Each month, we will be profiling one of our Strides Student Members, so everyone can get to know each other a little! This month, we’ve chosen Michal Wika, who is from Poznan, Poland.
How long have you been a member of Strides? 15 months
What’s your favorite part of Strides? My favorite part of the Strides are the video classes and materials shared each month… there is so much experience shared with us! I do like and appreciate also consultations/office hours indeed, even if I can hardly join them online due to my time zone where I live, this is super great. An opportunity to send my short videos and ask questions about details, which I struggle with, is extremely supportive for me!
How has Strides helped you? Strides matched perfectly into the gap I felt in the matter of missing knowledge and experience, since none of the trainers in my life spent so much time on explaining all necessary details and so so many of them. There is unbelievably huge knowledge and experience shared with us in the Strides in so friendly and professional manner!!
Secondly, the space to ask any of question we face is also super supportive.
And last but not least… there is so much passion in Amelia’s Team and whole this community, which I appreciate – this is so much motivational!
What kind of horses are your favorite? I love strong but delicate horses to ride. Since I am tall I need to have a large horse. Then, I love to ride demanding horses… not just to have a ride, but have them motivating me to get better and better just for them. Don’t like easy things 🙂 Lavadinus is just this kind of the horse, so he keeps me still motivated and always asks to improve. But in the matter of my passion I do love all the horses… all the horses indeed… they are real love of my life! In the matter of breed my favorite horses are KWPNs and Hanoverians, since they seems to match above needs!
What’s your goal for this year? My goals for 2024 are set around our improvement and showing. We are just at the beginning of our dressage way and this is first showing season for us ever. So we have a few technical goals what to improve like sitting trot, roundness, etc., but there is also a lot about consequence and consistency. Apart from the above, my goal is to get my bronze (already done) and silver medal (heading to), but also to get certified as dressage judge of the IIIrd class.
What is something unique about you, your journey or your horse? I don’t know if this is unique about me… or maybe even hope this is more common about all of us in Strides indeed, but trying to think about uniqueness I see it in my relationship with Lavadinus. We spend more time together both on the ground that under the saddle… and even if I am very focused on our common development during rides and trainings, the time spend from the ground in the stable, during the grooming and preparation, during the groundwork and just together is so precious. I feel this relationship by a lot of small behaviors from Lavadinus side as well. This is so lovely and motivating for me!
What achievement (with horses or not) you most proud of? I am proud I started to show, since this was quite stressful for me. I dreamed about this, but I am so emotional person, so it costs me a lot. After a few first shows I can proudly say that finally I started to breathe during the shows.
What challenges have you overcome? The huge challenge for me to overcome was huge allergy of Lavadinus, which stopped us almost from any training (even groundwork) for slightly more than two months… this was really bad time for me… I worried a lot and felt so helpless, since it really took several weeks to find the reason and help him. I am happy it has gone.
Any final thoughts? This is the right time and place to tell Amelia a huge, huge THANK YOU! I know it sounds maybe pathetically, but you changed my riding. You give me so much experience, so much knowledge, all supportive answers, proposals, suggestions… always with patience, smile and explanations. THANK YOU SO MUCH!
