Writings chapter 1

Animal TALES is about real experiences , that started when I was 19 years old and when I met the horses. I started training young horses and did this for a periode over 20 years, the stories are about the the funny side of a “green “novice (me) and young horses from three years up to 5 yearlings that came into my life.

TAILS of animals it’s more the common sense. The common sense were each time you are being brought back to the beginnings.. more likely like think again or it’s not what you think , try again. And through trial and error, my character was formed by all these horses.& animals.

INTRODUCTION

One animal ; one species= individual responsive . Two animals ; same species = an interactive zone of communication. Three or more animals, same species/or different species. =. A WAY OF LIFE.

. That’s about it, about me, and a period in my life. More specific.: the period when, during 20 years or more, horses from three years up to 5 yearlings came into my life. Most of them left six months or so later in life., leaving them with an impression of a human encounter and left me with a memory of laughter and skills. I didn’t consider myself successfully graduated in this. When I was younger., I had too much fun with all the horses I got to train so I didn’t aim for success or ambition. When I became older and more mature in that matter, I realised That there are as many different ways in training as there are different races of horses. So I didn’t care too much about proclaiming my way also because I saw that bottom line it’s the horses adapting themselves towards any kind of way or type of training. Some ways gave result and some turned into facts. I was left with a gift a gift from the horses I can say that it came not only from the horses i’ve trained but more specifically with the horses I never met before. I became aware of this each time I encountered a horse for the first time Each time I asked something, or moved in a certain way…. they responded with a kind of recognition. In a sense they recognised the.” gain.” I have had with the horses that I have trained.. Simply I became aware about my moves and intentions because they connected with me on that level . The horses recognised my previous encounters and communication I’ve had with previous horses. Like they mirrored my every move. For me that was my diploma, my achievements and for me it was their gift.

THANKS TO:

A young girl stared at a group of horses far away on the horizon. Curiosity brought me closer to your way of life. My character is formed by your group . Now in life, I can place you back on the horizon . What remains is numerous tales . The tales are perishable. However, your presence……. My heartbeat.

Note of the author: Thanks Yvette for my time in the riding school. The trust and freedom that I received from you, founded my basis for the rest of my life. Anne

PREFACE. Before you start reading the stories or the tales sometimes I will write stories in English and sometime I will write them in Dutch, which is my maternal language. In certain time frames of my life, I would write things down of a certain fashion . How I choose my words and how I structure my sentence, it can be quite difficult to follow /or the reader prefer another structure of the sentence. If you go to the etymology or origin of certain words, one can see, that on a regular basis the words that we use can differ with each coming generation. It’s more like if you’re talking horses. Other people who are involved with horses all their life or a specific timeframe in their life they will get the picture because that’s what it’s all about ; about the picture that forms in your mind while reading the stories.. So on a practical note, I will try to install as soon as possible a button for translation. On the other hand, I can’t care less about the remarks. I tried many times. I read out loud the things I wrote and I would change certain sentence, or I would choose other words so…… I’m done with that. I try to get it as good as possible out there and you know….. I lived those stories and the feel is what I convey. It’s not about the memories it’s not about my memoirs because when I wrote down everything about “Animal Tales and Tails of Animals” or “In the midst of things” it becomes history and then a new page starts…….. only to turn into an old page at a specific moment. It never ends. Anne

CHAPTER 1. Veerle- Vonfelsen -Seigneur& Fantast

Meet VEERLE

The first two horses, were the kind that seem to have the etiquette label written in their genes. They attentively understood what I was trying to obtain, and most of the time they tuned towards this in every way they could. For me, it was a good way to improve my lounging the horses. They would know what the circle should look like, and it didn’t matter where or how I managed my position. These horses came down from a dressage lineage (Adlerfelsen stallion 1967). These horses knew how to make a circle and they did this with the cadence; like rhythmic pulses of a metronome. And on top of that with a nice finishing bend that matched the size of their circle.. In that period, other horses came along as well as ‘Seigneur ‘. This was the horse that learned me my first dressage skills. Most of the Adlerfelsen stallion lineage were chestnut colour. So once the horses were trained, I was able for six months or so, or until they were sold, to attend to some concours of dressage. Since it was their first tryouts in the field of competition, these younglings could lighten up the atmosphere. Some attended dressage riders weren’t too happy with this. I can recall the moments where the other dressage riders were looking for me, and some people would say, well when you see some horses legs in the air, then that’s where she is. I always wondered why they choose a uniform like a white riding trousers, white shirt, white colour band with a golden needle a a black jacket with golden coloured buttons. For me it felt like going through a military training camp being dressed up. I can easily say that my mother had a hard time to clean and wash, to get it back to a spotless state. Anyway for me and the young horses it was a fun day. It was an adventure day, because you never knew what was going to happen and I was really glad that we made it through the basic test. With pleasure I can say that with Veerle I won my first and last champion cup.

