Hello and welcome to another edition of The Sunday Paper, Equus-Sims' newsletter supported by our Discord Subscribers. 🗞️
Ah, the cool, crisp air of winter is finally upon us. ☃️ As we close out 2023, I'm encouraging you to slow down with me. Where autumn was about letting go, let this winter be about settling in; taking in your learnings from the past year, observing what went well and where you need to grow, and celebrating the good things that this year brought you.
This issue features winter riding gear, getting into the holiday spirit, favorite holiday films, and more!
Subscribe to Read
Or read the latest public edition here!
🖥️ Best viewed on desktop! 🖥️
Please reblog or share with a friend you think would enjoy this newsletter! Our Discord subscribers receive one every two weeks, and a public one is issued every other month.
It's been a while! How have you been, friends? It has been super cold here in the north so we haven't been able to train as much as we had planned because we have wanted to spare our horses' lungs from cold and dry winter air. That's why our horses haven't been on show grounds for a while; it would feel kind of pointless to show them without proper preparations. We are hopeful to make a come back to the show grounds next month!
Meanwhile we'd like to introduce our new rider and new horse! Salla Pietilä has joined our team and is currently getting to know our horses so we can see with which ones she will be seen on show arenas in the future! Here she is riding and introducing our gorgeous new addition to dressage stallions: RME Piparkakut. Piki (previously known as Peter) is a 8 years old black stallion with foundation bloodlines. He was a christmas present from lovely Zinnia Arvi – I can't thank you enough for this beauty <3 Here is what Zinnia wrote about him: "Finnhorse stallion named Piparkakut, now you're probably wondering why I named him "Piparkakut" considering he is black and the piparkakut cookie would suit a chestnut horse. Well he was given this name because of his love for these cookies! We have a girl who brought some of these cookies to the barn once and Piparkakut couldn't get enough of them. Around the barn we call him "Peter", and Peter is most definitely suited to dressage. He is very sensitive to leg aids and when he's ridden properly he really shines. Naturally Peter has really forward, floaty, and free movements the only way to get this under saddle is to ride very quietly and let him do his thing. He has been trained well in dressage and knows some upper level movements like extended canter and trot, flying lead changes, and he is starting to get the hang of half passes! On the ground Peter is a little spooky and a piglet, he loves his breakfast and dinner time and he is one of the loudest horses while he's waiting for his grain. He is a very particular horse and prefers to be inside at night (afraid of the dark?), he doesn't really like cuddles and tries to avoid cuddles as much as possible. He is a bit stubborn and can be grumpy with other horses, he doesn't really care if mares walk by him, he may look for a second or two but then he continues munching away on his hay. Nonetheless he is a strange horse."
I mean it is one thing to unload a full load of horse supplies, saddle and this stuff alone if you came alone to a show with one person or came with many horses. But we were here with one horse, one and two persons...
Well, let me say, that we had considered bringing more than our most successful Thoroughbred stallion. But the other stallion ‘Anthem’ was going through some illness. Nothing concerning but he was not on top of his abilities. So we cancelled him for this show. And another one 'Oxalagu' was currently at stud. So no shows for him either. So all was left to one, Callejon and Ella, his trainer.
I would not be so pissed if we haven't had a car drive of around 6 h from Delamere to the Isle of Wight. It was exhausting and even more exhausting that I was unloading all the things alone. Ella who travelled with me was gone. She wanted to bring the stallion and some stuff into his temporary bay at the stables and then coming back to help me. Well, she never returned.
Grumpy, I grabbed the last heavy feed sack from the car and pulled it into the grey light of the day. There was a sun here and there but also big clouds. I looked around at all the horse stuff and sighted. Well, better get to start now before it starts raining. I just lifted the saddle and some smaller feeding stuff and went inside.
I was surprised of the stables. There was no piece of dirt anywhere. The stables where we were accommodated were made of dark and elegant wood. Simple but very classy. We were early today so this part of the stables were nearly empty. Just a few riders and horses were here unpacking things.
