Improving the basics

With the possibility of several training sessions/lessons coming up in the next two months, I've been trying to improve the basic things (once again!). More suppleness, more softness and a straighter horse and rider. There's been a lot of inside leg to outside rein whilst riding a circle and then a square both in trot and canter. I've always said to people that I have helped that it's all about the shoulders, if the shoulders are even then the horse will be straighter but for the last few weeks it's all that I've been thinking about.

Sometimes we just need to take a step back and focus on something easy. I've really put all the fun advanced movements on the back burner and decided to focus on making everything just a little bit better and easier (for both of us!) Vallu has not forgotten any of the tricks, he'll still turn on a sixpence and do a canter pirouette no problem, but the quality of the canter is now better than before because he's straighter and more balanced.

Squares and riding on the three quarter line have been fantastic exercises in improving the way Vallu moves. With these, both the trot and canter look better as I can focus on the quality of the movement instead of praying to the gods that we could go in a straight line. It's so much easier to ride a horse that is balanced and straight than one that is constantly falling out of his shoulder or leaning on either rein!

This photo! :)

And what a difference this has made! Although I shouldn't be surprised, I'm really pleased to see how much straighter Vallu is and how much easier it is to ride a diagonal across the arena when I just have to ride the movement rather than trying to get Vallu to go straight instead of a wobbly line. Seeing the difference in videos and pictures has made me really happy :) There's always room for improvement and we are not perfect, but it's nice to be able to see how you've improved in a few weeks.

Handy Cures' Super Pulsed Low Level Laser

We've been using the Handy Cures' Laser for over a month now and I've been really impressed with how it seems to be helping every single one of our horses. I've been using it a lot on Basse in an attempt to try to help his injury heal at least a little bit more so that when we have the next scan we could have better results. 

For those who don't know, Handy-Cure is a small and portable device that is based on Quantum Medicine technology which combines four different energy sources, each is known for its therapeutic effect. The combination of low-level pulse laser radiation, infrared radiation, visible red light, and static magnetic fields are meant to provide therapeutic effect. It's designed to relieve pain and treat wide range of symptoms including acute and chronic pains, improving blood circulation and reduce inflammation. 

The most visible results so far have been when there's been a little bit of visible swelling which has disappeared after 20 minutes of the laser! Mum has even used it on her own foot and she says that after using it twice her foot feels less painful and I can see that it's less swollen. We've both used it on the horses' backs too, when the muscles on the back have felt really tight and painful the day after using the laser their backs' have felt much better and a lot more normal.

They are quite(!!) expensive, but after our physio recommended one as she uses on most of the horses that she treats, I think it has been totally worth the money especially with it being used on a daily basis and being beneficial to every horse. If anyone is considering investing in a laser, I would really recommend this one!

Hello September!

Ahh don't you just LOVE autumn?! I adore the autumn season as I prefer the slightly cooler weathers, the amazing colours that the season brings with it and the nights drawing in slightly earlier! ♥︎

 The arrival of September also meant the end of my 3 month long holiday and the start of my master's degree at the University of Helsinki! Having survived the first week of orientations, I'm now actually looking forward to getting on with my studies. It's so very different from Nottingham but I think it might end up being even better! My ability to fit studying for a master's degree and riding two horses and not dying from lack of sleep is still not guaranteed, but I'm hoping that once everything settles down into the weekly routine it will get a lot easier. 

And finally since my last blog post about our lesson with Ville, I'm so pleased to have finally gotten my riding mojo back with Vallu! Every time that I have ridden him since falling off I've felt better and more confident but until yesterday there hadn't been that feeling of trust and connection. We'd had good rides, bad rides and fun rides (with lots of pole work!) but I hadn't felt 100% back to normal. I don't know if my brain just needed a few weeks to get back to normal or I needed a certain amount of spooks that I managed to control and not fall off so I that I could get my self confidence back, but it felt SO good to finally have the ability to ride normally - we even managed our first set of  three tempis since I don't know when maybe before Christmas?! 

We have a couple of clinics and lessons lined up for the next two months which I'm really looking forward to, it will be nice to get Vallu out and about so that it becomes less daunting for me in case we possibly manage to make it to a few competitions next season!

Dressage lesson with Ville Vaurio: Keep riding and then you'll relax

As much as I hate to admit it, 24 hours later I'm now incredibly glad mum decided to book me in for a lesson with my old trainer Ville Vaurio. At the start of the lesson I thought I would either pass out or throw up from being absolutely terrified - I've only ridden Vallu once since falling off for about ten minutes because my back hurt too much to do much more and I really didn't want my first proper ride to be at a brand new yard that neither of us had been to before! Oh well, nothing like being thrown in the deep end!!

