Owning a horse in college can be a challenge, with its significant time and financial demands. Luckily, you don’t necessarily have to own a horse in college to keep riding. Try out these tips to keep riding while you’re in school.

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When I heard Jack LeGoff say for the umpteenth time, “Training horses is like religion … you have to BELIEVE!“ I must admit that I may have rolled my eyes at the time. Cut me some slack – I was just a kid! Twenty years later, I truly get it.

I also remember Jack telling me that YEARS after training with…

This was my last lesson at Five Star Ranch with Cooper. I have learned so much in the short time we have been riding together there. I will miss the lessons on him but it was getting too much driving there on a work night and putting gas in my truck.

I moved him to a new barn yesterday that is 15-20 minute drive from home. There are no trails but that is ok as I am not that interested anymore in doing that. I hope to be able to see him more often and not dread that long drive all the…

Had a great lesson today. Our coach could see that we were all riding speedy horses today so we spent the lesson working on slowing down. We were to do a lot of whoa and back up, also did posting trot on the long side and sit jog on the short with circles in the corners. We learned to stay on a circle and keep our horses head and shoulders in between the reins. I was also working on getting Cooper to lower his head more and to give him more rein, to trust him more. By the end of the lesson…

We did some round pen work first and Cooper was very good.

I got my husband in the round pen to have him try to work Cooper but he wasn't assertive enough and Cooper just wanted to come in to him.

It's dark now by lesson time at 8:30 p.m. so we rode indoors.

We continued on trying to slow the jog around 3/4 of arena and 1/4 did posting trot, trying to extend and stay collected.

I was trying to relax my legs but it wasn't working tonight.

I had a stiff neck…

I got off work early and at the barn by 5:30 p.m. for my 8:30 lesson!!

We were still getting ready by lesson time LOL.

We worked in the round pen for about 20 minutes, but first I groomed him and did some stretches on his legs.

He did great, a little stiff but much better.

I was having a hard time keeping him going slow again, he just wanted to go go go fast fast fast.

We did more circles at each end of the arena outdoors then when they others were doing…

I gave Cooper the weekend off as it seemed he was sore after a lot of hard work that he is not used to. I worked him a little in the round pen, he was a little stiff on his left rear leg. He went at a nice slow pace, kicked out a little when asked for a lope (canter) but did very well. I did some stretches on his legs and tacked him up and went for a ride. We were both relaxed and it was a very nice ride. We didn't work long, on the ground for about 15 minutes and in the saddle for 15. We…

Much, much better ride tonight during our lesson.

I got to the barn early and did some natural horsemanship ground work in the indoor arena. He is very bored with it, you can tell. I have to start doing some of the things from the next level, challenge him more. I am still doing Level 1 Parelli things with him. I am also viewing my Jonathan Field dvd's, I think I might do his method when I finally add in loping to our work with the rope hackamore, which is still a long way off. I do…

July 2/11

Finally got back in the saddle. I rode around at a walk only for about 15 minutes and got off. I was tense but things went well, just me being worried. Another boarder got on Cooper after and gave him a little workout. They did great together, an experienced rider makes him look so good.

July 5/11

We have finally started taking training lessons together with Gail Haynes at Five Star Ranch where I board. At first I was very nervous and tense and almost…

Yesterday, I gave Bella Benedict another riding lesson on Gunny. This wouldn't be so significant, after all I teach horseback riding lessons for a living. But Belle is just 6 yrs old and she has to clean corrals to EARN her own lessons. Her family is Very tight financially, so I offered Belle a chance to join the 'work to ride' program. She works Hard to earn enough credits to get to ride.



So, this was her 3rd lesson, and we worked on developing a SMOOTH whoa - a nice easy slow pull…

With all the event announcements for Myrddin's lecture series floating around facebook, and other media, I thought it would be nice to post some background on a teacher I have enjoyed learning from! Not sure if this will be reach anyone who is interested in knowing more about a remarkable coach, but its worth a try...

MYRDDIN EQUESTRIAN CENTRE Head Coach Bio:

Margie Godson is National Level 3 Coach; With a Pony Club A, she was longlisted for the Olympic Eventing team and has…

Meet Suzanne. An endlessly jolly character who absolutely loves having lessons and learning new things. Suzanne helps out at a riding school by managing the whole operation on Sundays. She pretty much does everything from mucking out to meet & greet, open and close, feeding the ponies and hacking out with clients. In return, she gets the lessons, mostly on a Cleveland Bay mare, Rosie.

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