Blessi's Got the Blues

Here are Dannelle and Blessi at their second dressage show in September 2010. This is Blessi's first training level test--walk, trot, canter. Score was 66.086. They took two blue ribbons again--not bad for an Icelandic horse.
You can read more about Blessi at his very own blog http://blessiblog.blogspot.com/

Category:

Pets & Animals

Tags:

• icelandic
• horse
• dressage
• Blessi
• icelandic horses
• icelandic pony

[blessiowner]

When we moved, I was lucky to find an Icelandic instructor Svanny who worked on Blessi's gaits and lateral work. Svanny moved and I found Dannelle, who had not worked with gaited horses. You cannot drill Icelandics but have to change things constantly. You also need to approach training a little differently because of their conformation--thick neck, short legs, round body. So far Danelle and Blessi have entered 4 classes in two local shows and they have taken blue ribbons in all classes.

[blessiowner]

Thanks for the compliment. Blessi is 4-gaited. It is ironic that the first dressage instructor we went to 6 years ago, said that Blessi was untrainable, his trot was impure, and he could never learn dressage. She could not get him to accept the bit and that was one of the basics of the training pyramid. So we rode the trails for two years at a walk. The whole point of lessons was not to do dressage exclusively but for me to become a better, safer trail rider.

[KathySierraVideos]

Wow! This is so encouraging. Is Blessi five-gaited? And not to take anything away from the lovely -- VERY impressive -- performance, but I was just as struck by seeing an Icelandic horse that... *clean* :) Beautiful horse, beautiful demonstration of what these horses are capable of.