In the past few weeks my motivation has reached a new low, mostly because we have no arena. But this week a new problem emerged. Bosco is barefoot and has never worn shoes. He grew up at Trollspeilet where the ground is mostly made up by river sand. This will not become as muddy or as hard as the ground where I keep him now. And we have got alot more gravel roads so his hoofs needs to adjust abit and before they do, he is not comfertable.
This was a problem in may, when it was wet everywhere, exept on the roads, and its a problem now.
The other day I wanted to train him in the round pen, but quickly realised that was not a good idea, as he was so touchy on his frontlegs he was almost lame. The roundpen is usually ok, but now anything else than grass was not comfertable. Of course I get worried that there might be something else than just sore hoofs (have no idea what the english expression for this is), so when the vet was at the stable on thursday I asked him to take a look at Bosco. He did not think it was anything else and I should keep him where he is comfertable until he comes back next week to see if there is any change.
This has also given me a kick in the butt, I have to get boots for him! I have been planning to order some for a long time, but since its impossible to buy boots over the counter I have hesitated since I want to try them on. I got a tip about someone who imports Renegades and she has boots I can try before ordering, nice! I think renegades is the way to go with his hoofs, atleast according to others who has tried different boots. So now we will try them out and be more carefull at spring and autumn, where his hoofs are the most sensitive.
Hopefully he will be allright with the boots, or else I would have to consider to shoe him, but I don't want to do that unless I have no other choice. Whats most important is that Bosco is comfertable.
He showed me today that he is more than comfertable outside in the pasture. When I let him out after feeding him he was really playful. Tried to get the other horses to play with him. Fist victim was Stelpa, a small medium aged icelandic horse who is the lowest ranked horse in the herd. She wasn't that interested, but Bosco kept chasing her around, throwing his neck, rearing and rolling over multiple times. After a while he got bored with her and moved on to "Flekken" (the norwegian version of the nickname Spot). With a full fronal assault he tried to get him to play with him, but no luck there either. I was watching with a friend and we tried to get her horses to play with Bosco, but no luck there either. We quickly realised that her horses are his ladies, and not playmates. Oh well, atleast he doesn't have any pain when he is in his pasture. I will just give him the time off while I buy boots and hopefully we have a solution!
Showing posts with label Bosco. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bosco. Show all posts
Sunday, October 03, 2010
Saturday, July 31, 2010
Clinic with David and Skills at Arms!
At wednesday and thursday this week I've been attending yet another clinic with David Oliveira. Seems it will be the last one of this year so I'm happy that I managed to attend.
Bosco is still quite young both in his physique and in his mind so we mostly worked at easy exercises for loosening of the neck. The day before the clinic I had asked Pelle to help me a bit with the left side since I've had some troubles with it for the past few weeks. Luckily for me, Pelle had just picked up David from the airport so they were both sitting beside the arena and cooperated on helping me. Win! This "lesson" I was to exaggerate the flexing to the inside on both hands. Keep the flexion until he released, then push forward with seat and legs. This worked really well and we managed to get the left side almost as good as the right side.
During the clinic we worked on the flexibility of the neck, alternating flexing to the outside and the inside. We also worked at mobilization to the outside and to the inside, not as much as we have done before but some to engage his hindlegs a bit more.
Cantering has been a problem for us because of the small round pen, we have just a small space, and Bosco isn't really strong enough to canter as collected as he has to. So while we had an arena we worked a lot on the canter. First we worked on both canters only in the big circles, then during the clinic we proceeded to canter at the circle, then over the diagonal, trot in the corner then new canter. We actually managed to do this quite well, I think we only missed one of the transitions. It was hard to maintain the right rhythm across the diagonal, but this will get better when he gets stronger. The last lesson we could actually do canter serpentines with canter, trot, canter transitions on the center line. They might not be good enough for a dressage test yet, but we're getting there, slow but steady! We also used trot, halt transitions, while at halt I was to collect Bosco and back up a few steps before going forward again. After doing this a couple of times his trot became more collected and I had some really nice rein-backs, which I don't think I've ever managed to do with Bosco. Fun fun!
Bosco is still quite young both in his physique and in his mind so we mostly worked at easy exercises for loosening of the neck. The day before the clinic I had asked Pelle to help me a bit with the left side since I've had some troubles with it for the past few weeks. Luckily for me, Pelle had just picked up David from the airport so they were both sitting beside the arena and cooperated on helping me. Win! This "lesson" I was to exaggerate the flexing to the inside on both hands. Keep the flexion until he released, then push forward with seat and legs. This worked really well and we managed to get the left side almost as good as the right side.
