Energizing equitation

Chateau and her summer grazing friends Pila and Majan

Dorothea Brooke the heroine of Middlemarch quit riding since she didn't want to show off her wealth in a world of poverty. Today Sweden is such a wealthy country that anyone can ride and even less well-off people may keep a horse. I am one of those.

First of all my horse is my friend. Her name is Chateau and our friendship goes way back. I first met her when she was four years old and this June the 1st we will celebrate her 20th birthday. Even if I wouldn't be able to ride I would keep her with me. She has a lovely personality, a true pony, stubborn and very fond of food. At the same time she is true as gold and gentle as a lamb.

Galopping with Chateau

I have always tried to ride according to Chateau's gentle disposition and the last seven years we have practised Energizing equitation, a kind of equitation deriving from the French riding academies of the 16th, 17th and 18th C and the Mediaeval knights. The point is that you try to connect your brain with the horses brain, trying to ride with your soul in harmony with your horse's soul in stead of using strong aids and violence to command the horse.

Chateau and me last summer

The schools on ground like shoulder in and haunches in are basic gymnastic movements that strenghten the horse and are natural to horses and  therefore you use them early in the education of horse and rider in Energizing equitation. Like the baroque masters, Ewa Kristina Petterson , who founded Energizing Equitation, has thight a lot on how to find a way to ride the horse with invisible aids and she teaches others how to reach there in much appreciated clinics in Sweden and Denmark.

Miss Smilla

However, there are many others who tries to reach the same goals with similar means and I try to listen to everybody and pick the things that work for me and my beautiful pony, although I have learnt most from Ewa-Kristina and her "Cougars" in Kalix.

Now I am doing exactly the opposite to Dorothea Brooke, I have bought a filly. By June the 23rd she will be one year old and she will be educated according to Energizing Equtation principles from the beginning. Her name is Smilla and her father is of pure Spanish breed mixed with Welsh and Arab blood from her mother, I hope this will be a perfect mix for an Energizing Equitation horse.