Holiday-mode

As we horse-people do not have holidays like 'normal' people one has to arrange a medium-holiday-existance, it is after all summer and it has to be lived. Being a ex-teacher I have an inbuilt summer-holiday-mode that I can swich-on, out comes books and a little creativity if I tune in that mode. I love philosophy, soul-food books bursting with wisdom from those who have spent many more hours than me cultivating their minds. There was a (10 years or so) period in my life when I did serious Buddhist meditation retreats for 10 days in India, England and Sweden, meditating from 4 am to 10 pm in the evening. I remember arriving to one camp in England talking to the taxi driver and I started to feel very anxious as it I knew that I had many hours of hard work in front of me. He looked at me and said - Well, I think the only thing you need is to sit down with your friends and have a cup of coffee... So simple and so spot on, it was exactly what I longed to do as I had just arrived from working 1 year in Centralamerica and I had not seen my friends for a long time, this was a person that could see the person in front of him, lovely.
So yesterday I spent the day with one of my best friends, we went to the spa (were we lodge our clients normally) and whilst the bubbles took care of us we chatted away, it is good to take care of oneself, you have to serve yourself to be able to serve others.
Today I read these lines that spoke to me;
The secret of sucess is constancy of purpose'
- Benjamin Disraeli -
and
'You will never be able to hit a target that you cannot see'
- Anonymous -
From one thing to the other, Donoso have had many mares this year, very exciting!
Info for mare owners;
Flyinge tar nu inte emot nya ston men det går fortfarande bra att beställa semin till andra stationer i landet!
This is Donut and I in the authentic spanish countryside today, great fun, it is luxury to ride a perfectly balanced horse that floats over the rocks - viva los caballos españoles! These are baby-bulls. As you can see he has a piece of his right ear missing, someone took a bite in his early years.

Pictures from a full day in Jade

Yesterday we had a full day in Jade, in the morning I rode Donoso, whilst Start and Festivo two had relax in paddock and sunbathing. In the afternoon I worked Start did with the Pessoa and some friends came to see Festivo.

Here we are all of us - enjoy!

Warm up short and effective as it is very hot

Working Donut's flying changes

Start in the morning

Tempis!

Stretching

Start on the Pessoa 

Festivo MR

Donoso VII






























Festivo MR































Start

Midsommar!

Ja, hur gör man midsommar i Spanien - jo, på IKEA så klart! Blev äkta svensk köttbulls-lunch innan shopping monstret släpptes lös. Stod välkomnande MIDSOMMAR med stora bokstäver över hela väggen och det kändes så klart bra. Det blev möbler till sovrum, gästrum, mattor, en helt underbart bekväm vit chefs-kontor-fotölj och en massa hemtrevliga fixi-fixi saker som bara IKEA kan komma på. Och så MAT GODIS och massor med GODIS. Jag skulle så klart tagit ett foto men nu var det 37 grader och man blir lätt lightheaded i dessa temperaturer så det glömdes bort och vi kastade oss in i bilen för aircondition fullt ös. Nu sitter jag här med ett nytt fint hem, fotboll då är obligatorisk och tyvärr helt oundviklig, och tittar på ett helt spektakulärt åsk-nummer över våra väldiga berg och vyer. Åska är underbart, hög mysfaktor, som jul. Och nu blir det svensk middag med lax, sill, nypotatis, tunnbröd och flädersaft, och sen Marabou Mint-choko - ljuvligt!
Önskar alla en trevlig midsommar helg!

The eye

The eye of the PRE should be clear, dark, big, happy, steady, forward looking and with long thick eyelashes and they should have a triangular/ almond-shape (see below). The eye should not be too close to the base of the ears as it makes the forehead look too large.
Sometimes you can see what seems to be hard wart over both eyes of the foal (see below), these are not warts but in fact horn-embryos. Some say the original pure spanish horse had horns and that this is a sign of purity.
"The unicorn is the only fabulous beast that does not seem to have been conceived out of human fears. In even the earliest references he is fierce yet good, selfless yet solitary, but always mysteriously beautiful. He could be captured only by unfair means, and his single horn was said to neutralize poison."

Every animal has their objective qualities, to me a horse represents goodness, a uncorruptive mind, beauty, natural simplicity, to be present and freedom of spirit.

It happens in summertime!

We have sold our classy mare 'Inma' to a wonderful lady in Sweden, but Donita is mine, mine, mine!

Intimidad Cen
Baby Donita will go on summer holiday camp with two boys and their black mums that we will send to their new home next week. I will have to tell her to be good to them, she has alot of 'skin on her nose', she's a vikinga!
Then we have another beautiful bay mum and son that will be moving with her son to the south of Sweden.









Important!
Uppfödare i Sverige - Donoso har i år betäckt PRE ston samt Svenska Halvblod, Juli är nu sista månaden som du kan betäcka med honom, kontakta mig omgående på info@horsespre.com om Du vill boka Ditt sto!

















This weekend we went to meet and greet people at local PRE championship, it was hot and windy at the same time, lots of beautiful horses and Donut should have been there, but sometimes you have to realize your energy limits and just go with the flow, relax and have fun, so that what we did. More photos will be coming up on some classy PRE horses.

Today we did a vetcheck on a very exclusive black dressage PRE stallion and he passed perfectly, his destination will be Australia! I will announce it on the Horsespre blog and you will be able to see new photos of him on our homepage.

Queen Vikinga

This is a summergreeting from Yeguada VIKINGA PRE's foundation horse Reina Vikinga. Reina is now living in Norway and is slowly growing into her name.

Reina Vikinga, born 2008

Start Int. I in Madrid

Some more photos from the show in Jade yesterday.

Start second place in Intermediate I!

I am so proud of my dear wonderful intelligent horse. This last week we have had two clients and we have done many kilometres again. It seems I have a condition of some kind of arthritis and I am in constant pain which makes me very tired. After trying some hideous medicine that did me in totally, it was impossible to ride, that was last week. But the competition this weekend was in the back of my head becuase I so much wanted to do a PSG. The day before yesterday I was told me there was no PSG, only Intermediate I. So that was that, I had definitely not prepared a Intermediate. Same evening I found a video of lovely swedish rider doing a Intermediate I, I wached it and thought - We can do that!
However the day after, yesterday, my body was knocked out totally and I was all day on the couch. No explanation. Javier helped me with everything and again I thought, I am not supposed to do that competition, I would be pushing myself to hard. We went to stables to say hello thinking we were going out in the evening, Alfredo the owner of Jade and director of competition saw me and asked if I was going to participate and I said I could hardly move. He said - after all that fuss and hassle with those horses of yours, you are competiting tomorrow! I felt this 'ping' inside and some deep urge to ride so I went home to change, went back and did the Intermediate I twice and Start was there up for it..
So today we did it and I enjoyed so much! I was not able to warm him up alot, only a little trot and canter as I had not so much strenght and it needed to be saved. He did not make one miss. Not one. All the changes, tempi twos and threes were perfect, my dear dear horse. I am so lucky.
Here we are.

Cold and rain all day..

Porche was sponsors and prices were generous, no car but that's ok. Thank you!
My lovely horse.