Kenny Pettersson, Elizabeth, Ed

"I enjoyed borrowing a good roping horse and doing some rodeo style roping after the clinic was over on Saturday night." Roping a live animal is against the law in Sweden so they pull a heavy calf dummy from a 4 wheeler driving very fast down the arena.  You chase it, rope it, dally to your horn, stop your horse and pull the dummy off the sled - very fun!

Kenny has been hired to train some camels for a local farmer.  The eccentric farmer always wanted a camel to ride and has purchased 10 of them of various ages and sizes!  He wants Kenny to train them to ride so he can let his friends ride and take them to parades and festivals.   Ed went with Kenny and helped him with the camels one day.  They are stubborn, nasty beasts.  When asked to go forward, turn or any simple request they scream, spit and try their best to do the opposite of what you are asking!  Ed had his first camel ride.  "It was fun and I felt very secure seated deep between the huge humps."

Ed's next event was in the large city of Helsingborg in southern Sweden working with his friend, Dr. Flemming Winberg. Flemming is chief veterinarian of the largest veterinary hospital in Sweden.   Ed presented a demonstration for members of the hospital staff regarding safe and natural control and handling of horses without the use of drugs or twitches. 

Dr. Flemming Winberg

Later Ed worked with Flemming and his 20 year old daughter, Jessica, with their reining horses. Flemming is the chairman of the board of the Swedish Reining Horse Association and sits on the board of directors of the International Reining Horse Assoc. He and his daughter compete in reining all over Europe at the upper levels. Ed used our new EquineTec video analysis software during his lesson with them. Ed Dabney, Dan Burle and Madeline Dabney along with their software development team have spent the last two and a half years developing EquineTec Video Analysis. We have collaborated with top veterinarians, farriers, and trainers as well as the University of Georgia Animal Science Dept. in producing an accurate and easy to use teaching and diagnostic tool. As we analyzed the films we discovered why Flemming's horse was not reaching far enough with the front legs in the spin and why Jessica's horse was tossing his head at the canter. Flemming was very impressed with these findings and is very excited about using EquineTec at the hospital and with his reining horse competition.

Cecilia Qvarnstromand & Martin Mentes

From here Ed went with our friends, Cecilia Qvarnströmand & Martin Mentes, to their home and carriage driving training facility in Flyinge Sweden. Cicci is on the Swedish Combined Driving Team and holds many top awards including the World Championship in Singles Dressage Driving which she won in Rome in July 2010.  

Cecilia Qvarnstromand

Ed worked with Cicci and some of her new horses on issues of respect, trailer loading and Six Keys to Harmony.  Cicci took us on a tour of the Swedish National Stud Farm and Center for Equestrian Studies located in Flyinge, of which she is an honored graduate.  

It is a huge facility full of horses and students.  They have an amazing collection of antique carriages of all types. "I wish my Dad, who was a collector of antique buggies and carriages, could have seen them."

Afterwards Ed flew to Kalix in the far north of Sweden.  Last  fall while in Kalix Ed helped his friend and clinic organizer, Maria Bucht start with the Six Keys to Harmony foundational ground training for her young mare.  She has been working with her over the winter so when Ed was at her place on this trip he accomplished the first ride on the mare which went well.  

Ed had a full day meeting with the regional tourism bureau, for whom he provided consultation on developing their international equestrian tourism business. 

This far north at this time of year it is daylight 20 hours per day and the other four hours are not really dark, more like dusk.  The weather was in the mid-40s and raining so we were wearing plenty of sweaters and jackets while everyone back in Georgia was sweltering.  

The weekend brought a full Six Keys to Harmony clinic which was well received.  The participants requested Ed to return in August for an advanced clinic while spectators expressed desire to participate in the basic Six Keys clinic so we now have both scheduled for our next trip to Sweden in late August.

Many thanks to Maria for arranging the many details of the clinic and other activities in the Kalix area.  Maria is a certified instructor of the Alexander Technique and assists many riders with achieving correct posture and balance for a secure and independent riding seat.  

Maria and Lena are now distributors of EquineTec and are excited about using this cutting edge technology to enhance their teaching and accelerate learning for their clients.

Ed conducted a clinic for the city of Malmo, Sweden mounted police unit.

 "I was very impressed with their professionalism and high level of training."

They are a vital part of the police force here since almost weekly they are serving to control dangerous and very rowdy crowds during the major league soccer games held here. It is like riot duty weekly because on game days the drunken crowds of thousands of fans run through the streets from the pub district to the stadium creating all kinds of mayhem. They showed me their riot gear and elaborate armored equipment they and their horses wear.

It is not unusual for revelers to pry up softball size cobblestones from the street and throw them at the mounted officers. Several officers in the unit wear mini cameras on their helmets in hopes of catching film of the perpetrators throwing the rocks. 

One of their crowd control tactics is to make an oblique formation and side-pass the horses into the front of the crowd driving the people into the walls of buildings along the street. They also use pepper spray and long leather covered batons which hang in a ring on their saddle like modern day knights in armor with their trusty sword! This is definitely a hard core mounted unit with one of the toughest and most dangerous duty stations in the world. 

"It was an honor for me to have the opportunity to work with the fine officers of this unit and maybe, in a small way, help make their job easier and safer with improved communication with their horses." 

As a volunteer for Canine Companions for Independence, Tom raised 10 puppies to go to advanced training at the Regional Training Center in Orlando, FL. Tom will be greatly missed by many people, horses and dogs whose lives he has touched. Our prayers are with Tom's wife Margaret. Tom lived a good life with a genuine pursuit of purpose. I like to think of him now riding the "starry ranges" on a horse with wings.