Energi-ridning v. Lika Ottosen

02/01/2026

Vær ydmyg når du lærer nye ting - både hvis du lærer dem fra dig - men også hvis andre lærer dig noget.

Be open to learn, unlearn, and relearn 🌱

Learning is brave.
Unlearning is braver.
Relearning takes humility.

It means admitting:

what once protected you might now limit you

what you were taught isn’t always the full truth

growth doesn’t mean you were wrong..... it means you’re evolving

We don’t outgrow ourselves in straight lines.
We circle back.
We see things differently.
We choose again .... with more compassion, context, and care.

Staying open doesn’t make you uncertain.
It makes you alive to change.

Learn what helps.
Unlearn what harms.
Relearn what feels true ... now.

02/01/2026

Udviklingen til ridehest - er vi for hurtig ude når vi rider heste til som kun er 3 år? Det mener jeg 😇

Before backing your youngster, please read.

🐴 Horses mature very differently to humans.
A rough way to understand it is that horses age around three times faster than us, but their bones, joints, and spine take much longer to fully develop than many people realise.

This is where things often go wrong.

Older horses for context:
•A 30 year old horse is like a 90 year old human.
Stiff, worn, and well into retirement. These horses deserve comfort, gentle movement, and rest but still to be active for the mind and joints

•A 25 year old horse is like a 75 year old human.
Still capable, still willing, but strength and recovery are limited. Careful management is key.

•A 20 year old horse is similar to a 60 year old person.
Mentally sharp, experienced, and often keen but the body may be sore, stiff, or slower to recover.

•A 9 years old to 13 year old horse is like a 39 year old adult.
This is prime time. Physically mature, mentally settled, and strong enough for consistent work.

Now the important part youngsters
This is where patience matters most.

•A 3 year old horse is like a 9 year old child.
Growth plates are still open, balance is poor, and muscles are underdeveloped. At this age, learning should be about handling, confidence, and calm exposure not carrying weight.

A 4 year old horse compares to a 12 year old child.
They can cope with very light work in short sessions. Their bodies are still changing, often unevenly, which is why they feel awkward and inconsistent.

•A 5 year old horse is like a 15 year old teenager.
This is the risky stage. They may look strong and capable, but internally they are still developing. The spine, joints, and soft tissues are not finished growing, even if the horse “seems fine.” Shouldn’t be jumping 110cm classes!!!!!

•A 6 year old horse is like an 18 year old adult.
The skeleton is far more mature, muscles can be developed safely, and the horse is mentally better able to cope with pressure.
This is the correct age to begin proper, consistent work.

Pushing young horses too hard, too early doesn’t always show immediate damage.
The problems often appear later as:
•Lameness
•Joint disease
•Kissing spines
•Behaviour issues labelled as naughty or lazy
•Horses breaking down far too young

One extra year of patience can easily add ten more years of sound, useful working life. Good training isn’t about how early you start.
It’s about how long the horse stays comfortable, willing, and happy. And it’s bloody high time age classes at big highs at young ages were banned!!

My own Connie Storm, age 6❤️

02/01/2026

The longer the strides, the more the frame must lengthen.

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When riding medium and extended paces, start by gradually increasing the level of impulsion and containing it on your horse’s hind legs.

Ensure your horse is straight, and then apply your leg aids in an inward and forward motion, and slowly ease your hands forward while still maintaining contact. At the same time, allow your seat to follow your horse’s movement.

Your horse should respond by pushing more upwards and forward with his hind legs to take longer strides while lengthening his whole frame from nose to tail.

The longer the strides you require, the more you must allow your horse’s frame to lengthen.

---

Illustration created and copyrighted by HowToDressage

02/01/2026

Sådan ♥️

The Year of the Horse is about movement that emerges from readiness.
Not force. Not urgency.

Where the Snake brought awareness, the Horse brings integration — turning insight into embodied action. This is a year of organizing the body, refining movement, and allowing confidence to arise from stability and clarity.

