Fyrsta frumtamningakeppni á Íslandi / Playday in Iceland

Check these news at Hestafréttir: http://hestafrettir.is/Frettir/6255/

Email account broken

Unfortunately my webmail-system is not working today (hopefully not longer). So don't wonder if I am not answering your emails!!! You can also send urgent emails to sokkadis2002(at)gmx.de

Baga tölting

Video-Cut from yesterday.

One week later

Now life is coming back to me slowly. The first time I only could cry, hate everything around me and don't wanted to spend my time with Baga. She gave her best but she wasn't exactly what I desired. I don't wanted to feel joy and fun and was not listening to music or being glad with the shining sun.

On Sunday I drove to the Seven-Gate-Ranch to take pictures of the cutting clinic and there were too many friends and too much happiness that I could not stay in my sad mood. Roughly speaking I got my smile back during this weekend. But bad moments are still coming and going. Every day.

Today I had a good day with Baga. Actually I also had a good time yesterday because Klaus came to me after work and gave me a riding-lesson. Of course that was brilliant! He helped us a lot and I have some homework to do now. Of course I don't wanted to do the same like yesterday with Baga although I was so excited to exam the new stuff so I decided only to ride with bridle but bareback. Good decision. It was fantastic. I only wanted to ride some circles of slow trot (jog) in a good posture. Baga had different ideas but followed my instructions. I only needed to restart the engine from time to time. Then I noticed how good it felt to ride this trot. I never thought I could fall of her - it was easy like walk. Sometimes the trot felt very different to other steps and I wondered: is that jog? (Foto vom Basiskurs)

I called Bea and Kira to have a look at Bagas legs and started a new round. And in fact they told me that Baga is always tölting if I ask her for very slow trot. Only few steps. But everytime again. Walk - Tölt - Trot - Tölt - Walk. Of course I had no cameras with me in this great moment so I only can tell you this. The greatest thing ever: to find the tölt through not trying to tölt :o) And I not even used the reins. They were hanging down with a lot of slack...

Rest in peace my darling!

SSSól has gone. With her my heart and soul. By mischance she was caught in the hayrack. After she could be rescued all her muscles in the back were damaged. We tried a whole day to help her but after knowing that she would never ever be able to walk again, I decided to put her to sleep.

Reining Training :o)

On Sunday I had a great riding-session with Baga. It seems as if she really wants to be a reining-pony anytime :o) Here you can see a video of us: It shows a left turn, strike to canter from walk and direct stop: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bz7a9AazigY
The second one shows us trotting a slalom and striking to canter: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LuTKt-QlF7g
Everything worked very fine and Baga listened great to my focus! Now we need more to work on transitions between different gaits and not only direct stops ;o)

Riding clinic

On Friday I arrived at the Seven-Gate-Ranch and took some pictures of the people who had riding-lessons with Klaus. I also took Baga for a small ride but can not remember what exactly we did. Only some unspectacular thing ;o) Later we tried some trail-obstacles but I noticed that they are very difficult even though they're looking easy.
On Saturday we started the clinic with the real base: leading, mounting, approaching only with weight and showing the direction, start at a trot, making stops, going backwards. I decided to try the tölt-saddle and natural hackamore for this and it worked very fine (see the pictures below)! We (8 people) were splitted into 3 groups so I always had the chance to see how the other were doing and took many pictures of them.
The second lesson was mainly about leg-yielding (Schenkelweichen). First on a fence, then in slalom around some pylons or through riding small circles around the pylons. And the more qualified riders could also do it in trot (I'm not one of those :o) But Baga and me worked hard and there was some progress to see. The most important thing is that I keep all in my mind and can go on with it at home. This was just the end of our lessons on Saturday but in a good second I tried to ride some canter. I had avoided to do it since last October. Luckily it worked but only for few steps. Then Klaus came to me and took Baga for a small demonstration ride :o) It was really great to see him riding canter in both directions, asking her for leg-yielding, stops and spins. Everything worked great!!! So here you can see Klaus and Baga:

Later he told me what a wonderful horse she is and that he had a lot of fun! What a proud horse-owner I am now!!!!
On Sunday it was damned cold so I took all the clothes I could find around me. Later I even changed the helmet against a warm cap. We were very lucky that the rain changed into hard wind and we really stayed dry the rest of the day.
The first lesson on Sunday was about responsiveness and going on the bit so I repeated the practices from Saturday but asked more for collection and it worked from time to time. I didn't expected to do everything perfect at the first try but I noticed that everything what we learned the day before was easier than ever earlier! Yeah, we got it ;o)
Then we started cantering! Klaus explained every step in his naturally easy but funny way and then we should try it by ourselves. I had no idea if it would work or Baga start bucking like often before but she didn't. We striked off at the canter from walk and it was brilliant. We cantered two circles with slack in the reins and it felt as if we never did anything else!!! Outside of the riding-ground all my friends were clapping and cheering because they knew about my canter-problem. We tried it again and again and it worked very very fine. Unfortunately I also wanted to canter the other direction but we failed. Now I know which side is our bad one and will work on an improvement ;o)
The other riders also learned to ride counter-bends but my brain was too full to understand what to do so I decided to be happy with the things I got. If I have more prcatise with cantering and don't always think "Now I have to canter..." then we can think about more complex lessons like counter-bends! At the end we learned how to turn the forehand and the hindquarters and it was no problem to do it. Here you can find the pictures of the weekend: http://skinfaxa.de/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=18668
Now I have to hurry....bye bye.

Coming soon...

Of course the riding clinic was great but I had no time to blog until now because I am still uploading the pictures. Soon I will write a full report for you. Here you can see one picture of us with natural hackamore:

Baga drove away.

During the weekend were I working with Baga on the trailer to prepare her for yesterday. Klaus came to pick her up for the riding clinic which is planned for the weekend. First Baga had to find out that this trailer is not different to Teresa's one and then she walked on it. After some minutes Baga was ready to go ;o)
I think nobody of you know how bad Baga liked the trailer before but now we attained the goal!!!
Klaus sent me an email that Baga arrived well and started to eat her hey immediately. So, I know she is fine. Today I have to manage a visit to the dentist and then I can drive to Baga tommorrow to spend a whole weekend with her and learning a lot to progress in our relationship ;o)
Here you also get an actual pic of SSSól (and Mýsla):

Official level 1 graduate!!!

Sabine-
Thank you very much for your On Line audition. The assessment team has viewed your audition and it was a pleasure. We appreciate the opportunity to be a part of your horsemanship journey. Congratulations! You are now officially a level 1 graduate! Your on line savvy is level 1++!! This means that you are well on your way to level 2! Now it is time to start having some fun! You have the basics down "Pat". You and your horse are now ready to start playing on longer lines and developing more and more positive reflexes. Thanks again for your dedication to your horse and to the Parelli program. We look forward to viewing your future success. Have fun and keep it natural!

As you can see I received my assessment from the Parelli Centre yesterday. Now I am unbelievable happy and looking forward to the level 2 challenge! Thank you Baga for playing with me and being such a great friend, thank you Pat & Linda for creating this program, thank you Klaus for always having an answer to my questions and thank you Christiane for waking me up ;o)

Small puzzle: What gait is this? It's supposed to be trot but it looks so pace-like.