Normal training...

Today both Paulette and Ivanhoe was driven in the pony clubs! Put the old sleighbell I have in the harness and just enjoyed the starlit sky, snow, jogging pony and the sound of the beautiful bell - I think the children loved it too :)

In the weekend my task was to get Ivanhoe to understand the whip better as an aid instead of a mark of accelerating, as a former trotting pony he reaaaally got too excited after Andreas drove him at his training last week. So after that when I used the whip (nicely of course! but still) - he did wonderful piaffes when I just wanted him to do some shoulder in-work... He has had (all the time) a very difficult time in understanding what it means when you hold him with the reins but still use the whip and so he just got too excited and even afraid of the whip as well as he did not understand what I meant (or did when Andreas drove him). So, now I have been doing the same trainings I have been doing with Verano first, to get him at all to put up with the whip and then trained him of what I want. At Saturday he got it and now he does a nice shoulder in-training with the whip just coming close to his side, to both sides and a wonderful leg yield sideways when you press his sides with the whip, also both sides. Of course I'm doing this with long reins. Don't think though this guy will never get use to the whip 100% as a pony would without trotting background, it is so hard stuck in their minds what the whip has been mostly used for, to add speed, so I'll have a long way still to try to calm him down. 

In everything you do, it is so important to understand, recognize and take into account the ponies background to make the teaching stressless for the pony as we all understand, it is the first basic rule to any animal training, a stressed pony will not learn a thing. Less is more and there is two things I really really really have always tried to avoid with horses, with trotters also: not to train the pony too much so that they get too exhausted fysically and secondly, never ask more than the pony can understand at the circumstances of the day psychically, the horse should always stay in a position where they can rely 200% in what you are doing, especially when you introduce new things. Of course, you have to add more work to training in addition to get the pony in better shape or to level up in dressage programs, but you have to know the horse to know when to ask for more. Knowing your horse inside out and feeling what would be suitable today leads you to the goal, eventually. And the trust is everything, never loose it.

Saturday night fun

If you don't have anything fun to do in a Saturday evening, take two Shetland ponies and a friend and drive 180 km to get driving lessons! Sometimes I wonder if one could have other hobbies but... you know... not.

So off we went to Kiuruvesi. Had Paulette with me more as company for Ivanhoe but I drove her too with long-reins. It was good training for her to be away from her summer filly foal Eowyn as she screamed and was a bit worried where her foal has gone. They have been in separate boxes in the stable at night a few weeks and Paulette has of course worked at pony clubs and riding lessons without her foal also but still it was a bit of a shock for her not to have her baby with her.

Ivanhoe was next on line and drove him for Andreas Hesse. It went very very well I think and so I was told :D but he was a bit too much on the bit. Had a normal straight bit now for testing so I think it will be better to drive him with the butterfly still. He is more and more in the right shape an always so forward going that he made a good impression at Andreas too.

Sadly no photos though this time as it was dark and raining! Did not even bother to take the camera with me. Extra exciting as our pony van did not start when we had everything packed and clear to start the journey home! Then after a few tries it finally did and late at 23:00 we where home!

Driving in the best autumn weather you can wish for

Sun is shining and it's not too cold yet so today I thought I drive Verano first. He looked at me like: What? Seriously? Now??? :D

I often braid his mane as it is so long and thick it is hard to see his head position, so this is how it looked like today:

 

 Then off we went driving. Had Marko taking a few photos as it was so nice weather. I wanted to have a versatile traing today so first we took some photos on the road. Here you can see how badly I tried to clip him :D Well, he is the first one for me and I definitely did not want to take too much, so first I tested to clip a bit in the front, between his frontlegs and under the stomach where the harness comes... He is though swetting so much due to his unbeliveably thick coat that I'll probably have to give up and clip some more. Was planning an Irish cut but we'll see...

 

He sure has nice gaits I can tell!

 

Some of the straps are already dissapearing in his winter coat... You would not belive how thick it is!

 And then I worked him a bit in the paddock. He was quite much on the right rein today so we did circles and a bit of precision driving with my new cones.

I must tell you I'm so surprised how well he is working already with the whip after a just few days of calm training with it - it's the routine, and over and over again training so that he realized that it is not for hitting him!

I think he will turn out to be a superb driving pony... <3

Work done and back in the stable :)

Driving all day long...

Today we continued long reining our two year old connemara filly "Ninni" (CleoS Gwen Ganeida), who had a little pause in training until we had the vet checking her teeth. I always have the teeth looked before driving youngsters as it is just waiste of time and effort to try to teach a youngster who has something wrong in the mouth. So better to check in forehand and then start driving when you know for sure that it is comfortable to have the bit in the mouth. I always use a straight iron bit, prefer a thinner one also, because they suit the youngsters small mouths best. It is no idea of filling the mouth with a too thick bit or use a snaffle bit so that they just start playing with the moving parts. Well now her fun childhood days are over (just joking) and she will have to get used to some work! She understands now a bit of steering but will still in the beginning do the opposite! I have broken several trotters to driving but never before has any horse offered determined left when you ask right :D Then of course when I asked her with reins&voice to turn to the direction I wanted and asked also with the whip to move her butt to get to the right direction she disagreed, but you can't have a two year old mare deciding where to go and she just had to surrender after some whinge. Ninni is quite a headstrong mare but not in a bad way and she is quite quickly setteled - at least if you compare with the fjord horse we had :) Ninni will turn out well, she is very curious one and wants to please people and she learns very quickly, a really smart one this little filly. She got a lot of praise and a good groom&rubbing as a thank for her good work.

