Dressage Training!

Today it's really hot outside, I hate that feeling when you wake up because it's like a thousands degrees in the room. Today was one of those days!

Yesterday evening I rode a dressage training for mom after her other lessons, Scarto felt a bit stressed and tensed in the beginning when we started. After a while he started to loosen up a bit and worked really well. The best part was out left canter, wow I´m really amazed of how much his canter has improved over this last month. It's far from perfect but in december last year he couldn't canter at all, since he wasn't strong enough. His right canter is still a bit weaker then the left one, but hey it's a work in progress!

I must say I'm so pleased with him (even if he's often a guy with lots of ideas of his own), he have finally started to concentrate at work instead of everything around us. With the feeling I have got this last time I say - Olympics, here we come!

A New Beginning.

Today I decided to re-start an old project, to long reining Scarto. I've started this work already last summer since I really like this form of training. He have no problem with the long reins against his sides or back, but since he´is really sensitive in his mouth and starts to panic if he´is not completely comfortable with the pressure in his mouth I had a hard time to come somewhere at that time since he also had trouble to understand why to move forward in the arena (in his mind we people are really stupid, what´s the point in going around and around at the same place). But today it went really well, yes he´s still sensitive and have trouble to understand exactly what I ask him for but he tried and was so much more comfortable even the times he got a bit confused.

In the end he trotted around at a big circle, with a nice contact at each rein, relaxed and seemed to enjoy the workout. So I'm definitely gonna continue to work with the long reining and not just lungeing as I have done until now. I think it´s important to have a complement to the riding, to build strenght at your horse from the ground and it also gives an extra variation to your daily training.

That´s all for now, tomorrow Scarto have a scheduled day off and in the evening I´ve got a couple of lessions for children in their beginning of their career as riders. More about my role as an instructor will be up here soon.

Magic!

Tonight's dressage training was such an amazing experience and exactly what I needed right now. I got a feeling which practically made me high on happiness, the whole lesson included such a flow in our movements and transitions. Usually I drop the feeling if we get any troubles in a leg-yielding for example, which sometimes make me ride a lot worse then I usually do. The same thing can happen after a bad canter exercise, often because Scarto haven't been strong enough and become tired really quick in the canter. But tonight we had that flow where you just go from one exercise or movement to the other with such a great feeling where "everything´s possible". Our canter work was without any question the highlight of my life - we had that amazing flow with us and he had power and softness in each step.

In the morning I took a trip to another stable in the nearby to watch when a friend of mine participated at another training which gave me such an inspiration. The trainer (who I have ridden for a couple of years ago) talked a lot about the difference in training a horse which are already schooled compared to a green horse. His talk reminded me to take it cool and breathe, lately I´ve felt a bit of a rush in our training for no reason. I don´t know why I'm suddenly in such a rush to move forward to more difficult things, I guess it´s since things have gone really great lately. Then it´s easy to forget that you ride a young horse which needs time to built strength and to become comfortable in the movements.

My philosophy is to se to the individual of each horse, they need different amounts of time before they´re ready. As a rider it´s important for you to be reminded that all the hard work you put down now you´re gonna have use of in the future. But at the time it sometimes feels a bit boring to just repeat, repeat and repeat the basics and to be sharp in your own riding when it comes to plan which way to ride. I mean most of us can ride a 20 meter circle, but are your circle actually really 20 meters, are it really round, are your position correct and to benefit for your horse? The trainer I watched today is a real perfectionist, you always have to work hard on the basics and he means that´s where your future problems eventually will pop up.

So what I brought from this lesson was to stay cool and don´t rush, to lower my expectations (after all he's a young horse without experience) and to enjoy the small things we achieve. Maybe that´s why it worked so well today, no pressure of myself or the horse and I cleared the air with mom (she´s also my trainer) last training so we where at the same page today. I´m gonna tell you more about having your parent as an instructor another time.

Tonight´s magical feeling from our canter is something I´m gonna remember forever, that´s one of thoose moments you live for as a rider!

Welcome!

I'm glad that you found your way here and wish you welcome to my blog and my life.

I´m a 25 year old horse owner and rider who have a passion for everything in life that includes horses. I have been a horse owner for about fifteen years and have been working as a riding instructor for about six years. For the moment I own a 7-year old Palomino gelding named Scarto since about a years ago.

By the time i bought him he had never be ridden dressage or jumped, all he knew was to be ridden in the forest in walk, trot and something that should look like canter. When i bought him he was really thin and in not a especially nice condition, so this last year he started with just eating to put on some weight. Last autumn we started to work on his strength, flexibility and condition which we still work with. In this last year he have actually grown a bit as well, even though he was 6-years old when i bought him he needed some time to totally grown into his own body.

In the beginning most people thought I have bought a pony, they still did think that in the autumn and early winter but today no one should say he´s a pony anymore. It´s been an amazing ride we experienced together this last year and I would never change it no matter how many hard days it have included.

There´s a lot to tell about us and my life, but it´s to much to tell in just one post so I´m gonna tell you about it over a couple of posts. My thought is to as well write about some news that come up in our lifestyle as riders, I´m also gonna talk a bit about other subjects which I find interesting.

Are there anything special you wish me to write about, might some facts or just my own opionom about the subject?