Trakehner Pferde - C. Lehmann

Trakehner-Pferde - ein Gedicht von C. Lehmann

Trakehner-Pferde

„Gott schütze mich vor Feuer, Wasser, Wind- und Pferd`, die aus Trakehnen sind!“ So spricht mancher gute Reiter, kam er mit Trakehnern nicht recht weiter.


Was ist dies für eine Rasse,
für die einen Mangel, für die andern höchste Klasse?
Was lässt sich über Pferde sagen,
die man aus dem fernen Russland hergetragen?


Kaliningrad war einstmals Königsberg,
Trakehnerzucht ein schwierig Werk.
Einst nur die Pferde für das Militär,
nutzt man sie heut`für sehr viel mehr.


Im Krieg stand alles unter schlechtem Stern,
der heutige Erfolg, der war noch fern.
Die Flucht, die schafften nicht sehr viele Pferd`,
auch dann waren sie nur wenig wert.


Doch es ändern sich die Zeiten,
nun hat man sie sehr gern zum Reiten.
Polarkreis, Insgeheim und Donauwind,
die Namen doch recht eigentümlich sind.


Padparadschka und auch Distelzar,
sind schon im allgemeinen Deutsch sehr rar.
Schwalbe, Schwarze Schwalbe, Schwalbenflug,
hat zu Pferden auch nicht recht Bezug.


Steht ganz hinten in der Ahnenreihe „Tempelhüter“,
zeugt das dann von einem ganz besond`ren Blüter.
Liest man Kostolany im Papier,
ist dies Pferd ein sehr begehrtes Tier.


Drosselbart und alter Fritz,
sind bei Züchtern Namen - und kein Witz !
Von and`ren Pferden farblich nicht zu unterscheiden,
mag man den edlen Kopf sehr gerne leiden.


Beim Reiten gibt`s den grossen Frust,
hat der Traki heut` mal keine Lust.
Manchmal stur aus purer Langeweile,
läuft er nicht mal eine Meile.


So manches Ding erkennt kein Mensch, kein Pferd -
Ein Trakehner findet`s sehenswert.


Und willst Du Pferde stets verstehen,
dann nimm` Dir keinen aus Trakehnen!
Der Fachmann nennt es eigenwillig,
zahlt für`s Papier nicht gerade billig.


Und willst Du reiten ein Turnier,
dann hüte Dich vor Schleifen-Gier!
Beim Traki kann man niemals sagen,
wird er Dich heute durch die Prüfung tragen.


Denn will er`s auch, ist er der Sieger -
nicht selten auch ein Überflieger.
Und fehlt ihm mal die rechte Lust,
Du auf den letzten Platze musst.


Doch liegt es in den Genen schon von alters her,
den Zauber zu verstehen fällt sehr schwer:


Will dieses Ross Dich auserwählen,
so ist er für Dich da, kannst auf ihn zählen!
Bist Du mit einem solchen Pferd verbunden,
dann hast Du einen wahren Freund gefunden.


Sind denn des Elches Schaufeln in dem Brand,
so hat`s der Kenner längst erkannt:
Es ist die Weisheit dieser Erde -
Trakehner sind die bess`ren Pferde!

Backing Up From Z5 At Liberty

We are all set for our liberty audition. The only thing that can be a bit tricky is going to the right at liberty on a circle. It´s not that she doesn´t know how to do it of course, it´s more her cute stubborness.
Change of direction is no problem though, the only thing is that she changes back to the left by herself again. She is just too darn funny!
I think we will film it next weekend, this weekend is my workweekend.
Tomorrow morning I planned on filming our freestyle level 2 audition - if Orkan is up for it.

Storm in Skåne and "Ancient Aliens"

Stormwarning class 3 here in Skåne - which is the highest warning you can get someone told me.
No audition filming tonight then instead we watched Christmas movies all day, baked saffran buns and drank lots of Glögg, visited the neighbours who had a come together for all friends and ate more Christmas cookies.
Now I´m stuffed, sitting on the sofa and gonna watch "Ancient Aliens" season 1 for the rest of the evening.

Mindfullness

-slowing down
-focusing on my breathing
-focusing on my energy and the energy surrounding me

Playing with Milva this morning and in the evening I helped Patricia to prepare for her level 1 online audition tomorrow.
Tinker and Patricia are doing very well and I have no doubt that they will pass with flying colours.

Starry Night

Rode Orkan yesterday morning and played with Milva at liberty late in the evening.
Audition filming tomorrow :)

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

It´s easy to forget to be thankful for all the little things that make us happy or simplify our lifes.
Being thankful for being alive and not sick and still have all the people around me I love - horses are people too.

