We’re back up and running at Sprieser Sporthorse North, with some new faces, new paddocks and a new round pen! Read all about it, and if you’re not yet receiving our newsletters in your inbox, click to sign up!
Third Level, Test 3. Ring 2 at the Adequan Global Dressage Festival.
To confirm that the horse demonstrates correct basics, and having begun to develop an uphill balance at Second Level, now demonstrates increased engagement, especially in—
JOHNNY ROAD: HI! Hi hi hi! Omg you guys, we’re at a horse show!! It’s been a few years since I went to a horse show because there was a period of time in which I thought grabbing the bit and running with my head in the air was an appropriate response to being asked for a flying change, and also there was a while where I thought going sideways was pretty stupid. But now I’m a big boy and I’m here and I’m braided and it is SO EXCITING and oh, hey Mom! That was the bell oh boy oh boy oh boy—
Read the rest at The Chronicle of the Horse!
As I’ve said many times before, Danny is the most talented horse I’ve ever had. He just thinks like a Grand Prix horse, partially because I’ve been diligent in training him to think that way, but partially just from nature, the beauty of the successful purpose-bred animal.
He’s agile as anything (sometimes for evil); he can coil and spring like a cat, with this tremendous energy and expression. Right now, with a gun to my head, I could do a pretty presentable job of everything from Grand Prix except the ones, where I can consistently do four or five, and have pulled off as many as nine. He has not yet hit his ninth birthday.
Horses like Danny are terribly fun to ride, and also a terrible temptation. I could lean hard on the ones and probably get 15 by late spring, and put in a whole season at Grand Prix with him. We’d get some good marks.
And it would be a terrible, terrible idea.
Because there are still moments in Danny’s typical work week where he’s a mess, moments where he drops the contact and puts his flexible little neck too round and I have nothing in front of me anymore. There are moments where his back fatigues and so he flings his legs into the air instead. There are moments where he falls on his forehand so hard it’ll take me out of the saddle.
Read the rest at The Chronicle of the Horse!
We are thrilled to have secured the lease of a new property for Sprieser Sporthorse South 2018! This exquisite private farm in Loxahatchee, Florida offers all the amenities – airy stalls, beautiful private turnout, hot and cold wash stalls, excellent footing, and immediate access to a meticulously maintained trail system. We’re accepting reservations for full training stalls at lauren@spriesersporthorse.com. Come train in the dressage capital of the Americas!
My horses and I trundle along down here in Welly-world, making little nuggets of progress, and soaking it all in.
Ella is working beautifully. I love my relationship with this horse—we’re an old married couple now, and as such we have our little spats because we know how to push each other’s buttons, but I love her and she loves me and we know each other so well that we just move like one organism. That isn’t to say that we don’t have things to work on, because there’s always things to work on. But she’s so solid in who she is now, and I’m putting together work that feels like a finished product instead of a work in progress, and that’s a beautiful feeling.
If Ella is at the end of that journey with me, Danny is at the beginning, and it’s terribly exciting. Danny hasn’t always been the most straightforward of creatures (um, understatement of the century), with his twirl-first-ask-questions-later reaction time, his terribly athletic little body that can go every direction at once, and more than a hefty dose of cheek, he’s been an exciting ride.
But he’s working for me, not against me now. And because he was such a goon, he forced me to take my time on the foundation, which means that now, the work comes from a really solid place.
Read the rest at The Chronicle of the Horse!
Somewhere in the world, the 2028 Olympic champion is a foal out in a field. He’s ewe-necked, sickle-hocked, downhill and shaggy, with a club foot and a chunk of mane missing, because his buddy chewed it off.
Somewhere in the world, there’s a young horse that everyone says is too short to make it big. In three years, he’ll be jumping the standards, but right now he’s fat and short and no one is paying him any mind.
Somewhere in the world there’s a 7-year-old who can’t turn right, and a 10-year-old who has not shown the ability to put more than two one-tempis together without losing it, and a 14-year-old who hasn’t yet reached his peak, and all of them will be at the next Olympic Games.
Read the rest at The Chronicle of the Horse!
Read all about our Floridian exploits, some new faces around the farm, and our great upcoming events for the season in our February e-newsletter! Click here to read, and be sure to sign up to receive our newsletters in your inbox!
I like the quiet moments at the shows. I like the mornings especially, when I come to feed Ella and clean her stall before heading out to the farm to work the rest of the horses. I like the stable compound before the masses descend, when it’s just quietly eating and breathing horses and a handful of riders or grooms going about their morning chores.
And while of course I don’t begrudge anyone for having a groom—I have help when I show too, and I don’t have a spouse or kids or a life who demand my attention in the morning—I like seeing Big Time riders doing their own morning or evening chores, laying their hands on their horses legs, checking in with their horse, their partner, their friend.
And I really like it when those Big Time riders stop by to chat, say hello, ask how my ride went. These folks don’t know me from Adam, and I’m nobody, but there’s a few in particular who always make a little time, and I find that lovely and gracious. We hear so often about the ugliness of high performance sport, the drugs and the double commissions and the highest of stakes. Little moments like that give me faith in it all again.
Read the rest at The Chronicle of the Horse!
I was making my list of goals for 2017, and on the list (along with “eat like an adult,” “sleep past 4 am” and “take a cooking class to improve my knife skills”) is to get a 7 or better on the canter half pass zig zag in a CDI Grand Prix. I understand the movement, I teach others how to ride the movement… and I myself, on Ella, can’t seem to ride the movement in the ring. I get the count right, I get 6 or 6.5, and it’s fine, it just can be so much better, and it really needs to be better, to get the scores I want.
I get a lesson on Ella almost every day, and I mentioned this to Michael in the middle of last week. He told me to go show him what I was doing. I did. And then he said, “You’re straightening on step 3, and that’s too early. It’s taking too long. Don’t straighten until step 5. Now go do it again.”
So I did. And it was lovely. And at the end, I stopped, dropped the reins, threw up my hands, and cried out: “I am SO DUMB!”
Read the rest at The Chronicle of the Horse!
We’re pleased to announce TWO weekends of Winter Adult Camp with Assistant Trainers Lisa Hellmer and Natasha Sprengers-Levine. Join us for 3 lessons, overnight stabling, and catered lunch with featured speaker Dr. Chad Davis of Davis Equine, LLC, all for just $150! Enjoy our facilities and meet other riders in the area on January 28-29 and/or February 4-5. Email lisa@spriesersporthorse.com for registration information.