Direktlänk till inlägg 27 oktober 2012
Developing a systematic training method can be tricky. I don't use my head as much as my feeling when I am riding, one day's training is never the same as the next. But it is important to be systematic so I do reflect afterwards and before and each horse has a plan. This works for me and for my 'students'. When I help someone training their horse I use connection as the basis of the work. First I feel in the horse and then the person and last the pair. But we are all different and as many horses and riders there are as many ways there are. But this is also what makes this work so interesting and complex. I have had readers writing me and asking why I am training my horses myself without the help of a trainer. The reason is simply because I have not found anyone here that can tune in to the personal connection that is necessary for me personally, or to the way I like to train my horses. So I had to develop my own training method and do the best I can with help of videos and photos.
In Spain there has not been any professional education for horse trainers so everyone has had to develop their own way, or they have followed the way of a particular teacher (maestro). I have learned alot from observing riders training and competing their horses. But observing has not always been a positive experience. Some spanish riders train their horses out of authority from fear of the rider and controlling the animal in this way is very old fashioned and the opposite of my training philosophy. As long as the horse is dancing away in a nice piaffe and passage the rider being at times even brutal is excused. As you can probably imagine the horses trained in this way often get leasions because of too much pressure in relation to their capacity. I have seen horses looking terrified competing high levels of dressage, bloody flanks from whiplashes and attacked horses flying in a yes, spectacular trot. But to me this is not art nor is it sport. I am not for a whimsical training attitude, I do think being strict, disciplined and consequent is absolutely fundamental. But in Spain being rough and sometimes even brutal ok and not very criticized at all. On other hand it is not at all constructive to meet agression with agression. So I get on with my way and let other's get on with theirs. We are all responsable for what we do and in the long run the happy horse, trainer and student are the good examples.
Today I got a greeting from beautiful abundant hair-lady Donita VIK! (born 2010)
This is the girls today living the good life under the spanish sun and trees. The temps have dropped during the night so I tried their blankets on for first time and they were cool with them.
Baby black, a very playful little guy