he was 11 years old and already at FEI level, but no one at the farm really wanted to ride him because he was about as close to an inanimate object as a living creature could get. He was not that much fun to ride, and I'm sure he hadn't enjoyed it either. But there, in that barn aisle, late one evening, when everyone else had left, I felt it. He opened, he trusted. In the couple of years I had with him, between practicing natural horsemanship with him and until his soundness made him retire for good, he offered me more than he had when he was in his physical prime.

It was impossible for me to ignore the facts. Physical training is not the only thing necessary to do dressage, or any sport. The partnership, the mental and emotional connection between human and horse, is absolutely necessary in order to maximize the physical potential. Of course, if we train well, we improve them physically as we improve them emotionally and vice versa. Yet, I am so thankful that I found Parelli Natural Horsemanship in time to help me remember what it is to be natural with a horse. I am so glad that now I can be as consciously competent about how to develop partnership as I am about how to develop suppleness, balance and strength.

More photos here: 
http://dressagenaturally.net/about/photos-videos/photos-d-n-students

Horse Love

Saw this picture and just loved it. Especially since the tongue looks like a heart ;)

How unicorns are born.

Opslag af PegaseBuzz.

Eskadron Platinum 2014 - New collection

Eskadron has released a new platinum edition this spring. And I really like the new details.

See for yourself :

 

My doggie and wild horses in italy edited edition ;)

 

Gizmo !

Wild Wild Horses and Italy

Back from my vacation, where we went to Italy (the Abruzzo region).

Here are some snapshots (taken with mobile phone) of some of the "wild" horses (wild in the sense they roam free in herds, but are still used to cars) we encountered on the mountain we visited:

 

And also, PIZZA: