Poorly Vallu

Last night when we went to do the evening stables, when I went to check up on Vallu immediately you could see that his left hind leg was more of a tree trunk than a leg. You could not see any of the normal structure, it was just full of fluid and incredibly hot, and it looked like it could burst due to the pressure at any moment...

After one very quick phone call to mum, we decided to start walking him (in the pouring rain, outside...) and the swelling went down incredibly quickly? Rather weird, but I was happy that only after walking for ten minutes, it was starting to resemble some form of a leg! But no, after standing still staring at his leg and starting to clean the leg, it was already swollen. Bugger! More walking helped, but every time we stopped it became swollen again.

Today Vallu's leg has been slightly better, even after the night it wasn't as badly swollen. Huge sigh of relief. It seems applying pressure on it helps, so he is now wearing stable bandages in the night as well as during the day, and when he is outside, I've put boots on his hind legs and it appears to be working. Yay! And he also started an antibiotic course today, so hopefully he will be on the mend soon. It's always so sad that when everything is going superbly well that something like this happens. Luckily it is nothing more serious (yet) and fingers crossed we have a healthy Vallu soon!

Dressage lesson with Ville Vaurio: Refinement

I had probably the funniest lesson yesterday in a long long time. There were several times that I had to stop riding so that I could laugh out loud, because laughing whilst riding means that you can't breathe properly :D Vallu was a super pony once again, and after a worrying start we managed to finish on a brilliant note again.

This photo basically sums up my life with Vallu

I think it's very important to train with a normal bridle as well as a double bridle, and I don't do it enough... Which meant that when Ville told me to shorten my reins, I couldn't figure out how to get Vallu soft and short. My brain just went "whaaaaaaaat!?!?" And apparently tensing up and using a harder hand isn't the right solution.... Nope. The right thing to do is to leave your hands soft and still and in the right place, and just ride pony forwards and do the exercises (e.g shoulder in or travers) and ta-daa, you have a soft, well connected and forward going horse. Magic ;)

We practised shoulder-in and travers today, which was great since during our lessons we don't focus on these very often either. They are rather easy, but you can always refine it. Tiny corrections included letting go of the inside rein during shoulder-in and to prepare for the travers already in the corner so that it flows better. 

And one of my new pet hate exercises is a medium canter on a 20 meter circle. Arghh, it is super difficult. We can do medium canter on a diagonal or on the long side no problem, but on a circle?!? I never knew that being on circle, keeping Vallu soft and supple and doing medium canter could be so tough. But we got there in the end, it just requires a lot of preparation and careful riding from me. When I ride it right, then Vallu can do the exercise right! Quelle surprise ;)

Vallu 06.06.2014

All of these beautiful photos were taken by Ritva Waris Worlin ♥︎

(Obviously all of these photos have been bought & paid for!)

Happy birthday Nelli!

Happy birthday our forever young and crazy and beautiful mare <3

Freedom!

Finally my first year of univeristy is over, I finished my last exam yesterday and boy am I happy that it is finally over. I'm so glad to be able to just concentrate on the horses, and relaxing so that I'll be ready for next year of uni! 

All I can say is that thank god we have horses, otherwise I wouldn't have survived these exams. To be able to have an hour or two where your brain hasn't got the ability to focus on anything less than riding, is great. I don't know how non-horsey people do it, I need my daily dose of relaxment in order to be able to then focus on work again. These people are obviously missing out a lot.

Canter pirouette and check out the doggies in the background :D

The poor ponies will now be coming back into full proper work. The last couple of weeks I've been taking it a bit easy with them; lots of hacking out, lunging and chilled riding sessions so that everyone (including me) stays relaxed and happy. Now that there are no more exams, I can start putting some more pressure on and training again, without having to feel guilty about not being inside revising. Ahhhh, what a great feeling!

And can I just say how quickly does time go?!? It feels like I just left for England, and now it's all about to begin again in September. 

Summer 2014 here we come! My blingy boots are ready for action ;)