Start-diary Sweden 2009

These photos were taken here in Jade, Madrid yesterday, below the diary of competitions and training in Sweden 2009, See albums under Start's page here

17-08-2009: Elisabet Lundholm training. Pretty much went through all teqnical; Half pass, shoulder in, passage-piaffe transitions, tempi ones, twos and threes - fun, fun! His passagy trot is beautiful, what a lovely feeling. Start makes me very happy, he is such a sensitive and sweet horse.
27/28-07-2009: Training with Elisabet in Ängelholm. How refreshing and inspiring! This lady is positive as few and such a good teacher. She helped me with my Martini mare (SWB) a few years ago and just like then I now felt encouraged and inspired by her help. She isn't just a horse and dressage master, she is a good pedagogue too. It is an art to be clear in communication, give constructive advice and be open to both rider and horse. Her authority comes natural from knowledge through experience. She has been the national team coach for swedens dressage team, now she trains national team in eventing. Elisabet also helps riders at other levels develop their riding and gives courses in leadership development. Video;

2009-07-26: Start's fourth competiton. This time indoor. I observed almost all competitors this time, we had a good overwiew of warming up as the competiton arena where on the opposite side. As usual there were many 30+ in my class. Saw some nice horses, some quite limited in their movements and many were on their front. I saw one that ambled (?) and another that was totally uncomfortable in his hindlegs, painfully tense and jerked his hocks in all sideway movements and walk pirouettes. When I saw the scores in the end, frankly, I did not understand anything. Very confusing indeed. So I decided to have the judge explain it to me. As I can only talk for myself I discussed the issues with reference to my own performance. My protocol had only negative remarks. I did not do a spotless performance, but there was alot of quality movement, elegance, harmony and correct performed movements. These qualities where not reflected in my protocol, not with numbers nor with words. My conclusion is that when we focus on the negative we get lost. We got a big applaud in the end.
2009-06-07: Competition in Kungsbacka. Wonderful feeling and Start was super with all the teqnical. He happily wanted to play with the others warming up, did not get much response as they found him a little frightening which he liked, he said - come on warmbloods let's have some fun - but they were all very serious and concentrated.. Got a pretty good score although we had some silly mistakes, very relaxed, good flow, rhytm and energy. Next time we will do another program two levels up, we know this one now, ready for new stuff!
2009-05-24: Big national competitions with some impressive horses and some good riders to be inspired by. Start was totally elegant, simply stunning and hat was cooperative. We did some good stuff but score was not so exciting so I had to meditate a little on that as several things did not make much sense to me. My conclusion is that I choose to give importance to the positive. The totally exhilarating feeling of making a complicated movement beautiful, balanced and being in harmony with my horse is happiness for me. Start is such a talented happy-go-fun-loving individual and at the same time serious, ambitious and pedantic. We enjoy it all! See photos here
2009-05-10: First competition in Sweden, so much fun! We got the score we need to qualify for national competitions - 62.9% - so very very content! Start was brilliant although we did not get much warm up and had quite a few mistakes for this reason. We had a silly incident with the hat that simply did not want to stay on, it was very very windy, and this brand new hat did not have any string.. Excuse me hatmakers? At one point I thought I would had to ride in, let the silly hat blow off and continue without it, but luckily assistance came from very kind & helpful PRE friends so we got something (rather big) on head and could warm up at least alittle and do the thing. Thank You so very much Therese! In Sweden you are hardly allowed to sit on a horse if not wearing a helmet or hat, it is a bit uptight, but very safe and very correct yes. Looking forward to next competition!