For Classical Enthusiasts - Some beautiful Pictures

Tierra

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Quick eye candy for any classical enthusiasts out there. Anja Beran is a trainer i became familiar with last year and i started prying a little into her work.

I hold her in extremely high regard and shes been doing a lot of work in attempting to bring classical methods to a forefront again.

I was googling in bed last night for some stuff and stumbled across her quite newly lanched website. What i did find were a number of stunning pictures of horses being worked on her yard which i thought some people might like to take a look at !
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The link is:-

http://p23513.typo3server.info/index.php?id=4&L=1

Enjoy
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Shes an absolutly amazing lady who deserves so much credit for attempting to publicise classical methods in a time where modern and more (imo) brutal methods are so popular.

For anyone interested in such training, id urge them to buy one of her books or dvds as the books particularly are superbly detailed about the application of correct aids and why the correct gymnasticising of the horse is the way forwards as opposed to the use of auxilary reins.

Im hoping to have the pleasure of staying with her for a while in 2008 with my horse and i absolutly cant wait. Shes so inspirational.
 
I was just thinking would be nice to go to a demo. I bet you cant wait
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let us know how you get on wont you?!

She looks so gentle yet effective from her photos.

You did recommend me to get a book, to which I shall as the ISBN No is on the website.

Hb
 
I will
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Im hoping to send jack to her for a couple of weeks and then join her for a few more weeks for some training which im really really looking forwards to.

Im quite fortunate in that shes considerably closer to where i am now than when i was in the UK so its all rather more viable than it used to be!
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Shes incredibly patient and gentle in her training methods, always allowing the horse to be a horse, to develop at his or her own pace and to keep the horse's physical well being at the fore front of her approach.

I also have to say that if we go ahead and build our own place next year, im so stealing her all weather enclosures idea! :P
 
Fabulous site, what caught my eye is that they all look so peaceful and relaxed, even when being asked to perform quite demanding movements, there is only one horse showing any signs of resistance - by classical standards I mean, in any other field of dressage it would be considered to be performing the movement.
 
She gives training yes.

ETS, you have to be able to take your own horse with you however as she doesnt have people riding hers. In addition, she prefers to know the horse in advance so the ideal is that the horse goes to her yard ahead of the rider arriving.
 
Absolutly! Whats more i adore the fact that the younger horses are shown working infront of the vertical, above the bit as they're being encouraged to engage the back end... shows without doubt the idea that the actual head carriage should fall into place when everything behind is working better.

Shes a very gifted lady
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You should take yourself down to heather moffett's in devon for a training holiday also! Thats where i was going to go but then we moved country and all that jazz
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Rather too far to take Jack now.

Heather and Anja have worked together quite a bit though and are very good friends.
 
Yes i do.

The problem with lunging with a bridle on is that you can inadvertently end up tugging at the horses mouth. This isnt always the handlers fault but a horse deciding to play or being exciteable on the lunge will frequently result in a jabbed mouth.

In addition to that, she argues that clipping the line to one snaffle ring will cause the bit to slide in the mouth and can result in it being pulled through and causing nasty injuries. Weaving it through both rings causes a rather nasty nutcracker effect which again, can hurt the horses mouth for no reason.

She argues that while working the horse on the lunge you have to be absolutly certain that you can not jab the horse or cause it any pain in the mouth at all as all of this will damage the ridden work as the horse will be defensive of his or her mouth.

She insists on using a cavesson instead of a head collar in that it does allow slightly more control by placing pressure on the nose.

99% of the times she doesn't lunge with a saddle on as she likes to see the horse moving without the tack and she wont use any kind of lunging aids so argues that the use of a saddle or roller isnt really needed
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Thank you, that makes a lot of sense.
I've always just used a cavesson, but it's one of those things I've done through habit (and laziness as less tack = quicker), without thinking about why.
I think I may have inadvertently been training my horse classically all this time! I just wish I could get the same results... .
 
You are right, less tack is faster and tbh, unless you are particularly keen to see how the horse works under his saddle or if you're planning on lunging with someone on... i find very little reason in lunging with tack unless you're wanting to use it to add gadgets
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I enjoy seeing how mine works from the ground, without a rider and with as little *stuff* on as possible as i think it always gives a good over view of how they are doing physically
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I lunge with a cavesson and no tack and I love to watch how my horse's back muscles/topline moves. I can become quite mesmerised watching how she moves unhindered. I doubt I'm doing anything classical though but it certainly makes me appreciate what goes on under the saddle more.
 
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