Few things put me in a better mood than watching little girls play with very big horses. Tiny human beings learning the power of asking gentle giants nicely instead of demanding and scolding. Watching reservations on both sides melt away and turn into mutual trust.
Any equine can do training with poles, obstacles, and new sensations. There’s no magic secret, just communicating. Exposing horses to new things help them learn to trust that we really do know best—so that when something unexpected happens, their response is to ask us what to do instead of bolting or panicking. This is a game humans and horses play together, where humans come up with challenges and obstacles, and horses show humans that pshaw, that’s nothing.
Training last Sunday turned out to be day of the cold-bloods. I present to you, in no particular order, haflinger Nando, Jutland draft Emilie, and fjord pony, Loke—the cold-blood allstars.
Emilie has always had a thing for little girls. Remember this one from a few years back?
Yesterday we drove down to spectate at Pitt Stop’s first agility meet. It was awesome! The weather was being extremely Danish, sunshine alternating with heavy showers, and the light was not friendly to my camera — but all the same, I captured some moments in time that are worth sharing. If only my camera had not run out of battery half way through!
Edit: Someone told me Thor and Michael are stallions. They are not. But they’re still big, red, and sexy.
Today we introduced Pilar to the outdoors agility field, not that there was anything there she hadn’t seen from the paddock earlier. That seesaw thing, though — step up on, check. Eek, it moves! Perfect excuse to dash over and ask for a treat from Alvin (who was doing the filming).