EqBlogger: Dressage Hafl

Blogging is all about the community- and joining the ranks of equestrian bloggers has opened up my “barn family” to include folks all over the country and around the world. 

Today, I’m introducing you to one of the most adorable dressage horses I’ve ever encountered! Readers, meet Tanja Arzberger of Dressage Hafl  Make sure you check out the test video she posted in the link at the bottom for the most adorable dressage test ever. Reading Tanja’s blog has me convinced that my son needs a chunky golden pony.

Tell me what readers will find on your blog

Tanja: Dressage Hafl is not only dedicated to the eponym of it, my horse Hafl, but also to dressage and horsey stuff I find on the internet and want to share with others. I often write about problems in training, progress we made, solution options I found and try to involve as much input from other blogs and websites as possible to have a nice archive of tips and tricks and other interesting articles.

What kind of riding do you do?

I compete at dressage shows currently on second level.

What is your biggest riding-related challenge?

Hafl has major issues in canter with shortening his strides and collection. Thus, I need to increase his strength to help him improve his self-carriage.

Do you listen to music when you ride? If so, what?

Yes, I have tracks from the music charts on my mobile that I play during riding.

What’s your #1 tip for balancing riding and life outside the barn?

It is all about planning. There are horse-free days where I organize all the other stuff. On weekends, I split days half and half such that I can do all the things needed and have time for my horse. On show weekends of course, time for other things is pretty limited but then I need to get them done during the rest of the week. Staying motivated and having a plan to achieve set goals helps me every training day to still head for the barn after a long day at work.

If you had the chance to ride with any rider/trainer, who would it be?

Right now I would love to train with Charlotte Dujardin/Carl Hester but I am also a big fan of Uta Gräf and Ingrid Klimke.

What are your favorite equestrian blogs and websites to read?

I have subscribed to a lot of horse blogs Facebook fan pages, Horse Junkies United and Horse Listening are some of the bigger ones I regularly read (or even contribute to). This year I plan do get more involved with other bloggers around the world.

Tell us one of your riding goals for 2014.

Achieve the next license (which will allow me to go to next higher classes), meaning that I still need 6 results in second level above 62%. At the end of the show season in autumn, I would love to go for the class called LM in Austria which is an intermediate step between second and third level (additional to second: level shoulder in, haunches in, half pass).

Link to your favorite posts to share with my readers:

This is one of the posts that was read most so far:http://dressagehafl.blogspot.co.at/2013/11/our-first-fei-dressage-test.html It is about our first FEI test, later in summer last year and attached is the mark sheet and a video of the test!