Welcome to Ela Pedersen's site
HORSES & DRESSAGE RIDING
STRIVING TO ACHIEVE ULTIMATE UNITY WITH THE HORSE
Riding Flicka in Denmark, 1994
THE BEGINNING
Correct basic riding education means that the rider has gained independent seat and is able to ride the horse in three gaits.
Riding Nostrzyk in Legia Riding Club, Warsaw, 1999
FIRST THINGS FIRST
The new beginner needs to be instructed by a knowledgable trainer and needs to have a reliable and calm horse teacher.
Initial lessons are conducted on a lunge line and the student is asked to perform a series of exercises aiming at teaching him to stay on the horse in balance without having to hold on to anything in walk, trot and canter.
Riding Negocjacja in 3rd Level test, Old Field Farm Show, NY, USA, 2015
DEVELOPING YOURSELF
Riding skills can only be achieved through riding, the more hours spent on riding different horses the better.
Watching good riders, reading good books, getting instruction is of equal importance as riding and it is something what a rider who really wants to improve his/her riding skills needs to do whenever possible.
ABOUT MYSELF
Kyra Kyrklund and me, Warsaw 2010
I have been riding since 1970ies when, as a kid, I first rode farm horses at my uncle's farm in Poland. Later, when I was 13, I started taking lessons in a riding school in Karczew outside Warsaw. Then after a long breake from hores, I went back to riding in 1994 while living in Denmark. Among others, I trained retired trotters to become riding horses. Back in Poland in 1996, I started riding in a big sports riding club Legia in Warsaw, where I rode numerous school horses as well as horses ridden by pentathlon contestants. My own horse, a Polish warmblood mare Negocjacja, has been trained by me since she was 4 years old. Negocjacja and me participated in dressage shows up to third level both on regional and national level. I am the "follower" of Kyra Kyrklund's teachings contained in her book "Dressage with Kyra" and in the series of her instructional films. I have also attended a clinic with Kyra, where I had the pleasure to meet her in person.