What an amazing weekend!
Me, Philipp and Fifi spent an inspiring weekend in Graz to take part to the Dannish academic riding master, Bent Branderup's clinic. We did not take horses with us, but got a lot by listening the theory and watching the lessons.
I, as a woman enjoyed not only the beautifull and light riding, but also the gorgeous curbs, barock saddles and saddle cloths....someone is going to do some shopping....
It was all about relaxation, streching the neck and topline, flexion, slow work in all the spaces in shoulder-in, travers, renvers and piruet. Some piaffer, plie (continuous slight shoulder-in), all of this written with reins in one hand only. Harmonous, easy and light, light, light.
We could see horses on different levels, breed and age, all worked with same principles. The beginners with cavesson and curb, reins in two hands; more advanced only with the curb, reins in the left hand. Right hand holding a wooden whip carried upside-down in front of your upper body.
My favorite horse was a criollo, worked classically over five months during wich time he has practically started to fly.
We also saw some in-hand work in walk to teach a horse to strech down with walking in plie and flexing his neck inside around the two first vertebraes. Academic riding uses a lot of working the horse from the ground. Branderup works with young horses like that over one year period before sitting on them. He makes them soft and relaxed, teaches them the aids and prepaires them like this for the future work.
Nothing is forced. There is no painfull, stiff muscles. It all works according to the old masters as an art. As I said, beeeaaauuuutiiifuuullll....
I hope to put some videos up later.
I just wish that someone would have warned me that Austria is not always about skiing and I would have left my moonboots home. They looked quite ridiculous in +15 c. But who cares? It is always worth to sweat if you can see Bent Branderup.
måndag 25 februari 2008
måndag 11 februari 2008
Hey dude, what ya doin' ?
I saw you* yesterday and the day before.
You look like you were going to war instead of riding. Equipped with half a mile spurs stolen from John Wayne and all those side reins...I had to look twice just to be sure that you were NOT going to perform some kind of stunt or marionet show with all that material. I mean, my mum can dry whole familys laundry with less ropes than you have on your horse.
Tell me what's the deal with it. First you tie the horses head down and hang in the reins. That means for the horse: "stop". Then you push and kick to make him move. How the poor horse should know what to do? And dont come to me with explanation about how you are "collecting" the horse, cause collection has nothing to do with pulling from the reins.
The horse has all the weight on your hand, behind legs dragging after and you just keep going cause "the horse just has to do this".
And if he is not, you start sawing his head right-left-right-left.
Is this a horror show, cause I wanna go out!
Leave the ropes. Its not even a short cut cause it puts you out from the right way. Leave the spurs untill your horse works collected. A horse can feel a fly touching his skin, why would he not feel your leg touching him slightly?
Just make it easy for you and your horse. Legs without hands, hands without legs. One aid at the time.
Legs-forward, reins-stop. Voilá!
Horse starts working "in the right form"or "on the bit" when he easily reacts to your aids. When he thinks forward, moves in a right tact. DO NOT run, but is active behind. He can relax his back muscles and tighten the abdominal muscles and reach the inside behind leg under his belly.
And .... a secret: He can flex his neck just around the two frist vertebraes laterally. Make a small rotation between the first and second, pointing the nose a bit sideways. So, NO pulling backwards. Other hand allways still and soft, no sawing. He will be light to your hand and CARRY himself.
So, flexibility is the key for lightness. From behind, over the back, towards the hand.
Now.... this could be a start of a beautifull relationship. :)
* Yes, ofcourse this "you" in this blog is an imaginary person and no-one in my stable. So, all of you there can just relax and continue pulling and kicking your horses with good feeling for the rest of your life.
You look like you were going to war instead of riding. Equipped with half a mile spurs stolen from John Wayne and all those side reins...I had to look twice just to be sure that you were NOT going to perform some kind of stunt or marionet show with all that material. I mean, my mum can dry whole familys laundry with less ropes than you have on your horse.
Tell me what's the deal with it. First you tie the horses head down and hang in the reins. That means for the horse: "stop". Then you push and kick to make him move. How the poor horse should know what to do? And dont come to me with explanation about how you are "collecting" the horse, cause collection has nothing to do with pulling from the reins.
