Sorry, I forgot to write about my last ride on Farao and his first official appearance.
After I had ridden him for two months the owner took Farao to a clinic at the former Cavalry school Strömsholm. It was a big outing but he did not put a foot wrong and proved his great attitude and temperament once again. My job was officially done and Farao was to be promoted by his owner and her coach, the prominent dressage judge and rider Ove Slöör. Mr Slöör has been around for a long time and has gained a somewhat master status, which will guarantee Farao´s future as a top dressage horse. Farao won´t be competing much or at all but he will give his rider much pleas
ure for many years to come.
After I had ridden him for two months the owner took Farao to a clinic at the former Cavalry school Strömsholm. It was a big outing but he did not put a foot wrong and proved his great attitude and temperament once again. My job was officially done and Farao was to be promoted by his owner and her coach, the prominent dressage judge and rider Ove Slöör. Mr Slöör has been around for a long time and has gained a somewhat master status, which will guarantee Farao´s future as a top dressage horse. Farao won´t be competing much or at all but he will give his rider much pleas
ure for many years to come. He has the potential to develop extraordinary movements, so I put the pressure on and suggested that “now you have five years to prove it”.
After two weeks of not riding Farao I was offered to ride him in a local dressage event. I decided to try him the day before to see if he would be ready for it. Farao had been ridden less than normal the past weeks and I could feel it. He behaved well but lacked forwardness and I had to make clear that the competition the next day would be outdoors Otherwise I knew Farao would almost fall asleep on me. Earlier he had been extremely excited and a bit out of control when he was ridden on the outdoor arena. In the early days he took off as soon as he saw something move behind him. This had slowly improved to just reasonable excitement and in fairly good control. So my guess was that Farao would be quite hot the next day with all the other horses and people who were going to be around and that I would be able to control him enough to get around a dressage test at the lowest level.
The trick was position his head in front of the vertical though I most of the time had to pull the brakes. Well, the good thing with young horses, is they are not very smart yet. This means that many times, if they “take off” they don´t bother with what the rider is doing with the reins, they simply ignore it and that can be used to the riders advantage. If the rider dares to ease the reins often on what feels like a runaway train, the head moves forward to a “correct” position. I tried it which was fine and since the weather was very hot and humid, by time we were on, Farao had gone back to almost normal. He felt good but during the ride I made a couple of mistakes in preparing for some movements. Still, we ended up doing a good test.
I think there were at least 12 competitors and Farao got a fourth place. Everybody seemed very happy, and salubrated it with a fantastic marzipan cake, so I was happy too. Farao has the personality of a cheeky teenager who still wants to please the rider, which I think is great, so I am very happy for him and it was a most enjoyable ride. During my two months riding Farao, it was a pleasure to work with his owner and to get advice from Mr Slöör. The video of it was awful due to technical problems but after tweaking some of the clips you can at least see something.
After two weeks of not riding Farao I was offered to ride him in a local dressage event. I decided to try him the day before to see if he would be ready for it. Farao had been ridden less than normal the past weeks and I could feel it. He behaved well but lacked forwardness and I had to make clear that the competition the next day would be outdoors Otherwise I knew Farao would almost fall asleep on me. Earlier he had been extremely excited and a bit out of control when he was ridden on the outdoor arena. In the early days he took off as soon as he saw something move behind him. This had slowly improved to just reasonable excitement and in fairly good control. So my guess was that Farao would be quite hot the next day with all the other horses and people who were going to be around and that I would be able to control him enough to get around a dressage test at the lowest level.
The trick was position his head in front of the vertical though I most of the time had to pull the brakes. Well, the good thing with young horses, is they are not very smart yet. This means that many times, if they “take off” they don´t bother with what the rider is doing with the reins, they simply ignore it and that can be used to the riders advantage. If the rider dares to ease the reins often on what feels like a runaway train, the head moves forward to a “correct” position. I tried it which was fine and since the weather was very hot and humid, by time we were on, Farao had gone back to almost normal. He felt good but during the ride I made a couple of mistakes in preparing for some movements. Still, we ended up doing a good test.
I think there were at least 12 competitors and Farao got a fourth place. Everybody seemed very happy, and salubrated it with a fantastic marzipan cake, so I was happy too. Farao has the personality of a cheeky teenager who still wants to please the rider, which I think is great, so I am very happy for him and it was a most enjoyable ride. During my two months riding Farao, it was a pleasure to work with his owner and to get advice from Mr Slöör. The video of it was awful due to technical problems but after tweaking some of the clips you can at least see something.
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