I have to say right in the beginning here that this was my dear darling husband's idea. ;)
Apparently I spent too much time in a particular Finnish horse forum writing replies on people's questions... He said:"Why don't you start writing a blog instead. That way other people can read your thoughts or advice on things." I pondered about it for a day and here I am.
A bit about me, but not too much!
I'm originally Finnish, but drifted away from the country of my forefathers and mothers quite some time ago now. Via the Netherlands and Scotland we ended up in Sweden, and at the moment reside in the countryside near Uppsala.
I have ridden horses since I was 9 years old. One of my earliest schoolbuddies had trotting horses at home (her father was a trainer), and I think it must have been her that got me curious about them and riding. Gosh, I do remember riding at her home on one of the trotters bareback(!) once; let me tell you, that was one interesting trot experience alright!
So, I went to the local ridingschool with my schoolbuddy and we quickly formed a small group with a couple other kids of approximately same age. We had fun mucking out, cleaning, feeding and other such chores, which we did for free of course. Oh and we did ride as well. I rode once a week, and sometimes went to the stables both days of the weekend. There were a couple of ponies, but mainly Finnhorses. Oh yes, lovely, sweet, smart and cunning Finnhorses! :D I should dedicate one separate post later on for this fabulous horse breed.
There was a break in my riding during my 'lukio' and university years. 'Lukio' is gymnasium or perhaps senior high school for anyone outside Finland. In any case, you will have to pass this 3-year school (or back then it was that long) for any chance on going on to university in Finland. In fact I started riding again only after about 10 year break. That was back in the Netherlands. And husband-to-be joined in the fun! I know, I am hugely lucky to have a man, who is interested in horses and riding as well. We started riding once a week in general group lessons.
After about 1 1/2 years into that we moved to Scotland and after some searching and trials, found two excellent ridingschools and started riding twice a week. However, we had to relearn to ride! Yes indeed, in the Netherlands we had learned to be quite hard handed with a chair seat... But through a couple fantastic teachers we readjusted our riding to smooth and supple hands with a proper seat. About a year into our Scottish residence I started feeling that I would really like my own horse. And a horse would not cost more than two riding lessons for two persons per week, I estimated. We saw two horses, and we got the second one. Best decision ever! Although, I have to hasten that the first one we saw was too small for both of us to start with, and furthermore she went up and fell over backwards taking one of her stable walls down with her before the owner had a chance to tack her up! Err, that was a clear 'No Way Jose' alright.
Jack was the perfect first horse ever! Enough temperament, but a genuine gentleman and willing to work for you. I'd say that here started our real horsemanship-journey. At first we worked with him alone doing just basic schooling, but quite soon we started getting tuition from a fabulous teacher who would come over to the stables and give private lessons. Without such a good teacher, we wouldn't have gotten ahead with Jack as much as we did. We continued with lessons until our move to Sweden a couple years back. Jack stayed behind and is being looked after by a great horsewoman, truly blessed that our old gentleman has such a good new mummy. After great deal of pondering the matter we decided that it was best for Jack to stay where he was, we did not want to put him through such a journey into unknown at his age.
Well, since Jack was getting older, I had been starting to think about getting another younger horse. And began dreaming of a Finnhorse. So, when the move to Sweden was finalised, I began to look for one. Difficult task, since we needed a bigger Finnhorse, and those happened to be scarce when I was looking. Fortunately the ridingschool owner from my childhood knew one for sale, I went to see him, and that was it. Big teddybear he was and still is! I cannot believe the luck we have had with our two horses. Although at the same breath I have to add that a lot of it is down to our handling of them. It is calm, nonviolent, fair, consistent and understandable to our horses. We always make sure that we are the ones on top of the pecking order.
