Tag

frieser

The dirty secret about our everyday life

Yep, my Instagram is filled with stunning photos of me riding Batman bareback in a tiny white dress and that’s of course how we live our lives. My horse living outside 24/7 in cold Norway is always jet black and shiny and I’m rarely wearing shoes. Every time I ride, there is a professional photographer there to capture the moment. I normally only ride through the woods bridleless and bareback while singing Celtic folklore songs. Sometimes, wild deer join us in our fairytale.

Sorry guys … Yes, my Instagram do reflect what I do together with my horse in a pretty realistic way. It actually does. But I never have photographers there to capture our everyday life, and most of the time during winter, that’s actually impossible. Because so far north as I am living; we barely have any daylight from October to March. We get up at 6 am in the darkness, and the second we are finished with work/school, it’s dark as hell again. Therefore, I only see my horse in daylight during the weekends. Weekdays = no photos! And mostly, normal training sessions.

So today, I left work early to get some daylight during the Christmas break! And I decided to document this day all by myself (almost). So you can have some insight in how most of our days actually are. Here’s to the dirty truth that will destroy your picture of me as a magical creature and not a normal equestrian. ENJOY!!! :D

Batman normally greets me as the happy, human-loving horse he is, and will gladly join me. HELLO MATILDE! I just had my mud-bath! It was delightful. You planned dressage today, didn’t you? Well, let’s get this grooming-party stared!

My horse used to be black. Today he had decided to turn grey. Other days he might be bright yellow, green or brown.

Mud, mud everywhere.

SERIOUSLY BATMAN!!!!

Look at this! He was clean and lovely yesterday!

Batman looking like a mammoth who just got out of the Russian tundra means one thing … Washing. Unfortunately, Batman hates beeing washed during winter. Also, I hate washing Batman during winter.

So he of course refused to enter the shower.

I had to ask a couple of hundred times and brag him with a carrot before I got him in. GOTCHA!

Batman suddenly realized the horror of the shower.

So he pooped in fear.

Some minutes after, and a couple of liters of water turning Matilde’s shoes wet as a day in Bergen, Batman was CLEAN! At least a part of him.

He now looked pretty much like Carletto, Jolanda Adelaar’s Murgese stallion!

Step two was to get the other 90% of my Murgese horse looking like a Friesian again.

I breathed in so much dust I’m afraid my lungs will be completely black inside tomorrow, but hey, dream-horses also need grooming.

Then I had to prepare Batman’s lunch. It’s basically 1000$ worth of expensive supplements and they stink, and it’s impossible to remove the smell from your fingers afterwards.

Being a cute equestrian blogger presenting the feed like a heart

But that does really not matter because I have to blend it all to get Batman to eat it anyways.

Time to get the saddle on! Only took med 10 minutes, 43 swear words and a broken fingernail to get the girth fastened. Batman is a rare mix between mammoth and puffer fish.

After all that struggle, I enjoyed a moment with my beloved and beautiful horse.

And then he kindly reminded me of something very important. MATILDE! YOU FORGOT THE CARROTS YOU MORON!!!!! So I chopped carrots for half an hour.

And theeen, finally, we were fit for fight! Woho! Now, please take a moment to enjoy my masterpiece. BACK IN BLACK!

We entered the arena. Batman had his I must pee in the corner-ritual ten times, before I finally got him to pee.

And he felt GOOD to ride today, thank the Old Gods and the New for that!

Catching a break, enjoying the stunning view.

Batman was very pleased with himself and walked to the corner, asked me to remove the tack and then went for a roll.

And then he assisted me in the removing of the poop.

The king demands his lunch!

Batman enjoying his 1000$ fancy feeds and supplements, carrots, apples and pixie-dust.

Then the King had a back massage, and we went for a little walk in rough terrain to stretch out after the training.

We jumped over some ditches and had fun, actually.

When we got home, I discovered that Batman had brought a little souvenir. I can send it to you, signed, if you pay me enough.

Peace, love and dirty Friesian hugs,
King Batman the Puffer-fish-mammoth & Matilde the slave

22. December, 2015 19 comments

The story about Batman

Why a Friesian?

Ever Since I was a little girl, the Friesian breed had always fascinated me. I remember reading the horse magazine Wendy when I was around 10 years old and every time they had a Friesian horse in the magazine I was so happy! Every now and then they even had Friesian posters! I hang them all on my wall. I also remember a Halloween issue featuring the black pearls like it was yesterday. I read that issue 1000 times, haha! I was completely in love with the long manes, feathers, powerful movements and kind eyes. I watched hundreds of videos in YouTube and read so much about the breed. When I even had my own Piczo site (who remember Piczo?!) with a page for my dream horse on it – a black Friesian gelding of course!

