My Spain trip to ride at Epona

[khall]

As many of you know I flew to Spain for an Equitour vacation end of May to ride at Epona near Seville. My friend and I had a wonderful week riding at Epona and are so glad we made the trip there! First of all the people there are just wonderful, from the owner, Fernando and Jane, to their trainers Vivi (also one of their daughters) and Raoul and Juan Ma and Sherri, to their working students Maria and their staff (especially their cooking staff!!) Absolutely fabulous food!!

Another friend of mine met us there, Maria, and she and I mainly worked with Vivi with a couple of lunge lessons with Raoul. BTW both Raoul and Vivi spent 4 yrs at the Royal School in Jerez riding under Raphael Soto and continue to ride with him in clinics. While Brooke rode mainly with their British instructor Sherri. We all fell in love with the horses, so generous and just fabulous to ride. I like the sensitivity of the Spanish horses after riding WBs for so long. They have incredible work ethics along with that sensitivity. I rode 3 different stallions and one gelding while I was there. One highly trained older stallion and one gorgeous younger bay stallion Galante and then a lovely bay stallion that had a cough so I only rode him once, but it was the younger and highly sensitive gelding that I absolutely fell in love with. He was so good for me to ride because he demanded precision and a steady seat and aids. My kind of horse!! "C" (since I cannot spell his Spanish name) had not been ridden by anyone else but the trainers, mainly Raoul, because he had only been in their program 8 months or so. C's canter was sublime and his ability for lateral work was incredible. He did not have as much training as the older stallion did, but the feel I got from C was just my kind of ride.

In riding them we did, LY, SI, HI, HP WTC, HI in canter on circle for engagement (down to CP on the older stallion) piaffe on the older stallion and FCs, simple changes (which were challenging with C because he would get climby in his canter from over collecting) but we got better and better and by the last, 4th, ride we had lovely straight and easy SCs. Vivi was great at correcting my position, helped me tremendously with it. I got quite a bit of compliments on my riding skills from Vivi, Fernando, Maria (WS) and another WS that I did not catch her name. Vivi said I was a very effective rider. One thing in riding with Vivi was just to shut up and ride. Listen to her instructions and execute as best you could what she asked of you. I have many hours in the saddle now riding with various instructors and can bring that to the table in riding with new people, usually! I did not fully embrace how they typically rode the horses, IMO the horses would show too much tension from over riding. So especially with the gelding I dialed my aids back which made him a happy camper. In fact I had several say I rode him better than Raoul did. Raoul is a beautiful but very strong rider, I could see how he could cause tension in a horse.

We all got to ride with Raphael Soto and he is just a pleasure to ride with. I rode the older stallion and had a blast riding with Raphael on him.

It was a wonderful vacation, filled with great horses, great people and fabulous food. We stayed in Cormona, a small town near the stables and loved our hotel there. I would recommend this Equitour no problem. Great experience. I will post some picture and when I get the videos downloaded I can post them too.

[piedmontfields]

Very, very cool. Glad you had a wonderful experience. Thanks for sharing!

[Ryeissa]

how awesome! do you have any pictures? I'm soooooo jealous

[Moutaineer]

So interesting! I want to do this one day.

[Chisamba]

If Raoul trained C, and you loved riding him, he could not have been doing that bad a job of riding/training. just my observation

[Chisamba]

Sounds like a marvelous trip and i am so glad you had lots of positives. It sounds very enriching and fulfilling

[khall]

Some pictures: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid ... =3&theater
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid ... =3&theater
my friend Brooke riding Aladine in SI, her first trot SI. Aladine is a lovely horse that would make a great ride for anyone. He and C were the two we wanted to bring home.
I loved this picture of me riding Galante (big hunk of a bay stallion) https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid ... =3&theater He is a beautiful hunk of horse but not my favorite ride.


I have lots more pictures and video of pretty much every ride, will share when I get it all sorted out.

Chisamba I did not say Raoul did a bad job riding C, it was the observation of several at the farm who have seen Raoul ride C and then watched me ride C who observed that C went better for me than for Raoul. What I loved about C was how I was able to ride him. Set him up and then leave him alone as long as I kept my position on him. I watched both Raoul and Vivi ride several horses and it was my observation that both rode more "aggressively" than I like a horse to be ridden causing tension in pretty much every horse I saw them ride. The first ride on C he felt like he had snakes under his skin, very on edge. The more I rode him (4 days in total) the better he went. It was like he could take a breath and think rather than being on edge. Even though I did not like how Vivi or Raoul ride (though both are elegant riders, especially Raoul: the perfect riders body!) I did like how both taught lessons. Vivi had very good insight into position which was very helpful to me. She also had great knowledge on training the movements and was very particular on their execution. I did like her teaching very much, we got along quite well.