I rode Orkan this morning and played with Milva at liberty.
Orkan was doing awesome. He backed up by just moving my legs - long rein and sideways was going well as well. He is definitely a little superstar and up for everything. Typical lbe!
Mondays he always having traditional dressage training, wednesday he is trained in showjumping then he goes out for long trailrides and with me he is doing some Parelli there inbetween.
Variety is the spice of life!
Riding Orkan with a western saddle is a whole different experience in itself. He has large movements and sitting down in trot is... well, let´s put it this way - not so easy and posting in a western saddle is not so easy either. Canter would be our preferable gait - both his and mine.
That´s another thing being greatful for - having the possibility to ride Orkan. Who what have thought that he is so much fun!
I didn´t ride for 3 years now except the few times I rode Paulina, Orkan and Milva. It sure doesn´t feel so long though and Orkan makes it easy too. Now I´m actually really looking forward riding Milva again!
I didn´t miss riding at all in those 3 years but I think the spark came back now.

Sixtus EH - Milva´s Great Granddad

http://www.gestuet-hoerstein.de/hengste/sixtus/video.html

Guess that´s where Milva got her two white backlegs from ;).

Pictures From The Day We Moved To Our New Stable - 2008

Saxon (Success) 2007/2008

It´s now three years ago that I had to put down Saxon.
Saxon was a Swedish Warmblood I bought when I moved back from Canada as a schooling master. As you can see in the pictures I abandoned Parelli for a while there.
I was horseless when I moved back to Sweden and was desperate to find a new horse. I found Saxon on the net, his owners where looking for someone who would lease Saxon. Their daughter had bought a new comptetion horse and had no use for Saxon anymore. Before that she competed him regularlly in dressage and jumping. So I tried him and of course leased him. After a few weeks the owners were talking about selling him to a ridingstable so of course I had to save him and bought him. Before I bought him he was allowed to go outside in the pasture for 1 hour a day - by himself of course. I changed that as soon as he was mine though.
Unfortunately Saxon and I made never the same connection as I have with Milva now. I felt sorry for him and that´s why bought him but there was no real "love" behind it.
Soon after I bought him I had to discover that he had Cushing Syndrom and he had to be on medication for the rest of his life.
Saxon was a right brain extrovert/introvert. I did lots of dressage and jumping training with him but he never thought it was fun really. Trailriding was almost impossible with him cause he would turn around and race home bucking all the way. No change to stop him or bend him.
Actually I think it´s because of him I don´t feel for riding anymore.It was simply not much fun and always a battle. He was a nice horse though and if I would have been doing Parelli then it probably would have been fun.
When I moved Milva and Saxon to the turn out stable I knew that there was a change that Saxon wouldn´t make it. According to the veterinary he wouldn´t have a long time to live anyway because of his sickness so I thought it´s better he lives his last couple of months to the fullest and as soon as he shows any signs of pain I will put him down and that´s what I did.
He did have a blast the last few months though and died as a happy horse at least. I think it was the first time in his competitionhorse life that he was actually allowed to live the life of a horse. No bad conscious on this end.

Cowgirl Way by Kathleen West

COWGIRL WAY by Kathleen West

Cowgirls are special and work hard every day
They feed their own horses, and stack their own hay
They know who they are, and where they are from
Their family comes first, but when the chores are all done

We get in the saddle in rain or in shine
It's not the destination, but the thrill of the ride!
On horseback all our problems just slip away
Just workin' and playin' the cowgirl way.

Weekend

It´s my workweekend this week so my stable time is limited.
I rode Orkan on friday and played with backing up and sideways and walk trot transitions.
Backing up was going super well, after a few tries he backed up 3 steps with only moving my legs - long rein.
Sideways will take more time though. It didn´t work from the sadle so I played with him on the ground instead, moving for- and hindquarters which will lead to sideways eventually. He is such a smart boy and he licked and chewed alot and blow out lots of air - too funny. A few times he tried to have some discussions with me. Which is good - it´s a two way communication right. I totally agreed with him and did what he suggested and then formed what he offered to what I wanted to do to begin with. The faces he made were priceless!
Left brain extroverts are fun! Trot walk transitions were very smooth and on a long rein.
I´m not sure about the NP though.I still have a hard time to find it comfortable and still don´t know how to sit right. But I will take of that next week and watch some Parelli dvds.
Liberty with Milva pony who is pretty jelous when I take Orkan out. The last time she went to the gate and started to call after us and continued to do so until we came back - heartbreaking, my little drama princess ;).

