Thunderstorm, Final Copa del Rey (Barcelona versus Real Madrid - Spain in severe concentration) and guess what am I doing..
Hagge got the day off yesterday so he could recover from his 'yoga-sessions' of stretching and bending. Today I had smooth transitions between walk and trot, jippie! Little by little, there is alot to get through, puh, here we go again, but H is up for it and so am. I just love to feel how the movement gets more and more fluid and you get smooth happy-horse underneath you, lovely! Donoso got a shorter workout, he likes 'pingy' sessions i.e many different forms in different tempos mixed with some stretching which is compulsory every day. Not many horses can be ridden in this way, most either get too hot, floppy or nervous. Donut's energy can be lifted and lowered as you wish, you can change his tempo up and down, change quickly between forms, vary intensity of collection, the neck high or low etc. He has a very big meny, like a buffét, you just have to be very hungry to get through it all!
Beautiful Halagador in action!
   

 

         
           
Start chilling out in paddock
 

  
Bettys boyfriend 'Chupito'
 

Ok, so here it is in it's super long format, you can definitely see how his day-form changes, his energy was on top the first day and then it slowly drops and the work-out gets more and more heavy, for both of us!  We arrived on the wednesday, the Morfology was on the thursday and the Funcionalidad was not until the sunday. For the ridden test the horses has to be presented in a up-tempo and do walk, trot and canter extentions.
Festivo is slowly growing into his big body and maturing, physically there is a big difference from SICAB. In this competiton he entered the adult section with 7 year old horses and older although he is only 6,5 years old. He is still only really becoming a grand horse!

Happy Easter to you all!

http://youtu.be/c6mbGegZTz4 

Today I started with Start. He is now putting on weight again because in this place they have lovely food, alittle bit too lovely, hmm, tomorrow I will have to give strict orders because we are here to get INTO shape, not OUT of shape. We are now doing alot of cantertraining with good old 'jumping seat' (light seat? what's the word in english for standing up in stirrups?) so he can really lift back and do some longruns in the huge delicious indoor that we all adore!  Then for Donut, oh, Donut is pulling out the cards in his sleeves and I let him show me what he wants to do which today was passage. I have been doing short diagonals in front of mirror which is confirming that changes to the right are always clean and the left ones if I prepare them correctly. Love that mirror. Then some reward longrun canter stretching and he was happy with himself. Then Hagge knew it was his turn and he called me to make sure I had not forgotten!     Sweety. How could I forget. The macho-school has made him good, he is very confident in himself and his body looks toned, like he's been to the gym and got some nice biceps! This weekend I lounged him to see how he moves and he walked around neck held high and we did his spanish walk. He is extremely free in the shoulders and his normal walk is also super. He looks gorgeous! Right hindleg is a little stiff and doesn't want to come in and under so right now I am doing gymnastics to free back and loosen up everything that has been alittle too tightened from the 'gym'. He has lost his suspended trotextentions and transitions but they will be there when he is loose in his body again. So we did that and suddenly he stopped because he wanted to show me his spanish walk. Halagador is that kind of horse that knows he is beautiful and has always been the big black special beauty with alot of presence, but that's not enough for him, so now when he knows how to do a good spanish walk he is super happy and of course he wants to show it! Good intelligent horses has to be trained so they can express themselves, otherwise they get sad.
Javier has made a video of me and Festivo training in FIECVAL, it came out very long and I don't want to bore you with all those laps of trot and canter so he will have to edit it before I hang it up on youtube. Unfortunately I do not have any footage from the acutal competition, Javier's nerves did not make that activity.. There was a tv-team but I have not been able to locate the footage. Today I was sent these news on Festivo's bronze in EU-Championships from swedish horsemagazine www.tidningenridsport.se
Goodnight!
  

I just recieved these from our hungarian friends Mrs Beata and Mr Gyula Dallos, you will be able to follow them here on their journey to international level, enjoy!
       

Here's Javier's latest, I got to know this wonderful black guy and his lovely family, now they are selling their fourlegged family-member and they told me they want a nice person that will take good care of him, so who will be the lucky new owner to this classy black beauty!? 
Nr 526

Just recieved this, finally he has arrived to sunny Malaysia, his happy new owner was there to meet this beautiful pure carthusian for the first time, she says she is totally in love! Wishing you all the best Erin!
 

Today I am super happy because my beautiful Halagador is back! Love, love love, happy, happy, happy!! I have missed him alot but he looks great so I can see he has had a fun time doing macho-stuff. I was not going to ride him today as it was his first day but I couldn't wait to feel him, I love this horse, he is my superspecial! I know I am so totally spoiled with the horses I have, I know, but I am not going to justify that I have them, just say I am very very greatful and that they make me very very happy! You think one of these would be enough but no, they are all so different to ride and in their personlities, why do people have 4 children and not just one!? Same, same. My horses are inspiration in so many different ways, Halagador's personality is like a magician, he surprises you delightfully, like when he beautifully sailed over the fence in Jade without a headcollar! He has a sensitive personality, he can groan so loud it is almost embarrassing when you ride him, when he jumps he is more like a black panther than a horse because you cannot hear him move. He is an artist and he likes to show off, he is well aware of everything that is around him but he would never loose himself over a mare or let anything distract him from his show. And he is very proud over his new spanish walk!

Anyway, there will be more about 'Hagge' as we go along, here is our black pearl yesterday.
Halagador Cen
 

We have had a summer weekend mowing the lawn, having coffee on the terrass and even a litte sunbathing! On the saturday I was either superattacked by some pollenallergy or was it a fatigue stressreaction or perhaps some bug that did me in? I have no idea but I was totally out, absolutely no energy whatsoever. Did not become 'alive' until today in the afternoon and it is probably no surprise that I ended up in stables training my horses, the best medicine for ALL conditions! Today they went on the pessoa/long-reins, excellent work for collection, topline and stretching backs.
Some more photos of Donut training last friday. As always it is Javier who takes all our pictures, I think he is real good at catching the artistic quality and personality!
Donoso VII in canter pirouettes
   
It's all about happy riding!

  
And this is Donoso's first offspring, our elegant 1 year old PRE lady Donita VIK!
 
Donita with her extra-mummy Aniara
 

She got her dad's super movements and personality, and her mums female elegance!
 
   
  
And I have had good news from Bonnie and her Mini-Totilas happily training in Florida, they are all outraged about his movement, she will have so much fun with him! Look forward to pictures Bonnie. And our darling Talmud is happy under the palmtrees in California, they are very impressed by him and take excellent care of him too.
Happy new spring-week everyone!