Off we go!

As I was totally frozen with fear, most of the lesson was spent on doing lots of movements that were challenging in order to keep Vallu's brain busy and me thinking about how to ride the movements instead of thinking about what might scare Vallu. If we kept Vallu busy with difficult movements and working properly then he would have less time to react to his environment and would be less likely to spook. Knowing this would then help me relax and everything went much better. This is everything that I already knew, but needed to hear whilst having someone on the ground to tell me that everything is okay, I can do this and to push me to ride properly - not just sit there looking pretty and praying that nothing will happen.

After warming up on my own, we established a 'safe zone' e.g a 20m circle at A where I could mentally relax, knowing it was a place where I wouldn't fall off. The circle then got extended further down the arena and in under 5 minutes we had two thirds of the arena as a safe zone. And then throughout the lesson Ville would make me ride outside of this just to push me and to prove that I could ride wherever I wanted. Who says riding isn't a psychological sport?! Whenever I had to ride out of my comfort zone, I was to ride shoulder in as this would both of us busy, Vallu flexed slightly to the inside and around my legs so that the likelihood of him taking off with me is reduced. We also did a couple of flying changes which were all okay (tight, small canter and small changes because I was too worried about getting big bucky changes) apart from one from which Vallu decided to tank off and it took me a good 15m to get him to slow - but... I didn't fall off and we carried on in canter so I feel a lot more confident that I do still have the ability to stay on! A lot of pirouette work - again, slightly difficult as I hadn't ridden these in over 8 months but Vallu remembered how to do them and then some piaffe work where Ville had a short riding whip with which he very lightly tapped on Vallu's hind legs to give him a rhythm and bloody heck the last one was amazinggggggg! "What you felt there was pure power and it was great" #actualquote

Although the whole lesson was mentally incredibly draining, I am so glad I was able to have my first proper training session after 8 months off and after my accident with my old trainer who I feel so comfortable with. I think if it had been a new trainer the lesson wouldn't have been anywhere near as successful because I wouldn't have felt confident enough to go to a new place for anyone else apart from Ville. Unfortunately for me and a lot of riders over here, Ville is going to go work for my brother in Germany so my next training session will be with someone new but it won't bother me as much because of how well this one went! :) 

Please wear your helmets!

On Wednesday afternoon, Vallu spooked at a car speeding on the little road that is about ten meters away from our outdoor arena. Unfortunately, I had long reins in walk when he suddenly shot up in the air and tanked off so that I eventually got thrown off, but ended up thrown off into the arena's fencing before falling to the floor.

How much of the fencing my helmet broke

I have never experienced so much pain in my life as I did when I finally came round after being knocked out (I don't remember the falling off and by the time I came round mum had already managed to catch Vallu) and once I started trying to get up, I saw blood falling onto the ground and I thought I'd cracked my head open. Luckily, instead of my head (thank you Samshield helmet) I had an inch (2.5cm) long cut in the corner of my eye which resulted in a lot of blood all over my clothes. At the hospital several hours later, the scans and x-rays came back to show that nothing was broken! Two different doctors were totally baffled by this but I joked that I have magical bones. Everything is just bruised - my face, hand and wrist, ribs, stomach and my back and I have two stitches in the corner of my eye but it could have been so much worse if I hadn't been wearing my helmet. I was kept in hospital overnight for observations because I was apparently slurring my words and I couldn't remember much... There were moments of clarity when I even managed to message friends to tell them that I was alive but then were moments that I still today don't even remember.

(SLIGHTLY GROSS PHOTOS BELOW)

In hospital before the stitches, you can see the cut in the corner my eye

Day after, eye totally swollen shut on the way to the specialist eye doctors

Today is the first day that I have been able to think coherently and look at a laptop screen for more than ten minutes before feeling terrible. My bruises are turning to so many different amazing shades and the swelling around my eye has started to go down so that I have 50% of my sight back. The day after I got sent to the specialist eye doctors in Helsinki to make sure that there was no permanent damage to my eye and luckily it appears everything is okay! Everything could have been so much worse and I am incredibly lucky to come out of this with just a concussion, two stitches and a lot of bruising. 

I have written this post not because I want attention or sympathy, but because in case anyone who reads this rides without a helmet, I'm begging you to reconsider and to wear one. I could still be lying in hospital or worse if I hadn't been wearing my helmet.

Two days later, back on! (only for ten minutes in walk because I felt too bad to stay for longer)