On the Saturday evening, after our final day at Anja Beran’s, we – The Travelling Four – went to “Kaltenberger Ritterturnier” – a medieval festival and show. More information can be found here.
It’s a huge event! I had no idea the numbers of people that were there. Driving into the extended carpark was like driving into the Bluesfest carpark at home! We had an hour or two to wander around before the show started. There were stalls selling all things medieval – but for me the crowd was overwhelming.
There were also processions. I caught on camera ‘human puppets’ walking through the crowd. A puppeteer and puppet even came over to give me some close up photos!
Then it was time for the show! Alex and I were lucky to have Rebekka and Michaela there to translate the show into English for us! But it was a fairly easy story line to follow – good vs evil – and good finally wins!! Here are some photos of the event.
It was a spectacular show BUT – now I had been at Anja’s for a week, oh I could see the difference in these horses! The tension, the sharp movements – the piaffes, spanish walks – impressive – but not in balance – not with the lovely flowing motion I had seen all week.
My eye had been trained over the previous week – horses weren’t just chewing on the bit – they were frothing and sweating. They were of course very fit and talented horses… but… that… THING….was missing.
What’s the ‘THING’…………..
The cursor is blinking at me while I think of how to describe ‘the thing’……
still blinking……
I had to go for a walk while I thought about ‘THE THING’.
This is how I would put it – it’s the mental, emotional, physical and spiritual balance….. that’s a big ask – but it’s not impossible.
Anja has most of it – in my opinion I would say that more positive reinforcement would complete it.
And Alex has it. In fact over the last few years I’ve had some discussions with my horse Ducati over ‘the thing’. He calls it ‘the charisma’. Ohh – those conversations are enough to fill another blog post – but for now I’d describe it as having unconditional love, talking the same ‘language’ – as in clicker training, going as slow as it needs to go, breaking it down into the smallest of slices and learning that ‘feel’ – that floating balanced feel.
But… there’s more to it…. I’m not finding the right words… there is something else……
I will talk more about this when I get to the week of Alex’s clinic in Italy..
After the show we headed back to our accommodation for the last night – before an early start to Italy. It had been quite a week – and the adventure wasn’t over yet!! And here is a photo of the view from our accommodation!
COMING UP – ON THE ROAD TO ITALY!
FOR THE BEGINNING OF THIS ADVENTURE, PLEASE GO TO HORSE ADVENTURES IN EUROPE 2018
HorseMagic 