So you are on your way to the barn. It's a beautiful day, and you have a perfect vision of what your ride will be like. You envision your horse standing at the gate waiting for your arrival, excited to leave his friends and hay, and to come inside and hang out with you.

When you get to the barn your horse has its hindquarters facing you, his head buried in the hay and all…

weight 145

Conditions: nice day. good hacking. overall quiet ring until boogaloo

Caddymaster Great ride. Hacked before and after schooling in ring. rode in double

started with Kyra's ABC's much better than yesterday!! Then a bit of heather blitz's walk exercise

Approached warm up differently

1) if he is not good don't go on. i'e if the neck…

Weight 145 - goal 135

Conditions: fun hacking with fresh slushy snow on the ground.

Caddy: Worked in ring with snaffle. Great hack through the woods before the ride. snow was close to knee deep in places and Caddy was excited and trotted a lot of the way.

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Horses day off. Spent quiet evening with dogs, fire and wine - trying to find good instructional video on starting passage piaffe. I watched the Hubertis Schmidt NEDA clinic on dressage clinic the intermediare II rider and didn't find any help for the pi/pa :(

To clarify a bit on last week's post because we received some questions: The only way the horse is allowed into your personal hula hoop space is if you invite him in. And you’ll only invite him into that four foot circle if you know you can get him out of it. Think of how you want your neighbors to treat you. You might like your neighbors, but you never want them to just barge into your house. You always want them to walk up to the door, knock and ask to come…

Janet Brown-Foy was teaching a clinic this weekend at the barn where I ride. She had one horse after the next, and during a quick break she was kind enough to remain in a very cold arena and answer a few questions that I thought might be of help to anyone riding and competing in dressage.…

Masters Dressage Freestyle Night--Drawing Inspiration From Music

The idea of the “perfect riding” music has been in my head since last Saturday night when I was fortunate enough to watch some of the best riders in the world compete in the

Masters Freestyle CDI*****. Eight riders competed, with no two rider’s

music even similar. How amazing and how fascinating. There were composed pieces, there was rock,

there was…

I had the pleasure of sharing one of my ‘Dance with Horses’ clinic with Joy, a lovely lady from Denmark. I do so enjoy teaching and sharing my message and it’s so nice to see so many people from all over the world finding resonance with my Method.…

So I have been working twice as much at Hadlow College for the past few weeks, which has extended my repetoire to classroom teaching. Holding the attention of 10-15 young minds is a challenge so much preparation has been needed on my part, to grasp fully the subjects for teaching and also to plan the session so that it is interactive, interesting and importantly full of learning hooks. Fortunately the way I have been trained to teach so far has been following the lines of the UKCC…

So the other day I inoccently wandered into a local tack store and ended coming out with a new sheepskin half pad, a set of jointed irons, new leather riding boots, and a new bit for Summer.

Its funny how no horse person can ever go into a tack shop without spending $200 and up! Mabye its the new leather smell, or all the shiny objects..lol Its like we go into the store just needing a rubber martingale stopper and then suddenly we remember we need a new show bridle, a new show…

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Well I took two of my 4 horses to a sleep over at another barn for some lessons in Classical work, and I was very proud of them. Stonee, my giant horse, is afraid of everything and very insecure, due to being kept in one barn for 8 years of his life and not really getting out. He was much better this time, the anxiety is lessening. And Indy, my 4 year old Appendix was an absolute star! She loaded well after having inspected the trailer, and travelled well. After the lessons she hung out with…

It is so easy at times to lose control slightly and ask too much of your horse...or possibly worst, to intentionally ask too much in a deliberate and continual way in the belief that 'stretching' the horse in this way will yield greater progress. Education is the key, but to develop the experience, feel, and sensitivity to judge with some accuracy how much a horse can be asked is not a short journey. However what a hugely rewarding…