Getting To Know You, Getting To Know All About You
I tell my students it takes a year to get to know a new horse. Some behave differently in response to the weather, so taking all four seasons to get to know them is important, plus it just takes a year to accumulate enough experiences on and off the property to learn who they are and how they think. But I’m learning a bit about Puck already.
There are pros and cons to the green 6-year-old. There are things about him that are very mature, including his body, which is nice; I don’t have to worry as much about overtaxing him with introducing collection as a concept, something I always fret about with the terribly athletic 4- and 5-year-olds.
Read the rest at The Chronicle of the Horse!
Olympians? Check! Saddle fittings? Check! Bronze Medals? Check and check! And blue ribbons? Always a check! Check… our our June e-newsletter, and sign up to have it delivered directly to your inbox, by clicking here!
Join us July 8-9 for a clinic with the brilliant and hilarious Michael Barisone. A member of the 2008 US Olympic Dressage Team and coach for the 2016 Bronze Medal winning Olympic Dressage Team and 2012 Olympic Eventing Team, Michael will coach professional, Jr/YR and amateur riders from green to Grand Prix.
We’ve had wonderful back-to-back weekends at Morven Park and HITS Culpeper, and a full report is to come, but congratulations are due to Assistant Trainer Lauren Fisher on completing her USDF Bronze Medal! Huge thanks to Beverley Thomas and her inimitable Fiero for helping Lauren achieve her final scores! Photo by TLP Equine.
Meet Gretzky! Gretzky RV is a 2011 KWPN Gelding, Johnson-Elmshorn, and he’s the latest addition to Lauren’s show string. He’ll be Puck in the stable, and with his quick hind leg and bold markings, he’ll sure to be noticed in the showring. We’re excited to see him arrive from Holland next week! And thank you to the team at 
I can sit and watch any horse sport done well. I love horses (news flash!), but more than that, I love dressage. And because I’m a huge nerd, I love seeing how dressage plays a role in all the other sports, that the basic tenants of training that I preach to my students apply to other disciplines.
We had a great outing to Lexington Spring Dressage! Our small but plucky force had some great educational rides, and ate SO MUCH good Mexican food. Onto Morven Park next month!
We had a triumphant first recognized outing to CDCTA’s Spring show at Morven Park. Huge congratulations to Torrey Wilkinson for finishing her USDF Gold Medal, and to Kristin Hickey and Becky Lee for Zarco’s Second Level High Score! We’ve also got an upcoming weekend with Michael Barisone, and fun news about summer training and lessons. Read the rest 
A while back I had a client enter a show at a big level, her debut at that level, and her first show after a long competitive gap. Her horse is an amazing creature, a phenomenal athlete with an equally incredible mind, who’s also had a long history of health issues, including trying very hard to die on her twice, fortunately to no avail. She’s done the lion’s share of the training herself, and he’d spent a month with me to finish up one last piece of the test. Was she ready to do this level? Mostly. Was it going to be incredible? Certainly not.
Years ago when he was a wee thing, Midge learned the flying changes fairly quickly, and rapidly got comfortable with the fours, threes and twos. But the ones eluded us for almost a year. Midge, with his combination of crazy Dutch Harness Horse knees and boundless enthusiasm, could get through a few, but soon enough he’d be launching himself with reckless abandon in about 37 directions at once, and strong and brave and long-legged thing that I am, I couldn’t hold him together.