Equestrian Stockholm on julkaissut upean syysmallistonsa. Uuden malliston kunniaksi Equestrian Stockholm on järjestänyt arvonnan Facebook-sivuillaan. Arvonnan tuloksena voit voittaa omaksi tämän ihanan Bordeaux-korvahupun.
Näin osallistut arvontaan:
1) TYKKÄÄ Equestrian Stockholm Suomi Facebook-sivusta2) Jaa Equestrian Stockholm Suomi Facebook kommenttikenttään hauskin kesämuistosi joko tekstin, kuvan tai videon muodossa. 3) Tägää kaverisi, jonka olisi hyvä tietää tästä arvonnasta.
Ehdit vielä hyvin osallistua, sillä osallistumisaikaa on torstaihin 30.8 klo 20.00 saakka. Voittaja julkistetaan Equestrian Stockholm -Suomi Facebook-sivulla.
Onnea arvontaan! Huikeita arvontoja ja palkintoja on tulossa lisää syksyn mittaan.
For the past weeks there have been a few great illustrations that I wanted to share with you all. Firstly this great picture and quote from Carl Hester.
"To help your half halts become more forward so they open your horse’s throat latch. Imagine that those half halts open the underside of your horse’s neck to make it more in the shape of a U instead of a V. — Carl Hester
And secondly a picture that was shared by Sally Amsterdamer on what happens with the horse when we use too much inside rein.
As we can see in the picture we both knock the horse off balance and make the horse crooked. The left picture shows how the horse has come over his outside shoulder and has a hard time balancing. I really think that we easily lounge and ride our horses crooked since we bend them too much and ride them on small circles in small arenas. I have found that one of the best ways to counteract this is to get out there with your horse. Run up hills, canter long distances and swim if there is the possibility for it. Also when riding, we should concentrate more on balancing the shoulders and keeping them in a straight line toward the direction you are going. Forget about the neck for a while and concentrate on riding a horse with a straight vertebrae with the vertebral column not collapsing in either direction.
A great way to feel when the horse is crooked is riding bareback. Close your eyes, breathe and just listen! 💙🐴
Great Marsterclass from Carl Hester can be found here.
Tämä viikko on tuntunut henkisellä puolella haastavalta, mutta samalla olen saanut nähdä rakkaita ystäviä, joita en ole nähnyt pitkiin aikoihin. Elämä on tuntunut aidolta ja rehelliseltä, mutta samalla on ollut vaikeaa palata arkeen, sillä Ella on ollut kipeänä koko viikon ja olen tietenkin äitinä ollut todella huolestunut. Ella on ollut monta kertaa kipeänä viime keväänä ja kesällä sairastuimme molemmat flunssaan kerran. Toivotaan nyt, että saisimme pian olla terveinä ja saisimme arjen taas rullaamaan normaalisti. Arki kun on mielestäni ihan sitä parasta elämää.
Viikonlopun vietimme maalla ja otimme todella rauhallisesti. Kävimme eilen korkkaamassa sänkkärin Jessican ja Ötön ihanan Mia-suokin kanssa ja illalla menimme vielä syömään Scola-ravintolaan perheen kanssa.
Tänään lähdimme uudestaan Thorin ja Jackin kanssa luontoon ja otin ensimmäistä kertaa Monty Robertsin Dually-riimun koko matkan ajaksi Thorin päähän. Minulla on sellainen olo, että Thoria ahdistaa edelleen kuolaimet suussa, joten halusin kokeilla voisinko useammin ratsastaa maastoretket riimu päässä. Reissu meni todella hyvin ja huomasin, että pelko siitä, että suussa ei ole mitään on enemmän omassa päässä kuin mitään muuta. Suuhun oli myös riimulla hyvän tuntuinen kontakti ja Thor oli rento ja mukava. Tallinomistajamme mies Jussi tuli jossain vaiheessa laukkaamaan sänkkärille ja yritimme hetken laukata perässä. Thor oli intoa täynnä ja totesin, että nyt ei ihan tunnu turvalliselta laukata riimu ja karvasatula selässä. Eli jatkoimme sitten loppumatkan käyntiä ja ravia kotiinpäin. Mutta tulipa ainakin kokeiltua ja aion ehdottomasti jatkossakin maastoilla riimun kanssa.
Tästä lähtee jälleen uusi viikko käyntiin. Huomenna on tiedossa töitä ja joogaa. Jack saa vielä viettää pari päivää maalla vanhempieni seurassa. Maalla kun on niin mukavaa, kun saa juosta ja temmeltää vapaana päivät pitkät.
"I always say you become what you believe. And the only thing you have to believe is that you are a part of the divine. Because once you really get that you know that no matter what comes, you are going to be okay."- Oprah Winfrey
I believe that we all carry our stories. Or the stories that we believe that are ours. One story that I have been carrying most of my life is the story of loneliness. That I am not loved. That nobody really cares about me and that whomever I get to know or whatever I do in life, it never sticks. Nobody sticks. I can go to a meeting at work and think that this person will end up hating me anyway so it really is no point getting to know them. I really think that. I really do.
