They’ve been threatening it for years, and for 2027, it’s finally happening: nearly all the FEI dressage tests have some form of release of contact in them. Some it’s a “stretchy circle,” where the horse is asked to reach forward and downward. In others it’s an überstreichen, a release of contact asking the horse to stay in balance unsupported by the reins. It’s a response to those who say that dressage horses in modern sport look tense and on the muscle, and it’s been very polarizing.

I am on team “bring on the stretch.” It’s something I do already anyway in my training, so it’s no skin off my back to do so in the ring. I think it’s a great actual test of the training and the quality of the training, not just an empty gesture to the Pajama People of the Internet. And because the Pajama People aren’t entirely wrong, I think that it will help pivot training that, for some, had swung too far in the direction of pizzazz over honest training.

I also wildly reject the argument that adding these movements to the test will suddenly make FEI dressage tests boring. For those of us who care about dressage, adding literally 30ish seconds of stretchy trot will not cause us to lose interest. And for those out there who might catch a second of dressage on ESPN-5 or whatever down river sports channel might possibly be talked into showing it on TV, you think it’s the stretchy circle that’s going to prove a bridge too far for the non-horse viewer?

What I am curious about is to see how it will work, what the judges will actually want to see. Here’s what the FEI’s Dressage Judging Manual says they want to see: “In order to execute the exercise “let the Horse stretch on a long rein” correctly, the Athlete must lengthen the reins and allow the Horse to gradually and confidently stretch its neck forwards and downwards until its mouth reaches more or less a horizontal line corresponding with the point of the shoulder.”

While there is nearly-identical language in the USEF Dressage rulebook, anyone showing Training or First Level knows that the best scores seem to be given to those who, while maintaining an uphill balance, get the nose the closest to the floor. At those levels, the horses and riders are also given a full 20m circle to stretch, whereas in the new FEI tests it’s only a half a 20m circle (and having just played with this for the first time in an actual “let’s ride this like the test pattern” context, oh man, half a 20m circle on a big horse is NOT much time!), so there really isn’t a great deal of time for Dobbin to reach for the dirt and come back up again. But it will be interesting to see what scores well out in the wild.

For the überstreichen, here’s what the FEI manual says they’re looking for: “For two or three Horse lengths the Athlete moves his hands along the crest of the Horse’s neck, giving visibly up the contact. Subsequently the hands are taken back to their original position. The position of the Athlete’s seat remains unchanged. The Horse’s nose line may come slightly in front of the vertical during this exercise. Nevertheless, the horse should not change its posture or release itself from the aids. The tempo remains unchanged.”

I will be interested to see if those who cleverly slide their hands up the neck but maintain contact are allowed to get away with that trick, particularly in the tests where the movement is done allllll the way at the “A” end of the arena.

When all is said and done, I’m excited to ride these new test and demonstrate all the things I’ve always worked on with my horses anyway – relaxation, harmony, and self-carriage. I’m just going to do so no earlier than February, so that I can watch and learn from the sacrificial lambs who do so in January!

Hi. It’s been a minute.

There’s a million reasons. This summer – this whole year really, but especially this summer – has been one mess after another, some small, some seismic. I’ve been BUSY: putting out fires, coming up with solutions, traveling all over to teach. I’ve been putting my limited spare time into fitness and into trying to be a partner and a friend and a dog mom more than being a writer. And ultimately, social media has presented me with two problems. First, a shrinking attention span means that most people will glance at the photo for this blog and go no further. And second, the comments sections are increasingly horrible places to be, which makes me want to put my life and thoughts out there much, much less.

So let me catch you up. The horses are fine. I own the most horses I’ve ever owned in my life, actually, and half of them are chestnut mares, so that’s something. I’ve come into owning a tremendously wonderful older schoolmistress who’s been in my life for quite a long time, and whose owners are getting out of horses, so I’ll see her leased out within my program to those looking to learn, before letting her enjoy a richly deserved retirement.

My four year old, Gogo (Total Gold, US-bred, Total Hope-Zack) arrived from her breeders in Oregon this Spring, promptly tried to die of shipping fever, mercifully didn’t try very hard to do so but did get problematically thin in the process, and took several months to decompress and gain condition enough to begin her employment as a dressage horse. She’s being backed thoughtfully and beautifully by my wonderful friend Jessica Fay, and we’ll take her to Florida and start the process of becoming a useful citizen.

