This Week in Horse History - June 21st Through June 28th

June 21, 1998 - Tulip, the Morab gelding who holds the title of endurance riding's most enduring equine, was born. Tulip is the first horse recorded by the American Endurance Ride Conference to ever travel more than 20,000 miles in endurance competition. He is owned by Dr. Les Carr of…

A 2 month foal is having difficulty leading, her owner writes:

Today we were off to a schooling show with a UK judge who was in doing a clinic yesterday. She marched over the wooden bridge to the outdoor schooling ring, where she was very good. Easy warm up, although it takes a bit to get some forward going. Into the ring and off we go.

So, let us then enumerate the rider errors that caused her to score under 70:

Stiff hands into the halt.

Inconsistent contact, but better.

Started a 20m circle when it should have…

I just got to ride once this week, and I am having to get used to getting up a half-hour earlier so I can escape the worst effects of the heat. It isn't too easy for me to change what I do, and getting up earlier is among the things that I find hard to adjust too, but anything to escape the heat.

My ride went pretty well, Mia seems to like the Wellep bit fine, even with my hands deteriorating in the heat. No contact or light…

De-spooking Your Horse



I have a 4 year old Belgian that I ride. He is pretty solid, but as a young horse he does spook occasionally. I have been trying you method of leading him up to a scary object a step at a time and it works very well (especially with the horse eating manure spreader!). My question is, if he spooks and wheels out away from me do I just continue on with what I'm doing as if nothing happened or should I stop and try to calm him down and back him up to a safe…

What do you do when a horse sport different from your own uses cruel methods? Be grateful that your own sport is humane and clean and turn a blind eye or do something about it?



Of course what constitutes cruelty is often debatable. In my opinion the isolation of horses in single cells with minimum activity is cruelty, and I am not alone in having concerns about the mental abuse of horses in bad dressage, while others think racing over…

I am having such a pleasure working with my horses and not too long ago I discovered the advantage of training my horses using music.

In between working with the new dressage exercises from Carolyn Resnicks blog. In-between theses exercises I have had a good progress in…

Natural Horsemanship Solutions: Nippy Issues Solved

An owner writes about her 2 month old foal “she is starting to get a little mouthy, if she tries to bite, I usually just poke her on the nose. Is this the right thing to…

Although I have broached this subject superficially in a past blog, I would like to address some key points in more detail, as they are important in determining the proper saddle fit especially for women – which is 85% of Schleese’s market – and makes us the only female saddle specialist in the world!



Our saddle fitters all have a comprehensive understanding of equine biomechanics and how saddles need to fit to prevent longterm back damage in the horse, but we also have a good…

Well, we had our first Gold show on the weekend since the grand revelation that *I* was causing the bucking and squealing of dear little Muffin. Shockingly enough, she didn't put a foot wrong. Mom didn't get so tense, so there was no good reason for silliness, and lord knows she requires a good reason, honest little girl that she is! Well, mostly.

Friday we had a lesson in the morning and she was one cranky pony. She kicked up when we went to canter, after she thought she was…