I faltered under the weight as I got near to bay number 6. I placed my load down and lifted my head. I saw Callejon and Ella. She was sitting in a hay bale her face in pure concentration. Her sight was on the stallion, who calmly stood behind his stable guard, watching the other horses with curiosity in his brown eyes.
"Ehhh, Ella?" -"Yes…” she replied preoccupied in thought. "What are you doing?"- "I am listening." I blinked doubtfully. „To whom?" -"Him." She pointed at the stallion. "And why?" I answered a bit angry. She could definitely have helped me! "I am trying to find out what he is thinking." I looked at her and then at Callejon.
I was surprised that she was so calm. Normally Ella was definitely not the calmest competitor. She always was nervous and searched for methods to calm her down. Breathing. Yoga. Yes she tried it all. But that was a bit ridiculous.
"Maybe just eating and how to get to the next fresh pile of hay?" I answered sarcastically and grumpy. Ella seemed to be a bit sulky of my comment. I lifted my hands in defence. „Alright, alright, Sorry... Is everything fine with you?"- Yeah, I am. I was just..." She looked at her hands. "I am always nervous and scared of the pressure. Have you seen the stables? Not even a spark of dirt, wet straw or horse droppings. I just did not felt well and then I looked at him. And he was so calm and that I just brought him here and watched him. And now I am a bit confident." She smiled and looked up from her handy straight to my face.
I was a little impressed because as I saw that it was the first time since we started our journey that she was relaxed. I smiled. "So you feel alright?" my anger was gone within seconds. "Yes, I think so." She beamed at me and jumped of the hay bale. "Let’s get the things out of the car. I think he is hungry." We laughed and went back to get the rest of all things. The Yeatman Classic Cup went well for both of them. Ella was calm and Callejon gave his best and both of them made a good team.
My entry in the Kendall County Spring Show over at Equus-Sims, feat Julie and Clipton. This took hours and hours and hours and a LOT of editing, but i’m pretty happy with how it turned out.
Springs in His Feet
A clean round. All they had to do was clear this oxer and a tiny viking-themed plank and they’d leave the arena with a clear round - if Clipton didn't refuse it like he did twice when they were warming up. Julie swallowed and tightened her hands on the reins until they dug into her palms, nudging him into faster a canter.
Please. Please do this for me. She had no idea if his heart was beating as sickeningly hard as her own as the space between them and it narrowed, nor did she have time to think about it.
Here we go. The grey collected himself. She leaned forward and shifted her weight to her heels.
With a single, powerful push of the his hindquarters they were airborn in a moment of weightlessness lasted a second, maybe two at the most, but time seemed to slow around them until the shock of the landing brought her back to her senses. She didn’t have time to look behind her, but the lack of the jolt and clank of a knocked pole told her everything she needed to know. He'd flown over it.
Julie forced back the giddiness and locked onto the two-dimensional vikings’ ship, number ten. Clipton cleared it with like a rabbit. She pulled back on the reins and slowed him to a trot once they were on the ground again, heart still racing, everything around her not-quite-real. A clean round. Our first show and he did a clean round. A grin at last broke through her temporary stupor and she leaned forward, scratching the side of his neck and pressing her nose to his poll.
“Good boy, Clippy. Good boy. You did so good.”
She lifted her head and looked for Stacey’s face in the crowd, catching her eye and waving before she slid out of the saddle and collected the reins over his head. Her legs felt like they would fold at any moment as she led him out of the ring, murmuring a “good luck” to the next competitor as he brought a bay whose eartips just barely came up to the corner of Clipton’s jaw into the small arena. We did it. We really did it.
Long time no see! I've recently returned from a holiday and now I'm ready for action! The launch of ESRPG is really exciting news, and I am really looking forward to going into it. I've decided to start with entering Aries Annual Breeders Showcase and have edited three entries to begin with (there are many more in the queue, but I'm not sure if I'll be able to do them all). So here they are: Salinero W, LMEC Afternoon Tea and LMEC Lametta.
At the Ariès Breeders Showcase over at Equus-Sims. There photographed with fellow Mediner yearlings, WEA Golden Stag handled by Stefan Adler and WEA Deep Den handled by Violette Bavel
