Human effect

Everyone can see a difference in these two sets of photos. What makes it happen? Set 1 is all about what we love and why we admire horses. Set 2 is what we make of them.

Spirit. Freedom. Joie de vivre!

And what do we make of them? All I see in these photos below are horses that have given up, I see pain and sorrow in their eyes. They are nothing but soulless shells, spirit has left and only the body is there to serve humans like a machine.



I mean really, where do we go wrong? What is it in human nature that leads us so far from where I think most of us start our journey with horses?

Spending time

Yesterday Olga was very eager to do something. She practically dived in her halter when I came to ask her out.

First she wanted to go to the arena.


After a lot of rolling she was ready to go again.

"Come on, let's go already!"

She led me into the woods.


She was very happy to find a lot of different things to savor.


Whe had this much snow yesterday, today we got some more.

"HAPPY HOLIDAYS EVERYONE!"

Differently and "differently"

"My horse is stopping a lot. What should I do?"

Advice #1: You have to figure out if your horse is Whoa-type or Go-type and work on a way that is described on Parelli's "How to turn a living creature in to a machine, level 5"-manual.

Advice #2: Keep pushing, release when it moves. You cannot let it think it is in charge!

Advice #3: Lack of respect. Nothing that a few Join-ups in a round pen wouldn't fix!

Advice #4: Make it back up every time it stops. This should help because horses don't like backing up.

Advice #5: Yielding excercises.

This is from finnish forum called Toisinhevostelijat, it doesn't really translate but it's something like 'to be with horses, differently'.

No one is suggesting to listen what this horse has to say. Makes me a bit sad.

Trust

We had more snow on saturday :)

Now that I have sometimes climbed up on Olga's back, I haven't fully understood how much she already trusts me. I feel quite safe in there, when we are in our arena. I actually went for a short trail ride with her one time but we were not ready for that so we ended up walking with six feet on the ground most of that trip. But it was still ok, because I listened to Olga and my "gut feel" so nothing bad happened.

On saturday I was again riding, and actually we got our second-ever riding lesson from this lady "K" who owns the place where Olga lives. I like her style in teaching, and she lets me do my own thing.

First she asked me what is my next goal. I said I'd like it a lot if we could start building trust so that we can maybe some day go for a trail ride with others. We started with a kind of one hand stop, where the aim is to stop a horse only by moving my hand over her withers to the other side. Well Olga was very good at that. K told me that Olga is an excellent horse, really at ease but ready to do what I ask for.

Then I asked if K could ride Olga. I told her that there aren't many people I would let do that and so she got up there. Olga was tence. Really tence. She would not even walk, she was dancing in tölt, very nervous. K said she felt like sitting on a barrel full of gunpowder. After two rounds she still did not get Olga to relax and just walk, so she asked if I could walk with them. That way we convinced Olga that she did not have to worry and she was more at ease. After that, K told me to ride few laps. When I got up there, Olga turned to sniff my boot, then shook her head, and let out a sigh of relief. And we walked.

It sounds a lot worse than it was, of course I would've stopped it if Olga would seem to be terrified. K said it was an enlightening experience for her, that she now understands Olga a lot better, and that I should never let anyone else ride Olga again, that she clearly needs that bond of trust to be able to cope with it. She also told me that in her opinion, what I have done (or have NOT done, as I've taken things veeeeeryyyy slowly) with Olga in this past year has been exactly what she needs.

It was wonderful to hear. And it was wonderful to realize what we already got. Trust. Wow.

Good night, Olga!

Few summery pics of me and Olga :)

Video once again

This should be available even for those who are not members on Facebook. Nothing special here, I just think she is so cute :)