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Flo's
Horse Training |
Florence
Oswald – AKA
Flo – is a lovely French woman who has always
had the horse bug, as far as she can remember, although there
was no history of such an addiction in her family.
Her
dream as a child was to become what we call now a “horse
whisperer”, even if she only got rare opportunities
to spend time with horses.
When
she finally had the chance to regularly ride horses, she took
English riding lessons
and immediately started to try and build a sound relationship
with horses, seeking a better understanding of horses’ psychology
and general behavior.
She built her experience
from the ground up, learning with different horses, and different
instructors. |
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The
instructor who taught Flo the most, and who still inspires her,
is the late Dominique De La Mettrie. He was
of the old French Riding School, which is focused on classical
dressage, and had a real passion for horses.Through
him, she learned about the anatomy and physiology of this heavy,
but highly regarded animal, and how to develop him/her physically
so this wonderful companion stays as flexible as possible. |
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She
also discovered horsemanship through feel, and learned to listen
to horses in order to understand and deal with horses' behavior
while riding them.
After
Flo started to take lessons, she quickly went through the French
process where both horsemanship and equestrianism must be mastered
before attempting any type of competition (dressage, jumping
or eventing).
She
passed all the French Equestrian Federation tests up to competition
level, and finished first in her region on the last test. Although
Flo was quite young, she immediately preferred to share her
knowledge than to compete.
Therefore
besides riding and doing some local competitions, she also
started to teach, and became
a dressage judge in Versailles (near Paris, France).
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In
parallel, her career in computer science brought her to the US;
Silicon Valley, California. Once she settled, she ended up by
coming back to her passion and she looked for horses to train.
The word-of-mouth business took off and she quickly went back
to also giving lessons. |
Flo’s
instruction and riding styles inevitably have the imprint
of classical dressage masters; she has been influenced, indirectly
or directly, by masters
like Nuno Oliveira, and Michel
Henriquet while she was in Versailles, France. Michel Henriquet spent
30 years of his life as a student of Nuno Oliveira.
Flo
keeps an open mind to different schools and techniques, and continuously seeks
more knowledge in diverse dressage writings: another typical well-known person
she reads and refers to is Sylvia
Loch – founder of the Classical
Dressage Riding Club.
Even
though Flo developed her own style and method, she takes her strong classical
dressage base with her everywhere: for each horse she rides or when she gives
lessons, she takes the time to learn and understand the horse, locating key
strengths and areas to develop.
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Her
goal is to gain the horse’s
trust; she learns to respect each horse, and earns respect
back. Moreover she gives the horse the necessary time to
progress. |
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Flo & Paris |
Patience
is key in Flo’s method as there is no point in forcing
a horse to do any exercise. She prefers doing short sessions,
and rewarding the horse when the exercise is understood and
achieved properly.
Because
this method is smooth and non invasive, she generally gets
good results quite quickly.
Flo
also has a very positive attitude towards her students as she
is a strong advocate of patience with riders too, and she
encourages riders so they become more confident in their riding
aptitude.
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You will
find hereafter some key points of Flo's equestrian bio. |
- 25 years of "Haute Ecole" horse riding
- Won several regional competitions in France (Dressage & Jumping)
- Passed all the French Equestrian Federation formal tests up to competition level - finished first in her region on the last test.
- French Equestrian Federation Dressage Judge at Versailles, France
- French Equestrian Federation Test Judge at Versailles, France
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Rode over 110 horses
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Trained over 60 people
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Unconditional fan of the fantastic and unique horseman Bartabas. Bartabas is the founder of the Academy of
Equestrian Art in
Versailles (www.acadequestre.fr) and the equestrian Theatre Zingaro (www.zingaro.fr in French).
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Amazing trust & love relationship built with the following horses: MaBeaute, Jasmin, Tollos, Merrilegs, Moon, Tina, Bunny, Nadia, Tug, Rooster and Shadow.
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