Dramatic Thursday

We had some action at the stable today.

Christina went out to train one of the race horses during the day.

Riding down the path through the forest she encounters three moose.

She starts yelling to get them going, but one of them instead of running away flattens the ears and starts running towards them.

Christina and her horse agrees very quickly to turn and get going in the opposite direction.

Problem is that we do not only have exceptionally much snow this year, it is also turning mushy - rotten - through the mild temperatures the last days. The packed snow on the narrow path is the only place that can take the weight of the horse.

So when they turn and get the speed up, her horse trots outside the path in speed and falls.

Christina manages to hang on, but in the mayhem when the horse tries to get up she loses her balance and get a punch in the back. Her horse is stressed and somehow manages to bolt out in the field.

Christina gets on her feet, and get to her horse. By this time her horse is stuck in the snow. It is deep and heavy.

Somehow she manages to get him out of the snow, back to the path and home, with his bridle in two pieces and an aching back.

The moose has (luckily) disappeared in the meantime.

I was a bit apprehensive going out on the ride today.

Two moose, but none attacking TG.

Tomorrow I'm leaving for Amsterdam, to watch the European final of the dressage world cup.

Have a nice weekend, everybody!

(I sure will, bwahaha!)

Springtime part 2

It was lovely weather today as well. Even our little sofa princess wanted to get some sun.

Another unfortunate consequence of the sun and the mild temperature is that the surface on the outdoor arenas is getting bad.

And as the afternoons are getting lighter I took Fame for a trailride after work. Wonderful!

And did I have one eager horse!

She was jogging down the path through the forest. As the snow starts to get rotten she had some mishaps with trodding through the snow at the edges of the path where it wasn't so hard packed. Didn't upset her though, but I got a bit frustrated that she couldn't watch where she was going.

We got through the first forest part and over the creek, coming up to a gravel road on the other side. The sun the last days had melted the snow so the road was bare in patches.

We had a long, nice strech right ahead of us.

Fame jumped, spooked and shied.
She was about as relaxed as a racehorse before the race. Thoroughly overjoyed with spring and the possibilities to let off some steam.

After trotting (and skittering left and right) for a while, I let her move over to canter. I was a tiny bit worried that she would take off totally, but she was eager but manageable.

We kept a high tempo for a while with trotting and canter.
I was hoping that she was going to relax a bit when she got tired, but today it seemed as if she had unlimited resources of energy.

It was getting darker but the warmth still lingered a bit in the air. You can really feel that the winter is letting go.

Finally we slowed down to a walk.

When turning home again she was able to concentrate on where to put her feet on the path.
Just before coming up to the stables again we rode into a moose.
I didn't see him first as it had turned quite dark, and Fame didn't see him at first either.
He just turned quickly around and headed back between the trees again.

Marvellous ride.

Marvellous with spring.

And finally - SPRINGTIME

According to the meteorologists, today the 17th of March is the official first day of spring in Southeast Norway.
The average temperature is above 0 centigrades.

But I believe we have to wait for a while before we get rid of the snow....May, perhaps?


But it was nice weather today.

Blowing a bit though.
Elin came with me to take some pictures of Fame and me.

Hi Mum, where have you been? Going in now?

No, you have to wait two minutes before eating, and show yourself from your best side...

Happy springtime everyone!

OK, Elin, I'll throw in a picture of Charlie too:

Charlie also says Happy springtime everybody! Give your horse a carrot today!

Showtime!

Showtime.
Half of the mane is lying on the floor, and I'm in the middle of braiding.


We'll tie up the braids on Sunday morning, otherwise they have to be redone anyhow.
We don't have time to do the complete braiding Sunday morning.
Braiding stinks.
Sometimes I'm wondering if we should have a go at show jumping instead.
But then I think of all that material that has to be carried on and off the arena.
Maybe dressage isn't that bad after all?
Hehe.


Jungle-Jim finally starts to look like a dressage pony - yippeee!
(I've no fingers left)




The worst is the front one.
Strange that they never want to stand still?
Or stands still at first, and then takes a major shake when you are almost finished.
Yippee again. Not.





Sunday morning comes.
Rise and shine at 6.30.
At 8 am it's ready for take off.
Charlie looks like he is not quite ready to come along.
Hey, guys - maybe we should stay at home instead? Munch some hay, and stand in the sun? Whadayasay?



Another hour and a half we have reached our destination.
Elin starts to warm up.
Charlie lookes fine.
Elin has to remember to keep contact on that outside rein.
They work with collections...



And extensions...

Finally it's time for Elin.

They make a nice program.
Charlie looks active behind, but at some occations a bit open in form.
The canter work is very good.

The trot extensions are OK, but they can better.
Turn on the haunches looks good.
One of the canter-walk-canter transitions was not that good, Elin put some leg on and they got a step of trot or two. But the other was very nice.

All in all - a steady program.

Elin walks Charlie, she is the last entry in the class.

And the result is...

Third place!

Yippeeeee!!!

And a nice percentage as well, 63.8%.

Not bad for the first time in this class (LA).

So the return home is a happy one, and Charlie gets lot of extra carrots....
He's such a sweetheart.

