After 2 years with anxiety

After 2 years with anxiety to jump on Giga, I decided that today I had to get over my fear. It was a hesitant start but after a few good jumps the fear was forgotten. I got quite "overconfident" at the end. Typical me :-P I have to thank Janni and Josefine for the help and inspiration! And thanks two Sascha that bothered two raise the jumps :-D

For those who don't know, I was in a serious cross country accident with Giga two years ago. Nothing happened with Giga. But I got a concussion, a fiber rupture, a pressured spine and lot of bruises. I never came up again after this happened and ever since I have been extremely afraid to jump.

What a successful day :-D

I'm just so happy :-D
Again today my two teachers had another fight with the little Icelandic pony. They tried everything, but it kept kicking, biting and rearing. One of the teachers is only used to handle cows and sheep, he got so intimidated and surprised at how strong it was. They gave up completely after 30 min.

Then I asked carefully if I could try with my method. They laughed a little at me but I they gave me a chance.
I took a whip and laid a gentle pressure on its hind legs. As expected, it kicked hysterically as soon as it stopped kicking and stood still I praised it and cuddled it by the throat. This exercise I carried out 10-15 times and finally I was able to put my hand on the leg. When she was comfortable with my hand, I could treat her wounds without the slightest trouble. She stood perfectly still. All this took 10 minutes.

This may sound very magical and unrealistic. But actually there isn't more to it. Positive and negative reinforcement and good timing can do a lot.

A lot of jaws dropped today. And when the teacher praised me it was a huge boost for my confidence.

You should never fight against a horse. It will always beat you pretty much no matter the size. You should rather work with it. Violence and punishment is NEVER the right way!


In this case it was just a poor horse who fought for its life. And if it only has experienced negative things every time it ends up in the stable it is obvious it wants to flee away. I would do the same thing...

Hold my head high

Fortunately, I drove directly to my own horses. It's a joy to have so well-mannered horses. And to be able to ride them so freely as I do right now makes me really happy. No one can tell me how to ride my own horses. I have put extreme much effort to get as far as I am now. And it may well be that I'll never become a great OL dressage rider. But so what? It's far more important that I can hold my head high and feel that what I do is right for me and the horses I handle...

Pictures from today:

Lady Giga

Sir Victor

Terrible day at school!

I've had a terrible day at school. I had to ride a horse that's probably 23 years +, which probably should had been retiret a long time ago. It ran away with me 3 times when I had to drag it into the stable. I have never experienced anything like that. When I finally returned to the stable, it bit me right in the back, so now I've got a big bruise.

The riding lessons didn't go better. It tried to throw me off countless times and the only advice my riding instructor could give was that I should have a harder grab on the reins.

When the lesson was over, my teacher came over to me, he wanted to give me some personal advice. He said:
1. I should sell my Spanish saddle, because it was a piece of crap, and I couldn't ride dressage in it.
2. I have a overly hard hand when I ride horses. Because of my loose reins. (Uhm WTF?)

Why he got so personal on the way I ride my own horses is unknown. But apparently had a sudden urge to tell me all this today.


When I came back to the stable some of my classmates was struggling with an Icelandic pony. It had some nasty wounds on its backlegs and it had to be treated fast. The problem was that the horse has never been handled before.

I went and helped them. I used a whip as an extended arm. Each time it kicked I held the whip on the hindquarters and as soon as it stopped I removed the whip and praised it. After 10 minutes I could lift the leg without getting kicked.

But I didn't get far with my progress because my teacher came and wanted us to immediately treat the leg. He approached the situation very violent and wrong. He commanded me to hold one of it's frontlegs as he treated the backleg. But the poor Icelandic pony was so scared that it reaed high up in the air and almost kicked me in the head.

I was so angry and upset with the whole situation that I had to walk away. Today my teacher disappointed me very much. I thought he was wiser.


I look forward to the day when I finish this education. I'll show all the ignorant people that you can handle horses in a much better way, then the way we are teached today!

GPS Horse

Haha, I really could need a GPS when I'm riding. I always get lost when I'm riding alone!

Lady Giga

Beautiful Giga, the pictures are taken at my school.

I am so proud!

Due to lack of time because of my school, I have two people who are riding Victor and Giga a few times a week. This Thursday chose the rider to Victor she would jump on him. I thought, good luck. If he bothers, he is just so good but it happens rarely.

But it went absolutely fantastic. She rode him bareback. They jumped 70 cm. It's probably the highest he has jumped with a rider on his back. It just shows that the heavy types also can jump. I'm just so proud :-D

And I wish I could do the same with him. But after a severe accident with Giga I have gotten very careful and my balance has never been the same ever since.

A small summary of January

A small summary of January. I've been working my ass of with Giga for two weeks on our school show. As I said, the show went well.

I picked Giga up Sunday evening. The trip home went insanely wrong! It went fine with getting her up in the trailer, she's so easy concerning that. We drove on the highway and suddenly my friend and I hear very strange sound, so we choose to stop at a nearby gas station. On the way to the gas station people honked and yelled hysterical at us. So we knew something was very wrong!

The back tire on the trailer was completely destroyed. Giga began to panic, and I must honestly say I panicked to. I called a Danish car service, called Falck, which usually comes and "saves" people in need. But they wouldn't help us, they don't help in horse cases, like what the fuck! Well, what do you do then, I thought. My friend remembers suddenly that Stud Kronplet where Giga is stabled has a huge horse trailer.
We call Mona who owns the farm. And she came immediately to rescue us. She arrived 20 minutes later. We got Giga loaded fast in the new trailer and when we almost had closed the door she jumped over the front barrier and got stuck with her frontleg. We tried everything to get her to throw the leg back. But she looked like someone who had already given up. But eventually we got motivated her to get the leg over the barrier.

My friend had to stand in the trailer with her ​​all the way home. Fortunately no one was injured and Giga are perfectly fine now. I don't know if I can get her up in a trailer again after all the bad experiences. But I still have to get over the shock. So when I'm ready I have to try and see if Giga has gotten any traumas.

News about Victor is that I have had a vet out to him. He had gotten something disgusting goop under his stomach. My last rider to him hadn't brushed him good enough. So I had to cut all his hair of. But the fact is that Victor hates a cut-machine. It ended up with that the vet had to sedate him for 2 tonnes, before he began to relax!  He's just a fighter, poor thing! He also got his teeth rasped, which he needed much. So Victor looks quite ugly, but my old boy is much happier now with all the hair of. Luckily, there have been minus degrees and snow ever since he got alt the hair cut of. Mud creates all the problems!

Show 19/1-2013

January has been an exciting but also a very busy month. As mentioned, we had a horse show at my school. Everything went super awesome. Giga was so good. It went far better than expected, our rehearsal went so wrong. I almost fell of Giga and when 4 people clapped all 10 horses ran of. It was pretty strange, Giga is usually very calm but because of all the other horses, she got quite excited and she ran of with me twice. And the first time I ended up completely out on her neck, it was pretty wild.

But fortunately all the horses was extremely sweet at the show and I'm just so proud of Giga. We only had two weeks to rehearse it all!

Happy New Year!