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Effective classical training - combined with latest knowledge of horse and rider biomechanics. Hoof trimming.
(4)

17/11/2024

Small weekly trims to keep the hoof in place. Mabel was enjoying her pedicure. 😍

15/11/2024

I have the best clients 🌷❤️ let’s see how long they last till someone pulls them down 😳🤣

Happy weekend everyone 😍🥰

Eli x

10/11/2024

Just a couple ground-work sessions in between these photos. Quite a nice change in a short time!

Eli x

08/11/2024

I was honoured to present a webinar to the Working Equitation New Zealand Inc judges last night about healthy riding biomechanics.

Super grateful about this opportunity and it seemed like anyone who participated really enjoyed it too.

I am going to record this webinar to my up and coming website as well. It can then be purchased with an affordable price by anyone who is interested to learn more!

Eli x

05/11/2024

Busy day teaching and trimming 13! horses yesterday! 🌱🦄

Its great to have group of people who are keen to get their horses trimmed every four weeks! Makes a huge difference! 6-8 week trimming schedule is tooo long!!

Eli x

29/10/2024

Every year I say I am never gonna build a fence again myself. And every spring I somehow find myself building one. 🤦‍♀️ Must be a similar rabbit hole as giving birth and having a newborn. You somehow forget what it’s like and find yourself thinking about doing it again. 😅 ❤️

This year I started building a track. 1/3 done 💪 I’ll post some more pics once it’s finished, hopefully in the next couple of weeks.🤞

Eli x

22/10/2024

Luna looks so big when she is using herself correctly! Anyone who sees her live always comments how small she is. She is tiny. Just looks big in photos 🤔😅 x

18/10/2024

Cannot wait for the New Zealand clinic next month 😍😍

13/10/2024

Now the question of the day is.. to let the horse “stretch” down or not?!🤷‍♀️

There seems to be two thoughts of school for this. Yes always - the lower the better, or no never below the withers, of which both can be a little problematic - I think.

To ride the horse long and low puts more weight on to the forehand and strains the ligaments. Also 90% of the time it’s not only the neck that’s low but also nose faar behind the vertical. Not ideal - not at all.

On the other hand, I don’t think we should micromanage the head and neck position so much, especially at the start. Low head position is very normal for young horses. It can be mentally quite challenging if the rider is trying to manage the head too much while the horse is learning. Yes, there is more physical stress in the body but we should not forget the mental stress either. When we ride the body correctly the head will come higher and the need to go low gradually decreases.

The same goes when we are reteaching contact to a horse who tucks behind the vertical. Yes, we want to correct the horse and show him better movement patterns. But correcting on every step or every mistake can really be mentally so draining that the learning is not so effective.

It can sometimes be hard to find the golden middle line.

Eli x

12/10/2024

I will be in Alex again next Tuesday 15th October.

Eli x

11/10/2024

Two days of sunshine and I have forgotten all the misery of the past rainy days!

Here is couple of photos from today. Such a simple but great day.

1. We have a gorgeous new addition to the team, for a little while at least.❤️
2. Amazing ride with Luna. 🦄
3. Trimming and catching up with Steepdown Horses .💜
4. Windy day means lots of branches for the horses to eat. 💨
5. Feeding the ponies with my two best helpers. 💙

Enjoy the weekend ❤️

Eli x

09/10/2024

08/10/2024

Rainy trimming day today in Wanaka. Although I somehow didn’t even get wet! 🤷‍♀️ Even managed to pull out a few lessons in between the pouring rain 😅

I will be back in 4 weeks 😊🦄

Eli x

02/10/2024

Hey, I am slowly starting the hunt for a second horse.

I’m looking for a young horse with an amazing feet and good personality. Ideally warmblood or warmblood X .