Oh, and all the good, clear and funny pictures are taken by my daughter. The blurry. bad ones by me.

Spring cleaning

Spring has arrived (I hope? It keeps snowing but the days are getting lighter) and with it some extra work.

My daughter is to start this year's first show on Sunday. She is stepping up a class, so it will be exciting.

When riding through the program at the training Monday it looked very nice.

My daughter has had quite a lot of problems with migraine lately, and have been sick during the week. I meant it would be better maybe not to start, but she got very dissapointed, so we are going ahead.
I hope she will be alright.

But look at our little Show Prince above!

He is no show prince anymore, he is Jungle-Jim.

We have some serious hair dressing to do today to dig out our show pony again.

But it's not only him.
My daughter's cat Simba get a fantastic winter coat.

It keeps him warm and dry during the winter which is good as he loves to be outside in all kinds of weather.

Problem is that he refuses to be brushed.

*Yac, girl stuff.*
I can almost hear him.

He wrings like an eel, and gets bad tempered.

Which of course is really stupid as all of the winter coat is to be shed when the spring comes. He gets large lumps in the coat.

So every spring I have to bring him to the veterinary clinic, get him sedated and then I am able to clip and brush.

In the end it looks like half of the cat is lying in the heap of hair at the side...

He is very content afterwards, stupid thing!

Our other cat Sweetheart loves to be brushed, that is one of her favourite things. Another favourite thing is to sleep in my lap when I'm sitting by the computer.

As I can't resist to cuddle with her the result is a lot of cat hair on the keyboard.

I can live with that.

A soft, warm and sleeping cat on my lap is one of my favourite things.

Wildlife audience

I was training at our outdoor arena this evening together with my daughter.


My daughter had bought a bareback pad/saddle (whatever you call it) when we were down at the WC in Gothenburg, and I got her permission to try it out.
Suddenly my daughter stops her horse and says "We've got audience"
"Huh?" I say, occupied in keeping Fame between the aids in a shoulder-in.

I look up at where she points, and there stands a moose.


No, two moose.
Our neighbour keeps the hay in a building where one of the sides are open.
So here we have Mummy Moose and Baby Moose having a nice Friday evening with dinner and entertainment...

Sorry for the bad quality of the pictures.
It was getting dark, and I only had the camera on my cell phone.

They were really close, just some 15 m off, and Mum grabbed an mouthful and then took a couple of steps to watch what we were doing on our horses. Baby moose was munching away all the time. You can see his butt sticking out.

The three Ps

I have found a new and interesting site about horses, Jessica Jahiel (thanks to Mugwump Chronicles. )
Jessica issues a free Q&A newsletter called"HORSE-SENSE " which deals with all aspects of horses, their management, riding, and training.

You can find an extensive archive on her site. Look it up!

I liked what I read there.

I'd like to present Jessica's "3 Ps":

Patience, Persistence, and Praise.
A quick way to remember three so very important things in the riding and training.

I quote:

Patience: You have to give your horse time to understand what you want from him, time to learn how to do it, and time to do enough repetitions that the action becomes easy and then habitual. You also have to be able to break down each new skill into tiny, easily-learned pieces, and you then need to teach those pieces one at a time.

Persistence: Although you only ask for small things, small movements, small responses, you need to ask for them quite often -- this helps your horse understand, confirms your communication with the horse, and begins to develop the habits that you want.

Praise: Whenever you ask for anything, no matter how tiny and seemingly trivial, you must praise the horse -- there has to be a reward for every effort.

Thanks, Jessica.

I totally agree, and it was a nice way to help remember them.

Now I'm out to 3P my horse in the snow. It's been snowing all day, and I plan to have a bareback, meditative session in the snow, just me and Fame. That will be nice.

The crooked horse

Reite dein pferd vorwärts und richte es gerade.
(Ride your horse forwards and make him straight)
Gustav Steinbrecht

As most humans are right handed, most horses are stronger in one side, usually on the left.
If so, the muscles in the left side of the horse are slightly shorter and stronger.
The left hind will be flexed more and carrying more of the horses weight, and the horse often prefers the left canter.
The rider can feel this crookedness through uneven contact with the reins (more contact on the left rein), or through displacement of the shoulder or hips, i.e the horse is not travelling straight.

My horse Fame has a tendency to travel with the hind slightly inwards on a circle to the left, a slightly travers position.

As a right-handed person is stronger in the right hand, the problem here originates with the horse being stronger in the left leg, it carries more weight.
Being a dressage rider my goal is to make my horse as ambidextrous as possible as a crooked horse never can move intirely in balance.
I have to address the problem by strengthening Fame's right hind leg.
Fame has to increase the pushing power of her left hind leg and the carrying power of her right hind leg.
I have to get her to take more contact on the right rein.
By using my left leg more, Fame will increase the pushing power of the left hind leg, and I will also get more contact in the right rein.

Now, one of the bearing principles in dressage riding is to always correct the shoulder into the motor, the hind quarters.

