My Diary

May 2010

11 May 2010

Well.. again a lot to tell. We went to this competition called My Special Horse Competition. Only ‘special’ horse breeds (read no Dutch Warmbloods) were allowed to participate. Of course I was the only Akhal-Teke over there. I really felt alone. And didn’t want that to go unnoticed so I was whinnying (?) constantly hoping someone familiar would answer me. But let me begin at the beginning.

First my Lady made me go into this little cabin on wheels. I didn’t like that at all. And then we arrived at this place with lots of horses and riders all dressed in black and white. My Lady saddled me up and we rode into a barn with a riding hall. It was a really huge hall… with a strange underground and there were other horses riding there too. One little Shetlander with a little girl (with whom me almost collided when the little girl suddenly turned her pony without warning. Fortunately My Lady and I saw it just in time and we could stop before running them over.). But then they made me cross over to another riding hall and that underground was even more weird. They call it a Heidelberg “bodem”. And on top of that I was all alone in there. And (even My Lady said so later) it never before in my life has been that quiet! You could only here me breathing and walking and our trainer reading up what we needed to do. They call this dressage. Really weird. In this hall they had made a smaller riding ring with small white fences and I had to go in there and then do what My Lady asked me to do. As if!! Those little small fences of course were very strange so I avoided riding straight in to them, I had to make a turn there anyways so I figured it would be wise to make a shortcut. My Lady didn’t agree of course and at the last turns there she made me go all the way. But at a certain point she thought it was time to canter. Normally I love doing that, she and my trainer say it is my best feature, but this situation was all too weird and the ground was weird and it was way to quiet so I thought it was time to make a stand and let her know this all so I bucked. I believe she almost fell off, so high I bucked. But it didn’t help, she made me canter anyways even some more (smaller) bucking didn’t help. So when we went the other way and she wanted me to canter there too I complied, but I didn’t like it.

But we got pretty good grades for everything else, My Lady told me. Yes, they give you grades at these dressage things. People are weird. The judges liked my extended walk, the trotting and the stretching of my neck (I can do that really deep). And they really liked the way I looked! We got 182 points. At home everyone was impressed by such high points! That’s when My Lady discovered that despite my bucking I really had done a good job. Cause it means you got a “winstpunt” (a profit point?). If you have collected 5 of those points you are allowed to go a level higher in dressage.

My Lady had rented a box over there, so I could relax. But it turned out the boxes were all separate, there were no other horses over there at all. And even though I tried to relax and eat something I just couldn’t I was all alone (of course my lady was there and that kept me a little bit calm) in this closed prison. My heart beating so hard of the stress this caused my Lady could actually see it. So after having tried it out for an hour, she took me out and tied me to the box instead. That was a lot better! Now that I had space around me I at least could relax even though there weren’t any other horses to see.

After another hour she saddled me up again for what she calls the caprilli test (dressage combined with jumps). Now we went into an outdoor arena with all jumps and again this weird underground! There were flags and all kind of strange things. It was scary but luckily I had My Lady with me so I could stay calm.

My Lady had signed us up for caprilli low, and she had read the internet and our trainer thaught so too that this usually is 30-50 cm. Now that I can jump. Certainly 30-40 cm, that’s fun. And 50 cm I can do but still is a little scary. But the day before My Lady had discovered that they thought low was 60 cm!

So when we had to enter the ring for the test I was quite impressed by these huge jumps, but I listened very well to my Lady. Until we approached the first jump. I was going for it just as we had practiced, but just as we were right in front of it I discovered it was a lot higher! So I pulled the emergency brake. But it was a cross so after stopping I figured I could do it anyways so went which my lady didn’t really expect so she almost fell off. Then we had to do a dressage figure and after that came another jump, a straight one! Now I don’t have to tell you what I did. Dressage is okay, but these jumps were way too high! So My Lady told me afterwards that we had really high points for all the dressage figures, but all zeros on the jumps (apart from the cross, for that one we got a 3). She told me that if I had done the dressage test that well we would’ve won that one. But because we were doing caprilli we still became last due to the ‘low’ points for the jumps. But she told me she understood why I refused those jumps and that she wasn’t mad at me. It just meant we needed more practice and that I needed more faith and trust in both myself (that I can make them) and in her (that if she says I can make them I know I can make them).

And then she made me get into that cabin on wheels again. She got me in, people can be really fast! But now I knew what to expect, and I was scared. My Lady knew, but even though she told me we would be home in twenty minutes and she gave me a carrot to calm me a little bit, I still was scared. So when we got home (it was also a very warm day) I was soaked with my own sweat. But REALLY glad to be home again. My Lady gave me cool shower and then put me on my paddock with a bucket of “slobber”. She told me I did very well for my very first time to a big competition. That she was proud I didn’t panic or misbehave (apart from the bucking at the dressage test).