During the clinic we worked on the flexibility of the neck, alternating flexing to the outside and the inside. We also worked at mobilization to the outside and to the inside, not as much as we have done before but some to engage his hindlegs a bit more.
Cantering has been a problem for us because of the small round pen, we have just a small space, and Bosco isn't really strong enough to canter as collected as he has to. So while we had an arena we worked a lot on the canter. First we worked on both canters only in the big circles, then during the clinic we proceeded to canter at the circle, then over the diagonal, trot in the corner then new canter. We actually managed to do this quite well, I think we only missed one of the transitions. It was hard to maintain the right rhythm across the diagonal, but this will get better when he gets stronger. The last lesson we could actually do canter serpentines with canter, trot, canter transitions on the center line. They might not be good enough for a dressage test yet, but we're getting there, slow but steady! We also used trot, halt transitions, while at halt I was to collect Bosco and back up a few steps before going forward again. After doing this a couple of times his trot became more collected and I had some really nice rein-backs, which I don't think I've ever managed to do with Bosco. Fun fun!
Cantering is still heavy work, but at least he got his hindlegs with him
David managed to get Bosco a bit worked up and crashed into the other horses who, by coincidence was on the exact same place in the arena.
Pelle is showing off to the photographer
(he has got a whip in his hand, but aims quite well so you can't see it :p)
David and Pelle is playing knights with whips as lances
Wednesday was a hot day, Bosco almost changed color
Flexion to the outside
I just want to finish off with this picture. I have never seen myself sit as correctly as this before. I'm quite amazed actually! Still got things to improve here aswell, but this is a huge step forward!
Unfortunately I don't have any pictures from thursday as it was pouring down all day. There was some pictures taken but the rain was so heavy that the automatic focus, focused on the rain.
After the clinic was finished I stayed for one more night so that I didn't have to drive home the same day. This morning me and a friend wanted to try out skills. Skill at Arms is a competition where you use sword, spear and lance in different exercises. Here is a video of Luke Binks, a knight from Australia who has been at Trollspeilet the last couple of months, riding through the skills course I trained at today. The amazing commentaries is done by Pelle.
I tried the spear, sword and the lance and Bosco behaved amazingly good. I was quite surprised. Even with me hitting the quintain in full speed canter he didn't even flinch when I hit the metal plate. He might be a good horse for jousting! We also jumped the small jump, and Bosco jumped correctly and didn't even try to run on the outside! I beat my old record of spins on the quintain, the old record was 4 or 6 (don't really remember), now I got 8 and that was the only time we counted. Fun Fun!
And on a side note to this last bit, during the second weekend of july there was an unofficial world championship in jousting, in France. Norway won, out of 10 teams! The Norwegian team consisted of Lisa Holar, Petter Ellingsen and Erik Ryen. Second place went to the Australian team who consisted of one norwegian, Pelle, one from australia, Luke Binks and a german guy. Lisa, Petter, Pelle and Luke are good friends of mine so this was fun for many of us!
These guys compete in full scale medieval armor and it looks spectacular! Pictures can be seen at this thread (on both pages). Pelle has a green shield with a white horse, Luke is wearing black and yellow, Petter has the brown and white horse and Lisas horse has a green cover.
For you norwegian readers: here is a couple of articles:
Friday, May 21, 2010
New improvements
After the productive lesson last time, Bosco has mostly been sore so I haven't been able to train very well. I have tried to make the best out of it in the round pen, but somehow I haven't made it work. This thursday, Pelle was at Årungen with all the others who haven't moved yet, and he was so nice to come over to Røed just for me.
The lesson was quite intence for my part. We started out in walk, flexed to the outside. Bosco didn't really want to do it and I usually tense up when doing something "new". Need to remember to relax the legs, be flexible in the hip and follow the movement. After a few rounds on each hand we started working in trot. Pelle told me to change hand, and when I did, he asked me "what did you do when you turned the horse?" to that I answered "hmm, not sure". He asked me to change hand again, and asked the same question, still no good answer from me. After doing the same thing 5 times I noticed what I did, I pulled in the inside rein. *sigh* When I pull back the inside rein, he tenses up and "fall apart".
