Ajotiimi näkyväksi

Mitäs tuumaatte, pitäisiköhän jatkaa tämän pitkään tauolla olleen blogin ylläpitoa ja keskittyä täällä valjakkoajoon? Wordpressissä meillä on jo tallin sivut osoitteessa http://axtalli.wordpress.com, joka keskittyy puhtaasti tallin palveluihin kuten ajo- tai ratsastustunteihin - niille sivuille sopii huonosti puolestaan kasvatukseen ja hevosalan asiantuntijuuteen liittyvät asiat (jotka eivät välttämättä kiinnosta paikallisia lapsiperheitä, jotka miettivät missä lapsi voisi käydä talutusratsastuksessa). Nämä asiat löytyvät osoitteesta http://axequestrian.wordpress.com. Tuntuu että tämän valjakkoajotiimin hommat tekisi vielä mieli eriyttää erilleen ja keskittyä niihin vielä kolmannessa paikassa, jotta saisi ajotouhutkin ansaitsemaansa huomiota :D kukin sivu kun palvelee lukijaa tai asiakasta vähän eri näkökulmasta. Mielipiteitä?

Halt! And stand still.

That was what we trained today with Ivanhoe

Videos!

We have had such a great time training with Ivanhoe this week. First the world champion level driver Ben Simonsen came to our stable with some other combined drivers from our area for training. We drove both dressage and the new marathon obsticles we have at our stable and it was sooooo nice to have some folks over to use our facilities. Had the best time ever just to see the other drivers drive here. It is quite a lonely hobby as there is so few drivers nearby and to most training opportunities we have always 150-400 km drive...

 

This is Ivanhoe av Friheten driven by Ben, he was such a star!

 

To get some ideas of how to start driving Thorin Ax, 3 years old,
Ben drove him long reins to demonstrate. Thorin did very well.

 

Lumina in full speed at the marathon obsticle we got 

sponsored by Svaravars Trävaruhandel 

And of course Ben wanted to try Ivanhoe at the marathon obsticle :D :D :D

Yesterday I got suddenly a second chance to training this week with Sanna Tirkkonen. Always interesting to train for different coaches as they look at different things, so got good feedback again for training as she had several things she pointed out in my driving. Ivanhoe was not as good as at home and the riding course was a bit too heavy for a Shetland with a heavy carriage.

 

Ivanhoe yesterday

So Ivanhoe had two hard work trainings this week and today I thought it is best to do shortly some long reining since it is easy and you can do different things than in driving, kind of gymnastics for the pony. Ivanhoe worked so nicely today! I had seen a video of a Finnhorse stallion Friisin Paletti doing shoulder-ins and diagonal yielding with carriage in trot, so as we have done it with Ivanhoe in walk long reining a few times, I thought why not try in trot today. Here you see on video him doing shoulder-in in trot in this direction first time ever, nice work of two newbies!!!???

After such a week you feel really inspired again!

Blinkers or not?

After I published a photograph of our stallion Verano Lee v.d. Zandkamp being driven without blinkers on Facebook in Shetland Pony Driving group it got comments and I also got some PM asking about driving without blinkers.

Here we come to a cultural and traditional difference between countries, so I'll tell how things work in Finland :) Here the tradition comes from working horses and the tradition of driving one of the most versatile horse breeds in the world, the Finnhorse. It is a hard working breed adapted to northern circumstances and they where used in all purposes, to pull timber from woods, farmwork and as "vechicle". In Finnish tradition horses are driven without blinkers in all work - and they did pull anything. Nowadays Finnhorses are mostly used as trotters and as hobby horses in all sports from riding to work horse, and from combined driving to riding school ponies - and the tradition remains - in everyday life blinkers are not used. In hobby driving or when trotters are trained in roads, woods or training centers, blinkers might be used if the horse stares at things, so that the blinkers helps the horse to concentrate and be more confident but most horses in Finland are driven without. 

With trotters of course, some horses may use blinkers in races, though they would be trained without, and there is several types of blinkers used, some prevent the horse from looking back, other prevent looking both back and to sides and some has a mechanism that allows the driver to pull the blinkers down in the end of the race, and get an extra gear as the horse suddenly don't see its competitors by its sides and starts to answer to their challenge!

Then of course the few drivers having combined driving as a hobby, drive their horses with blinkers as the tradition in classic carriage driving is in Central Europe and UK. Here the point is to help the horse concentrate in the task and not to, for examle, stare at the whip, in pairs it also helps concentrating as one of the horses will no see if the coach uses the whip on the other horse and then only the horse used on reacts at the effect, in teams again blinkers protects the wheelers eyes from the leaders reins and so on, so there is of course a number of logical reasons why blinkers are a smart choice in driving. A horse driven with blinkers don't also mind how high or wide the thing he is pulling is - which also certainly must be a reason why blinkers have been used in the first place (we can here forget for a while that Finnhorses did the same things without :D )

So when do I use blinkers and when not. My opinion is that the horse should see and know what he is pulling when broken to drive, I would say most horses benefit of seeing as they then also know exactly where the sounds come from, I've seen more horses scared of the sounds than scared of the view. So when we break to harness we long rein the horse with no blinkers, when it works well and the youngster also accept different sounds behind, we also long rein with blinkers and do the same stuff as we did without. In most cases we also start driving with carriage without blinkers. Of course there might come exceptions and then we would drive with blinkers - no need to make a decision of an opinion in forehand, take one horse at the time and do as it suits best with that horse. After we know the horse is fine without blinkers we also train with them. So in the end we have a horse which can be driven for fun and pleasure without blinkers and when I train dressage and for competition where the blinkers are a tradition - I use blinkers - and the horse is relaxed and pleased both ways. That is exactly the same logic as with trotting horses in Finland, they might be driven both ways. Of course you might also find a person who does it just the opposite way as I do, starts with blinkers and take them later off. 

We even drove these two in pair with no blinkers, prefered to see their eyes and expressions myself also as the mare did not appriciate the gelding so much in pair in the beginning. I know someone else would have done the opposite and used blinkers to prevent the mare to see the gelding but well... I don't thing they are that stupid ;) she would anyway know who she works with :) Now we of course drive with blinkers to help the concentrate on the work not staring at what I ask of them separately

The fun thing with blinkers is that some horses get relaxed with them and concentrate while others become energetic and even too hot to drive, so you really have to concider the horses personal temperament when making the decision how to drive. Regardless what kind of a personality the horse is we drive both ways and of course that has to be thought of when they are learning new things. Ivanhoe, for example, who is a former trotting race pony (yes, we have trotting races with Shetlands in the Nordic countries, too!) gets very energetic and excited with blinkers but now after two years of driving the classic way instead of like a trotting horse he is fine- except for on marathon where he still would not like bigger horses to pass him from behind as he remembers the trotting races where you really shoud not let anyone pass you... :D So I drive dressage and cones with blinkers and marathon without which calms him a bit as he sees who is coming from behind!

Dressage with...

... marathon without!

My point would be, teach the horse both ways and you get a safe companion in all situations and know your horse! So if you say you use the blinkers because the horse is afraid of what he is pulling if he sees it, I would say someone has been too lazy to teach the horse to accept what he sees :) and then of course I have to admit there always might be a superb driving horse which just can't handle it without blinkers... But in general and from any point of view it is only a benefit and a safety issue to teach them properly in any way. So it would not be necessary to have blinkers, but in competition, as it is also a part of the tradition, I'm happy to use them anyway.

My Precious - Verano Lee v.d. Zandkamp

A photoshoot by the sea...