This message is from: "Teressa Kandianis" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Anne and Wez were also recently featured in Flying Changes, a northwest
dressage magazine. Beautiful photographs in a two page spread and interview
with Anne. I had a number of people mention it to me and I finally bought
an issue at a local tack shop.
Our clinician at our barn is Paula Kierkegaard. She authored parts of the
dressage manual -- which I don't know the correct name of -- and is a high
level judge, trained in Germany etc etc. I have been riding Nina again
since mid December when her baby was weaned. At our last clinic, I rode
Nina for Paula. Nina is getting very fit again and I am starting to canter
more regularly (I'm a rank novice). Paula loved Nina's look and her
movement and volunteered that fjords show well in dressage throughout
Europe. And Paula doesn't make nice - she gives her opinions very
definitively. The clinic was after a period of ups and downs with Nina that
were starting to settle into ups. Sometimes she still kicks or bucks when I
first ask for the canter but 3 days out of 5, she transitions smoothly.
The other thing that has happened at my barn is that a guy who does the turn
outs and turn ins is a retired horse breaker. He used to take mustangs from
the wild horse sales and break them for riding. In his early days, he says,
he was a horse breaker; but then he met "an old guy who spent a year
watching wild horses" and who trained him in what we usually call natural
horsemanship. He thought all us gals at the barn treated our horses like
"oh, poor fluffy" (his words) and mentioned that he had a guaranteed way to
insure behavior. He spent an hour or so each day for 3 days with Nina and I
and what a huge difference in her listening. She watches me for cues, minds
beautifully, and if she attempts to be the boss, just a touch of reminder
and she accepts me as the dominant mare again. Of course, she caught on to
the program more quickly than the hotter blooded horses at our jumping barn.
Once she was desensitized to a rope, not even the cowbell behind her back
made her startle. Doyle says his techniques are most like those of Clinton
Anderson. Now we're all in line for him to work with our horses. And his
techniques are as gentle as you can imagine. Doyle has been fascinated with
my fjords and has begged for the chance to work with Zorah Belle, our
Raynor/Nina filly. Zoobie, as we all call her, is a zoomer like her mom and
dad and soaks up training like a little sponge so I'm also happy to get
Doyle's imprint on her. Lord, but I wish she would shed out - there's more
fur on her than a polar bear. She moves around in a cloud of her own
creation.
Teressa Kandianis in rainy Northwest Washington State.
