Freya at Winter Camp

Freya, my 4-5 year old Norwegian fjord has been at Katy's for winter camp for about 2 months now. She went there to keep up her training through the winter since we are knee deep in snow here. She was starting to develp some bad habits at home such as bolting, so off to school. At first she was really nervous about her new surroundings but now she is quite comfortable. She wasn't used to an enclosed stall but when she found grain in there every morning after being out at night, it became a pretty good place to be. She is now getting along well with the other horses so she can be turned out with 2 of the boys in the daytime too. Is that ever fun! She can see the arena from her paddock and she stands there and watches the horeses the whole time when someone is riding.

We are making lots of progress. It's important that I learn to do her training because she will be going home again in spring, so I am doing most of the riding with Katy giving instructions. Mostly we are working on rhythm and obedience. Freya is a darling but Fjords really have a mind of their own. For some reason, one end of the arena is fascinating and she always wants to step out there. This might be because some wild horses have been hanging out in that area. At first I had to close the gate to the arena because she bolted out. Now I can leave the gate open. She still wants to step outside the arena and we are working on that. If she steps out we go in 2 or 3 small circles and then continue. I hope she is getting tired of that. I am. If we don't go too close to the edge, she is now trotting around the arena without stopping and doing walk/stop and walk/trot transitions. She is also going over cavalletti and seems to enjoy that.

We are also working on the canter. She has been cantering in the round pen. At first she kicked and bucked but is getting much better behaved now and will canter on request, most of the time. I rode her at the canter for the first time last week and she was very proud of herself. Now with warmer weather, I hope we can do more cantering. It was so cold for so long the round pen was frozen most of the time.

I took her to visit a dressage training show recently. Up until then she had only been at home and at Katy's. It was kind of scary for her at first but after we walked around the grounds it was okay. She sniffed the harrow and looked the heavy equipment over. She startled when people applauded in the arena. I rode her on the grounds a bit and she was excited about that but not unruly. The 2 months of training are definitely starting to show. At home she always trailers easily but a couple times when we were visiting Katy, she didn't want to get in again and gave me a really bad time. I was worried she wouldn't want to go back in at the show and she didn't but I took her firmly, tapped her with the whip and said we are going in. Lo and behold, she walked right in.

Even though Freya is still a teenager, I think she has come a long way and I'm looking forward to getting her home. We will probably go back to Katy's for refreshers from time to time.