And then there are those people that have been stuck to me. Those people that I wonder about. Why do they still want to be my friends? Maybe they don't see me enough or really truly see who I am. And then there is Tiina Wright. That one friend and family that has held me in her arms when I have been screaming and has taken my hand when I have been crying. She has never left my side once. Not for the good or the bad, in the pain or the joy. Because of Tiina I am where I am today.
And then one morning your friend Hanna Nyholm sends you a talk with Oprah Winfrey and Panache Desai. A world renowned visionary and transformational teacher. And it all makes sense. All those moments of yoga, meditation and times spent in the saddle.
"Abundance is the richness of your experience and the richness of your life. It is not about what you have."
Desai talks about how important it is to not only change our thoughts but our energies. That ancient yogis and mystics knew that we inhabited a vibrational universe and reality. And that at the deepest level we are energy. That every single one of us is energy. That we all have our own unique resonance of energy. And therefore Desai believes that at the greatest level of which any transformation can occur is at the vibrational level. And meditation, yoga, chanting and prayer are vibrational practices to shift us at that core level. And so everyone of us embodies our own resonance and frequency that Desai calls everyone's unique 'Soul Signature'.
- Ultimately we are all part of energy but we all have our unique expression of energy. And that is the cool part. We are so busy trying to be someone else other than who we have been created to be that we have moved away from our soul signature. And then we are wondering why our life doesn't work. Why areas of our life don't flush. Because we are fighting against our design. In the journey of every great being there is a singular moment when they finally surrender to their soul signature. They finally embrace who they are, the way they are. There is no greater power or no greater connection than to be in harmony with oneself. Which is to fully embrace all that we are because we are beautiful. We are NOT BROKEN. We don't need fixing. We don't need teaching. All that we need is for us finally to just accept all that we are.
And how do we do this in a world where we can sometimes feel that we are not accepted as we are or where we can walk around thinking how unfair life is. - The key to unlocking who we are is acceptance. We judge our anger, we judge our fear and overly compensate for our insecurities. When that moment arrives where you feel anger or any other emotion there is a visceral or vibrational reaction that is being triggered inside of you. 'Emotions are energies in motion'. Which means that they want to move. What do we do? We stuff it, we repress it, we surpress it. 'Oh no, it is not socially acceptable to feel my anger or sadness so I am going to stuff it or do something to avoid feeling it'. We are not releasing the thing and letting is pass through us but it rather becomes density and literally forms a weight in our bodies. Every emotion and life experiences want to happen. We just don't allow them to happen. And they are not wrong or bad. We just need to change our languaging around these experiences. They are just energy.
I have always felt a strong connection to nature and animals. It has been my 'Soul Signature' since I was born but I have never really lived up to it. I have always thought or told myself the story of what I should be doing with my life. Where I should be living and what I should be working with. I have not been living the life that I have been destined to live and I am still too afraid to financially brake loose in order to live my souls purpose. In yoga we talk about cultivating sensitivity and through all the practices that I have been doing, I feel that the sensitivity toward what ones own soul vibrates for becomes stronger and stronger. The more we get to know ourselves the deeper we also connect to our true being and purpose.
- We have empowered everyone elses version of us over our true self. We have taken on the limitations of everyone else instead of believing in that limitless potential that we were born to be. Sometimes people just mess up, but that too is a part of them moving into something greater. Everything in life is a call to bring you into something greater. And sometimes you have to fall from the highest of heights in order to pick yourself back up and re prioritize what is important. And recommit to what is important.
I do not believe that life is unfair. I believe that life is happening for us, not too us. And I sense that even those moments that we perceive to be challenging or harsh, ”unfair”, are actually leading us into something greater and we just can't perceive it in that moment. That we are only ever being led back home to ourselves. And that ultimately all of this is happening for us to realize who we are at the deepest level. There is just something beautiful in being human. It is not something special or otherworldly. It is just the fact that we are human and our humanity is the doorway to the divine. When things happen to us that can seem hard and unfair, Desai reminds us that the first thing is to recognize that what is happening is not a punishment. It is actually an opportunity. What most people do is pretend that it is not there. Pretend that it doesn't exist or try and do something to avoid feeling it. The key is to actually feel it and to actually be available for it. And not resist it. And in those moments then when you can actually just embrace and accept it, five years from now or ten years from now, when you look back on it, you see it as a pivotal moment in your development.
- We should embrace ourselves for who we are. When anger arises instead of stuffing the anger or denying its existence, lets embrace it, lets feel it. Lets completely relax our bodies and be available to it. It is not that these things need to cease existing but it is that we include them as a part of who we are. That is the gift. The gift is in being human.