If you have anything that could be a good match feel free to pm me! ❤️

Eli

01/10/2024

Really feels like spring is here ☀️

It’s been so nice and warm the past couple of days that I have forgotten spring brings all sorts of trouble! 🤦‍♀️ 🌱

Luna is so bloody sensitive that when those first shoots of grass come visible she is the first to notice. I notice myself going into the endless loop of thinking - which product I now need to buy. I need ALL of them 😅 Give me everything.

I love the sun but… ah, can’t get everything!

Eli x

30/09/2024

Barefoot trimming. 🦄

I’ll be in Wanaka on Tuesday 8th of October for trimming. I have couple spaces free.

I’ll be in Alex the week after that. Exact day to be confirmed!

Happy to do a lesson also!

PM to book!

Eli x

28/09/2024

Why understanding biomechanics matter!!!!❤️🦄

Why do biomechanics matter?

No one uttered this term to me, in all my years of riding and lesson-taking, until I was well into my 20's. I heard lots of other words: contact, responsiveness, connection, rhythm, impulsion, suppleness. All of them felt like these ethereal concepts that had multiple meanings depending on who you talked to. They also had varying degrees of importance or ranking in terms of what you need first before the horse can offer the next thing, depending on who you talked to. I still see this all the time, and hear about how frustrating it is from other horsepeople trying to do the best they can.

Biomechanics are the physical relationships and structural laws that govern how living things move. Biomechanics are the HOW in all of those aforementioned ethereal terms. They are vital in understanding how to correctly develop a horse for riding. This is the first reason why biomechanics matter.

The second reason is because horses weren't designed to be ridden. I cannot overstate how important this is to understand if you want to ride horses and ride them well: horses were NEVER designed to be sat on. The horse is born with a specific set of biomechanical tools available to him, and they serve him very well...when they are needed.

The thing is, those tools were designed for maximum efficiency if the horse's life is in danger: used for brief moments, blips in between long stretches of calm. Those exact tools can cause injury, unsoundness, and degeneration if used every day, day in and day out, for years.
. . . . . . . .

I want you to look at these two photos.

The top horse is using what nature gave him (and what work with humans helped him turn into long-standing patterns in movement). The bottom horse has been given new tools and taught how to use them to move in ways that preserve soundness, not encourage degeneration.

The top horse is moving in a way that directly ties into the same sympathetic nervous system responses that kick in when a horse is in danger. The bottom horse is demonstrating all of the power potential the nervous system makes available when the horse is in danger, but accessing it through relaxation and completely different biomechanics.

The top horse is using the ground to support his weight in movement, putting a lot of pressure on his joints. The bottom horse is doing a lot of that supporting himself by virtue of his posture, putting significantly less strain on his joints.

You may have already figured out this is the same horse. These photos were taken approximately two years apart.

I guess what I'm getting at is this: the way to develop the bottom horse isn't to simply take the top horse and add contact, impulsion, responsiveness, ride circle after circle, do pole and hill work, etc. Whatever you apply to the ridden horse will only reinforce what is already in him.

You must teach him, literally from the ground up, a new way of moving, a different biomechanical perspective. Some horses will come by this easier than others, but not a one is born knowing how to put all of these things together on their own when the human asks it. Not a one.

We have to show them how.

PC: Mandy Helwege. Thank you for permitting me to share your lovely boy.

24/09/2024

LAST WEEK OF SEPTEMBER!! What does that mean??

It means that the last Facebook based biomechanics course is about to start next week!!

You can still join ❤️

We are gonna talk about all the possible issues ridden vise - balance problems, riding behind the vertical, horse being on the forehand, motorcycling around corners, struggling to get horse on the bit… and much more.

