# Friesian Eefje's Journal



## Reeltje (Jul 13, 2012)

My very first journal in english. My very first journal at all. I hope you can forgive me for spelling errors or wrong words/sentences etc. 

Eefje and I already been through a lot togheter and learned a lot from each other. I won't be able to tell everything from the beginning to now, but I'll tell our story broadly.

In 2010 there were 2 new horses (yearlings) in the stable, a beautiful black horse with beautiful white markings, and a not so pretty and unfriendly friesian horse. Their owner told me the friesian was named Eefje, and the other horse Efarose. I started to do things with the black horse, it was such a sweet animal, wouldn't hurt a fly. After a while she was sold, and the friesian went to a field with some welsh yearlings to grow up. I didn't mind she wasn't at the stable, because I didn't like her. 

In 2011 she was back at the stable for a while. I decided to do something with her. Any time I opened her box, she turned her butt to me. Any time I came near her butt, she threatened to kick. Any time I touched her hindlegs, she kicked. Any time I tried to take her out of the field, she ran away. Any time I reached for her head, she put it up in the air, she didn't want me to touch her head. I didn't like her. I didn't have a 'connection' with her. But when I had nothing better to do, I went to her and tried to catch her, touch her, groom her. After a while I could brush her from head to tail without any attemt of kicking me (not the hidlegs yet).
Eefje with her best friend Annemoon. 















After a while she went back to another field again until she became three. In January we picked her up and brought her back where she could walk in the field with Annemoon again. It was wintertime and in february, there was a lot of snow. You looked so cute. 
















So we practiced a lot with brushing, and now I can brush/touch all parts of her body. I can walk behind her, clean out her tail. She can give her front hoofs without any trouble. Stroke her head and she moves her head down instead of up in the air. 
I made us a video (clips from the snow too! Haha, that was só beautiful!)





I learned her to walk, trot and canter on the lunge on voice command. I showed her not to be afraid of a bridle and saddle. I learned her how I could steer her with long reining. 
I actually kinda started to like her. So I made another video! 
(here you can see the lunging  ) I feel so good when I watch this, almost can't remember how she was in the beginning. She improved so much! 





For some change in work, I started tricktraining. I already did this sometimes with Annemoon. Annemoon is a really fast learner, but Eefje isn't as smart as Annemoon.  We don't train a lot, maybe once a week, if it's not less. I've got 2 video's, the first one is the day we started, the second is 1 or 2 months ago. You can see the improvement. We alreay improved a lot since the second video and learned some new stuff. And still learning! 









I think that's the story to where we are now. From now I post the new things  

And if you like it, here are some more video's about Eefje.  Worth watching!(Especially the first and last  )













Love, me and Eefje.


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## my2geldings (Feb 18, 2008)

Gorgeous horse. Looking forwards to reading more about her.


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## Reeltje (Jul 13, 2012)

Thanks!


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## Inga (Sep 11, 2012)

She seems like a sweetheart. Glad you gave her a chance to show you how lovely she is.


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## Reeltje (Jul 13, 2012)

This is about last weekend. Unfortunally I can only visit her on weekends. I live because of an internship on weekdays somewhere else for half a year (and maybe the other half too).

Saturday I wanted to do a little tricktraining again, whithout halter. This was the first time she really did great without halter! I am so proud of her. She used to walk away whenever I took her halter off. No halter meant no work to her. She followed me everywhere, she did what I asked, it was just great. We reapeated a few tricks she knew, and worked on other tricks wich needs to be improved.
Walking backwards while I stay in place went perfect that day! Only thing is, if she has to walk backwards while I stand behind her, she wants to turn around to face me. Needs a little more practice there . 
A little progress with spanish walk, she really has to think hard wat she has to do. 'First lift my leg up', 'My other leg now', 'Oh, don't forget my hindlegs!'. It's really funny to see the video of what I filmed, you can really see her think. You see her walk with her frontlegs and she's almost in the split and then she is like 'Oh darn, my hindlegs has to walk too!'  It's really helpful for me too, to watch my video. Then I can see how she does things, and what I could do better. I can't see the 'whole picture' when I stand beside her.
At the end of the training she's always tired, and yawns all the time, so I started to put a command on that too. A few times it worked, she yawned on command! I think she has forgotten it next weekend, but that's ok, after a few times she will understand what I want  

So all in all, it was a very good day, and I'm very satisfied!
I also made a video, but I did something wrong and now it's not how I made it. So I will maybe try to fix it


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## Reeltje (Jul 13, 2012)

Double post, can I delete this?


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## countryryder (Jan 27, 2012)

She's beautiful!
And I love your videos;what program do you use to put them together?


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## Reeltje (Jul 13, 2012)

countryryder said:


> She's beautiful!
> And I love your videos;what program do you use to put them together?


Thank you! 
I use Sony vegas pro 11.0


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## Reeltje (Jul 13, 2012)

Today I found out Eefje wasn't in the field or box. I asked the owner's wife and she told me that they were bringing her to a training stable to learn her to walk in front of a horsecart and maybe to learn her riding too! 
I'm so excited! And I hope she'll learn really fast so she wil come back soon  

The owner's got a horsecart he has never used :')
He also has got a cart for a pony, but it's too big for his section A welsh ponies. So maybe he'll trade one of his welsh mares for a section B welsh pony! I hope that will still happen, he wanted to pick the pony up when he brought Eefje away. But the owner of that pony hasn't return his calls yet unfortunataly. 
It would be fun, maybe I could ride her.

So today I played and hugged with Annemoon, Jewel and Cornelia in the field. And played with the stallion foal Highlight and is mum Caramel in their box  It was fun too! 
I really wanted to train with Eefje again today, because last week it went so well without halter! And now I have to wait very long until she's back  But I'm really excited too see how she will come back.