Well… that was that… Right now I’m enjoying the meadows again with my friends of last year. pictures of the day you can find at the link at my pictures page. Unfortunately there was no photographer around with the dressage test, but there was one at the caprilli and with all the waiting for our turn. My lady also got some older pictures made by that photographer and placed them there too.

8 April

We’ve been doing jumping lessons!!! It’s great! I love it! And my Lady is happy she finally discovered my favorite sport. At my pictures page you can see some pictures of our second lesson. Of course my Lady still needs lots of training.. and I need to figure out what to do with that one single coloured stick/branch on the ground a few meters after the jump, scary little thing. It’s not a jump and there’s only one instead of a bunch after each other (then you need to trot over them)… really strange thing, so I try to avoid it because I simply don’t know what to do with it. But somehow my Lady wants me to go over that thing too…. And there comes the reason my Lady still needs lots of training! After a jump she tries to steer me over that one coloured stick/branch but so far I managed to avoid it three out of four times, haha!!

My Lady subscribed us not only for a dressage test on the 24^th but also for a caprilli test, that’s dressage combined with some jumps. She did that after she realized I just love jumping.

Well… hope to write you soon again.

11 March

Well.. The day’s are getting longer, but Winter doesn’t want to leave this year. But.. we keep hoping, so I already am starting to change my winter coat for a Summer coat.

I see I forgot to tell last time that in March 2009 I had my first professional photoshoot (on a cloudy, rainy day) to become a future model for the Akhal-Teke breed in a sim game. No idea what it is, but my Lady says that when it can promote my breed we should go for it.

The testing of my Lady’s balance and riding skills succeeded, for her. I failed terribly. My Lady got really really angry with me in December. I was rearing (my favorite move to start the testing) but as soon as I touched the ground again she gave me huge beat(?) with her whip and pushed me foreward with her legs. I of course bucked out of protest but that resulted in only more ‘punishments’ with the whip and her legs. I was startled! And went galloping. Since then I only have to think about rearing and there the whip comes, so as you understand I kind of gave up testing her. Our trainer almost went in coma of laughing about my facial expression that day… appearantly I looked really startled and amazed at My Lady’s reaction. But who would’ve known she could get that angry with ME??? I’m her baby.. her sweet boy!

Anyways, now that I’ve stopped testing her we’ve been training lots of more fun stuf, going from walk right to canter, that’s really fun! Going sideways is getting easier and easier.

I also went outside again with this older horse (he’s 16). That was fun too. And a long time ago too (my own fault, My Lady wouldn’t take me out as long as I was what she calls ‘misbehaving’ but what I call differently).

My Lady subscribed me again for this year’s “My Special Horse Competition” on 24 April. She hopes really hard that I won’t hurt myself this time like I did last year.

1 December 2009

Wow... Again, what a long time ago. I should write here more often.

A lot has happened this past year. Though not so much with me as well with my Lady and since she is the one who has to write down my memoirs it took a while before she got to it. Plus as you will have noticed, she took care I now have a website named after myself!

This Spring and Summer and Autumn I did my very best for my Lady and when our trainer is there she is teaching us all new things. I am now slowly working towards gallop changes. We’re not there yet, but this is really fun! That´s why we´re doing it, because I like it. Two weeks ago we had a jumping lesson. Jumping is even more fun! Our trainer said I’m a natural, but my Lady needs some lessons (she said so herself). Our trainer promised that if the wheather remains dry so that the ring isn’t too slippery we will go jumping again!

Also since then we´re training towards going sideways, that´s difficult! Especially if we´re going on my left hand. The bad thing is that despite everything I try to get out of doing that, my Lady won´t let me. She´s clearly learning something too from our trainer. I´m not sure I appreciate that part of our training sessions. It´s okay to learn something fun, but to have to learn something difficult and boring……

Now Winter is approaching and I think it’s time to test my Lady’s balance and riding skills again. Winter is a good time for that I now have another stable in which I can walk in and out all day and night and it has a splendid view on the riding ring. I get LOTS of new ideas that way.

So that was it for today. Hope you will drop by again and I’ll promise I will push my Lady to write here more regularly.

November 2008

23 November 2008

Wow... that was a long time ago. I should write here more often.

A lot has happened this past year.

My lady found us a trainer, so now she realy puts me to work every week. I learned to canter with a rider, that’s really fun! Especially when your going out, I had no idea I could ever do that together with my lady. She even took me to the beach (in September this year) and there you really can RUN! It was great but I was really tired of all the new things at this Beach. My lady wanted me to follow our companian into that moving water. No way I’m going to that ever again!

