Flyinge - sweden's national stud

This is a fabulous place! Flyinge - Sweden's national stud. This is where they breed the beautiful Swedish Warmblood horse. The buildings are majestic and the horses are pampered and beautiful.

click here for the Flyinge website

Watercolor 11"x7"

River

 Little river scene, inspired by the impressionists in the Musee d'Orsay, Watercolor 11x7"

Helsingborg

Helsingborg: on the west coast of skane, is a little jewel of a city - Helsingborg. It is winter and the sun is very low. It is always sun rise or sun set.
Watercolor 11"x7"

Stockholm Parliament

The Parliament Building in Stockholm is adorned with all kinds of faces. Male, female, yelling, screaming, laughing, smiling, frowning. This is on of them, speaking up for the people of Sweden.

Swedish Sputnik

Building in Lund with turret.

Watercolor 7x11"

Viking Medallion

A medallion on a building in Lund, depicting a Viking.

Watercolor 11"x7"

Bats in the Belfry

The cathedral in Lund. 7 by 11" watercolor
sold

Sketching in the Louvre

  Here is a sketch from a bust in the Louvre.

I work Here

Lund, the view from my new office.
Watercolor 7"x11" on Fabriano 140lb cold press

San Sebastian

San Sebastian, Spain. People walking on the beach.

Watercolor 11"x7"

Illinois Route 47

11 x 7" watercolor
A little sketch of a farmhouse near 47 and 64 in Illinois.

Wisconsin landscape Rt 89

7x11" watercolor

This was done plaine aire, I was sitting in the back of my Honda Fit, painting in the pouring rain.

Spring Planting

 7x11" watercolor with it's reference photo

Birch trees

7x11" water color

Sketch from the Field Museum

oops, I forgot his name. Graphite on paper, 8x11"

Sky

7x11" Watercolor

There is something very beautiful about a flat landscape with a dramatic sky

Frog

7x11 Watercolor

Rocks and River in the Adirondaks

7x11" Watercolor

This was in upstate New York, in the Adirondaks. Could be anywhere.

Death Valley

Watercolor 7x11"

The view from the top of Golden Cannyon

Muammar Gaddafi, one evil looking dude.

Charchoal on paper

Death Valley Mosaic Cannyon

7x11" Watercolor

Kishwaukee River

Kishwaukee River in the winter

Watercolor 11x7"

San Francisco

A house and a tree in San Francisco, from a photo taken from the trolley.

Watercolor 7"x11"

Nova Scotia

Nova Scotia coast line
Watercolor 7x11"

Death Valley

Death Valley on Christmas.
Watercolor 7x11"

Shenandoah Valley, Virginia

Watercolor 11x7"

Montecello's garden early spring

The garden at Jefferson's Montecello Watercolor 11x7"

Monterey - Virginia

Monterey, Virginia in the early morning.

Watercolor 11x15"

sold

River and Rocks

A pretty little scene from Nova Scotia.
Water color 11x15"

Trees with white trunks

Watercolor 11x7"

sold

Sketching at the Art Institute of Chicago

Quick sketch at the AIC, in the McCormic Sculpture court.

Rock on river's edge Mountain View Arkanasas

Watercolor 11x15"

Sketching at the Art Institute of Chicago

Sketching in the Art Institute of Chicago

Sketches from the dog show

Trees and road

Trees and road in Nova Scotia, Watercolor 15x7"
sold

Keep the Top on the Carrot: Slowing down your Hands

Richard Shrake’s Resistance Free Teaching Picture

Many times I will have a student in my Resistance Free graduate courses that has hands that are just too fast. Especially at the point of contact to the horse’s mouth, causing the horse to over react. This may be caused by fear of losing control of their horse or just plain never developing a feel to their horses’ mouth.

The teaching picture that has really helped me is to tell a student to just imagine that when you’re picking up your reins to feel your horse’s mouth, first imagine that you are pulling a carrot out of the ground. If you pull too quickly, the top pops off and the carrot stays in the ground.

Always exhale, make your pull slower and your hose will say thanks by becoming softer and learning to trust your hands.

Richard Shrake is an internationally known horseman from Sun River, Oregon. He holds Resistance Free riding seminars on an international level. For a schedule of seminars see his website at: http://www.richardshrake.com/

Illustrations by Suzanne Gysin, a Swiss born illustrator with a strong background in eventing and dressage. You can contact her at: http://suzannegysin.blogspot.com/

Use Your Periscope

Richard Shrake’s Resistance Free Teaching Picture

Use Your Periscope

One of the major Resistance Free riding pre-signals is when the student asks the horse to change direction and make a turn.

We teach our students to send a pre-signal for a turn using their upper body, head, and eyes like a periscope on a submarine. Keeping the lower body stable and secure is much like the submarine going through the water. During a turn in either direction the rider slowly twists the upper body in the direction he wants the horse to go. Imagine the periscope on a submarine above the water.

