The Art of Natural Dressage

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 Post subject: Hello from South Africa!
PostPosted: Tue Sep 17, 2013 10:40 am 
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Joined: Mon Sep 16, 2013 2:08 pm
Posts: 4
Hello everyone :D

I have just started liberty training with my mare Fila. We have an amazing trainer, unfortunately she lives in another city and can only fly down every other month or so. We have just done the initial at liberty work and a bit of in hand and I am absolutely loving it and have not looked back since.

I got Fila off the track almost three years ago. She came off as a 6 year old. I let her have a good two months of being a horse, while also transitioning to barefoot. When I brought her back into work I had dressage ambitions and found a very sympathetic coach (I had trained previously in a more traditional sense, "outside rein, inside leg!!" - sound familiar ;) , and I something inside me said I didn't want to place this upon my own horse). Fila is quite a madam when she wants to be and very mouthy with the bit, I would so much twitch a finger wrong and a head tossing fit would ensue. So we pottered on like this for over a year, I just felt like we weren't really progressing and our rides very much depended on Fila's moods. I ended up moving to a new city and Fila could only join me 6months later due to the area being an African Horse Sickness free zone.
In that time apart I learnt of straightness training, at liberty work and also made the decision to go bitless...what a difference it has made in our time spent together, not to mention Fila's work ethic. We are still in the very beginning stages but I am so excited to find this forum to help us move forward on our new journey. :D

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PostPosted: Tue Sep 17, 2013 10:47 am 
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Joined: Fri Aug 31, 2007 8:20 am
Posts: 6281
Location: Dresden, Germany
Welcome, Lara and Fila! :)

Nice to have you here! I hope you will enjoy the forum and share with us what you are learning from Fila! :)

Best wishes,
Romy


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PostPosted: Tue Sep 17, 2013 10:57 am 
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Joined: Wed Oct 20, 2010 7:42 am
Posts: 2147
Location: Vienna, Austria
Welcome Lara! :f:

Sounds like you already turned Fila's life around some 180 degrees :applause:. She sure will thank you for that and by the looks of you two, you seem to enjoy it both! :sun:

_________________
Volker

The horse owes us nothing.


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PostPosted: Tue Sep 17, 2013 11:31 am 
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Joined: Mon Sep 16, 2013 2:08 pm
Posts: 4
Thanks Romy and Volker :D busy reading about the levels now and groundwork exercises...hope I find time to work amongst all this learning hehe


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PostPosted: Tue Sep 17, 2013 4:50 pm 
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Joined: Thu May 17, 2007 8:18 pm
Posts: 4941
Location: Alberta
Welcome Lara and I'm so looking forward to more photos. Your Fila looks to be a very feminine lady (I love that). She looks beautiful and the two of you look so happy together. You have done an amazing thing for her, just showing her there is a heaven possible after the racetrack. :giveflower:

_________________
"Ride reverently, as if each step is the axis on which the earth revolves"


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PostPosted: Thu Sep 19, 2013 9:32 am 

Joined: Wed Nov 12, 2008 9:58 pm
Posts: 1622
Location: Western Cape, South Africa
Hi Lara,
Nice to have another south african here too! :f:
I am guessing you are in the western cape? Looking forward to read more about the two of you. :D
Welcome here and I hope you enjoy the forum.

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Annette O'Sullivan

Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans. - John Lennon


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