So next excersise was to change hand with the same work we started last time. When riding alongside the wall: start by looking the direction you want to go, push forward with the outside rein while relaxing the inside leg and step down in the inside stirrup. Sit on the inside seatbone and lift the outside seatbone, support the outside with the outside leg. The horse will then turn, when it has turned "enough", push forward with the inside rein while relaxing both legs, stepping down in both stirrups and sit with both seatbones, the horse will go straight forwards. Go straight for a few steps, then push forwards with the previous inside rein (now outside), step down in the new inside stirrup, relax the leg, and sit with new inside seatbone while lifting the new outside seatbone, support the new outside with the outside leg. I had to do this "a few" times before getting it correct, but it is funny how easily I can manouvre the horse when I do it right!
This lesson I really noticed how much space he needs on the outside, especially on the left hand. The left side is the stong side, while the right side is the flexible side. He gets easily tensed on the left side, right side is alot easier with the flexion and almost no tension, on the right side we lack impulsion.
I have been struggeling with the canter almost since I got him, but it goes up and down. Pelle told me to canter, and I said I don't know how to do it. Every time I try to work at it, we both just tense up and always end up with the left hand canter. First Pelle took the "motivation stick" and poked abit on Boscos hindlegs. He wasn't too pleased with that, but in the end he did what he was asked to: step further with the hindlegs. So after waking up the hindlegs I was supposed to canter. We quickly discovered that I am no way near precise enough for this sensitive little horse. First, I have to ask for canter at the right time. To do this I got Pelle to flick his fingers everytime his hindlegs were at the correct position. Almost everytime I was too slow and Bosco did what I asked of him, I just asked for canter at the wrong time, so he began the left hand canter instead of the right hand. I think I was precise enough two times, and the result was a nice right hand canter.
Now I atleast know what the problem is, then I might be able to do something about it aswell! Poor Bosco was really tired after the lesson, really sweaty too. When I went to let him out into the padock after the lesson he was in a hurry to get "in the shower" and had just passed through the door before he threw himself on to the ground and got his fur all muddy and dusty :D
I wish I had a personal photographer to take pictures during these lessons, but it felt really good and Inga, who was watching said it looked good aswell. So I trust her until I get some picture evidence!
The lesson was quite intence for my part. We started out in walk, flexed to the outside. Bosco didn't really want to do it and I usually tense up when doing something "new". Need to remember to relax the legs, be flexible in the hip and follow the movement. After a few rounds on each hand we started working in trot. Pelle told me to change hand, and when I did, he asked me "what did you do when you turned the horse?" to that I answered "hmm, not sure". He asked me to change hand again, and asked the same question, still no good answer from me. After doing the same thing 5 times I noticed what I did, I pulled in the inside rein. *sigh* When I pull back the inside rein, he tenses up and "fall apart".
So next excersise was to change hand with the same work we started last time. When riding alongside the wall: start by looking the direction you want to go, push forward with the outside rein while relaxing the inside leg and step down in the inside stirrup. Sit on the inside seatbone and lift the outside seatbone, support the outside with the outside leg. The horse will then turn, when it has turned "enough", push forward with the inside rein while relaxing both legs, stepping down in both stirrups and sit with both seatbones, the horse will go straight forwards. Go straight for a few steps, then push forwards with the previous inside rein (now outside), step down in the new inside stirrup, relax the leg, and sit with new inside seatbone while lifting the new outside seatbone, support the new outside with the outside leg. I had to do this "a few" times before getting it correct, but it is funny how easily I can manouvre the horse when I do it right!
This lesson I really noticed how much space he needs on the outside, especially on the left hand. The left side is the stong side, while the right side is the flexible side. He gets easily tensed on the left side, right side is alot easier with the flexion and almost no tension, on the right side we lack impulsion.
I have been struggeling with the canter almost since I got him, but it goes up and down. Pelle told me to canter, and I said I don't know how to do it. Every time I try to work at it, we both just tense up and always end up with the left hand canter. First Pelle took the "motivation stick" and poked abit on Boscos hindlegs. He wasn't too pleased with that, but in the end he did what he was asked to: step further with the hindlegs. So after waking up the hindlegs I was supposed to canter. We quickly discovered that I am no way near precise enough for this sensitive little horse. First, I have to ask for canter at the right time. To do this I got Pelle to flick his fingers everytime his hindlegs were at the correct position. Almost everytime I was too slow and Bosco did what I asked of him, I just asked for canter at the wrong time, so he began the left hand canter instead of the right hand. I think I was precise enough two times, and the result was a nice right hand canter.
Now I atleast know what the problem is, then I might be able to do something about it aswell! Poor Bosco was really tired after the lesson, really sweaty too. When I went to let him out into the padock after the lesson he was in a hurry to get "in the shower" and had just passed through the door before he threw himself on to the ground and got his fur all muddy and dusty :D
I wish I had a personal photographer to take pictures during these lessons, but it felt really good and Inga, who was watching said it looked good aswell. So I trust her until I get some picture evidence!