[khall]

More pictures:
More of Galante: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid ... =3&theater https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid ... =3&theater
Maria and mine first ride our first day: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid ... =3&theater
I was on "O" (again cannot spell his name!) a stallion with higher level training. I did FCs, CP and piaffe on him. He too was a very sensitive ride, but had a hardness to him that C did not.

[khall]

And last one:
our hotel and some of Cormona: https://www.facebook.com/keri.hall.35/p ... nref=story

[StraightForward]

Thank you for the report! It sounds great and I hope to make the trip someday.

[piedmontfields]

The links to photos do not work. Perhaps change setting?

[Rosie B]

Wow khall that sounds like the trip of a lifetime. And how wonderfully validating to have your riding so highly praised! And riding with Soto... just wow.

[Ryeissa]

great pics! Stunning scenery!

[demi]

Glad you had such a nice trip. You sound inspired! I can't access any of the pics except the last one and there are no horses in it!

[piedmontfields]

Glad you had such a nice trip. You sound inspired! I can't access any of the pics except the last one and there are no horses in it!

Me, too. I want to see the Spanish horsies (and you enjoying them!!)

[orono]

I can't see the pics either, but the trip sounds fabulous!

[Flight]

I can't see the pics either, maybe they're not public on FB? I'd really like to see them! Trip sounds amazing, I really want to go to Portugal or Spain. I might just have to book it in and do it

[khall]

Try them now, I think I fixed it. I have lots more! Some of the Hacienda (which is very old!) some of the stables and lots more of all of us riding the different horses. Also have lots of video. Hope to download and go through it all soon. Still trying to get back into swing of things here at home. Hot and humid and the gnats are horrible. Tried to work Rip the other day and they were driving me crazy!!

As for the validation on my riding, I actually was pretty amused by it. Here I am, overweight middle aged mom, not your typical athlete lol! Yet I have put many hours into riding over the years and riding many different horses, some very challenging (Rip!) and so have developed a good feel for what is under my seat. Also the almost 10 yrs of riding with Mark and his attention to detail has been invaluable in my education. Add that to the fact that I have always been pretty good at getting on strange horses and figuring them out. I think that is from riding so many different horses over the years, you get a feel for what each one needs. I do have my preferences, like C! So it was not too much of a surprise for me that I could ride those horses in their program and get good information back for my riding. I don't want to sound conceited! It is just a matter of all the hours I have put into riding and instruction from a wide variety of trainers for many years now.

For those of you interested in this Equitour, GO! You won't regret it! I would go during cooler part of the year. April/May or fall would be perfect, though it was starting to get hot by the end of our week there. It was good to ride that much (usually 2-3 lessons each day) and to watch others riding. They also do a clinic with Soto that outside riders come to ride in. That would be interesting.

Some of the other things that we did were to go to the Royal School in Jerez for one of their shows (twice a week, Tues and Thurs) to see the Andalusians perform. And we went to a flamenco show, just for fun. These tickets are not included in the week. Really though the pricing is very reasonable, you get lodging in the nice hotel and then the lessons and breakfast/lunch (loved the food at the Hacienda!!) each day. Dinner not included.

[piedmontfields]

Thank you for sharing the photos--they are wonderful. I'm glad you found it valuable, too. At this point, I am thinking of next spring for my own adventures (probably in Portugal)...need to nail down a time that my trail-riding DH and I can go.

We went to the Royal School in Jerez for a performance when we were last in Spain and loved it.

[demi]

Nice! Thanks for sharing. Now, I want to go,too!

[khall]

https://www.facebook.com/34754646198627 ... =3&theater

This is a bit of one of my lessons with Vivi on Orinthilio (sp?). He was the older stallion with the most training that I rode there. This was working on HI on circle and then working CP all the way down to CP (which was not shown). Super nice stallion to ride.

[piedmontfields]

That was fun to see some video! What a cool horse. You are clearly enjoying it all and have the skills to feel and think while riding

Besides using travers in canter on a circle for strength development, I've also found it useful just as a bit of a loosening exercise down the long side. I sometimes switch between haunches in and shoulder fore down the side. As you probably felt with the PREs, it is a fairly easy movement for them so you can really play in it.

