-
Improving the jump of a horse
I found on youtube this video, on which the lady shows how to make a horse -especially a young one- to jump more willingly. The lady has placed three obstacles in a small distance from each other, for the horse to have just enough room to jump.
-
Riding a zebra
While I was searching for nice horsey videos (again), I stumbled upon this video, which shows a lady training with a zebra. Now, I know that, without the stripes, zebra looks like a donkey. Is it possible to ride a zebra and even jump with it? Or is this just a painted donkey? Have you seen anything like that in real life?
-
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.…
-
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…
-
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…
-
Five Ground Exercises to Try with Your Horse – Horse Magazine
I found this article on Horse Magazine very interesting. What I understood from it as a beginner is that keeping a horse and maintaining its manners is hard work! The link is here