Friday, March 26, 2010
Springtime!
Yes, spring has arrived with its nice warm temperatures, and what does that mean? Well, lets just say that we take off our big winter coats, so does the horse ><
It was actually more fur than it looks like, most of it is wet here.
Bosco is not the only horse who sheds his fur!
He is alot more calm when he is inside alone now, than what he was just a few days ago.
Tired after some work in the arena
Good pictures isn't easy when you are alone with a cellphone camera and the horse wants to follow you where ever you go.
The work in the arena keep improving. Or i should say, I am improving. Bosco works just fine if I can keep my seat where it is supposed to be and keep my hips free of tension. So I've got some work to do, but thats nothing new.
I have a few weeks left to train before I will be attending a clinic with David Oliveira. Will be fun to see what he thinks of Bosco. Hopefully I will find someone who can transport us up to Trollspeilet! Next time I will be able to drive myself!
Yes, I have changed the layout again. The other one messed up my headlines.
Sunday, March 21, 2010
First week!
Bosco last summer.
So, first week has come and gone, and I have had a wonderful time!
Bosco had to be vaccinated from the beginning again because of the old ones had expired, so he had tuesday off and wednesday we only did some light work in the arena.
Thursday we had our first lesson for Pelle. I was focusing on three things;
*flexible in the hips
*contact
*forward!
I started working in walk, working to get an active seat with a flexible hip and get the right contact. At the beginning I tried to use my legs to get impulsion, but my hip wasn't flexible enough so that didn't work. Pelle told me to relax my legs, weight down, but relaxed, and just use my seat and ride him into the contact. Suprise! it worked. For a while I kept working on riding him into the contact and once I got contact, try and stretch his neck down and forwards.
After a while we started working with the same in trot and I learned a new thing today! While working in rising trot I kept a two-beat-rythm with my feet. Weight down both when I stand up and when I sit down. With this technique I had a lighter seat and Bosco responded immediately! I had to keep working on this rythm, contact on the reins and turn my upper body to the inside of the circle so to keep my shoulders in line with Boscos shoulders.
We also tried canter, the main obstacle here is my hips. Bosco will not canter faster than I can move my hips, so if I tense up he simply won't canter! So the key is to relax and really get the motion through the hip, I did and he was cantering around. Pelle told me to try to speed up the rythm, I did and Bosco responded with a brisker pace. Then he told me to slow down a bit, and Bosco responded better than I think I've ever felt before! fun!
The next few days I have been practicing the same things as we worked on, on thursday. There is improvement from day to day!
Today I had more or less good contact for almost the intire duration of the work in the arena. After finishing the work in the arena I wanted to take him out for a little walk in the area around the stable. I have never been on hacks out here so I really had no idea where to go, so I just followed the road for a while before heading home again.
Bosco has been known to be some what "hysterical" before so I was prepared for almost anything. I was quite suprised of the way he acted, I wouldn't call it "calm". But for a young, iberian who has just come to a new place I think he behaved quite well! He is what I would call "awake", he looks at different things, but he never turns around or try to run. He might stop or trot a few steps, but thats easy to prevent when I just focus. We passed lots of different things today, scary things like mail boxes, garbage cans and tarpaulin blowing in the wind, and he just walks forward with his ears topped at all times. Good boy!
Before I left him today, I went outside to look at him from the stable. You can look down from the indoor area and on to the pen, where all the horses are. He was on the part furthest away from the stable, eating. He noticed someone up where I was at, looked directly at me and neighed at me, before he continued to eat. Weird, I thought and went back inside. 5 minutes later I went back out to see what he did now, and once again, he looked directly at me, neighed and went back to eating. He is weird, but cute! :D
Monday, March 15, 2010
Weird horse
Yes, I have a weird horse. After some light work in the arena, i let him out back in the herd again. The first thing he did was to roll over a few times before he sat up and did this;
First i thought he couldn't get up, then I realised that he was scratching and was enjoing it aswell! Look at his muzzle :D
And he didn't want to wait for the water, ice is the same thing, only frozen !
Sunday, March 14, 2010
The Bosco has arrived!
After having a few problems with car, driver and transport we were finally on our way to pick up Bosco.
Last time we tried to load him on to the transport he didn't really want to. I think we spendt about 25 minutes to get him in. Today he stopped twice, then walked right in, Good boy! While driving he was so quiet i was almost worried because there was no sound, has he jumped out? But no, he was just eating and did not seem too worried about it.