Then it was Paulettes turn to be driven. Have not driven her single for a long time but she was very hard working as always. A lot to do to get her nicely on the bit though but I know she is a fast learner too! I drove her not too long as she has had two foals in a row and has not yet been working more than a few times a week. We'll start with easy work, short demanding sequences and not too much trot in the beginning and a longer nice walk in the end - you really don't want to bore a shetty with too much difficult things to do directly or ask to much strenghtwise in the beginning after a longer pause in training!

Last but not least I drove Verano. He is tooooo fat and I have now started to drive him again regulary. He had to work a bit more in trot than Paulette and with the heavier gig, and worked again a lot with him to get him to be comfortable with the whip, which he has been very freightened of ever since we got him :/ It takes still a lot work to make him understand the meaning of the whip in driving, or I should say he is used to it now gradually and understands already its meanings but he still doesn't trust 100% that it won't hit him. It is hard to tell a horse that you won't use it for that, wish I just could say to him that I would never ever beat him and he would understand :( Needs just a calm mind, time and routine! Love him, he is always a hard worker too and tries his best and you wouldn't believe how his trot feels like in the carrige, he just flies!

Coach wanted!

Oh no!!! What disappointment! Heard yesterday that one of my trainers Ben Simonsén comes to Vaasa for training on a day that I can't participate :P Had so looked forward to train again under his supportive attityde and in fact would had surpriced him by driving pair instead of just Ivanhoe... Well, that plan did not work out! :) Took immediately plan B. in action and called my other trainer Leena Rimpiläinen at Laukanmäki Stable and asked if there was any driving times left for Andreas Hesse who would be there coaching the same week... We'll see how that plan goes, would be fun to show him, too, what we have learnt with Ivanhoe since last time we drove for him. If plan B. doesn't work - well, I'll just have to exercise by myself then!

The first touch to driving (except for trotters of course) I got already when I did my equine studies in Häme Polytechnic/Mustiala in 1999 as we had a driving course at Ypäjä Equine Collage with Hans Sidbäck as a teacher. I'll always member how unbeliveable it was to drive his pair of North Swedish coldblood stallions and how exactly perfect his stables and tack-room always was and should be kept!  But here a few words of my trainers then for whom I have been driving lately!

Leena Rimpiläinen is a colleague and friend of mine and equine teacher at Kiuruvesi Equine Collage, she is one of two certificated driving teachers in Finland and driving stable owner. She has competed at national level with her Finnhorses of which you can here see me driving Mäntymäen Velmu with - Leena as a groom. What a stallion! Leena is very exact of security and teaches with a firm attitude.

Ben Simonsén has won the Finnish Championships a few times with single and pair and has got a silver medal from World Championships, too. Ben is a relaxed and supportive trainer and a true professional from whom you learn A LOT every time! Ben is here driving Ivanhoe at regional training camp.

For Andreas Hesse I have driven only once and he of course has the most strict (german? :) ) attityde to driving, you will learn to drive exactly as it is traditionally ment with him, but he is still a very relaxed and fun trainer, too. Andreas is for example the former trainer of the Finnish national team and a well know trainer in several countries, both riders and drivers. Verano was trained long reins with Andreas this summer and I think he liked Verano a lot!

Flashback

Yes, had my friend over at Sunday to introduce her a bit to traditional driving instead of driving with trotters, and of course we took a short driving pass with the pair. A few days later she asked when we will drive again so if I now do this right I might get a groom for my pair... ;)

Wanted to share a few photos of all the ponies I've been driving since 2008 :)

Okana 3 years and I at Ylivieska Breed Show long rein class in 2011

Okana at a driving training with Leena Rimpiläinen as a coach in 2010

We bought this carrige from Sweden before even knowing if the ponies would work well as a pair...

... and of course they did! Swinghill's Paulette at right and Okana at left viewed from the drivers seat. Here for the first time driven in pair...

... and in the end of the summer participating at Seinäjoki breed show in performance classes, driving class easy - classwinners and Performance Champion of the day! This top moment happened in August 2011.

Ivanhoe av Friheten in the three photos above. First long reins in competition in Ylivieska (winner) and also chose to be the Performance classes Reserve Champion at the same show (photo in the middle). Last photo taken in Mustiala Shettis Cup  finals 2011 where we where third in both driving and long reins.

Verano Lee v.d. Zandkamp and me driving with Aksel above. The second photo is of Leena Rimpiläinen and Verano at a driving training at our stable in 2011.

Updates

So now for all you who are interested in who we and our ponies are, I made pages for each and every one as you can see here above. Now you can read a bit of our driving back ground.

As you all entusiast probably know, the worldchampionships in Pony Driving is competed in Pau this weekend, so don't miss the livefeed today of the marathon!

Pony Driving World Championships!