Showing posts with label Haflinger. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Haflinger. Show all posts

Friday, February 24, 2012

Tranitional Haflinger Horse Race

Picture it ... a field of golden ponies all running like thoroughbreds. It happens. In Meran, Italy the race  season is kicked off at Maia Racecourse of Merano by these noble little ponies running like the big boys on Easter weekend. With much fan fare, including a parade through the streets, the Haflinger star in not only a horse raise, but demonstrations of western riding and even a trotting race.

 In this video we see the snippets of the whole spectacle. The first half shows the parade with people in traditional costume playing music as the they walk through the seats. Many beautiful Haflinger ponies are show cased in the procession also. With riders of all sorts and sizes. At marker 3:17 we see a pair of cute girls. One in traditional dress and the other just a tot riding in a western saddle. The parade ends with a street cleaner.

Then on to the races! Men and woman ride these golden wonders what is sure to be an exciting race.I love to see the Haffies on their way to the field. In America these would be the ponies leading that big race horses to the track to at this track today, they are the stars. This next video shows more of the race and even tells a bit more about it, unfortunately it is in German, but it is still fun to watch.
 Apparently at the Meran Mais Racecourse they also have a Haflinger steele chase. Now that would be something to see too!

Monday, February 20, 2012

Had a ball!

It has been at least 6 months since I rode her. Six months of her lazying about the pasture, getting a little grain treat here and there. Maybe pulled up to have her feet trimmed but other than that, she has been living the life. Today I show up and realized this is why I have Corrie. We pulled her out of the pasture and did a little grooming, saddled up, little ground work and got on.

Corrie was wonderful!

One of the first things I spied is that my trainer got one of these balls. (Sorry I left my phone in the car so I couldn't take pictures.)  She sniffed it and nudged it. Was a little worried about it rolling toward her, but we did a little ground work around it and she was fine.

Hoped on and walked around the arena. She was just as quiet as can be. Looked at the paper bags in the corner a bit. We faced them, took baby steps toward them until she touched them with her nose. After that she was fine with them.

I didn't do a lot of work with her. I rode her around and played with the ball. My trainer came out and rode with us.

Corrie didn't like my trainer's horse. I don't know why. She was letting her annoyance be known too! I started playing with the ball. She would rub on it. Eventually she would would send it flying with a good nose push. After a few of these nose pushes we noticed that she only pushed it to my trainer's horse when he went by. She is a character!

Mostly I just walked around. A little trotting. Corrie has not been worked in forever and right now she is going to be worked only 2 x a month. Not enough time to really "do" anything but enjoy her. And I plan to. :)