I know that riding a spooky horse can be challenging and frustrating so here are some tips to help you understand why your horse spooks and to give you some tools to help cope with shying.



*You might be more patient with your spooky horse when you understand that horses have survived in the wild all these years because of their natural flight response. So, when you think your horse is being unreasonable because he's shying from something that seems benign, change your…

... I tried to share with non-horsey people the elation and overwhelming sense of "being" I felt after an "Aha!" moment with my horse.



Picture this ... it's my once-a-quarter dressage lesson with Canadian Olympian Belinda Trussell at her beautiful Oakcrest Farms. The second of a long series of thunderstorms looms on the horizon as I enter the magnificent arena to start warming up for our 45-minute lesson. As the lesson begins, a rumble of thunder introduces the stormy symphony…

For the last two years I have been experimenting with various bridles, both bitted and bitless on five different horses. Although I tend to be picky about the fit of my tack, and read and follow directions well I have noticed various degrees of resistance to rein contact with each different piece of gear. Lately I have been riding two mares (Arab and Arab-Welsh), trying out various bitted and bitless systems. I find that mares often express their displeasure a bit more emphatically than…

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Hurrah, hurrah. The nightmare that was the 2009 London Marathon is over. I survived – but only just. In fact the reason it’s taken a few days to write this, is that I’m only just now walking again without sticks.



Blisters. I’m now an expert on blisters – my poor feet – I had blisters on the blisters. But since, if you remember, the whole point of the exercise was to get a worn-out, broken-down old geezer (me) to…

Well a couple of weekends later than normal the 2009 competition season is starting to gear up. Tomorrow mother and Loosi head to the Queen's Bush Training Ride where Loosi is used as a demonstration horse for the vetting etc. My dad acts as timer and my mom is planning on riding all 3 loops 15-18 miles as drag rider. My mom will get the last few miles needed to achieve her next mileage milestone with OCTRA - 1500 miles.



I get to stay at the farm on mare stare!!! Spring is due…

I usually like to write up my blog on the day of my lesson, but I was so tired and in an awful lot of pain that day so I had to go to bed when I got home and rest up. I took a strong painkiller with my afternoon tablets and that knocked me out for a few hours. When I woke up I was still in a lot of pain and I was concerned that the FM would flare up and cause me grief. The last thing I want is a major flare up that would knock me out of the competition on 21st May. You are probably think,…

The following blog was inspired by a rider who told me, "I have a wonderful, talented thoroughbred. We can do Second and Third level work at home, yet when we compete, we can barely get through a First Level test. The missing link seems to be relaxation. My horse is off the track, and we seem to feed off each other's tension. How does a normally tense person learn to relax?"



This rider is right in thinking that relaxation is her priority. When you're tense, your work can't…