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## Reeltje (Jul 13, 2012)

I fixed the video of last weekend, so here it is


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## Reeltje (Jul 13, 2012)

What I said earlier happened today  The owner traded his welsh pony for a bigger welsh pony. 
I went to visit her, and she's really nice! Her name is Lady, 6 years old, and nothing has been done with her until a year ago. (Her owner died, his son took care of his horses but didn't know a lot about them, she was only a foal back then. Then she was sold and a girl learned some things to her, and now she is here  ). She jumped into a ditch back then, and her butt was ripped open, it was stitched and healed good. She's a little head shy, when you come near her ears she freaks out. But when I go reaaallly slowly to her ears it's okay, and she loves it when I scratch her there haha! 
The owner said that the girl let her get used to a saddle and briddle, so I tried them on! It was ok to her so I took her outside for some lunging. She didnt get it (or she was being stubborn haha), but she will learn in time  She has to, because she is fat and need to lose some weight haha!

A nice 'project' for me until Eefje is back  And when she's back I won't stop with Lady of course
























She's cute, right?


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## Reeltje (Jul 13, 2012)

Today I heard some good news, and some bad news. 

First I will tell the good news:
The owner told me that Eefje will come back this week! So next weekend I can see her again! Finally! And of course try to ride her! I'm SO exited, I wish it was already next weekend! Over a week finally new Eefje-stories 

The bad news is that Annemoon is sold  She is a really sweet horse, and with her I started tricktraining for the first time. She's also Eefje her best friend in the field. So I'm really sad that she's gone. The owner says 'I can't keep everything', and that's true. He didn't do anything with her only put her in the box or in the field and feed her. I hope she's got a nice new home. 

And now about what I did today, I've 'ridden' Lady! The owner walked with her while I sat on her in the saddle, and she did GREAT. Like it was the most normal case in the world. The first time ever that somebody sits on her. After a few rounds I got off. Next time I will start practicing with long reins so she knows what steering is, and of course again sitting on her and walk a bit.


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## Reeltje (Jul 13, 2012)

*And she is back!* 
And she looks so good  
Except her manes.. they were a mess. I was afraid that I wouldn't get it unstrangled anymore and that I had to cut it off.
Luckely, with my mane-and-tail-skills her long manes look lovely again!  
So I put the saddle and bridle on, and I took her to the field. My friend hold the lunging rope witch was attatched to her halter. I got on, not knowing what to expect. At first she jumped like she was a deer :') Quite funny, haha. 
But then it went very well! After a few rounds I took the lunging rope off en rode by myself. 
It was so weird haha, I'm always standing next to her, but now all in a sudden I'm on her back! But it was really great! 
There's only one thing, if you put a even a little pressure on the reins, she puts her head to her chest. So I need to try to fix that.
I'm really happy about it, tomorrow I will go and ride her again. And then it takes one week again until I can go again 

Photo's will follow


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## Reeltje (Jul 13, 2012)

I totally forgot the photo
Here, my first time on Eefje 









Yesterday I tried riding on the rode. My boyfriend walked next to her and hold the leadrope just in case, and I was riding. Everything went perfect (for a horse who just learned riding) until suddenly the wind started blowing really really hard! It was windy the whole day, but that moment the wind blowed like REALLY hard, and Eefje was scared and wanted to run away. Luckely my boyfriend hold the leadrope, and I steered her to the left so she could only walk circles. After a few circles she calmed down a little. So I spoke calm words to her and stroke her until she was able to walk normal again. 
Then we met up with a friend and her friesian, and we went to the riding arena. Her first time in an arena and she was scared of the letters haha! We practiced the steering, circles and bending. One time we cantered but she finds it hard with me on her. 
On the way back the house with the dog. I haven't told this story yet, so very short: 
One day I went out walking with my boyfriend and Eefje, to let her get used to the traffic etc. There is a house with a really big dog wich comes barking to the gate when a horse passes. This time I didn't see him or hear him, so I thought he was inside. More relaxed and not paying attention I walked with Eefje across the gate, and suddenly the dog came barking to the gate. I didn't expect it, bus Eefje didn't expect it even more. So it scared her and she jumped to the side, where I was. I tripped and Eefje was right above me. My boyfriend pushed her to the side, but if she would have walked forward, she would stand on me, my head, I don't know. So that was kinda scary. 
Ok, we're on the way back, we're getting closer to the house and I'm calling the dog. I think when he starts barking when we're not there yet it's less scarier for Eefje then when he suddenly comes out when we are at the gate. But the dog doesn't responde. When we were at the gate the dog started barking, and the only thing what happened was a little shock trough her body, but she just kept on walking nice and easy, and didn't pay any more attention to the dog. I was so proud! <3
Some pictures of yesterday:
(My boyfriend on the back, his 3th time on a horse!)


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## Reeltje (Jul 13, 2012)

A new video about Eefje, with clips of the riding


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## Reeltje (Jul 13, 2012)

yesterday we went to the riding hall again. A friend walked beside her when I was riding her on the road. At the riding hall she was so irritating. She was just running around, not going to the direction I wanted to, being stubborn. 
But afterall I'm very proud of her! Because.....
We've jumped! At first she walked right trough the jump, then she just walked over it. But with a little more encouragement right before the jump, she actually jumped over! 
I think it was 50 centimetres, so proud  
Also she did the jambette for the first time under the saddle. She always was like, 'noooooo that's weird, I will lose my balance if I have to lift my leg up when you're on me!' But she tried to lift it up a little bit, big girl!
And last but not least, I cleaned her back hooves! She didn't try to kick or something. SO happy!


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