The horse has all the weight on your hand, behind legs dragging after and you just keep going cause "the horse just has to do this".
And if he is not, you start sawing his head right-left-right-left.
Is this a horror show, cause I wanna go out!
Leave the ropes. Its not even a short cut cause it puts you out from the right way. Leave the spurs untill your horse works collected. A horse can feel a fly touching his skin, why would he not feel your leg touching him slightly?
Just make it easy for you and your horse. Legs without hands, hands without legs. One aid at the time.
Legs-forward, reins-stop. Voilá!
Horse starts working "in the right form"or "on the bit" when he easily reacts to your aids. When he thinks forward, moves in a right tact. DO NOT run, but is active behind. He can relax his back muscles and tighten the abdominal muscles and reach the inside behind leg under his belly.
And .... a secret: He can flex his neck just around the two frist vertebraes laterally. Make a small rotation between the first and second, pointing the nose a bit sideways. So, NO pulling backwards. Other hand allways still and soft, no sawing. He will be light to your hand and CARRY himself.
So, flexibility is the key for lightness. From behind, over the back, towards the hand.
Now.... this could be a start of a beautifull relationship. :)
* Yes, ofcourse this "you" in this blog is an imaginary person and no-one in my stable. So, all of you there can just relax and continue pulling and kicking your horses with good feeling for the rest of your life.
lördag 2 februari 2008
A real "Dear diary" moments....
Ooh, what kind of couple of weeks....
1. Our horses moved to a new stable.
No more early mornings, badly slept nights listening if there are problems. No more fighting with grooms, who do not come/get drunk/ try to kill them self/ give 5 liters feedstuff instead of 5 dl/get insulted if I ask them to sweep the floor etc. and drive this old lady maaaaaaddddd and more happy to do everything by myself.
No more mucking out , turning out and in. Million steps in the rain, wind, snow, sun. Millions and millions balls of shit.
Now, do not get me wrong. I have worked with horses all my life and I love it. I love shit. But ain't it nice to just go to stable and ride? Spend time with the horse, train some new tricks, constentrate to ride and all this in an inside hall with no ice or mud? Wow, I am in heaven.
2. Heather Moffet from Enlightened equitation from UK visited us. (Check the website from my first mailing.)
We spend a nice evening in the Xenophia show, had a quick "hello" for the Borso girls, spend a long and interesting dinner talking about classical riding with the always so cute Philipp Sholtz, who knows the La Guerniere by heart. Praised the Hungarian Lipizzan horse and got both in such an awfull flu that Heather had to fly early back to UK.:(
She will be back in Mars. Anybody interested to join us, let me know.
I want to propose a toats:
To coldrex, anti-biotics, echinea dropps and all the pain killers in the world. To classical dressage, treeless saddles and my dear stallion Fantom, who always placed his shit balls in a nice pile in one place.
Dear diary, I'm done.
1. Our horses moved to a new stable.
No more early mornings, badly slept nights listening if there are problems. No more fighting with grooms, who do not come/get drunk/ try to kill them self/ give 5 liters feedstuff instead of 5 dl/get insulted if I ask them to sweep the floor etc. and drive this old lady maaaaaaddddd and more happy to do everything by myself.
No more mucking out , turning out and in. Million steps in the rain, wind, snow, sun. Millions and millions balls of shit.
Now, do not get me wrong. I have worked with horses all my life and I love it. I love shit. But ain't it nice to just go to stable and ride? Spend time with the horse, train some new tricks, constentrate to ride and all this in an inside hall with no ice or mud? Wow, I am in heaven.
2. Heather Moffet from Enlightened equitation from UK visited us. (Check the website from my first mailing.)
We spend a nice evening in the Xenophia show, had a quick "hello" for the Borso girls, spend a long and interesting dinner talking about classical riding with the always so cute Philipp Sholtz, who knows the La Guerniere by heart. Praised the Hungarian Lipizzan horse and got both in such an awfull flu that Heather had to fly early back to UK.:(
She will be back in Mars. Anybody interested to join us, let me know.
I want to propose a toats:
To coldrex, anti-biotics, echinea dropps and all the pain killers in the world. To classical dressage, treeless saddles and my dear stallion Fantom, who always placed his shit balls in a nice pile in one place.
Dear diary, I'm done.
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