As Fame is travelling slightly bent in travers position (haunches-in) on a circle to the left, I try and position her in a shoulder-fore position instead.
I also work on the shoulders-in on the left rein on the longside of the arena. It is very important to soften on the inside, left rein and instead have the horse stepping up to a contact on the outside rein.
Another possibility is to work with renvers, but as we lose a bit of impulsion here still, I find it easier to work with the shoulders in.
Travers and shoulders-in to the right is also good, as it strenghtens the carrying power of the right hind.
The work we do with counter canter also helps.
Straightening the horse is a never ending story.

No milk today

Some commercials are more fun than others...





So all fellow equestrians, remember to drink your milk today.

You've seen what happens if not....

Dressage hooligans

Yepp.
They do exist. Rascals.
And in the very top as well!
No, we are not speaking of 2 hairs gone astray, or some dust on the boots, heaven forbid.
This is the real stuff, guys.
The audience at Bremen show got some extra entertainment.
Patrik Kittel and Isabelle Werth both came second .
As Patrik turned up to the prize ceremony without a horse, Isabell generously shared hers.
It looked quite under control to start with. They even took the round of honour.



But then the horse moves over to passage.




Isabell laughs more and more.
But Patrik, poor guy, gets more and more hunch-backed. (Wonder why???)




I just love this.

Colic

Elin’s pony Charlie has not been well the last two days.
When going out in the stables on Monday morning I noticed that the bedding in his box was in disorder. He did not seem sick though, he was looking his normal, charming self.
But when Helene was to feed the morning meal, he was lying down and rolling. No feed to Charlie.
During the day he had the occasional roll, but did not seem much affected apart from that.
I kept in contact with our vet, and Elin took Charlie out for a walk when coming home from school.
He had no temperature; he did not seem very affected and was searching the box for every straw of hay he could find. But the droppings looked harder than normal, and he kept having a roll occasionally.
I was not comfortable with the situation, and as the day went over to evening, I asked the vet to come by.
After making a rectal examination he found out that he had a blocking close to the appendix.
It was good that I had called him out.
Charlie got a salt solution by tube to help loosening it up and also some pain killers. No food until the droppings looked normal again.
I was up checking him during the night. He seemed fine.
In the morning he also seemed fine, but still hard droppings.
I had to leave for work, but Helene was to keep an eye on him.
He was not getting any worse luckily, and early afternoon it seemed as if the prop had come loose because the droppings were not “droppings” anymore, it was running.
I have never been so happy for diarrhoea in a horse before!
When the evening came he got a small amount of hay, and he looked fine this morning. I believe I finally can stop holding my breath.
Colic is scary stuff.

Prince Charming, he's such a nice boy

Light therapy

It was marvellous weather today.

It's getting lighter for each and every day, and you can feel that the sun starts to warm again.

It so nice; I feel like I'm awakening after the long winter.

Today Fame and I went trail riding again.
We had a clear blue sky and sunshine, and we were just as eager both of us to get going.

The fastest way for us to get to the forest trails is to cross a creek, which can be a bit exciting during winter time as it might/might not be ice. The horses don't like the in-between part.

Open, it's OK, frozen it's OK - but the rest, uhuh.

It was fairly OK, mostly open with some ice in between, and Fame was a good girl and went over without fuzz.

Just before crossing we passed two moose under the trees just some 8-10 m away from us.

As Fame wanted to stop and stare anyway, I took a photo with my mobile. Not a very good quality as it was dark between the trees, but maybe you can see them anyway. One is lying down and the other one has its butt towards us, but has turned the head looking at us over the shoulder.
I can assure you I saw them much better in reality!

We are lucky as we have a lot of possibilities to choose between when deciding where to ride.

Today we took one of the favourites, a road that has a steady climb up to approx 750 m height, with some 3 km length.
It is a good choice if you want to do some intervall training as there is no traffic.

I felt the steam pressure in Fame was building up , so we trotted a bit first, and the went into canter.
And I just felt that turbo motor kick in...
Now, I should have reined her in, and kept her a bit more short out of educational purposes.
But you know, the day was beautiful, the surface was good and we were feeling FINE, so I just let her get rid of that surplus energy and enjoy herself.
After a while, I slowed her down to a walk and let her regain her breath.
I normally take the rest of the way up in two canter sessions with a walk between, but today she was eager to go, and as she is in good shape I let her go all the way up in one session.
When reaching the top she was blowing a bit, but did not seem very tired.
I jumped off, loosened the girth and walked her down.
We just had to stop to enjoy the sun on the way.

The sun was slightly warm and we almost dozed for a bit, both of us.
They are cutting down the wood in the area, rendering it less beautiful than when the trees were there, but it definately opens up for some more sun.
As the weather was so nice, I just couldn't ride straight home, so we made a detour - I believe we were out 2.5 hrs in total.

On the way back, we passed one of Fame's favourite spooking places. There are two concrete blocks there, to prevent people from driving into a small path. She always spooks there, just to entertain herself.
But now they were buried under the snow.
She really was bewildered, I just burst out laughing. Imagine a small child, promised a candy bag and someone just snatches it straight under the child's nose and you get the picture...
Aaah, our horses are great!
So we happily cantered a bit instead.
Returning home to the stables we were content both of us, it was a lovely ride.