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If you read my last post you know it was about being grateful at our last horse show and then somehow it spiraled into me admitting I had committed to teaching a few local yoga classes in Austin, Texas. While I am excited about you guys knowing about the upcoming
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How Far Does a Dollar Go? From the website of Graemont,Inc. A fairly realistic, in my experience, rundown of what dressage horses cost in the real world. There are exceptions, but be grateful when you come across one! “In order to have a successful buying experience, you will be
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Mr Ponderful My regular students usually have come to understand the flow of our training process. That’s not always the case when someone presents themselves at a clinic. Most times they are thinking “This is costing me a bundle. I better get a lot out of it!” From the
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Does this sound like you? A woman came to my clinic with a fancy but difficult horse whom she had recently acquired. The horse was a schoolmaster and knew lots of tricks, but he had been ridden the last few years only in a double bridle. His poll was very
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Recently beyond the "how" I discussed why you should ride accurate arena figures. If you’re having a problem of execution, preplanning and visualization can help. Try to compose a mental video tape (as though shot from the saddle) of what you’re attempting to do. The tape
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"I’m so glad when my horse acts up because then I have something to do with her." A clinic rider said these very words to me. When I had stopped shuddering and my heart rate had returned to normal, we had lots to talk about. Her comment
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"I’m going to supple her a minute." That’s what a student announced to me as she was riding. Because I have a kind and generous soul and always display good temper, I did not act incredulous that she should seek permission to do something that riders
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A new student in her first lesson with me was making all sorts of freeform ring figures. A requested circle she translated as a randomly placed oval. A volte from the track came out like an egg of indeterminate size. When I began to explain about the arena’s dimensions
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As I look back on the hundreds of blog posts I have written, one recurring theme is the need to be clear and definite in the way you communicate with your horse . . . not to be passive, to be the Alpha, not just to ask but to be sure your horse
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Sitting with Major Lindgren at the Aachen show in Germany one day he jocularly observed that international judges only needed to know four words – “more,” “less,” “faster,” and “slower” to accomplish their task. Of course that’s a bit of an exaggeration, but it brings to mind a very interesting
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Trainer Relationships: Caustic or Constructive? I read two completely separate posts on social media this morning. They couldn’t have been more opposite! Post One: From a well-established Eventing trainer who was at an Event this past weekend and was lamenting the fact that she heard two different “trainers” screaming
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And He Thinks We Are Crazy! I vacillate between being monstrously irked by certain Facebook posts or dismissing them as totally irrelevant to my riding life. But they’ve bothered me long enough that the alternate reality which they present deserves to be examined and accounted for. Let’s leave
