ABOUT ME
Ever since I remember I begged my parents to let me start riding, and when I was ten years old they finally gave in. Two years later, my parents bought a horse for the whole family, and after a while he became mostly mine. Nyaruto, or Nisse as he was called, was my first big love! He was a beautiful palomino gelding from Hungary with the sweetest temperament. With him I started my competition career in showjumping and we did up to 120cm classes. He was also the one who introduced me to liberty training, being very quick to learn new tricks from Spanish walk, taking a bow, to rearing and bucking on command, so he was the perfect partner to experiment with.
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When I was fifteen we moved to Belgium. Nisse, being part of our family, moved with us and there I continued to compete in showjumping. After school my hobby turned into a way of life. I left for England to do a Bachelor of Arts with Honours in Equine Studies at Warwickshire College at Coventry University, and of course Nisse came along.
We spent four fantastic years there, while I immersed myself in all things equine. Whilst there I understood the importance of bio-mechanics, nutrition and behaviour in terms of how horses learn.
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While on summer holiday in Finland I met my future husband and love of my life, and subsequently after I finished my studies in England I moved to the beautiful island Barösund in the south of the Finnish archipelago where I have lived ever since. We nowadays have three boisterous young boys, a crazy standard poodle called Neo and my herd of horses.
My biggest influence in my riding and training has been Colonel Christian Carde, www.christiancarde.com, who I have trained for since 2004. He represents the classical French equitation. From him I have learned the importance of riding in lightness with the horse in harmony and self-carriage. Training the horse in a slow cadence without loosing activity while following the six P´s that are his Principles ( Preparation, Patience, Persistence, Progression, Precision, and Praise) has been an invaluable foundation to my knowledge.
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Other people who have influenced me over time are Andrew McLean and his son Warwick McLean who I have trained for over 10 years.
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In 2005 I attended a Centered Riding level 1 instructor course in Sweden and deepened my knowledge of the riders seat, and through Jean Luc Cornille and the Science of Motion clinics I have attended in 2014& 2015 I have deepened my knowledge in the horses bio-mechanics.
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In 2016 me and a few trainers founded an organisation Hevosalan Eidistämisyhdistys (www.horseinmotion.org) with the aim to promote the horse industry in Finland. We wanted to bring scientific research and horse training closer together. We organised our first event in March 2017, Horse In Motion and in 2018 and 2019 the event grew to become Horse and Rider in Motion, and in 2020 the event was Rider in Motion, where the focus was on the rider. Over the years the the events had lecturers from all over the world including Prof. dr. P.R. Rene van Weeren, Jean Luc Cornille, Dr. David Marli, Susanne von Dietze, Elizabeth Uhl D.V.M Ph.d DACVP, Prof. Hillary Clayton and Dr. Sarah Jane Hobbs to name a few. These events were information packed weekends that had both riding lessons, riding demos and lectures to learn from.
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In May 2020 I started training for Tiina Karkkolainen who is a FEI 4 * international dressage judge. I feel very lucky to have found her as my trainer. What It Takes to Be a Judge. Advice from the World's Best: Tiina Karkkolainen (eurodressage.com)
But the biggest teachers have been my students and the numerous horses who have passed throughout my life, who continue to inspire and amaze me.
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About 15 years ago I took the shoes off my own horses and changed my stables to a loose housing system. I strongly believe that horses need a lot movement in an as natural environment as you can possible provide, and that herd life is essential to a horses well being. So in the summertime my horses are grazing 24/7 in my six grass fields that are spread out around our land, and in the wintertime they are in their spacious winter paddock area. The winter paddock has a asphalted feeding area that is easy to keep clean and a forest area with some rocky parts and uneven ground that helps keeping my horses fit and strong, and this uneven terrain helps improve their coordination and agility.