In my early beginnings of training horses, I started to make some deals for myself. The horses came in at the age of three years or were becoming three years old that same year. They came in from the prairies, living in groups. And they didn’t have much contact with people. They were not handled too much, they were just cared for, which was a good thing. The only thing that happened, was when some of them needed a castration, or taking care for injuries, they were all taught how to deal with a halter and a rope, they let the horses for a moment free with a halter and the rope on the ground, in order to feel the limit. When they stepped onto the rope, they would feel the limits of the halter. Every year they would bring in, like 5 to 6 horses for training and for them it was difficult to be separated and suddenly being in separate boxes. Before I started a training.; my first rule or conditioning or a deal with them is to leave them space and time in order that the horses would get used to my smell and my movements. So I had an old T-shirt and I left that T-shirt behind in their stable. The second rule or deal is that I would go and put myself in their stable and look out like they do so I can get a glimpse of how it felt and meanwhile they got used to my presence. well, that was just for the beginning and it helped the horses. After a few days the horses were glad that they could leave the stable and at that moment there was already a kind of recognition between us. So we were good to move on. Now we were ready to enter the indoor riding school or indoor paddock so what happened?. Then I set them free and I just give them some space to get acquainted with this indoor space. Now you have to know that the cafeteria was overlooking the indoor riding paddock from the horse’s point of view it was like two or 3 m above their head and there was always a lot of movement of people getting up, sitting down, noises, and all this above their heads. So once, they get comfortable with people standing up and looking down through the window, then it was just a matter of approaching them putting the halter on and lead them back to their box. Next step was lounging the horses and get them accustomed to the bridal the Girth/belly strap and saddle without the stirrups. Most of the time I started out with purely a cinch, then the saddle and later on when the lounging on the right and the left side was okay then the bridal . all of this was a daily routine, not long, like for 20 minutes or so, and I always ended when I saw that the horse learned something . Usually the Monday was the day off for all the horses. On Monday, they would go out in groups on the prairies.

When everything went smoothly, I asked somebody to help me to get on them. Once sitting in the saddle, I did some exercise movements with my body and waited until they were accustomed that there was something above their head that they weren’t used to. I must admit that then I needed to think things through, because the horse could always see my gestures my movements my position and act on that ( upon the ground) and that was our communication through sight. Now I was in a different position being on top of them and they would not see me. Sometimes I would ask Yvette or Maud for the helping hand, but even then I needed to find a way how to lead them and pick up the communication through the legs, arms, the reins. Since it was mostly me and the horses alone, I need to find a solution, if I would stay in the indoor riding paddock then mostly of the time the horse would naturally would like to go where the other horses are and so I would always have to pull them away from them, and by doing that, we would both learn the things that we didn’t want to achieve, now I needed another vision on this. I decided to continue with me and the horse and nobody else so usually I will take them out into the great forest and walked next to him or her and then at a certain moment I would climb up and I presumed that he would follow the horse trails in the forest. And when I have to make a turn, then I would put my weight left, right, behind and forth, in order to feel the directions and give the horses a sense of the direction I was pointing out. When I mentioned the horse trails and that the horses would follow the horse trails well that was just wishful thinking, but I can, say after all these years looking back, only a few horses wanted to take off during these walks but most of them were fine and from here on, long walks in the woods. The lessons of indoor riding started after the walks. There the learning of making circles, changing hands throughout diagonal lines, coming to a stop and all those things. One more thing, strangely, I never learned them to Gallop . It was always walking and trotting, to me it was more than the gallop should be taught by the new owner or rider. Or maybe, it was just that I realised that our ways we’re going to be separated. Both, Veerle and Vonfelsen left with their owner..

Meet FANTAST

Many years later, there was a horse Fantast. (Dressage lineage FANTASTIQUE 1971) Fantast made me remember the basic training of the young dressage horses. Fantast did everything so quickly that in a matter of five days I really needed to change the scenery of my training.. Saddle……. No problem………. The girth on the saddle……. No problem…….. to lounge…….. no problem. Hanging over him……. No problem. Sitting on top of him…….. no problem. Everything was good for him………. But……. For him it was settled he was going to run always in circles,no straight lines. I asked a friend with her horse to help me out here.I asked her to keep her horse very close to my left side as well as the left side of fantast. We started our walk outside into the forest with the intention to ride long horse trails straight ahead. Our walk started like this…….. as soon as we started to walk, the horse next to him, well Fantast, placed his head over the neck of the other horse pushing him completely off track. After a few times we managed and at the end of the promenade it was all good. We only needed one outside trip. To me, Fantast was the fastest horse that integrated the training course. He met his owner soon after. Looking back to the two stallions ADLERFELSEN and FANTASTIQUE ; they were really nice intelligent good stallions and one of their offspring stole my heart his name SEIGNEUR