Once we arrived at Årungen I had to put him in a stall and leave him there while I returned the transport and the nice drivers could get themselves home. That took about an hour, and I came back to let him out in the new herd.
The herd consists of all kinds of breeds and they were quite interested in this new guy. Only one, I think he is the boss, was "mean" to him. He only told Bosco, who the boss is, and that he should stay away. Which he did ;)
Other than that a few other horses tried to push him around. It was funny looking at this big, fat Fjordhorse tried to chase him, but Bosco was abit faster in the turns than the other horse. He easily gets away from kicks and bites. It's nice to have a horse that is bred to bullfighting, they know how to turn quickly!
This is fun! :D
Last time we tried to load him on to the transport he didn't really want to. I think we spendt about 25 minutes to get him in. Today he stopped twice, then walked right in, Good boy! While driving he was so quiet i was almost worried because there was no sound, has he jumped out? But no, he was just eating and did not seem too worried about it.
Once we arrived at Årungen I had to put him in a stall and leave him there while I returned the transport and the nice drivers could get themselves home. That took about an hour, and I came back to let him out in the new herd.
The herd consists of all kinds of breeds and they were quite interested in this new guy. Only one, I think he is the boss, was "mean" to him. He only told Bosco, who the boss is, and that he should stay away. Which he did ;)
Other than that a few other horses tried to push him around. It was funny looking at this big, fat Fjordhorse tried to chase him, but Bosco was abit faster in the turns than the other horse. He easily gets away from kicks and bites. It's nice to have a horse that is bred to bullfighting, they know how to turn quickly!
This is fun! :D
Friday, March 12, 2010
Bosco de Almeida
That is the name of my new horse! Yes, he is MINE! teehee
Bosco was borned April 21st 2006 in Portugal. He came to Norway with his two brothers, Bilro and Brasil, in december 2007. Since then he has lived at Trollspeilet. Now some pictures!
Now I only have to arrange for transport to get him to his new home. Stupid of me not to take the BE drivers license before winter came!
Bosco is a wonderful, sensitive horse and I can't wait to get him home and start training :D
Bosco was borned April 21st 2006 in Portugal. He came to Norway with his two brothers, Bilro and Brasil, in december 2007. Since then he has lived at Trollspeilet. Now some pictures!
Bosco, Brasil and Bilro in Portugal 2007
The iberians look so weird when they are young, haha
Same as above, Bosco in the middle
First winter in Norway, Bilro, Bosco and Brasil
And yes, they do get a nice thick wintercoat! spring 08 i think
Summer 2008
Summer 2008
January 2009
June 2009
June 09, first time with a rider.
Summer 09
Summer 09
Summer 09
September 09
September 09
also summer 09
Bosco is a wonderful, sensitive horse and I can't wait to get him home and start training :D
Sunday, February 07, 2010
One-day-course with Pelle, and tryouts round two!
Pelle from Trollspeilet had a one-day-course at the stable today, he brought Bosco so I could "test drive" some more. I have to say, I really like that horse!
My assignment for today was to get the right movement in my hip. The movement is the same as when you are doing "squats", and apperantly I didn't know how to perform them. Luckily for me, Pelle is also experienced with training people, not only horses. The trick is not to just collapse in the knees, but to push the bum back and pretend to have a weightbar across the shoulders and lift it up. Lift the horse, through the back, and up in each step.
It's funny how well you can feel Bosco's back when he works correctly, and almost everytime i manage to get the aids correct he "prustet" (horse blows through his nose, relaxing sound). He gives good feedback on whats right and whats wrong. We did mostly walk and trot, some canter but not to much.
pictars!
A big thanks to Sissel, for being my photographer for the day!
Pelle having fun, running infront of the camera
A big thanks to Sissel, for being my photographer for the day!
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Tryouts, round one!
Today, I drove up to Trollspeilet to try out Bosco. Bosco is a 4 year old lusitano, came to Norway in 07 and has been at Trollspeilet since then. They just started to ride him this fall, and I tried him out for the first time in November.
Bosco is a funny little guy, very sensitive and he reacts to everything I do. It was cloudy and snowing so the photos didn't turn out great, but this is what I got. Furball alert!
Bosco is a funny little guy, very sensitive and he reacts to everything I do. It was cloudy and snowing so the photos didn't turn out great, but this is what I got. Furball alert!
And on another note, I finally got "dressage for the 21st century" by Paul Belasik in the mail today! and it was signed! :o
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