Five year old Vera (Le Fer, Iron-Don Schufro) spent the winter in Virginia, got going again in the Spring, went to a horse show, and mostly comported herself with dignity. I took over the ride and was just starting to have a proper load of fun when she sprouted a massive sarcoid, and I took the time to have it removed, resulting in a few weeks’ setback. Since she’s already, air quotes, “behind” (because it’s not like there’s an actual schedule for these creatures), the loss of time really means nothing, and I’ll take her to some shows in Florida and dither around at First Level and keep plugging away.

Seven year old OJ (Orijinal JP, US-bred, Hennessy-Wynton) took a minute to transition the flying changes from more flying to more changing, and I feel like I really started to own them just in time for our show season to largely end in July. So we spent our summer starting to think about putting those changes in weirder places and in increasing frequency, and learning to piaffe, and generally being a Very Good Boy who isn’t really any particular level, which is great because I got to keep the thousands of dollars I would otherwise spend showing him in my pocket.

Which brings me to the big boys. Clearwater Farm Partners’ 8-year-old Beaker (Tjornelys Solution, Revolution-Rubin) had a banging winter where he showed Fourth Level and PSG and got all sorts of nice scores, and it left me with a conundrum: to try for the Developing Prix St. Georges Championships at Festival, or to park him at home and train and save money? I went to the Virginia CDI to try him in a non-qualifying version of that test, in front of the big mean international panel, and they all said he was very nice, but then I looked at gas prices and decided that it wasn’t worth it to schlep all the way to Illinois and take a week of my life to probably place 5th. Unfortunately for me, it seems like the overwhelming majority of people on horses that age made the same decision, so the class was super small, and now I have regrets. But that’s baseball, so on we trodge towards the Regional Championships and hopefully USDF Finals and whatever happens, happens. He also spent his summer working on the piaffe and passage to great success, and wins the award for Biggest Gains of the summer, so our time was very well-spent.

Last but certainly not least, the one everyone asks me about: The Elvis Syndicate’s 10-year-old Cadeau (St. Schufro-Richman), who was Reserve National Small Tour Champion last year, and won the Carol Lavell Development Prize. As these things tend to go, when one wins too many things in a year, one has to karmically pay the piper the following year and suffer a little bit. And suffer we have, mercifully on stupid things. The tummy problem. The shoe hiccup. Losing so much time (and, therefore, muscle) dithering around with those things that the saddle stopped fitting. The trailer problem, where in spite of dropping huge dollars on a new rig basically just for him, and taking a ton of time and outside expertise, we’ve concluded he really hates traveling alone, which makes getting lessons kind of a logistical nightmare. The reality of the cavern between the Small Tour and Large Tour in which every hole you thought you’d filled needs a repatching. And an ongoing conversation about how hard one-tempis are. Finally our $h*t came together in July, and we’ve been on a good roll since then.

Just as I felt the horses were leveling out, more chaos happened in July. My wonderful longtime assistant trainer and dear friend received the opportunity of a lifetime to work in Europe. I suddenly was running the entire business by myself, while also trying to interview and hire for the position, and all as I was entering a 5-consecutive-week period of being on the road teaching clinics. It took me too long to do what I should have done all along and promote-from-within my wonderful working student Stephani to the role, only to have her help a trailer-in client load her horse and get kicked for her trouble, earning her two nights in the ICU with a lacerated liver and 6 weeks off with fractured ribs. And somewhere in the middle, we faced the reality of a very different Florida season, with our numbers considerably off from years past.

It was at this point I saged the barn.

So it’s been a summer of basically abject chaos, all the time, and I’m trying not to bemoan what feels like a lack of progress in my own riding. All the comings and goings and hiccups meant that I really haven’t gotten any coaching since the Spring. I had a few plans for things I wanted to tackle this year, and everything’s gone belly up. There have certainly been moments of great, great frustration. And all of this amid the backdrop of a world and an economy that’s hard to be optimistic about.

Here’s the thing though: through it all, it’s never been hard to find things to keep my chin up.

Because the team I have is UNREAL. There has not been a single second where anyone has looked at me and said, “we can’t handle this.” Every step of the way, clients and friends have leapt in, largely unasked, to help. We’ve had fantastic luck with part-time help who *knocks wood* has not only shown up and done the job, but been a happy, smiling ray of sunshine along the way. We’ve brought some new faces into the barn who fit right in to our phenomenal culture, people who are ambitious and serious about improvement, but also a joy to have around. And whenever I go looking for it, there’s a person or a thing that gives me a glimmer of joy. They’re never, ever hard to find.

This is a long update on a new-ish platform, and if you’ve made it this far, hello, and thanks. You’re a part of that amazing team that lifts me up when I’m feeling fried, and I’m grateful for you. Bear with me as I see if updating here is something I can sustain in my life!