When this is done slowly just before you have a directional turn on your horse this will give your horse the leadership and direction that he needs. When the rider’s jaw line stays even, your horse will respond in a balanced resistance free way.

Richard Shrake is an internationally known horseman from Sun River, Oregon. He holds Resistance Free riding seminars on an international level. For a schedule of seminars see his website at: http://www.richardshrake.com/

Illustrations by Suzanne Gysin, a Swiss born illustrator with a strong background in eventing and dressage. You can contact her at: http://suzannegysin.blogspot.com/

Dancing in the Rain

Richard Shrake’s Resistance Free Teaching Picture

Dance in the Rain

This is one of the resistance free teaching pictures I have always used when a student becomes very discouraged after their hors acts up. I tell them to realize that “Life is NOT about waiting for the storm to pass. It is about learning to DANCE IN THE RAIN”.

One of the absolutes we teach in our resistance free courses is that for every action there is a reaction. For example, if we take our horse out for a ride and our horse react to a loud noise; right there we teach that your reaction is your choice.

You can react in a negative way by jerking his mouth, or you can react in a positive way be loosening the rain and rubbing his neck saying to him “You’re OK, it scared me too.”

Richard Shrake is an internationally known horseman from Sun River, Oregon. He holds Resistance Free riding seminars on an international level. For a schedule of seminars see his website at: http://www.richardshrake.com/

Illustrations by Suzanne Gysin, a Swiss born illustrator with a strong background in eventing and dressage. You can contact her at: http://suzannegysin.blogspot.com/

Your Eyes are your Balancing Computer

Richard Shrake’s Resistance Free Teaching Picture

Your Eyes are your Balancing Computer

One of the major problems with riders of all disciplines is to get them to use their eyes properly. They seem to always want to look down instead of up and ahead.

The Resistance Fee teaching picture I use is to have them imagine their eyes being a computer camera. When the camera computer is operating at 100% efficiency, giving their body needed information of what is ahead. When they look down the camera computer shuts off, stopping the flow of information to their hands, legs, body, and seat, causing them to loose their balance and coordination of aids.

It is the same thing that happens when you are driving your car and you are looking at the hood ornament instead of looking ahead of where you are going. You crash.

Keep the camera computer turned on and give your horse the Resistance Free leadership he needs to perform at his best.

Richard Shrake is an internationally known horseman from Sun River, Oregon. He holds Resistance Free riding seminars on an international level. For a schedule of seminars see his website at http://www.richardshrake.com/
Illustrations by Suzanne Gysin, a Swiss born illustrator with a strong background in eventing and dressage. You can contact her at: http://suzannegysin.blogspot.com/

Raw Energy from your Shock Absorbers

Richard Shrake’s Resistance Free Teaching Picture

Raw Energy from your Shock Absorbers

Many of my students have a difficult time connecting to their horse’s energy flow. Without this energy, the rider becomes a simple passenger and not a Resistance Free rider giving their horse the needed leadership.

The teaching picture I use is to have the student imagine the joints in their body are shock absorbers, taking in and letting go the energy in a rhythmic way with their horse’s beat until it becomes a muscle memory. Without the shock absorbers the student’s body becomes stiff and rigid, stopping all softness and feel.

This illustration is to show how the rider's joints (ankly, knee, and hip) act as a shock aborbers.

Richard Shrake is an internationally known horseman from Sun River, Oregon. He holds Resistance Free riding seminars on an international level. For a schedule of seminars see his website at http://www.richardshrake.com/

Illustrations by Suzanne Gysin, a Swiss born illustrator with a strong background in eventing and dressage. You can contact her at: http://suzannegysin.blogspot.com/

Feel the Golf Ball

Richard Shrake’s Resistance Free Teaching Picture

Feel the Golf Ball

Many of the riders I work with at my Resistance Free seminars have really a hard time learning to ride off the ball of their foot when placed in the stirrup.

When you have ridden most of your life with your foot all the way home, jammed in the stirrup, it is truly hard to change. Because many of my students are older, they have been taught in the past to jam their foot all the way into the stirrup.

Because there are so many advantages of riding off the ball of your foot that is a very important part of Resistance Free riding.

Image yourself balancing a golf ball between your stirrup and your foot.

This is an illustration for the rider's foot placement in the stirup. The rider should have the feeling to balance a golf ball between the foot and the stirrup. If the rider puts the foot deep into the stirrup, the golf ball will slip out.

Richard Shrake is an internationally known horseman from Sun River, Oregon. He holds Resistance Free riding seminars on an international level. For a schedule of seminars see his website at: http://www.richardshrake.com/

Illustrations by Suzanne Gysin, a Swiss born illustrator with a strong background in eventing and dressage. You can contact her at: http://suzannegysin.blogspot.com/