And then Winfrey and Desai talk about fear and we are reminded that the more we embrace fear the less it dominates our experience. Any and all energies that we don't embrace run us. Any and all things that we embrace no longer have any power over us. So the more we can embrace these parts of us like fear, which is natural. We hold on to our fear. Take Zebras that feel fear. They are out in the wilderness and the lion comes: "Quick! Henry run." And then they run and then they stop running and they look at each other and they shake it out. And that is the end of it. We don't do that. We hold on to it for like 50 years until we don't really know what we are afraid of anymore. We accumulate our fear. So the key is to understand that fear is a part of our experience but it does not need to dominate our experience.
Both Winfrey and Desai tells us to shift our way of thinking to 'Isn't life just a wonder, waking up every day looking for the wondrousness in it. God will just thrill you and blow your mind all the time.' Desai also reminds us of the importance of our breath and connecting to it in our everyday life making it a living meditation. He also gives us the advice to remember to slow down. We are running around and never taking the time to just stop and slow down. As Desai states: 'It is ok, you are ok.'
"We can only ever be who we are, and at some point that has to be good enough."
All excerpts are written down from Oprah's Super Souls Conversations with Panache Desai.
For the past three summers we have been swimming almost daily with Thor since we have been living very close to our cottage and have been able to walk or ride to the beach easily. This year we had a long period of not making it to the water until Alva contacted us one day and asked if we wanted to head for a nice little ride toward the sea with her and Dante.
So one hot day we put on our saddles and took a chilled ride to our cottage from the stable. On the way there we mostly walked and nonetheless had I guessed that I would both trot and canter bareback back home.
When we arrived to the seafront some of our relatives were already down at the beach and my parents, Ella and Jack also joined us. Thor went straight into the water as usual, but Dante was wondering why on earth he should step into those small bluelike moving things. Lucky for us however, Carola Bruni-Forsberg happened to be visiting my uncle and his wife. Carola has been riding her whole life and owns a big stable in Switzerland so she was able to help Alva with Dante. At some point Alva jumped down, (I find it easier to show the horse things from the ground even if those petite toes can be in danger) and lead Dante in to the water. When Dante had gotten acquainted for a little while, Carola then helped Alva back up on the horse.
This thing seems really weird.
We had a long and lovely swim in the warm water and Dante was really enjoying himself after the initial chock. After the swim Alvas' parents took our saddles home by car so we didn't have to put them on the wet horses and we rode the whole one hour way bareback. I thought we would just be walking but Thor felt so nice in both trot and canter and I felt so stable on his back so we picked up the speed a bit on the long sandy roads.
A few years back I did not feel as good cantering home bareback but this time it really felt good. I am not sure if it was because of myself or because Thor was so supple, straight and relaxed. I have been riding a lot with the sheepskin saddle so that probably helps in building my balance but I also think that Thor has developed a lot of muscle tone and when he is relaxed it is just so much easier to sit on his back. When Alva and Dante took of in their direction (they live at the stable next door) I did some transitions with Thor and I don't think it has ever felt that good to ride him. He has never felt that straight or supple as he did in that moment and for a little while I felt like on top of the world and like the biggest dressage rider alive.
This summer has been very hot and beautiful. A lot of sun and sea for the whole family. Such a wonderful vacation in this life every meaning. Last Sunday we went for a long hack with Thor and during the ride we happened to meet our dear friend Piff the pony. Marelda passed away last summer and Piff now lives with another pony close to his old home during the summers. It was so nice to see Piff and I couldn't help but drop a few tears from all the wonderful memories I have from all the summers together with these three horses. They were some of the best summers of my life.
But as we all know these moments with horses are not always long-lived and since one of Thors friends moved back home to their own stable he got a new friend out in the field and they did not meet each others requirements firsthand. Both horses had their fare share but Thor was kicked in the front leg and it was very swollen for a few days. I had the veterinarian check on it and it already seems much better. I just hope we got through this without any bigger damages. It just always seems like the whole world falls apart when something happens to my horses and I really need to start to understand that all injuries are not always fatal and that these kind of things just happen when you deal with horses. Luckily Thor and his new friend seem to get along very well after the inital get together and I really hope that we get to spend the rest of the year (or the rest of our lives) without any bigger injuries.
After the ride we had a discussion on Facebook whether Blue-Green algae can be dangerous for horses. Smaller animals are known to be poisoned by the algae. My uncle Ben found an article about it. The articledoes not particularly take a stance on whether it is dangerous for horses but as it says the Blue-Green algae can be dangerous for most animals. Since I think there are very few studies done on horses and Blue-Green algae I would however recommend paying attention to it and maybe even avoid the water if there is algae in it. I did find that Thor did not drink any of the water this year compared to the previous years so maybe he felt that it was not as clean as before. Anyway, just thought this is an interesting topic to discuss. As are so many other topics when it comes to horses.
By the way, there have been a few cancellations to our Mindfulness, Yoga and Horses retreat at Kekkolan kartano in September. Let me know if you are interested in joining us. It will for sure be one more memorable weekend to but in the bucket list of life.
More swimming stories can be found here.
Pictures are taken by Carola Bruni-Forsberg, Mathias Karlsson and Ella Luusuaniemi.
