Príncipe helps to get the bucket out of his box after dinner 😁 #lusitanohorse #younghorsetraining #quintadocarvalhosantarem #lusitanolove
First time with saddle - Yeah, he definitely needs his own, smaller and properly fitted saddle soon, but this one fits well enough for getting the feeling of having a saddle on his back.
I love his personality, that he is just so confident that he is completely relaxed even if other horses around are freaking out 😂 Watch Principe in the back 🤪 #younghorsetraining #lusitano #lusitanohorse #quintadocarvalhosantarem #lusitanostallion
Video number two - at the mounting aid.
This is how it hopefully looks like at one point, that your horse comes happily towards you when you want to mount. ☺️
Prep for mounting
Happy new year to all of you!
New year, new post 😁
Often I get asked how I teach the horses to come to me at the mounting aid ( or any other higher point where I would like to mount ).
Here a little explanation video.
If you have any questions please ask.
Horse: Quo-Vadis JHC, my soon four year old Lusitano stallion.
Slowly training towards being a riding horse. Second time with girth after a couple of weeks, no reaction whatsoever 😊 First time with blanket. The first couple of times I take care to not pull the girth very tight, just so they get the feeling. Also I avoid cantering the first times because this is the moment where the girth tightens and this often provokes stronger reactions. Gradually I tighten the girth. To prevent the girth from sliding back I put a breastplate or at least a rope around the front. Just in case 😁 In 40 years with horses I have seen a lot of ( unwanted) things happening! #lusitano #younghorsetraining#quintadocarvalhosantarem #lusitanolove #workingequitation
Príncipe
Príncipe just wanted to state how bad he is treated by having to do all the work on his own… 😂😂😂😍
Preparing the horse for mounting
Here a video with some explanation what I am doing. I think the vast majority of riders already uses mounting aids or steps to mount a horse. Why is this important?
- It is more comfortable for the horse! Unless you are very lightweight and sporty, you pull the horse to the side and bring the horse out of balance, the spine gets “twisted”.
- It is better for the saddle
- It is easier for the rider
AND they learn to move towards me standing on an object, if it is the mounting aid or something else, a stone, a tree stump or an embankment, so I can easily mount again while on a hack.
As always: train it from both sides!
BUT: My horses all learn to be mounted from the ground as well - just in case it is needed.
And I promise to work on my talking 😂
Yes, I know, not very beautiful with the muck pile in the back 😅 Just wanted to share with you how sweet the boys are entering the trailer for the first time since they came here. Q just drove that one time when he came here, Príncipe twice in his life. It is the first try, I just wanted to see their reaction and put a bucket with food in front in case they enter. Important to let them explore and evaluate, I wait until they decide whether it is dangerous or not, just taking care that they don’t turn around or try to walk besides the trailer. Very happy they both trust me enough already to not get scared or super nervous. Príncipe took a bit longer but then entered calmly. I didn’t film the exiting because this sometimes is more tricky and I want to be absolutely focused and have both hands free. But both did it without trouble as well. Usually I would park the trailer so the horses have to go towards the stable/ the other horses, which is easier than if they have them behind. But since it is always standing like this and I just wanted to see their reaction, I didn’t mind too much. #quintadocarvalhosantarem #younghorsetraining #lusitanolove #TheGentleTouch #lusitano
Sound on! Our horses are so communicative 😂 They love to talk. Quo Vadis was inside because the neighbour harvested the grapes with a huge machine. When it passed directly by his paddock he was a bit too scared so brought him in. Munja, the oldest came for a chat, it was going already for a while, I just filmed the last seconds 😅
Morning vibes @ Quinta do Carvalho 🥰
Usually we only shower the horses quickly after training, no wasting water if not necessary, but with 45 degrees Celsius yesterday Príncipe- who in the beginning was not very keen on getting showered- took his time enjoying the cool water even in his face so I let him. 🤗
Príncipe already knew being mounted from the mounting aid. I usually do that to prevent it being an unpleasant experience for the horses, because mounting from the ground most of us pull the saddle sideways and bring the horse out of balance. We have steps we can move towards the horse but they bear the risk of injury if the horse steps into it. So we prefer to mount from the safer one in the corner of our arena, but you can’t move it. So I ( and many others) teach their horses to move towards it on a signal. This is how it looks like after training a couple of times ☺️ As always, train it from both sides! Training these small things makes life so much easier later.
Passo a passo - step by step - Schritt für Schritt ☺️
So happy to sit on the front terrace in the evening with a beer and look at the things we already did. The horses grazing on the big field, the grass on the smaller fields on the Quinta is slowly growing - not really visible in the video, will put a picture in the comments. Now the space in front of the boxes is done as well 😍 Still some cosmetic things to do - like removing the muck pile, the old, far to small shed on the field and the watertank. Since we don’t have a tractor now the muck pile has to be close. 😅 Before it was directly behind the stable, we already removed that one. Now we have to build some sheds and paddocks because my little one will arrive in the beginning of April and we have one more surprise- stay tuned ☺️
#potugalmylove
#lusitanolove
#horses
#QuintaDoCarvalhoSantarém
This is how the riding arena ( and the fields ) looked like when we took over the Quinta… Quite idyllic 😂 Every morning in July we got up very early to dig out the weeds and roots by hand before the heat kicked in. 😅🤪
Janeiro em Portugal
Oh my, the last two months have been full of rain, extra work and little time, Christmas and New Year’s Eve have been quite calm, no big parties, we have to change that for this year 🤭 In the video you see our field beside the stable which should have been seeded already in November. Now all the seeds of the old weeds are growing just fine 😅 At least the bees are happy. ❤️ If we are lucky the weather stays dry for another week and it will be possible to plough the field and seed. let’s see. We are also going to fix the way down to the stable and the riding arena which had been neglected by the former owners so we need to replace some areas, remove the bad spots and get new sand on it. This work should begin next week. The area in front of the stable needs a proper surface and possibility for the water to NOT flow THROUGH the stable 🫣 Then we are also waiting for the people to do the fence around the riding arena and building the fence on our extra piece of land for the horses. The grass there is growing very well, it has not been used the last one or two years. So we have enough grass already, just need a fence 🤭 Step by step. We really hope that by the end of the summer most of the stable issues are solved. At least we already have the rubber mats the boxes which are very nice! And the old, broken tractor has been picked up so we don’t have to look at it anymore, being reminded that the former owners cheated on us with this 😕 So, having given a short update I try to post regularly again. ( I always say that 😂💪🏼 ). Abraço e beijinhos
Playtime 😁🥰
Love our amimals ☺️
This light! ❤️
The light in Portugal is my favourite 🤩 #portugalmulove Unfortunately the dark sky on the horizon is smoke from a huge fire. It is far away but yesterday morning we even could smell the smoke here…
Today I couldn’t resist. Nouri is not really happy with riding in the arena, especially if the dangerous cats are playing on the side 😆 So we took a little walk outside, checking our big field and using the sand tracks. I left Mila on the Quinta but she must have followed us to the end of the fence where there is a little space underneath the fence 😂 So she showed up unexpected. I think she will make a great riding company dog 😆 Never tried it before. Nouri also didn’t care.
