Feeling great about the horses!

So last week was a great one for me! All my horses went really well.

On Monday I spend 14 hours at the stables which was great! I thought I was going to work with Linda, one of the young horse trainers, but she forgot that she was switching horses out at Flyinge. I instead helped out Hans the whole day. We were preparing for Tuesday, which was the rehearsal 3 year olds test.

The 3 year olds test is a 2 day event where the 3 year olds are judged on their free jump, their conformation, their movement in trot and walk, and how they are under saddle.

Jasmine had pulled a shoe so I held her while the farrier re-shod her, at 8 15 AM. Then I brought in Tigris and another young horse, Rachel. I rode Jasmine first which went really well, we spent most of the time in canter and worked on her bending around my inside leg around a circle. Then I took Tigris out. This is the fun part because I sat on him again and we trotted!! Considering what I wrote about him when we first started it felt GREAT to be on him and trotting!!! I then helped Hans with Rachel, well kind of. I was mostly just on standby in case she did anything to stand beside her and/or lead her. Then in the afternoon I spent the time bathing horses. This is the first bath for them, this year at least. I'm not sure about their experience with water in their younger years. I bathed one horse on my own, he was good. Then I helped Hans with a horse. She was really nervous about the water, as were most of them. I found that I could spray the horses in the face with the water, so they knew what it was, but as soon as you moved the water over their hindquarters they would get really nervous.

Jasmine all braided up for the test

Tuesday was the practice 3 year olds test. First thing we did was the löshoppning, or free jumping. This is made up of 2 jumps on one side of a track.

The ring for löshopp

The jumps are set up as a one stride with the second jump being raised every jump or so to see how high the horse can jump. Then I held on to her in front of the judge while he checked out her conformation. Then Hans led her around (she is 171.5 cm and so is tall and I can't keep up with her trot) so that the judge could see how she moved in trot and walk. She was so clean and the braid looked so nice that I got a comment from Linda on them, and then the judge commented that maybe he should bring me to his barn to do his horses =D In the afternoon we did riding, and it was the best ride I had had on her to date.

On thursday I had Jamarra and my mother was here so I rode her before I had a quiz in djursjukvård. Here is a photo of us:

She has been coming along so well! When I first got on her she had not had anyone on her back in a year, and before that she had had very little training under saddle. She is a french trotting horse and we cantered on thursday. This is a huge deal for us and I am very excited about it! Her owner has been doing a lot of canter through driving from the ground but this was the first time that we really got a canter under saddle. Granted it was a little disorganized and she rushed the transition but it was a canter nonetheless!
I then had a quiz in my vet class, 17/20 which I was happy about.
After that I had another ride on Jasmine which also went well!

On Friday I took out Tigris again and we trotted again, much longer this time!

Now I am in Lomma for a few days, then back to school to work in the horse clinic and ride the horses on Thursday. My brother is coming down for a week which is awesome as well!

Happy Easter!