Photo by SusanJStickle.com.

Lauren wrote a blog for NoelleFloyd.com on how to put your trainer out of a job… for the best reasons! Click here to read it (and shorten your reins already!).

Serious riders, particularly those of us riding either older horses or horses we hope to get to a Big Level and then enjoy at that level for many years, spend a lot of time thinking about the fine balance between working our horses hard enough to achieve fitness and strength to minimize the risk of injury and not working them so hard that they get hurt along the way. And all of us, at every level, should spend some time thinking about keeping our horses’ minds fresh so they enjoy the work and can approach it with focus and energy without fizzling out.

But as a professional rider, I stink at those two balancing acts for myself. I, and so many of my professional rider friends, will push through the pain of injury because we have to keep going, or are too stubborn/poor/busy to address problems when they’re small. I know I should be doing things like yoga and stretching to keep my back limber, but that would require slowing my mind for five minutes, which is something I have such a terribly hard time doing. And along those lines, the constant fear of any self-employed person is where the next paycheck is going to come from, so I hustle to the point of exhaustion and am maybe operating at par when it comes to taking time to do fun things and have a life outside of the barn, but I’m certainly not exceeding the norm.

I spent my 20s working myself to the bone, ignoring aches and pains, and having a  crappy work-life balance. It took a combination of things—the incredible personal and professional disasters of 2017 and 2018, and this recent back scare—to get me thinking about taking care of myself, both in mind and body. To say that I’m the poster girl for self-care would be a grand overstatement, as I still think that a) resting, and b) feeling my feelings, are both stupid, and I don’t have time for that nonsense. But I’m getting at least a little bit better at it. Here are a few of the things in my tool kit.

Read the rest at The Chronicle of the Horse!

Remember how I wrote last time about Swagger, and how he was perfect, and I was having to restrain myself from pressing on too hard? Well, I came home from three days of teaching a clinic in Florida to a horse that was about 2 inches taller behind, with absolutely no ability to lift his back and reach for the bit at the trot, and who is only capable of cantering at about 100 miles an hour while ripping my arms out.

So … life with young horses comes atcha fast, Ferris Bueller.

There was no real show plan for Swagger this year anyway, but were I trying for something, much less something of significance like a Young Horse Championship, it would be like threading a very fine needle over and over again, trying to keep him fit enough to do the work, happy enough in the work, and consistent within the work at multiple qualifying shows over a multiple-week, if not multiple-month, period of time. It feels like hitting a moving target.

Read the rest at The Chronicle of the Horse!

My experience with young horses has been almost exclusively with two kinds. The first are ones with very good characters who weren’t international quality. As they’ve been owned and ridden by amateurs, that’s been by design. They were bought so that their owners could ride them as they developed up the levels, so the trade-off—less power, better rideability—was absolutely what they needed.

The second kind has been wildly talented, pig-headed doofuses, ranging from the pleasant enough, but tight and bananas, to angry, hostile little turkeys who spent most of their young energy telling me to stuff it. The Midges, Fenders and Pucks of the world go through their younger years being unrideable jerks, and eventually, through diligence, basic work and a boatload of patience, they emerge on the other side of their adolescence ready to take pressure and learn the big work. They’re armed with a ton of coping skills at that point and are a hell of a lot of fun to ride.

I knew that there were creatures out there who were both talented and uncomplicated, but I’d never met one. Until I met Swagger. And I’m coming to appreciate the dirtbag teenagers. Having one with crazy gaits and an eagerness to please at 5 years old is freaking me out because I’m really feeling the weight of the responsibility to not push too hard, too fast.

Read the rest at The Chronicle of the Horse! And if you love reading my thoughts on young horses and the development of the equine athlete, join the Red White and Blue (Ribbon) Club! You’ll get exclusive content, and the behind-the-scenes peek, at the bringing up of an American-bred filly in my program!

And just like that, I’m home from Florida. The last month was a blur, with a flotilla of clients showing, and all at big levels. Liza and Hannah earned their Intermediaire scores for their gold medals, and they are right on the brink of Grand Prix. Julia, who six months ago went to her first recognized dressage show ever, did her first FEI tests, earning a very presentable mark in her first Young Riders qualifier. And my awesome mom did her first Prix St. Georges tests too!

Elvis has been fantastic and worked really hard. I never quite had the test I wanted, but I managed to bungle it a little differently every time, which has to count for something. Through my floundering around, including my first time going off course in a decade, Elvis himself remained totally steadfast, a confident and energetic dance partner who is easy to show both in and out of the tack, because he’s exactly the same as he is at home. I’ve never had a horse so uncomplicated that was also as talented as he is; my previous mega-talents have all been rank at this age, so Elvis is a refreshing break in that trend!

Read the rest at The Chronicle of the Horse!