He almost made it...

Yesterday, after more than three years I finally measured Crispin again.

Well, he almost made the 16.0hh mark. He is 162cm high (+/- 0.5cm).

Big Boy.

6 years old and a lesson clip

I can not believe how lazy I've become. Only one blog entry in 6 months. That's bad!

All is well. Dressage is progressing very slowly but very nicely. We addded a little bit of baby jumping, more trail rides and did a "Zirkuslektionen" clinic. And of course Crispin turned 6 years old.

The "Zirkuslektionen" were fun. I really need to take a video of the tricks we've learned.

The jumping also is fun, he is such a good boy about it. Unfortunately our first jumping lesson resulted in a badly strained ankle for me. Not Crispins fault at all. He overjumped big time (which was expected) but since I was in a dressage saddle (in which I have never jumped before) he not only jumped me out of the tack, my leg also slipped back and I think he got scared and took of bucking. Since I already was basically up on his neck at this point, I couldn't hold on and he trew me. It happens...

I also finally got s short clip from one of our dressage lessons with Jenny. We are still doing ridiculously boring "baby" stuff, but I do like the video a lot. He looks so happy and content with what we ask of him. I never took myself as someone who'd go classical dressage, but Jenny's approach (or Klaus Werzinger's approach to classical dressage, to be more precise) seems to be the perfect choice for Crispin.

Crispin Lesson with Jenny May 1st

Like I said, not much to see. The last year we've been working on his balance and straightening him out. The idea was to make him understand that streching out long and low (lifting his back in the process) is what we want from him. Just now we added two new ideas. I will now ask him into a higher frame with more contact (still baby contact) alternating with asking  him to go "all by himself", meaning that he's supposed to find his rhyhtm, ballance and stretch by himself without my interference.

Fun in the Snow!

It's been a while, but well, no news are good news, right?!

There isn't much to report. It's cold, it's winter, it's mostly dark when I arrive at the barn.

We did have some minor breakthroughs in november and Crispin is progressing nicely. Still not much to brag about but I am happy with where we are. I did choose this slow path and I'm sticking with it! (I'd love to get someone to video us in a lesson, but usually my rides are around 8pm, too dark for filming by then.)

I did take some pictures of Crispin in the snow a few weeks ago. Unfortunately, it started to snow again, so the light isn't perfect, but here they are:

Checking out the ladies in the next paddock:

...off he went *wheeee*

...showing off some more...

...and...

...done for the day!

5 years, 6 months

Time for pictures again. Crispin was in no mood to smile, who knows why, so they aren't all that pretty. The last time I took some confo shots was on his 5th birthday 6 months ago. I do see some changes but they are again subtle. A little more muscle along his topline (though, not a much as I would like to) and a little more belly after a good summer...

Ever since he's back at work things have been progressing quite nicely. I started long lining him and started with some ground work on the long rein. And, with the help of Jenny (and with her approval), we took the next step with our ring work: Contact!

I do not have any video footage of that yet, but just a couple of days before Jenny decided that we were indeed ready for more, Meike took this video of us. It shows what we have done so far. I know it really doesn't look like much, but I decided to stick with Jenny's approach of taking it very, VERY slow and so far it has not lead us wrong!

So far, it has basically been about rhythm, balance and straighness and relaxation, all the while staying out of his face...

A Lovely Trail Ride

Today, we went on a lovely and long trail ride. My very good friend Daniela trailered over and we went out together. We've wanted to to this for a long time and today it finally happened. We went over the Autobahn across the Kanal and explored some new trails and even the weather played nice for most of the ride. What more can you wish for.

Farewell Zorro!

Yesterday, I had to let Zorro go. It was no surprise. I'd seen it coming. Her teeth were very bad again and she couldn't eat anymore. I had to hand feed her. She was always a fighter so hand feeding was no problem she even gained some weight. But not being able to eat by herself is no life for a guinea pig.

I took her to the vet to get her jaw x-rayed. Sadly, it turned out that there was no hope for her of ever getting better. Due to arthritic changes in her jaw there was a lot of bone growth. Amazing that she was able to eat with it as long as she did, little fighter, and so I let her go.

Good bye, Zorro, I'm going to miss you.

Shoes

Not for me, obviously, but for Crispin. Like most horse owners I much prefer a barefoot horse if possible, but after the coffin bone incident I decided to give up and try shoeing him for a while. Just in the front. The footing at the new barn is just a little too much for his feet and I do want to go out with him more. But even after 8 weeks of just turnout there wasn't much hoof left to trim, so I decided to give shoeing him a go.

I picked a farrier who might not excell at shoeing (though, I do think he did a decent job!) but seemed to be willing to take his time with Crispin. And he did! I have to say Crispin wasn't half as bad as I had expected. I knew that fitting the hot shoes would be an issue, but even that wasn't too bad. He's not quite comfortable with the shoes jet, no pain or anything, but they seem to have thrown him off balance a little again (like that wasn't an issue anyway!).