I also drew Friesian horses. Hundreds of drawings featuring Friesians inn every envoirment possible with both English and western tack, haha! it’s very cute to look back on that now.

friesian drawing

The first time I saw a Friesian in real life, was on Oslo Horse Show ten years ago, I remember the entire performance so well! I had goosebumps all over. I was completely obsessed!

When my sister got her first own horse, I had no idea about what kind of horse I would look after myself. I was open to everything and looked at some warmbloods, but was not very impressed. I also tried a Norwegian coldblood trotter, but he was too small. I was interested in finding a Norwegian Dolehorse, but it was impossible to find anything near 150 cm. It all seemed pretty impossible. A Fjord would also be great, but unfortunately they are also very small .. And I am 184 cm tall. How could it be so hard to find a horse?

wendy friesian

One day it suddenly struck me that we had Friesians in Norway too! I searched for Friesians for sale, but all we found were super expensive dressage or other horses living so far away I would need a private helicopter to get there. I found one and fell in love with him, but then it turned out that he had severe health issues and my heart broke in thousand pieces. After that, I did not find any more Friesian horse online. Until he one day stood in i a field staring at me …

Nothing is impossible, and today I’m the proud human standing beside my very own, stunning Friesian gelding. The whole story about how I found Batman will be written very soon!

The point is: dreams do come true. My childhood dream is now my very own horse, and he is twice as maginificent as the Friesians on the posters from my wall when I was a little girl.

Do you have the horse you dreamed of as a child?

Peace, love and Friesian hugs,
Batman & Matilde

galloping friesian batman matildebrandt

18. December, 2015 19 comments

Blogg

Let me introduce you to my odd saddle!

I receive lots of question about my saddle. Well, it is not a normal English or western saddle so I do understand why you are curious! So then I decided to write a post about my baroque saddle.

I bought my new saddle last spring; it is a Marjoman Rianõ Sillero, a Portuguese/baroque saddle. I’m very happy about it, I had to sell my previous baroque saddle because it did not fit me. It fitted Batman thought, but that did not help when I could not ride in it because the seat balanced me wrong, and was way too big!

The Riaño has a much smaller seat and fits me perfectly. It provides the support I need when I do trick/stunt riding such as rearing and lying down, and it’s extremely comfortable to ride dressage with as well. I am no fan of huge knee rolls, I think they place me in a locked position and it feels uncomfortable. My dressage is based on the principles of Academic Art of Riding. This kind of saddles are based on how most saddles looked like a couple of hundred years ago, and I don’t see a reason why they won’t work today! I love baroque saddles.

Although, I do need some support when I’m galloping around with Batman and his huge movement. The Riaño is the perfect saddle for us, and I had it fitted and adjusted, and changed the flocking this summer. We also colored it black, as I think that is a more suitable color for Batman.

Under my saddle, I do not use a regular saddle pad. I use reindeer hide. A study discovered that reindeer hide is more shock absorbing than any other kind of saddle pads.

Thank you so much to my amazing saddle fitter Silje Sverkholt for the wonderful job!

I know maaany of you have been very interested in my saddle because they want to buy one themselves, but you have to remember that saddle fitting is science, my saddle fits Batman, but that doesn’t mean it would fit your horse, Friesian or not. Most of my friends also HATE to ride in my Riaño, just because I love it does not mean that it is a comfortable saddle for everyone! Remember to seek professional help when you are purchasing a new saddle for your horse. Riding with the wrong saddle will cause damage to your horse’s back.

Do you have any questions about my saddle? Feel free to ask below!

Peace, love and Friesian hugs,
Batman & Matilde

marjoman riano matilde brandt saddle1

11. December, 2015 11 comments

Photoshoots

Northern fairytales

And then King Winter suddenly arrived … And I got to feel fresh Batman-hooves against cold snow again! He was amazing to ride this day and behaved perfectly. I love my little snow-horse so much! ❤

I’m also very happy about how these photos turned out, thank you so much to my dear photographer and bestie Linn! I hope you’ll enjoy them as much as I do!

Have you had snow this year?

Peace, love and Friesian hugs,
Batman the viking horse & Matilde

viking13 viking14 viking1 viking2 viking5 viking3 viking4 viking6 viking7 viking15 viking8 viking9 viking10 viking12