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!