Photos from the training camp in Kiuruvesi

Forgot to link the amazing photos TuuliaN. took at the training camp last weekend!



Saturday photos and Sunday photos

Heading for competition!

So now we really are heading for the first combine driving competition with Shetland pair! Pretty amazing! Leaving tomorrow and competing Saturday and Sunday. Both dressage and cones are driven on Saturday and marathon at Sunday. I really shouldn't be blogging but packing right now! The Finnish spring is really not helping either as it has snowed a few cm snow during the night :P 

I have packed some stuff already, unbeliveable how much blankets and stuff you have to have with you with two ponies! Today I will drive the ponies in pair so cleaning up the tack must be done late this evening. Then there is packing of the carcaravan also, very handy to live in during competitions!

I just printed and collected all the documents you need, ponies passports, healthy cards for the driver and groom for marathon etc. Really a lot to remember!

Yesterday I tested if I could plait the ponies manes, looks nice here but as I drove it got loose, so I'll let the original pony breed compete with mane loose waving in the wind :) This is Paulette.

We had the vetenarian come to our stable at Tuesday. All 2 yr olds teeth were checked and wolfteeth removed, also Paulette's, Ivanhoe's and Verano's teeth checked and three young ponies vaccinated. Paulette and Ivanhoe had also to be measured officially due to the competition regulations and the document has to be with them in the competition, Paulette was 99 cm and Ivanhoe surprisingly 104,4 cm. We have got a measurement document of him taken in Sweden when he was a trotting pony and then they had measured him to be 102,9 cm, maybe it is the muscle he now have in his neck that makes him 2 cm higher ;) 

Then we even had a friend massageing Ivanhoe and Paulette, she studies to become a equine masseur. If you have ponies working hard you can't expect them to keep fit if you don't take care of them. Both enjoyed their massage and was pampered with Back on Track backwarmerer blankets afterwards. Next week they'll get their second massage after the competition. They were in quite good muscle condition now which I was pleased to hear as they still had a long stand in the trailer in the weekend to the camp and back home and hard training passes both days, so not any very sore points found, just some harder parts in muscles where one can expect with Shetlands, in the shoulders and lumbar region (hope that is the right term). So they had recovered from the training very good!

Hope I have time to put some photos from the competition on our facebook page during the weekend!

Training camp greetings!

We had a wonderful weekend at Kiuruvesi Equine Collage at combine driving regional training camp! We participated with pair Ivanhoe av Friheten and Swinghill's Paulette. 

At Saturday we drove a dressage training which went quite well and in the evening a second training with cones, both drives was in a manege. It was the first time I drove cones in pair so after one slow round I managed to drive 40 seconds faster the second round, still maybe not fast enough but it will do. In Finland in regional level one is not allowed to gallop so that is a bit of a problem in my pair. Ivanhoe who has been a trotting race pony in Sweden before he came to us is a very good trotter of course and Paulette has sometimes problems to hang along in trot. As she is not as experienced nor trained yet otherwise either she easily starts to gallop, that won't be a problem when we start driving national level :D :D :D if we ever will... We forgot the camera!!! Can you imagine! Thank God for smartphones with a camera...

 

Waiting for the cones training to start with a Shetland pony Qulla. Ivanhoe on the left in pair and Paulette on the right (looked from the viewer, not driver)

 

 Driving dressage on Sunday

On Sunday it was time to drive dressage again, this time we drove on outside arena, which was very heavy for the ponies. We drove the dressage program which will be the program on next weekends competition. Could have driven better but as we had so long very icy roads and snowy fields I have not been able to drive dressage much, it is understandable. Anyway next week we start in a novice class so we'll take it calmly anyway to get a good start with the pair.

At the camp three other Shetland drivers pariticipated, all drive single. It was nice to meet all and get inspired by others who share the same passion - and of course it was very interesting to see all the drivers with horses too! That is not affordable for me now but maybe we drive some other combination later in life, who knows!

Exciting things happening but no time to write!!!

I have had such a nice week this week and hopefully it continues! On Tuesday we drove 170 km to Vaasa to train with Ben Simonsen. I first intended to drive only with Swinghill's Paulette as a single but as the surface was so soft, heavy and snowy we decided to drive half the time with Paulette and the other half with Ivanhoe av Friheten who I took with us only as company for Paulette. Well that was a goos decision because I ended up driving the best excercise ever and he was like a true driving horse to drive in the correct form with a powerful engine behind and a beautifully bent/curved neck just gliding forward. I will probably never forget the feeling and now I know for the rest of my life how it should feel when a horse is driven correctly, easier to find the right form and energy now again! Sadly Marko was occupied with the other pony and did not take photos of video but hopefully we drive as beautiful as this more often now so I could show you!

On Wednesday I drove to Vasa again, Management Institute Finland has a program for equine entrepreneurs and I went there teaching process and quality thinking in equine companies. Had good discussions of the possibilities and threats of equine industries in Finland, always nice to meet people who work their ass of with horses (to be outspoken) and still love it.

Well today I was teaching, again! This time at the equine institute in Kaustinen, famous for educating world class grooms for trotting horses. It was a group of adults who study leatherwork and harnessmaking and needed a presentation of driving harnesses (not trotting but this traditional used in combine driving) and of driving as a sport in general. Paulette and Ivanhoe showed them single and pair driving. The institute is located at Nikula trotting race track so a lot of trotters was there training and I can tell you we scared the hell out of a few of them while driving... It is very common that big horses are afraid of small Shetlands, they did not seem to understand it was just horses in a smaller scale they met :)

 

 Driving at Nikula trotting centr, photo a bit dark but had the nice browbands Anita made on bridles for the first time and now the browband is perfect in lenght, the ones they had from the factory was too short for my ponies. I also used Mias Ridsport harness pads (well not a "pad" really, it is the same fabric and material as thin plaid saddle pads, no suitable word in English for them as there is in Finnish)

And as this would not have been enough program for this week... Tomorrow we take our pair ponies, carriages, harnesses, rugs etc. and stuff it all in two cars and trailer and head to Kiuruvesi (another 180 km drive) for training camp in combine driving! Several Shetland driver newbies will come and some more experienced drivers with their horses, so I think it might be a good recipe for an interesting weekend! That will be good training also for the next weekend as then we intend to drive to Ypäjä and the first combine driving competitions - and first ever for me in pair! If it all goes as planned, lets hope so!

One step closer...

We have been breaking our three year old boys to harness, they have been longreining now an then during the last year, mostly single but even pair with the calm teacher Ivanhoe. A few days ago I got the feeling that Thorin is ready for the first drive so we took him out for a short drive. And he took it of course very calmly. Love this our first homebread colt, he is such a keeper!

New browbands!

Anita makes these beautiful browbands in all possible colors with your horses or ponies names and we finally got ours! I wanted calm colors for combine driving events so black with brown letters for pair and diamond letters with Ax Driving Team was the texts and looks I chose.

It is very handy to have the name on the bridles when driving pair and you pick easily the right bridle for the right pony. So Paulette and Ivanhoe got their own browbands. They are also made a bit longer than the browband in Ideal harness bridles I bought earlier from Hessi-tarvike, because I think they where a bit too short and it would have been possible for the bridle to come forward over the ears. That is anyway a problem with Shetlands and their thick mane. For competitions I therefore also usually plait the forlock in bunch with the crownpiece. Safety first!

If you want to have a browband with your ponies name, contact Anita via her facebook group! She ships abroad, too!