The last little bit has been really busy. My friend Sara is here visiting untill the 30th and her parents are also here for a visit. They’re like my second family so it was nice to see some familiar faces from home. Sara has a stallion over here so we have been traveling back and fourth between where her horse is and Anky’s. It’s about a 40 minute drive… nothing we aren’t use to coming from Vancouver.
Training has been great over the last little bit. We’ve been working on every little thing and preparing different training methods while Anky is away in Kentucky. We talked over different scenarios, if I run into trouble with Vitall becoming to slow or against me. Anky just said to me “it’s all in the speed control”. If he is not coming soft, then check if he is forward enough and go back to basic transitions – forward and back – then the softness and lightness will come. Sometimes I get a bit stuck on making him more supple and forget to check my speed control. I have to remember SPEED CONTROL is the key to everything.
This past Friday I also went and rode another int 1 practice test in Uden where the judge records the comments on video. This time it went a bit more smoothly and I didn’t have to think about where I was going so much. The Zig Zag was much more controlled this time. The difficulties are still with the walk. He got a bit to slow and he still struggles with his balance but it all comes with strength and time. There where no major mistakes, which was nice. Overall I was pleased. I’m planning to go over to the riding school in Uden and just ride the test without the judge. I want to keep the momentum going by taking him somewhere else to go through the test like it was show so it becomes second nature. It’s one thing doing bits of the test, putting it all together is important and difficutl. Vitall needs to become stronger since has a hard time keeping his rhythm and balance.
I mentioned before that I was going to go watch the team training before the Dutch team left for WEG. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to go because it was a closed training session. I also didn’t make it to the horse event as the weather was just terrible, pouring rain. I opted out of getting soaked but hopefully I’ll catch it next year.
Over the next 10 days it will be a bit slower here since Anky is at WEG. I will continue to work on things on my own, I don’t want to slow my training down too much because Vitall is so fit but I will take a few more days in the forest with him. Then the rest of time Sara and I will be adventuring around looking at horses. It is always exciting going and checking out different horses and barns. You get to see and learn so much.
The picture is with me and Whiz before he left for Kentucky and Oslo Vitall and I enjoying some afternoon sunshine on a fall day.
