My adventures
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Liebster Award
There’s some fun social idea going on, aiming at finding new interesting blogs and also get new visitors. So, thanks to therattiemama for nominating me! The rules: Thank the blogger who nominated you! Respond to his questions Ask 11 questions Nominate 11 bloggers with less than 200 followers to answer them Here are my responses to the questions I’ve been asked: What do you collect? Books, especially e-books. And riding equipment, when my budget permits. What is your favorite smell in the entire world? Two of them, if that’s OK. The first one is yasmin. The second one, which is more Mediterranean, is the smell of the thirsty soil during…
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Are horses more responsive than we think? Ben’s self-esteem
I don’t know how many times yet I will speak about last Wednesday’s lesson and exam at Trent Valley, but anyway, here is another story that proves horses’ responsiveness to humans in situations that have nothing to do with training, instructions and circles around the arena. So, we all had done our stuff and we were holding the horses until the next class arrived. The next class was 20 minutes late, therefore we had to hold the horses in the arena for just as long. I was holding Ben, whose winter coat had started falling already, plus he had not been groomed, or this is how it seemed to me.…
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Lesson gaffes!
Yesterday, after my exam and lesson, I found myself helping out with the new beginners’ class. These are students from the University of Nottingham who did not register with the club in September, hence they are newbies. So, I was holding Smartie, with whom I was walking and running at Laura’s instructions for one hour, as Smartie was being riden by a nervous student. I soon observed that Smartie was too energetic as well. As it was a beginners’ lesson, halting and walking were included in the instructions. On one of our halts, Smartie kept trotting. What the heck?! I asked Laura for help. “Well”, she said, “he keeps going because…
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Off we go to the equitation exam!
March 2015 has been an exciting month for me; I went to my first para dressage show, I am probably going to next week’s dressage show at Trent Valley, and today I had my first equitation exam. So, today I woke up quite excited. I had a healthy breakfast with yogurt, honey and oats, did my workout, got dressed (wearing that polo-neck blouse to keep myself nice and tall in the saddle), picked my whip and got out. No stress, just happiness and pleasant impatience. But this changed, as I went to the hall’s shop to grab some healthy snacks. The shopkeeper asked me whether I felt nervous. And then…
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My first horse show ever
Yesterday I attended the Winter Para Dressage Championships in Nottinghamshire, with other members of the University of Nottingham Riding Club. I had not attended a horse show before, so I had been excited for weeks! Thankfully, the weather was not so bad, and the road trip was pleasant. It’s always nice in the Nottingham countryside! When I see all this green and bushes, I wish I had a horse and keep riding and riding accross that beautiful scenery, for many, many hours. So, we arrived at View Valley in time for the show. We found out that this was the third and last day of the championships, which consisted of…
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Getting into the trot!
Those who follow my blog know it already; I suck at trotting. After 10 months of riding, my trot is not where it’s supposed to be. But today it just went right! Today I mounted on a bigger horse, Orlando. He’s a beautiful brown horse, maybe too big for me, but quite energetic and willing, hence a good opportunity for exercise. So, yeah, we were doing driving stuff with corners, poles and blocks, until Laura told us to trot! It was a disaster! I can say I got a bit panicked, when I realized that the stirrups were too long! So, although I was almost there, I couldn’t follow Orlando’s…