[khall]

more video, this is the first ride on "C" and I was a bit unsure of him so was riding a bit defensively. Did not take me long to fall in love with him though! He felt so safe and so responsive once we both relaxed a bit.

https://www.facebook.com/keri.hall.35/p ... nref=story

piedmont: wow do the PREs have the ability to do lateral movements!! Love that about them. We did just a bit of HI in canter on long side (in my lesson with Raphael Soto) not really with Vivi. We did it a good bit on the circle on all the horses I rode, also did some counter bending both in canter and trot. The gelding above really could go sideways, I had to focus on bend first and then ask for the lateral or he would just go sideways. The other tricky part on him was his small turns, he wanted to get climby in the canter and back off in the trot so I had to keep powering through the turns to set up for the laterals. Canter HP was a breeze with C!!

I'm going to try to upload the last lesson with C at least parts of it, that one felt the best of them all. We had both figured each other out better. His stretching got so good by the last day and what fun to sit on his canter in a stretch!

[demi]

That looks like so much fun Khall! Thanks for letting us in on it. Don't you wish you could have just stayed there all summer?!

[demi]

?... As you probably felt with the PREs, it is a fairly easy movement for them so you can really play in it....

I love this thought. My first introduction to lateral work was a picture of Margit Otto Crepin (sp?) doing a half pass on a big warm blood. The shot was from behind and the horse's legs were crossing way up high. Not a PRE but it stilllooked effortless and beautiful. Like play....

[piedmontfields]

BTW, I just re-read tonight that Charles de Kunffy (in Athletic Development of the Dressage Horse) is totally against using travers in canter--mainly because it is so much the natural tendency in horses and needs correction/straightening. Interesting!

I tend to use it when I don't feel enough bend in the canter--it is very clarifying to the horse, especially on four tracks!!

[khall]

demi, it was a blast! My friend and I will probably go again sometime, we are thinking in another 3-5 yrs, looking at Portugal possibly this time. It was great traveling together and having someone as committed as I was to learning and riding. We talked horses just about non stop the entire week! Would have bored my DH and DS to tears, LOL!

I have ridden other horses that have that ease in lateral movements, my Luso filly's dam who was Han/TB was a ballerina to ride and I had an OTTB g that had spectacular lateral movements. But the uphill balance of the Andalusians coupled with their incredible work ethic (my mare also had great brain and work ethic but TB g could get very tense) made them so much fun to ride. So different from my challenging WBs that I have now. My riding horses, full sibs, are big muscled horses with a challenge to them. Rip more so than his sister. Will be interesting to see how my filly turns out, I know i really like her so far:)

piedmont, yes that is what I had been brought up in as well, the thought do not do HI in canter. Mark never really talked about it but another trainer I like Anja Beran does do HI in canter. I also really like renvere in CC.

[Flight]

Khall, love the vids and photos! Thanks heaps for sharing with us. Do you think riding over there made any difference to your riding? i.e. was it worth it for more than just an awesome holiday?

[khall]

Flight good question but I really did not go ride in Spain to make a huge difference in my riding per se. I was very happy with the instruction and the help and focus it gave me to bring home, but the big reason I went was to ride PREs in Spain. I wanted to experience the horses and see for myself what they were about. I have had little (ridden one before Spain trip) to no riding experience with the baroque horses and just my handling experience with my Luso X filly (who BTW is very different than the WBs I have raised!) I wanted to learn more about the horses, their temperament and character, their movement in general (I am not fond of the up and down movement of some baroque horses) and how they felt to ride. I have ridden many different breeds and types of horses and I have to say the PREs are at the top of the list for me now in what I like to ride. I like a sensitive but sensible horse and that is exactly what they are. Mark always said once I went baroque I would not go back to the WBs and I really have to agree. I like the bravery of the horses and their dressage capability. They may not have the elasticity so often seen in the WBs but their collection capabilities more than make up for any differences.

You have to remember that I really don't have a "trainer" per se at this time, though I do enjoy riding with Jillian. So any good eye on the ground would be helpful to me and Vivi was very good eyes on the ground. As for any big leaps forward in my riding, no not really. Just reminders on details that so often get forgotten when riding by yourself as much as I do.

It was also wonderful to spend a full week riding as much as we did. So often at home life gets in the way and horses get pushed to the side. That is what I most miss about the Spain trip, the time to just ride!! and of course ride NICE horses. I miss the food too! Was looking up sangria recipes last night.

[Imperini]

Thank you for sharing, it sounds like a very cool experience to have.

[Flight]

Forgot to say thanks for replying to my question Khall!
I'm a fan now of Andies, and would love a lusitano. If I ever had to get another horse, I'd be trying to find one for sure. Think I'll definitely have to try and go over for a holiday.