PM for more details 🦄

Eli x

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With all this rain most horses are rugged from head to toe or turned in. We have an Icelandic horse in the herd who rarely has a rug on. His winter coat works as an amazing insulator and still has about 1-1.5cm of dry hair under neath. ❤️

Just a quick little rock-back / crunch exercise you can do easily in the paddock or while warming up. 🤷‍♀️ Eli

Here is a wee intro video of my Biomechanics - Train your eye course, which is kicking off again 18th of March. 🦄 WHERE? Private, online Facebook group. 🦄 WHEN? We are starting 18.3 but you can watch the videos whenever and where ever suits you. 🦄 HOW MUCH? $139 for six weeks! Eli x

Luna making sure baby is asleep. 🤷‍♀️❤️

Confidence building in horses. What does it look like? One important part of building confidence in horses is making sure the horse has time to think, really think what each cue from the rider means. This means that if the horse does not do what we want - we cannot increase the pressure suddenly and punish the horse. An example: If your horse does not walk on after you ask once - smacking or kicking him hard after won’t help. Yes, your horse will probably run forward after that but he did it without thinking what it meant. Here is Moose, who is often really struggling to think and I am trying to help him out with that. When he gets stressed, I see lots of unwanted behaviours, like extreme mouthiness, constant scratching and pushing over people. When he thinks he is like a different horse. Eli

Hey guys, Here is little video clip of Jack who has a VERY busy brain. His owner also has been struggling with this as little guy just can’t seem to let go. Jack came couple of weeks ago and my first goal of course was to find relaxation. But it was a little tricky as he seemed to have a huge mental barrier for releasing tension. He was his happiest walking so forcing him to stand - would just cause tension. So I started practising Trust - technique with him while we were walking. Teaching him to halt and staying still for couple of seconds at a time and walking off again. The results were amazing. After a while I also introduced the trust technique for him in the paddock as well as standing still somewhere he found safe. We are now at the stage that standing still is not an issue. But when I start the technique - he goes into this stage of compulsive licking and chewing objects until he starts to release. I am no expert on this topic, but how I see it is almost like he does not have the tools to process his emotions and feelings. Like they are too much to handle. Common solution to this ''eating reins and lead ropes'' problem is to punish the horse - and most of the time it just increases the behaviour. All I am saying that there might be something bigger behind this behaviour to look into. I love working with this guy. He is so sensitive and kind. Teaching me so much. ❤️ Apologies quality is a bit poor as Jack was also licking my phone. 💁‍♀️ Eli

I took both girls out for a hack yesterday - riding Rosa and Luna following behind - free 💁‍♀️ She didn't want to leave us too much out of sight. Both horses were amazing. ❤️

Luna getting slowly back into work and practising her ‘’crunches’’ or chest lifts. With her conformation and tendency to often lean into her chest, I have taught her to activate and lift the chest from cue. It is just to give her the feeling of elevated chest and also strengthen those muscles. Not to hold this posture continually. No position in dressage or riding in general should be held actively or be stationary. The most common thing I often hear is that horse needs to lift its' back or ‘’bring the back up’’ - like it is some sort of goal where the horse lifts it and then it stays lifted continuously. That is not natural. That is not even possible. The back naturally moves depending on the gait and moment of time. It does not stay in one stationary position. It is important that we teach our horses the healthy and natural way of moving - but we should not think there is only one position the horse should be at all times. Let the nature guide us. Observe how your horses move freely and try to get pieces of that under saddle. Facebook does not let me post videos and photos at the same time, so see the comments for a photo 👀 Hope everyone is enjoying the sunshine ☀️

Some people like to fence off anything not flat in their horses paddocks to be safe. I like to add anything that adds variety and creates curiosity. Luna is definitely learning to like the little forests and closed spaces more. She wasn't keen on them in the beginning :)

You can’t train the flight animal out of the horse but you can help the horse to think and react differently. It is an absurd idea that still to this day it is completely normal to punish a horse who is scared. If you think about it - it does not make any sense. When the horse most needs support and time to think - we use the whip ??! It’s crazy. If you punish your horse of being scared - you don’t do anything else than reinforce the tension and mental stage around that scary object. And definitely are not in the right track of building trust. See how your horse reacts to scary objects when you are not on her. If your horse completely looses her plot - you know there is a lot to do. If she eventually gets curious - you know you are on the right track.

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