" Aucun homme ne peut rien vous révéler sinon ce qui repose déja à demi endormi dans l'aube de votre connaissance." Kalil Gibran

  My legs ache. All the muscles through my core ache. I can feel each and every one. That can only mean one thing: my riding must have improved.…

Let's see...

I spent April travelling in Europe. I worked out a tour of sites I've long wanted to visit, for a variety of reasons. Of course horse-history is a big part of that, so I thoroughly enjoyed going to museums full of horse-armour and getting a definitive answer to a question that has bugged me for a long while, about the size of horses in the middle ages. It turns…

Very many seem to treat this year a something of a kidney stone, and in much of the world, according to the news, it was. But in my little corner of the world, it was awesome.

First, I spent most of the year's focus on learning to jump, and teaching Oakley to jump. To learn, I hiked up the road a ways to another barn, got on school horses that would reliably jump. One cannot…

That is the phrase for the week, that I have heard from three different people: "He is not the same horse." It is a complement, and a vindication of all the careful work I've been doing for the past 5 years, and particularly the last one.

One friend who has not seen Oakley in over a year came up to watch me ride & do some simple figures. She doesn't know a lot about horses,…

It's been a good month. We started May off with a dressage competition and did very well. We took home a nice, red 1st place ribbon, although that almost doesn't count because the other  competitors in my class never showed, but what does count is our score, which is the highest he's ever got, and if we'd got that score at two previous competitions would have won then, and would have had at least 2nd or 3rd place…

My dad used to say that anyone who cannot explain what they are doing so well that anyone can understand really doesn't know what they are doing.

No. That is wrong.

There are a great many people who know very well what they are about, yet who cannot explain anything very well at all. Knowing what you are…

"To an optimist, taking a step backwards after taking a step forward is not a disaster, it's more like a Cha-Cha."

Seems like a great way to describe our progress, two steps forward, one step back. Sometimes two steps back.…

I've written a bit about lightness before, but "lightness" seems to be a potent trigger word that creates great emotionally charged discussion all over the 'net. Everyone seems to agree it is a Good Thing (TM) but no one can explain exactly what is meant or how to achieve it.



So this short post covers a simple, specific exercise I've found…

I finally found a couple of free evenings and finished a sword-holder and stirrup lance-bucket, so I can now strap my repro 1908 British Cavalry Sabre onto my repro 1912 UP saddle and re-introduced Oakley to the sport of tent-pegging.

Last time we did this was over 2 years ago, and he was... skittish. He got terribly upset at the sound of the sword drawn from the scabbard, he was nervous about the sight of a drawn sabre, tried to escape from the waving pennant on the lance, and did…

Sometimes it just feels as if we're not getting anywhere. Another beautiful autumn, the last show of the year goes by and the difference between this month and last month is hard to discern. It seems as if we're just inching forward. We're fighting a World War I battle, a titanic struggle over a few yards, at great cost and effort with nothing to show.

And there is…

Now we are in the refinement stage. Only scored 58.3% and placed 8th out of 8 at the dressage show last Sunday (17th Aug), so no decorations for the barn, but I am still deliriously happy because, in almost all other regards, everything went perfectly.

As anyone who has ever gone to any event can attest, there are always tasks to do, many must be in a certain order and by a…

We had a marvelously successful show a couple of weekends back, a dressage show at Fox Run, near Cambridge. It wasn't our first show, we tried that back in '11 with a disastrous attempt at a short course event, but it was our first successful show and we achieved all our objectives and then some.

The objective was simple: do all the necessary preparations the week before,…

I let my friend R.M. have her first real horse ride on Oakley. It was a thrill and a pleasure for us both. Firstly, because, for years, we've had an ongoing argument:

"I know how to ride."

"No, you don't."

"But I've been on lots of trail…

   Let's be fair, all horses are characters, if we take the time to get to know them. Everyone who spends lots of time will find amusing quirks and peculiarities and will gather a collection of anecdotes. This horse is okay on the road until he sees a painted bicycle symbol. That one doesn't like potted plants. This one loves dogs, that one hates 'em.

   Oakley has,…

I have associated Classical music with riding, ever since my first teacher used to play records during classes to help illustrate and teach rhythm.

What I've found is that horses also enjoy music, particularly classical European music, but really anything that has a good, lively melody; music without too heavy a beat, with a pleasant melody, and with a consistent tone, i.e. no changes between very quiet parts and very loud parts, works well, no matter what genre. Very quiet music…

He didn't refuse to go over an obstacle once yesterday. Most significantly, he went over a new jump of his own accord.

They weren't big jumps, about a meter high, no more, but he went right over them with only one slight hesitation.

I suppose most riders might not find this particularly outstanding, but two years ago it was a life-and-death argument to get over a simple trot-pole. He would explode over it and follow it up with a wild-west show. The arena has a couple of…

My boy was in his first parade in Aurora on Canada Day, and he was awesome.

This is a moment of triumph; the culmination of a year and a half of careful work, of diligently following a detailed, specific  training plan, to acheive a horse that is calm and quiet, yet light and responsive to the aids. Quite the change. He is, indeed, a different horse.…

Four months ago, in the middle of January, I put away my stirrups.

I'm told that the Spanish School in Vienna and the Saumur both have their new riders work without stirrups for a few months, and my coach advised me to do it, so I did.  Took them right off my saddle and hung them up, so I would not have the option. No…

So, after a month of careful desensitizing, he's getting really good at not flinching when something strange comes along, at standing near the scary blue plastic wall (from a Fisher-Price child's toy) that is used as a 'wing' for a jump, even at ignoring tarps that he used to panic about. I noticed that he was much more willing to go over jumps and trot poles and around strange objects. I thought he was just about ready to ride in a parade...…