When I finally followed him into the water, that water MOVED around my legs, it was PULLING!! I never have been that scared. I was so in panick that I forget where the beach was and instead ran into the water even deeper, but that was unexpectately heavy so I lost my balance. I almost drowned out there, new to get up on my feet just before my head went under and then I went strait back to the beach. And then I was running and running and my companion was following me but then stopped and then I ran back to him and I was soooo confused, I was calling and calling because my Lady had GONE! The water must have swallowed her. My companian’s lady took me back to that water and there My Lady was walking out of it, she was all wet, but I was sooo releaved I even followed her back into that moving water when she guided me there. After all.. the water had taken her, but she had been stronger as the water and came out of it. But then she mounted me again and wanted me to go in the water with her on my back. Well.. THAT wasn’t going to happend. I’m not stupid. I lost my lady once to that water and I’m not going to risk losing her again!

More exciting things happened. In June there was this unofficial competition day at our stables. My lady made me all beautifull, and she took me there. The meadows had all changed. There were small white signs in the grass, there was a white tent, there were lots of people and lots of horses, also horses I’d never seen before. My lady took me in one of those rings of white signs in the grass and there she expected me to do excercises! How could she! All these things and people and other horses and she expects me to concentrate on EXCERCISES????

I clearly let her know what I thought of thát. Trotting and walking was okay, ‘cause then I had plenty of time to look around, but doing middle trot or canter, no way, then I’ve to concentrate on my feet and there’s no time to look around, so I told her so by bucking every time she asked me to do those things. But she kept going so after about 4 minutes I gave up and started concentrating, then I had to stretch my neck (I never quite figured that out, but this time I suddenly understood it... she extended the reins and then I had space to bent my neck down to the grass. My lady was reallly happy and gave me lots of compliments. Now I it’s quite fun to do... she sometimes lets me do it a whole round now. It feels quite good in my back.). And then I had to leave the ring again... I still don’t understand the point of all those tents and horses but it was quite fun that day.

And today it was snowing here! Perhaps tomorrow my lady will let me run in the snow again. That’s soo fun to do! I hope the snow will last till then.

In the stables I have three new neighbours. One moody palomino quarter horse mare and one welsh mare with a very cute little colt (of about two months old now). I really like them (the welsh mare and her colt, the other one is just bareable) and take care they’re safe. It really worries me when they’re not in the stable when I arrive. Usually they’re there when I leave and when I come back. And since two weeks I can keep an eye on them almost the entire day, because they’re now in a small meadow right across my paddock.

Well... I don’t know anything more to tell. Hope to get back to you a little sooner as this time. Half a year is far too long, don’t you all think?

March 2008

25 March 2008

It snowed the past two days. My lady wanted me to do some posing again so I did my best Yesterday. You can see some of the results at my picture page or some more here. And the picture on the right is her best one of the day. I’m handsome aren’t I?

The past month has been busy. My lady had this woman she called an osteopath coming to do something with my back. This woman was nice and she had great hands but at moments she was also very mean when she pushed a spine back or something like that. But after I could move a lot better so the second time I she came I was a lot calmer. She told my lady that I had a blockade where my back changed into my hips. That’s why she had to come a second time. It probably had been there ever since my accident when I was two years old. She told my lady it was very fortunate that I had not yet learned to do the gallop under rider because it would’ve been very painfull and hard for me to do. But now I should have no problems with that.

And I showed that to my lady Yesterday. She wanted to give me the command to trot a little faster but put her outside leg a little bit behind and I automatically fell into gallop. She was very surprised but not angry because she realized she had been putting her leg to far behind so instead she gave me a compliment. So I showed her I’m ready for it now!

She also found a lady to teach us… and I can tell you… it’s actually getting interesting and fun to work in the riding arena now that we’re doing all these exercises like going from halt as fast as we can to trot. My lady says she starts to like riding there too. She too likes having homework to practice because otherwise she finds it boring to ride in the arena.

Oh and last but not least, my lady bought me easeboot bares for my front feet (remember my soles were/are too thin, that’s why). She tried them on last week. Those things are weird!! It was really strange to walk with them, My lady and one of her friends were having a lot of fun watching me (they made a film of it too which you can watch here (soon to come)), but you try walking with clogs on!! I bet you will have trouble walking with them too at first. After a few meters I figured out how I could move normally with those things on so no more laughing now. I thing they look really bold on me!

January 2008

24 January 2008

Well.. My lady has been sooo busy she had no time to write in my diary for me. It would be nice if I could write myself.

