The Art of Natural Dressage

Yesterday it was very cold -20°c (-4°F) in PM. But i was fine with warm clothes.

Nirvana work well today, but since some time he is in a period " i do at all". But he is fun becausehe is in good mood, more energy and is a clown loll i laught a lot to work with him.

A lot stuff in this video are news and need more work like "terre a terre" (not sure if its the right term), drive behind him......


here the video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CY24y5wk1lc

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Inspiring! And, I can't believe you do not have gloves! BRRRRR!

Thanks for sharing! By the way, how did you teach him to lay down? I like that he does is naturally, not from a bow!

I rarely wear glove in winter. My hand are alway warm. -10 ou -30 i don't have any probleme to keep my hand free

For laying down, i first learned him bow, them bow on 2 knees, after that i work in a big spot of snow to teached him laying down from bow on knee. Well i work very softly with him

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Wooow, you have wonderful Spanish Walk! And other things too! And the SNOW!

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"Never just follow the crowd." Margaret Thatcher

Very inspiring and very beautiful!

You and Nirvana are such a great team

And there is another movie of Nirvana the dreamhorse!

Really, what a great team are you two.
It is very inspiring and everything seems right.
He is soooo beautyfull!

His Spanish walk is really great and his attempts to do terre-à-terre are just wonderful!! But what I like most is how you let him not do something if he doesn´t want to instead of increasing pressure. Thanks for posting this video.

I really loved watching this video
I'm amazed by (what to call it?!) Nirvana's self-organization!

Comparing this video with the last year's ones - you've made a great progress (IMHO). And it impresses me even more because you are very advanced. So it's not like going from zero to one, but from nine to ten. And I believe it's easy to stop developing when it's already good. And you both look like still searching for better, the best quality.

It's a pleasure looking at you, the dream-team
And what a great, snowy & sunny winter!

Ania
Yeah his Spanish walk is getting good. I re-started from 0 last winter, when i joined Nevzorov School, because Nirvana wasn't doing it correctly. He looked like a Circus walk. He don't straith very hight his leg but i think he just too hard physically for him, he don't have the shape for. But i'm really glad of what he is giving me

Romy
Well i don't really know for terre-à-terre. what look like a nice terre-a terre??
What Nirvana don't do correct? What i could do to improve the mouvement. I think he is not correctly colected to do this mouvement and he moving to much his head. You think we are on the god path? Becasuse i have ANY idea how to do this, i following my feeling and my horse loll

Klara
Yeah we did great progress in a short period of time! We didn't do a lot work this summer, im working a lot at my job so i don't really have a lot time to do groundwork in summer time. Im going mostly every day to stable just to see him, i'm riding a bit (trail) .. etc But summer with warm day, flyies, Nirvana is not as energetics for groundwork as for winter time. So we did not many groundwork on 4 month ofsummer. We started back in september slowly. I thing he will do great progress again this year coming December to March is really a great time for Nirvana and doing a lot progress in this period of time Im so pride of him

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I got some picture from videos


Hugs


Nice Campo


Leg up sit down


I love his attitude here!


collected walk


collected trot


collected canter


Spanish walk, nice


Beautiful here i think





Bow

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With terre-à-terre I meant what he tries from 03:05 to 03:20. It already looks so great!!

And about Nirvana not wanting to do something: I think I got it wrong. In your bow between 02:43 and 02:49 I thought that you asked him to kneel down (with the other leg too) and he didn´t want to... but when I watched it again I thought that maybe you only wanted him to take his head down? There was also another exercise which I don´t recall at the moment, where I got the impression that you just accepted his no. I think that it´s a good thing not to become demanding and to accept it if the horse doesn´t want to do something. And yes, I think that you are on a very good path.

I think the collection will improve with time. Titum has moved from no collection at all over a rollkur-position to something that already has to do with collection - but we are still far away from a really good collection!! His head is still too deep, like here:



What will surely help you in improving collection are sideways movements (shoulder-in, travers...), but I wouldn´t worry too much. It already looks great and he needs his time to find the best position.

Very nice photos by the way.

In the video , Nirvana was cooperate very well and did exactly what i was asking him. It just some mouvement are not great yet like Terre a Terre But i sure it will improve
For Bow, you second think was right, i was asking him to put his head down in the right place I don't get the bow on 2 knees like that , he give me a bow knee in 1 mouvement not from bow.

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You two are just fascinating! Nirvana is such a beautyful horse and he is so willing do work with you. Keep on doing good work.

Andreja
Thanks a lot

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I just love it all! I think he is well on his way to Terre a Terre, and in time he will perfect it. I would also no discount that his Spanish Walk will get stronger as well...he does it very well, and very carefully, but with good forward movement. As he gets even more collected (he's already SO collected!), he will discover more height and more sureness in lifting his front feet.

There is NOTHING to critique...you and Nirvana are magical to watch! I am so glad you are here...it will be so nice to see you two grow even more! You are so far beyond where I am at with either Tamarack or Cisco, so I can look at what you do and it helps me as well.