Stabletime

I decided to be nice today and mucked out all three turnout stables today as well. I always muck out ours every day and wednesdays I take all three stables to give Malin some free time.
Rode Orkan for 20min in walk on a long rein, stop walk transitions without touching the rein and figure 8s as well. Backing up was going better today as well.
I shortened my stirrups today and it made a huge difference.
Milva got her hooves trimmed today. It´s 4 weeks ago that she got it trimmed the last time so there wasn´t much to trim - according to the ferrier. In Marion´s world he could have trimmed some more. Milva behaved like an little angel which made me very suspicious. She stood completly still for the ferrier and muzzled him softly. She didn´t move once and volonteered to give him one hoof after another.
After trimming I took her for a walk and she still behaved way too well for being Mischivious Milva, she didn´t even try to eat grass when we walked through the field which of course made all my inner alarm lamps going on.
Instead of walking for 30min we walked for 1 hour and I didn´t turn around before she pooped.
I don´t think it was a colic though, she didn´t show any colic signs anyway.
Maybe she just decided to pretend to be a grown up horse today - the stress is on the word pretend.
I´m gonna check on her again later this evening just to make sure she is ok.

Buck The Movie

inspired by Elisabeth I finally bought the Buck - dvd. Guess what I´m gonna do this evening :).

“Your horse is a mirror to your soul, and sometimes you may not like what you see. Sometimes, you will.” So says Buck Brannaman, a true American cowboy and sage on horseback who travels the country for nine grueling months a year helping horses with people problems.

BUCK, a richly textured and visually stunning film, follows Brannaman from his abusive childhood to his phenomenally successful approach to horses. A real-life “horse-whisperer”, he eschews the violence of his upbringing and teaches people to communicate with their horses through leadership and sensitivity, not punishment.

Buck possesses near magical abilities as he dramatically transforms horses – and people – with his understanding, compassion and respect. In this film, the animal-human relationship becomes a metaphor for facing the daily challenges of life. A truly American story about an unsung hero, BUCK is about an ordinary man who has made an extraordinary life despite tremendous odds.

Move Their Mind

Grazing with Milva and change of direction online with no problems.
Orkan: online, played through the seven games and focused on sideways and yoyo. Oh boy, was he thinking and chewing and licking and his face expressions were priceless. Lbe are sure fun to play with.

Sunday

picture taken by Johan

Fed the horses breakfast and did the stable chores this morning. It was quiete busy at the stable again though so I decided to go home and come back in the evening.
Liberty with Milva while Patricia practised for her online level 1 audition.
I asked Milva to sideways over three barrels at liberty, figure 8s, sideways away and towards and then we went into my homemade roundcorral - which isn´t so round. Walk, trot, canter and stop transitions and also backing up. The backing up at liberty when she is out on a circle is not constant yet - sometimes she decides to ignore me instead.
We also had a little discussion about change of direction tonight. Milva just did not want to go to the right and definitely not change direction for a right lead.
Instead of making a big thing out of it I walked with her a few rounds to the right and gave her lots of praise for it and stopped.

All You Need Is Love - Short Video

http://www.youtube.com/user/marionprincic?feature=grec_index
now it should work

Saturday Evening Play

pictures taken by Anita

I rode Orkan this evening. Orkan is a lbe and loves new things. He was totally awesome, very attentive, positive and soft. With no doubt I could have filmed our freestyle level 2 audition tonight, with a little bit of practice level 3 freestyle shouldn´t be a big deal either.
I would like to get a little bit better response with the backing up and sideways, but other than that we nailed it. We cantered as well and walked over a plastic tarp and jumping is no problem.
I still love the Natural Performer but I still need some time to get used to it. I rode english my whole life after all and my last saddle - the Bated Innova was super soft to sit in so the NP feels slightly hard.
Liberty with Milva was awesome as well. I asked for trott canter transitions in my homemade round corall and she did it - of course. Such a super smart pony.
Liberty figure 8s are going well as well, she even trotted a few steps today while doing them. Her face expression is not the most positive I have to admit though, but oh well, we will get that fixed as well with the time.
After we fed the horses their evening hay another girl was in the ridinghouse with her big competition horse walking over the plastic tarp :) - lovely.

When I´m An Old Horsewoman

When I am an Old Horsewoman

When I am an old horsewoman
I shall wear turquoise and diamonds,
And a straw hat that doesn’t suit me
And I shall spend my social security on
white wine and carrots,
And sit in my alleyway of my barn
And listen to my horses breathe.

I will sneak out in the middle of a summer night
And ride the old bay gelding,
Across the moonstruck meadow
If my old bones will allow
And when people come to call, I will smile and nod
As I walk past the gardens to the barn
and show instead the flowers growing
inside stalls fresh-lined with straw.