Horses move forward when their systems are coherent: when posture, fascia, and nervous system work together. When balance replaces bracing. When motion becomes elastic instead of effortful.

Comfort in the body.
Confidence in motion.
The Year of the Horse.

https://koperequine.com/the-incredible-horse-20-interesting-facts-about-horses/

02/01/2026

Vi er nu gået ind i hestens år ♥️ 2026

🐎 𝐖𝐞𝐥𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞 “𝐘𝐞𝐚𝐫 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐇𝐨𝐫𝐬𝐞”

With all this excitement surrounding Year of the Horse, I found myself diving into the Chinese zodiac, also known as the lunar calendar - everything from how it started to what it represents. Here is what I found!

The first thing I want to note is that while the Gregorian calendar marks the new year on January 1, the Lunar New Year, associated with the Chinese zodiac, follows the second new moon after the winter solstice. So this year, the Year of the Fire Horse doesn’t officially begin until February 17, 2026.

The 12-year cycle of the Chinese zodiac closely follows the orbit of Jupiter, which takes just under twelve years to complete a full revolution around the sun. Ancient Chinese astronomers tracked this “Year Star” to mark long stretches of time, creating a calendar system that was predictable, observable, and practical. Associating each year with an animal made this system accessible across social classes and literacy levels - bringing astronomy, agriculture, and storytelling into everyday life.

The animals of the zodiac were chosen because of their roles in human society. Later tradition describes a race called by the Jade Emperor that determined which animals were included and their order. The animal are used in the Chinese zodiac in this order with the following traits associated with them:

🐀 𝐑𝐚𝐭 - Survival and adaptability. Thrived alongside human settlements, symbolizing intelligence and the ability to navigate scarcity and change.
🐂 𝐎𝐱 - Labor and reliability. Powered agriculture, representing endurance, consistency, and collective stability.
🐅 𝐓𝐢𝐠𝐞𝐫 - Power and protection. A symbol of courage, authority, and defense.
🐇 𝐑𝐚𝐛𝐛𝐢𝐭 - Caution and sensitivity. Represented awareness, timing, and restraint.
🐉 𝐃𝐫𝐚𝐠𝐨𝐧 - Authority and natural forces. In Chinese tradition, symbolized balance, rain, and imperial power.
🐍 𝐒𝐧𝐚𝐤𝐞 - Strategy and wisdom. Associated with patience, observation, and deliberate action.
🐎 𝐇𝐨𝐫𝐬𝐞 - Momentum, independence, and the freedom to pursue purposeful work. Enabled trade, warfare, communication, and expansion.
🐐 𝐆𝐨𝐚𝐭 (𝐒𝐡𝐞𝐞𝐩) - Harmony and cooperation. Linked to social balance and shared responsibility.
🐒 𝐌𝐨𝐧𝐤𝐞𝐲 - Innovation and problem-solving. Represented adaptability in complex systems.
🐓 𝐑𝐨𝐨𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫 - Order and vigilance. A marker of routine, responsibility, and timekeeping.
🐕 𝐃𝐨𝐠 - Loyalty and protection. Reflected trust, companionship, and social bonds.
🐖 𝐏𝐢𝐠 - Sustenance and completion. Symbolized nourishment, abundance, and the close of a cycle.

In addition to the cycle of animals, there is also a corresponding system of elements: metal, water, wood, fire, and earth.. In the Chinese zodiac, each element lasts for two consecutive years and can be identified by the final digit of the year.

🪨 𝐌𝐞𝐭𝐚𝐥: years ending in 0 and 1
Represents structure, discipline, and refinement. Metal years tend to emphasize focus, resilience, boundaries, and determination.

💧 𝐖𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐫: years ending in 2 and 3
Reflects rest, introspection, and adaptability. Water years emphasize intuition, emotional depth, wisdom, and strategic movement rather than force.

🪾 𝐖𝐨𝐨𝐝: years ending in 4 and 5
Marks growth and beginnings. Wood years are linked to creativity, expansion, flexibility, and forward momentum - often times of new ideas and development.

