Rama rocks!

Working with Rama has been a bit difficult recently, but that's totally been my fault. I've always struggled to properly do sitting trot, it's been really difficult to actually sit there without either moving completely against his movement or then bouncing all over the place with no control over my posture. 

Mum has been amazing and really tried to help me with this. The last two weeks she has been there at the sides whenever I've been training with Rama, and now finally I have found how to sit properly!

The last time that I trained with Rama I suddenly realised that I am subconsciously tensing my knees, which meant that there was tension in my seat, and that's why I couldn't properly do sitting trot. Now that I can focus on something to improve on, I think we will be able to move onto more trot work, such as half pass and shoulder-in without me messing it up totally!

Day off!

I've had such a great day, having a rare day off and no riding! I know this might sound weird to some people, and I am more than happy to have the chance to ride more than one horse everyday, and I'm really thankful for the opportunity... but it does feel great to not sit in a saddle and to be able to do other stuff! 

Both Vallu and Rama had the day off as well, and they both got a quick lunge in the afternoon. 

And I was able to go for a run! I had forgotten how much I love running, and I was very surprised to realise how much my stamina had increased. Normally after a long time of no running, I can barely jog for 5 minutes, yet today I did 15 minutes of actual non-stop running. Now I want to start running more than once a week, but I'll see how it goes. ;)

Vallu had a great time on the lunge, he even reared up once!

Flying pony

These photos of Basse having fun are so funny and sweet that I just wanted to share them with everyone. Basse has been with us for 9 years now, and although there have been many ups and downs, I am so happy to see him misbehaving like this sometimes. If he is happy, then I can be happy too.

He is not just my horse... 

He is my dreams, 

he is my happiness, 

he is my heart, 

he is my laughter, 

he is my teacher, 

he is my sanity 

and he is the best part of me.

 

Playing tag

Dressage lesson with Karita Kotikulma: so much progress

Vallu has once again progressed so much recently. Every lesson it feels like he is going better and better, and riding him is such a joy! I just feel so lucky to have the chance to ride him, and this is so worth all the trouble we went through with him in the winter.

Exhausted rider, happy horse

Yesterday, instead of having a lesson I asked Karita to ride Vallu. The last time that she rode him was last autumn right at the beginning when I started having lessons with her. The change between then and now is incredible. Then, we worked on Vallu being long and low, relaxed and working properly through his back. Now, we work on his self-carriage, high and up and big movements forward. I love when someone more knowledgeable can confirm what I've been thinking, that my horse improved loads!

Great day!

Jenni came to visit our horses and took some amazing photos! We had such a great day, and it was fantastic to finally have her visit us after nearly 2 years of talking about it.

Vallu looking massively big!

Lunging Rama is hazardous occupation!

Super weekend

Henri has been competing at CDI*3 Deauville in France this weekend with two horses, and it has been a super weekend for him, winning both the Grand Prix and GP Special with Jojo AZ. I'm so proud of him once again! Hopefully this will give him a spot on the Finnish team going to the European Championships.

Prize giving ceremony with Don't Forget 

Henri riding Jojo today in the GP Special 

New member of the family

We adopted a new dog from Rhodes in Greece, he's an approximately 2 year old ball of fluff (Griffon mix probably) who has now been re-named as Toivo (which means hope in English) He's a really cheerful and happy dog, and I can't imagine why anyone would abandon him! 

The poor little guy is also on medication for Ehrlichia infection. Response to the medication is initially rapid (improvement is notable in the first few days) so hopefully with the antibiotics, it will go away soon. 

Vallu

No more posing, I'm gonna eat some grass.

Paddock renovation

Dad posing!

We decided to do a bit of paddock renovation this summer and we bought some new beach sand for the paddocks so that they become a little bit softer. Rama is rather fussy so that he doesn't like to roll unless the ground is soft, and recently he hasn't been rolling. This morning he immediately went for a long roll which meant he was happy!

The finished result