And Another Update to the Blog..

fantastic as ever Tierra
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Ty
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p.s. you all have about an hour to get up the viewing stats on my page! :P Im trying to convince my OH that it gets enough traffic to justify him making me a site rather than just using a freeblog! :P
 
Ïm currently sat watching show jumping commentated by a swedish lady.

I should have waited with the blog and tried to do a phonetic transcript of how this sounds to a brit
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Aaaaaaah! Weeeeliam WHITEaker og Arghrielllle
No! hest hest! mikke mikke fine!
Mmmm!
Belle gistof weeeeliam


No clue what shes saying mind

Incidently, a belgian girl just entered on the most stunning gre. Hes a bit chunkier than most warmbloods and has quite a long mane. Hes almost the build of a heavier set fresian.
 
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Incidently, a belgian girl just entered on the most stunning gre. Hes a bit chunkier than most warmbloods and has quite a long mane. Hes almost the build of a heavier set fresian.

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Could that be Levisto Z? He's quite an eye catcher
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Great blog entry - I popped your stats up
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I can see it now...'

"Dear Mr Melchior,

Im writing to place the order of 1 x Levisto Z. If there is any chance of stretching the genes to make him a bit taller, I'd greatly appreciate it.

p.s. Do you take paypal????
 
What is the 'horse' facebook you keep mentioning. I joined something similar a while back called Equestrian Life but I've never been able to access it.
 
You must put Gizmo's picture on the 'My cat hates you site' - he will fit in fine with all the other 'evil' felines lurking on there
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Oh... great blog by the way - first time I've read it.
 
Tierra, I've recently joined this site and have just been reading your blogs, they're really well written and very funny, thanks for sharing
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You mention air filled saddles in your last blog, would you recommend them? Do you know of anywhere in the UK that allows a trial? I think one of mine would benefit from different saddling, but I'm at a bit of a loss as to where to start as she already has quite an expensive one.
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Mine is the wow saddle, which can be found:-

http://www.wowsaddles.com/

Initially you have a one of their saddlers come out to let you try them. Usually these last quite some time as they adjust the saddle to you when you ride to ensure you get the correct feeling.

With my first, I then placed an order, paid a 10% deposit and received the saddle about 6 weeks later. The balance didnt then have to be paid until 2 weeks later and the deal was that if i didnt like it, it went back.

Im told theres some of the saddlers that let you trial them for a week but ive never needed to do this.

They arent cheap. But they are fully adjustable an infinite amount of times so once you have them, you can accommodate for any shape changes your horse makes.

I love mine
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Wouldnt be without it
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That's very interesting and great info, thank you. I i'll phone Wow today. I guess I may well have a Stübben D up for sale soon!

BTW, I was delighted to read your thoughts on rollkur
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Oooooh someone who actually read the more serious stuff (aside from my OH!).

The rollkur sections needs quite a bit of work yet, but its rather a massive undertaking to present what exactly it does to the horse's back and neck. Hence I kind of stuck the first bits up and ive still got to tackle the physiological side of it.

The site itself is something ive wanted to do for a while since im not teaching anymore... and its meant to be a site dedicated to more traditional training methods; it just sort of got side tracked by the blog being quite popular :P
 
Would have been rude to not look round whilst I was there and commenting on the rest of the furnishings was imperative
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I don't know what your thoughts are, but it seems to me that more and more people are becoming more interested in the classical way of schooling, with an emphasis on trying new things to create harmony, rather than control. Does that make sense? Either way, good job on your undertaking.
 
I think thanks to a few strong advocats of the more traditional methods, people are becoming more aware of them. This is somewhat ironic since these methods were the primary way of training horses before ways such as rollkur became more popular (rollkur in its form has been around a very long time might i add but it wasn't used as commonly as it appears to be now)

I think part of the issue is that in someway, traditional methods or classical methods are portrayed as something that only the very talented can use. Im not sure why this has happened... perhaps its the result of too many very long winded dressage books preaching the more classical ways and its put the average rider off.

Perhaps its simply a sign of the times that people expect results faster now. Theres no willingness to spend years training a horse, everything has to happen there and then/

My eyes were really opened after spending a number of years on top dressage yards; both as a groom and a livery. I was attracted to dressage as it seemed such an art! It was like dancing on horse back.

The reality was one of straps tying heads in, hands tugging none stop, legs kicking none stop... its beauty was completely lost and it seemed brutal!
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Yet there were still a certain school of riders who didnt look like this. They preeched about lightness and subtlety and so on and everything they did looked effortless. Thats what pushed me back to the more classical route and i havent really gone back since. Im still amazed at how many people push and pull and tug their horses around. Im on a yard with some GP level riders again and sometimes its more like watching a wrestling match than watching an art
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I cant do that. I cant take an animal that i love so much and either strap it in with various bits of leather or fight with it til it just gives up.
 
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I think thanks to a few strong advocats of the more traditional methods, people are becoming more aware of them. This is somewhat ironic since these methods were the primary way of training horses before ways such as rollkur became more popular (rollkur in its form has been around a very long time might i add but it wasn't used as commonly as it appears to be now)

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No, I know about rollkur being used way back. As I understand, rollkur - or training over bent was used even as far back as the 17th Century
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And YES!!!!!!! When I was taught to ride, many, many years ago, being on the bit was never even mentioned, it was all about the horse relaxing the poll, not flexing it, or being forced to flex it. We were taught to sit up straight, to keep our hands quiet and to never, ever, pull or kick and certainly not at the same time!

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Perhaps its simply a sign of the times that people expect results faster now. Theres no willingness to spend years training a horse, everything has to happen there and then/

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I totally agree with this. Today's society is all about immediacy, not longevity. I wonder how much pressure comes from the owners wanting those results?
 
Oh a lot of it does.

I was based with my trainer in the UK. She was originally classically trained and then spent a number of years at goodwood with the lassetters. She is a lovely rider; very quiet, not confrontational and the horses adore her.

She became a very well known trainer in the area and is heavily involved in the BYRDS teams. As she's built up her clientel, she's also had a number of her more devoted students move their horses to livery with her.

She then got involved with sourcing horses for them and so on.

The pressure she is under to ensure those horses produce results is immense. Theyre very often brought over as 4 year olds. They all have novice owners who arent really capable of riding these horses let alone producing them. Most ride, perhaps once during the week and then want to compete at weekends.

We had a very frank discussion about rollkur on one occasion as she was my trainer also and i despise the practice. She put it very bluntly that for her, she had to ensure those horses would produce the results her liveries wanted at weekends. The only way she could do this was train them in a fashion whereby they were rideable, for those 5-10 minutes, by anyone. To acheieve that, she used rollkur.

It annoyed me that she used something she didnt believe in... and she didnt. Her own horses werent ridden in this way. She NEVER suggested i tried it with mine. On the other hand, it was her livelyhood.

Yep rollkur has been around from way way back although the hype about it started in the 80s.

Incidently, the same trainer once told me one day that for her to compete at GP dressager (which she did, and shes represented the UK many times as a YR and one of her YRs now is perhaps one of the biggest names in junior dressage), all it required was for her to know how to kick and pull at the correct times.
 
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Incidently, the same trainer once told me one day that for her to compete at GP dressager (which she did, and shes represented the UK many times as a YR and one of her YRs now is perhaps one of the biggest names in junior dressage), all it required was for her to know how to kick and pull at the correct times.

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Bloody hell.
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Fascinating stuff, Tierra, I'm learning an awful lot from you. I hope there's lots of young riders in your yard to learn from you, too.
 
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