How I became a trainer
The first "victims", I had the chance to train, were a friend and her gelding. In fact we took riding-lessons with the same trainer but one day she asked me (that was in 2003) to check her riding. I was quite surprised about her request and even more when she told me after a few units that she would profit from my "lessons" a lot more than from the lessons she had with our trainer.
At this point I didn't even think about giving any more riding lessons. And I had no idea how things would change some years later.
For a couple of years I didn't offer any training at all. But in 2007 I changed my mind when I was looking for an option to get some extra income.
In the course of time more and more people asked me for support, especially those who had already visited several trainers, who couldn't help to solve existing problems since their well-known methods proved to be ineffective and useless.
Especially these cases challenge me a lot, because it is my job to find the right training concept for each rider and his horse. And that can be rather difficult when it comes to horses with negative experiences.
During my trainer career I have become particularly fond of my student Lina and her Fjord Merlin. As I first met them, Merlin was so tense on his left side that he couldn't manage to walk on a volte and as a result of that couldn't canter lead left. My job was to teach him how to move properly, and back then I seriously doubted if I was able to manage it. I'm quite proud of the fact that Merlin doesn't have any canter problems at all by now. He also masters all lateral movements and turns out to be quite talented for training the piaffe.
Preferably I compare my work as a trainer to the work of a translator. I tell what horses express and support people to communicate with them in a way they can both understand each other.
That always challenges my knowledge and therefore makes training riders and horses valuable and attractive to me.
