Has it really been one year already?

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Exactly one year ago I sat on Sargon for the first time. After about two years in which I was at the stables frequently but never in the saddle I was given the opportunity to ride and care for this pretty, yet mischievous arabian gelding. I was told that he isn’t that easy to handle and spooks easily but I think the two of us get along quite well.

In the year together we’ve had a lot of great experiences. We’ve trained for a little fun tournament at the stables, we’ve learned together and accomplished a lot. However, we’ve also had some great rides through the forest – on late summer evenings or on sunny winter mornings, through meters of fluffy snow. We’ve had our ups and downs, sure (like that one time when he tripped and we both fell together), but I’m just so glad and happy to have been given this opportunity.

Now that we’ve finally left this long winter behind us we can start to train again, days are longer and filled with more possibilities – we know each other better and I couldn’t be more excited.

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[Above and below: we’ve had lots of snow and it provided us with our very own winter wonderland.]

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[Above: we’ve had our fair share of ups…. | Below: … and downs.]

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[Above: we had fun in the woods during summer… | Below: … and enjoyed colourful leaves in autumn.]

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(I apologise for the different sizes, colourings and qualities of these pictures. I never take my Canon with me when I’m ON a horse so these were mostly taken with my phone.)

The ridiculousness of some academic studies…

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I just read a study which says that ideally, riders should only weigh around 10% of the weight of their horses. That would mean that I’m (with around 53kg) too heavy for my arabian gelding. Which frankly, I find kind of ridiculous. Sure, he’s small and definitely not built for heavy people but that 10% quota? Only children or anorexic people can fulfill this.

I think it’s unreasonable to measure the relationship between rider and horse only by weight. A light rider can hurt a horse far worse than a heavier person only by wrong seat and impact. Also, it depends largely on the musculature of the horse and how it’s being trained, rather than by whom.