Our teddybear Finnhorse is an ex-trotter with a fabulous pedigree for it as well. But he just had one gear during the races, so he was sold on to be a riding horse. Unfortunately the buyer could not train and ride him as she wished, due to personal reasons, so she decided to sell him on. And there I came in the picture. We rode our boy the first two years just normally as we did Jack. He was green, only been base-ridden the autumn before we got him, so he didn't know anything of bending or sideways-aids. So, it was all very new to him. This year I stumbled across a web page, which became very influential in how we train and ride him. This was Will Faerber's Art2Ride page. So, we started training him classically following Will's advice and blogs. One of the better decisions I've made.
Ok, not so much about myself.. ;) This is me, once I start writing, it is hard to stop!
Maybe some words in the end here about my blog and what I'm intending to write on it.
This maybe mainly about horses, horsemanship, riding and training. But I warn you, I will not stay strictly on those subjects. I love baking and sewing as well as gardening. I'm sure those topics will feature here as well! And we started to train our wee little Schapendoes doggy for tracking.
Here ends my first post. Thanks for reading! And since I'm multilingual, I shall now repeat all this in Finnish... ;)
After about 1 1/2 years into that we moved to Scotland and after some searching and trials, found two excellent ridingschools and started riding twice a week. However, we had to relearn to ride! Yes indeed, in the Netherlands we had learned to be quite hard handed with a chair seat... But through a couple fantastic teachers we readjusted our riding to smooth and supple hands with a proper seat. About a year into our Scottish residence I started feeling that I would really like my own horse. And a horse would not cost more than two riding lessons for two persons per week, I estimated. We saw two horses, and we got the second one. Best decision ever! Although, I have to hasten that the first one we saw was too small for both of us to start with, and furthermore she went up and fell over backwards taking one of her stable walls down with her before the owner had a chance to tack her up! Err, that was a clear 'No Way Jose' alright.
Jack was the perfect first horse ever! Enough temperament, but a genuine gentleman and willing to work for you. I'd say that here started our real horsemanship-journey. At first we worked with him alone doing just basic schooling, but quite soon we started getting tuition from a fabulous teacher who would come over to the stables and give private lessons. Without such a good teacher, we wouldn't have gotten ahead with Jack as much as we did. We continued with lessons until our move to Sweden a couple years back. Jack stayed behind and is being looked after by a great horsewoman, truly blessed that our old gentleman has such a good new mummy. After great deal of pondering the matter we decided that it was best for Jack to stay where he was, we did not want to put him through such a journey into unknown at his age.
Well, since Jack was getting older, I had been starting to think about getting another younger horse. And began dreaming of a Finnhorse. So, when the move to Sweden was finalised, I began to look for one. Difficult task, since we needed a bigger Finnhorse, and those happened to be scarce when I was looking. Fortunately the ridingschool owner from my childhood knew one for sale, I went to see him, and that was it. Big teddybear he was and still is! I cannot believe the luck we have had with our two horses. Although at the same breath I have to add that a lot of it is down to our handling of them. It is calm, nonviolent, fair, consistent and understandable to our horses. We always make sure that we are the ones on top of the pecking order.
Our teddybear Finnhorse is an ex-trotter with a fabulous pedigree for it as well. But he just had one gear during the races, so he was sold on to be a riding horse. Unfortunately the buyer could not train and ride him as she wished, due to personal reasons, so she decided to sell him on. And there I came in the picture. We rode our boy the first two years just normally as we did Jack. He was green, only been base-ridden the autumn before we got him, so he didn't know anything of bending or sideways-aids. So, it was all very new to him. This year I stumbled across a web page, which became very influential in how we train and ride him. This was Will Faerber's Art2Ride page. So, we started training him classically following Will's advice and blogs. One of the better decisions I've made.
Ok, not so much about myself.. ;) This is me, once I start writing, it is hard to stop!
Maybe some words in the end here about my blog and what I'm intending to write on it.
This maybe mainly about horses, horsemanship, riding and training. But I warn you, I will not stay strictly on those subjects. I love baking and sewing as well as gardening. I'm sure those topics will feature here as well! And we started to train our wee little Schapendoes doggy for tracking.
Here ends my first post. Thanks for reading! And since I'm multilingual, I shall now repeat all this in Finnish... ;)
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