Anyways… I’m part to blame for it… first I was walking not so well… my front feet were quite sore. That’s okay again now, my soles got too thin from the new paddock I got in November. There was a layer of sand on the bricks and the farrier told us that sand on bricks (unless it’s a really BIG layer of sand) is like sandpaper…. It scrubbed of my soles and so now I felt every little bump in the road. I can tell you… it hurts. So my lady, who already was busy to slowly get the sand out of the paddock, took a little rush on it. Now I have a third of the paddock with a thick layer of sand (very good to lay down) and the rest is free of sand. By now I’m walking fine again.

The first week of January I became ill… as did severalother horses in the stables (I did not get as ill as them but still didn’t feel well). There’s some kind of virus going on. You get feverish for about five days and start sniveling too. After that I was all myself again. So now we’re back to business again…. I want to work so much that I really have trouble standing still till my lady has backed me. She’s quite indignant about that, but what can you expect?? I haven’t done a thing in over a month!! First I couldn’t walk properly and then I got ill. How can she expect me to stand still now that I’m all better again?? It’s not fair.

November 2007

4 November 2007

Today my lady took me on our first ride outside, all alone. The other times she had someone walking with us. It’s really fun going all alone, that way you can trot for miles and you don’t have to walk all the time because the human accompanying us can’t keep up with us trotting.

She was really proud of me, especially after passing that scary farm. I didn’t dare to pass it (all those weird things silently lying there just waiting to attack me!), but she kept encouraging me to go forward. I must admit I didn’t really believe her urgings that nothing would happen so I kept trying to walk backwards and turning around, but she wouldn’t let me. So then I decided to go for it and took off in a trot to pass it as fast as I could. That she was not really happy with but she was very content that I had found the courage to pass it and that I immediately listened to her request to walk as soon as we had passed it.

I must admit it’s quite scary sometimes when you’re all alone out there. My lady says I should not forget that she’s there too and that I still can trust her even though she’s riding me instead of walking besides me. I should try to keep that in mind.

October 2007

15 October 2007

Today was a wonderful and sunny day. My lady took me out on our first long ride outside. It was really great. We met a weird creature (that she called a Jogger) that made really weird movements, I really took care I held it good in sight while passing it. You never know what those weird creatures might do. My lady was not very pleased with me walking sideways instead of straight on at that moment, but she understood why I did it and had me have a good look at this weird creature to assure me I could turn my back to it without having it attacking me.

The rest of the ride was great, we passed a lot of horses in meadows, bridges (weird having that water passing beneath the ground), cars, motors, barking dogs. My lady was very proud of me for keeping focused on her and not getting spooked by those things.

2 October 2007

Yesterday I was soo happy, finally my lady decided I had had enough rain (you get so cold of it, it just pours right through your coat on your skin) and deserved a break. She took care my stable was filled with fresh straw and lots of hay and I could stay one night dry!!!

This morning I almost couldn’t wait to get back to the meadow again but it sure was nice to stay dry for the night and have al this fresh hay to eat.

September 2007

1 September 2007

My lady has a new digital camera. Sigh…. Today she brought her herd with her (her mom and her brothers) and she had given her youngest brother the camera to play with. That boy just had a problem with my ears. Almost every picture had this tiny (or better said HUGE) problem that my ears were cut off!! But he did make some nice pictures too. You can see them at my pictures page.

Her other brother was okay. We sure understood each other!

August 2007

14 August 2007

Today there was this Quarter Horse fellow in my herd that thought he could confiscate my lady. Of course I told him very clearly that that was not ok with me and chased him away. My lady was quite surprised I was so fierce about it.

But well… this fellow is okay to play and hang around with but only my best pal (Niro, a “Haflinger”) is permitted to approach my lady since he is very careful that he stays at a respectful distance. And even with that I’m not utterly happy. Other horses should stay away from her because I don’t want them to steal her away from me.

July 2007

20 July 2007

Today my new website has been launched. Hope you like it! Not everything is working yet, but my lady keeps working on that. So don’t be too hard on her.

15 July 2007

Dzjeee, my lady really was in the mood since that show. She kept coming back with the black and the silver box every time there was a glimpse of sun and every time I had to stand nice. Of course that was not what I had in mind but somehow she managed to get what she wanted of me. How does she do it?

The only thing that she really couldn’t do was making good pictures of me running! Ha!! I was way to fast for her cameras and her to keep up moving with me and so they didn’t come out well. At least one thing I could beat her in!

1 July 2007

Yesterday my lady went to the first big show of the Akhal-Teke Horse association. There even was a jury member all the way from Aserbeidjan, the other two were from Estland.

The first thing she told me when she came to me today was that my mom was the best of all the Akhal-Tekes shown there!! Way to go mom!!

But that was not all, my grandfather won the stallion class and my baby uncle won the class of two-year old colts.

So my family did really great at this first show!!

And my lady made a whole lot of pictures, she picked the best ones of her photos to let me show them to you all, just click here.