Riding High

After sitting through the Henrik Johansen dressage clinic at Wacky Nut Farm all weekend and watching some fabulous horses and riders, I am having a "Riding High." It's been almost a year since I purchased Ben and he has come such a long way in his training. I can happily say that we are finally in connection. When I ride, I can feel what he needs, I give it to him and in return he relaxes, lifts his back, rounds his topline and gives me his all. It's so exciting because today I was actually able to have a good photo taken of me riding him. In my riding lesson today, my trainer Ulla Boysen, commented that Ben has improved 1000 times since we started lessons with her last fall. He has overcome many obstacles and at one point I thought that he was unsound and had an off and on lameness. Come to find out he has just been trained improperly and forced to do upper level movements which caused him to tense up and resist contact. Now that I'm riding in a much more inviting way, he is so much more relaxed and we are having lots of fun together.

When I first bought Ben I didn't think that we'd do much competing since I didn't know if I really wanted to enter into all of that again, but now that he's preforming so well I'm thinking it might be fun to enter a show or two to see how well we'd score. It's always one thing to ride well at home, while the show ring truly tests your combined skills since you are under so much pressure and in a new environment. I guess I shouldn't get my hopes up too much too soon since even though we having been going so much better lately, we still have one other project to tackle and that is loading into the horse trailer.

For some reason last winter Ben no longer wanted anything to do with my horse trailer and wouldn't step foot into it anymore. He didn't get hurt, so maybe something scared him. Anyhow, before I can even start thinking about going to a show again I have got to get him used to loading and unloading from the trailer again. Wish me luck!

Henrik Johansen Clinic

This weekend I attend the Henrik Johansen Dressage Clinic at a brand new dressage facility, Wacky Nut Farm, located on Bainbridge Island. This is a multi-million dollar state of the art facility. It was HEAVEN for both horse and rider. The Brainard's didn't overlook any small details when building the place. Everything from heated footpads in the arena's viewing room, retractable screens on the sides of the riding arena to filter the sunlight, and rubber cobblestone in the main barn's aisle ways spelled top of the line comfort for horse and rider.

Side view of the indoor riding arena with it's retractable screens. These were a huge help on Saturday since it was 85 degrees and kept it nice and cool inside.

The outside entrance to the main barn. Located under the awning are wash racks.

Stall runs outside each horse stall.

The opposite end of the barn. Coming out this end takes you across to the arena.

An aisle way with rubber cobblestone. It was so odd to see a horse being lead through the barn and not hear the clip clop of it's hooves against the pavement.

A couple horses just hanging out waiting for their turn to be ridden.

The locker and dressing room.

Inside one of the lockers. There is plenty of room for 2 saddles, bridles, halters and lots of riding equipment.

The bunkhouse lodge where the riders spent the night while attending the clinic. I can't wait until August 21st when it'll be my turn to ride in a clinic here with Ben.