I will shovel and sweat and wear hay in my hair
as if it were a jewel
And I will be an embarrassment to all
Who will not yet have found the peace in being free
to have a horse as a best friend
A friend who waits at midnight hour
With muzzle and nicker and patient eyes
For the kind of woman I will be
When I am old.

-By Patty Barnhart

Saturday Morning

Frida took those two nice pictures of Milva yesterday.
Jumping training this morning and lots of people in the stable. We had frost last night and the outdoor rings were a bit frozen. I took Milva for a little walk and went home again. I´m gonna go back there later to play some more.

Myth, Religion and Ritual

that´s what I´ve been studying this afternoon. I started this course at Gotland´s University this week - it´s a long distance studying course. I applied for it last spring just for fun and this week I got an email from the university letting me know I got in and that it started this week. First assignment was due today.
Gotta love Sweden for their free education system. Still hanging tuff with my other courses as well. Because I signed up for them and I got in I will finish them and it will give me a nice boost in my nursing degree. I have to admit though that I took the water a little bit over my head. Like jeez, what was I thinkin, I´m super woman or what? But stubborn as I am I will finish them, I will I will.... so those Parelli dvd´s have to wait in the shelf until it´s their turn.

Remembrance Day 2011 - Let´s Remember The War Horse

“I believe that every soldier who has anything to do with horse or mule has come to love them for what they are and the grand work they have done and are doing in and out of the death zones.” Captain Sidney Galtrey, autumn 1918



Naturally my thoughts go out to all the horses in war and specially to all the Trakehner´s who had to leave their country because of the Red Army approaching fast.
A piece of history not well known and not much talked about. For many Germans the loss of East Prussia is still an emotional issue, it sure is for me. Alot of the people who were forced to flee had lived over 600 years in that part of the country and in a few years all of them will be dead and no more witnesses will be alive to tell their story.

Minute Of Peace

One of the rare moments where Malin is sitting down. Kind of a how interesting moment.
Liberty with the munsch pony who behaved like a little hoodlum today - performing her own show.

Soulhorse

And then my soul saw you and it kind of went "Oh there you are. I´ve been looking for you."

Parelli November Shipment

November Audio CD
"Really Listening"
In this interview with Neil Pye, Linda talks about the importance of remaining calm and composed during moments of frustration, and how the phrasing of a question can make all the difference. She also discusses the responsibility of instructors and teachers to encourage open dialogue. Later, Linda stresses the fact that both horses and humans can bring emotional baggage to the table, as well as the importance of recognizing thresholds and not becoming stuck. She also describes her experiences in learning with Walter Zettl. Finally, Linda addresses the difficulty people encounter with the bit, which can often be explained by a lack of true communication between horse and human.

November Mastery Lesson
Pat's Lesson - Suppling for Success, Part 1: Elli Pospischil riding Aspen
Linda's Lesson - Steady Rein: Kris Fulwiler and her Friesian

November Savvy Times
This month's issue features articles on Magical Merlin, Motivation in Horsemanship, The Steady Rein and more...plus your stories from around the globe.

Finally 5 days off again. It sure has been another busy weekend at work. I have to change my routines again to squeeze in more Milva time when I work my five days. The last five days looked like this - feeding breakfast, mucking out, changing water in all three turn out stables, preparing hay bags for our horses, fixing Milva´s hooves, scratching, a bit of grazing and maybe a little walk and around 10 minutes of liberty every day. But that was all the playtime we had. Then home, eating lunch and scooting to work. Sure some busy 5 days.
Today I mucked out all three turnout stables and told Malin that from now on I can take care of all three turnoutstables every wednesday so she got some more time to take care of all her competition horses. Plus I figured it would do me good to have an all horse morning once a week.
Played with Milva some as well and think we are gonna tape the liberty audition this Sunday - if the riding house is not busy in the evening.

All You Need Is Love

picture from my "All you need is love serie". Took some videos is as well. We´ll gonna shoot another serie of pictures in a few weeks.
Gearing up for our liberty edition. Planing on taping it next sunday, but let´s see what Milva has to say about it. Our schedules not always match ;).
I have so much to do right now and should feel stressed about it. Instead I decided to slow way down and do every little thing with precision and thouroughly, taking time for it and paying attention to all little signs.
Following Elisabeth´s example and started with yoga again. Wow, I´m sure all thight and it´s high time to loosen up.
Playing friendly game with my saddle today - speak, I looked if it´s still there. And yes it is :). Some approach and retreat from my side and that was it for today. So maybe tomorrow I´ll dust it off.
I made this little plan in my backhead about starting to ride after our liberty adition is done. But I think it needs some more approach and retread first.

My Filmteam

Shawn and our neighbour Johan came with me to the stable this evening to do some filming and to take some pictures. How lucky am I!
Played with liberty and online all week and we took some walks.