Techniques
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Natural hoofcare workshop in Crete
Hello again! Andrea-Patrizia Wiener-Angelakis invites us to her farm “With Horses Here and Now”, where she will deliver a two-day seminar on looking after the equine foot. The course will take place between from 14 to 15 October 2017 and here follows the announcement: “Every horse comes into this world healthy and barefoot with the potential to follow the herd from day one into rocky trails and harsh grounds for many, many miles. So why is that your horse has to wear metal shoes? Usually, we put shoes on our horses when they become of age to be ridden or to start working. This happens out of habit or out…
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Event: Horsemanship experiential workshop “You Can Do That Too” in Crete
Who is up for learning in Crete this summer? There is a notable opportunity for those of you who want to spend some of their summertime developing their horsemanship skills. The farm “With Horses Here and Now” is hosting this summer the natural-horsemanship instructor from Australia Stavros Steve Vergis. The concept of the seminar Most of the problems that we face with equines derive from the fact that they don’t trust us, they don’t respect us or are afraid of us. To build an appropriate rapport with our horse, first of all we should follow some groundwork programme and once we have done that, follow our riding programme. We should…
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Beautiful music for dressage-to-music tests based on Harry Potter
The show season has begun and the web is full of resources, ideas and… dressage music! And so, I found on YouTube two lovely videos with dressage music from the Harry Potter theme. Apart from the beautiful music, these videos also provide suggestions for your test. The authors claim that they have 15 years of experience in British dressage and all their dressage music is recorded in a professional studio. Below are the videos. What do you think of the programmes they suggest? If Harry Potter inspires you, why not buying “The Compete Harry Potter Film Music Collection”, played by The Prague Philarmonic Orchestra?
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Move, lazy horse!
I don’t know about you, but I have been loads of times on the back of a horse that won’t move. Not even an inch! The problem I face is, that eventually the whip has to land on someone’s bum and I can’t stand it. This happens especially at home. And it’s so frustrating. I still remember Pamelos bearing the pain of my new whip. An ex-racehorse, he might be used to it, but I could feel he was in pain. And still he wouldn’t move. I was so upset. Upset for the horse and disappointed with myself as a rider. I felt both as a bitch and a loser.…
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Steering a horse using your seat
As I have written in previous posts, I can’t get why I need to try to push a 600kg beast with my lower leg and pull the reign towards the same direction. I can’t do it and it feels abnormal to me. At home, I began to learn to use my body, in general, to make the horse go where I want him to go.And if I needed to use my leg as well, I would use it when I wanted to steer a bit sharply. The sharper the turn, the sharper the push, which would be made with the leg which is on the side I want to travel towards.…
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Researching dressage
If you read this blog regularly, you probably have realised the preference I have to dressage. I like watching Grand Prix videos and also I love groundwork in the arena. Recently I learned how to stay on in sitting trot and how to halt from a trot and I adored it. From the first week of my equestrian journey I have been increasingly curious about the discipline. How do the horses end up to doing such graceful movements? How do the riders make them move like this and what does it take to achieve it? With the time I understood that dressage has specific levels, specific rules that must be…