Lovely lesson with Lux Dressage!

  I've been so busy lately with giving lessons and riding! It's so nice to have nice fitting tack and to be able to ride my silly horse again.. Aaah! It's been a liiitle over a week since I've last posted.. and it's really crazy to think just how much has happened in that short period of time!!! First off, Udex has been gaining weight left and right! I swear, every time his blanket comes off he's bigger!!!!! He gets his beet pulp, corn oil, power pellets, and "complete" grain mix twice a day. It's been doing him wonders!!! I'm really happy to see him gaining weight finally! It took forever to find the right, nutritious, tasty, proportional combination for him but we've done it! Anyway, there were a few major things these past nine things that are worth writing about. I'll make a paragraph and maybe a picture or so with each.
  I planned on clipping Udex this year, like always. He's a sport horse that works his muscles to the max with every ride, lunge, free run, arena session... you name it! How fair is it to let him get really sweaty and chilled?? It's not. So that's why we clip horses (well, at least for me.) Half way through a somewhat high-trace style clip, my clippers died. Udex looked like a mauled horse. Chunks of fur clipped here and there, and other places still coated. Ah!!! What could I do though? Nothing. So poor Udex had to look a little ridiculous for a while!!!
  Verena Heinz from Lux Dressage is my new trainer!! I'm so, so, SO excited about this!! Yesterday I had my first lesson with her! She also finished my clip on Udex! She did such a great full clip on him! She left his face and hind legs on. It took almost two hours, yet she was so patient and calm with him!! I'm so thankful she was kind enough to finish the job.. She also managed to fix my clippers as well!! The lesson with her was great!! She has to be one of the best riders I've ever seen. I think everyone knows how still and quiet Edward Gal can sit a horse... I thought it impossible to sit a horse more still. Then I watched videos of Verena and was proved wrong! She sat the horses from the videos I'd seen so beautiful. Not moving at all!! I was really eager to see how her seat would be with bumpy rocking horse Udex!! WOW!!!!! Beautiful!! Not moving at all while Udex cantered and trotted! It was magnificent looking!! My camera died. ): I wanted very badly to take videos! I'd never seen a more elegant rider before!
  Besides having such a graceful seat and being a talented dressage rider, Verena is an extremely kind horse woman; which to me is important. She said riding Udex she could tell he has much fear of the reins and legs (from his rollkur past). She respected that. She didn't force him to do what he wasn't comfortable with. He was throwing his head (from fear) and going like a Lama, but she helped him to gain confidence, and every time he relaxed and went round, she would instantly praise him. By the end of her time riding him, you could see he felt better about going round, and was more calm and trusting. I think it was really good to see a professional rider ride him, and still see that he was afraid. It made me feel better knowing that it wasn't just me not being a good enough rider for him. Most the fear is made up in his head. The pain was once there; yes. However, it's gone now and I'm making sure it never comes back. He just needs to trust me 100% on that. It will take time to have him get used to this new way of life, but I think once he realizes everything is okay, he will be okay.
  It's very probable that I'll be moving Udex to Verenas barn to further progress in training for the both of us. We will be training daily there; which is what we both need if we want to have a future in this sport. I'm really excited about this!! Everything seems really clear when I think about joining their lovely facility! The opportunity to train with such elite riders is so tempting!! I also know that at her stable, there would be other Udex's. Horses that are dressage from tail to nose, flashy movements, similar personality, similar builds... I have a feeling Udex would be extremely happy there..
    I have high hopes for the future at this moment!

"Rollkur opponents care for horses. Rollkur proponents care more for success."