🔥 𝐅𝐢𝐫𝐞: years ending in 6 and 7
Symbolizes peak energy and transformation. Fire years are associated with passion, visibility, bold action, and rapid change.

🌎 𝐄𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐡: years ending in 8 and 9
Acts as a stabilizing phase between elements, associated with grounding, balance, and transition. In the zodiac, Earth years emphasize practicality, reliability, and steady progress.

This cycle of elements intersects with the 12 zodiac signs, creating specific element–animal combinations in a 60-year cycle.

Traditionally, the Year of the Horse is associated with action, direction, and forward motion. Combined with fire, this year really emphasizes initiative and transformation. This theme makes it a perfect moment to ask yourself: where do you want momentum in your life? That might mean pursuing a professional goal, returning to work that feels meaningful, or finally moving toward something you are passionate about. Whatever that looks like for you, I hope 2026 brings purposeful movement and progress worth carrying forward!

However, beyond shaping the themes of the year ahead, each animal–element combination is also believed to reflect the traits of those born that year.

Now I’m curious - what’s your animal–element combination, and do you think it truly reflects your personality? Share below!👇

Cheers,
Dr. DeBoer

02/01/2026

Endnu et spændende skriv om kontakt via hænder til hestens mund. Følelses og frihed - trykhed eller forvirring.

Micromanaging the head position of a horse is probably the most common riding mistake there is.

A horse is able to exist its entire life unridden, and it will do just fine putting its head wherever it wants to.

But now some rider climbs aboard with some agenda, and has hands holding reins which are attached to a bit which is in the horse’s mouth, and the rider is often possessed of an overwhelming urge to use those hands to “shape” the horse into some desired configuration.

The jaw of the horse is a hinge joint, and the poll of the horse is attached to the vertebrae of the neck, and either or both can be forced or manipulated into a position that matches what the rider wants, whether or not, usually not, that would be where the horse would carry its head if left alone.

This doesn’t mean that all horses should be ridden all the time on a loose rein with no contact, because the unridden horse is not the same as one being steered by a rider, but the training challenge has to do with HOW the rider creates a degree of control.

Gentle, feeling hands and arms or rough demanding hands and arms? Or, even worse, a reliance on sharper bits or leverage devices like draw reins?

The good trainers can, over time, create an “accepting” connection between hands and the general posture of the ridden horse, but it is both a slower and more meticulous process than most of us are educated enough to know how to do well.

That’s too hard a fact for many riders to accept. Hard hands, hard fact.

(photo---Klaus Balkenhol, knows the how.)

02/01/2026

Heste og deres øjne - evnen til at lukke og give sig til kende ved hjælp af at lukke dem. Vigtig viden for den der iagttager.

Horses do not close their eyes for comfort.
They close their eyes when they have decided the space is settled.

Their eyes stay open through wind and sudden noise,
through unfamiliar movement and human uncertainty.
They remain open while the world is assessed,
while nothing is taken for granted.

Then something changes.

You stop trying to shape the moment.
Your body becomes quiet without effort.
There is no demand in the space.

The sharpness leaves their gaze.
The watchfulness softens.

This is not submission.
It is discernment.

The horse has decided you do not need to be monitored.

When their eyelids lower beside you, even briefly,
that is enough.

It means attention has been released.

For an animal built for survival,
choosing not to watch
is an act of deep trust.

Be honoured the horse closes their eyes beside you.

30/12/2025

♥️

Have you ever felt a horse regulate you?

Not because of what you were doing, but because of how you were being.

Tomorrow I’m publishing a deep dive on something we talk about often — connection — but rarely explain through science:

Limbic resonance.
The phenomenon where two mammals sync emotionally and physiologically through breath, presence, and felt safety.

Horses are masters at this.

Their breathing, their calm, their awareness — it influences us more than we realize. Research shows they can help regulate the human nervous system, reduce anxiety, and even trigger oxytocin release (our bonding + trust hormone).

Connection starts in the body long before it shows up in behavior.