We’ve got four awesome upcoming clinics, including bit fitting and groundwork for dressage riders, that you won’t want to miss! Read all about it in our July e-newsletter, and be sure to subscribe if you want our news directly to your inbox.
Below are ride times for our July 18-19 clinic with US Olympian Michael Barisone. Sign up to audit at EventClinics.com!
WEDNESDAY
10:45 Lisa Hellmer & Aniko, 11 yr Oldenburg Gelding, Prix St. Georges
11:30 Lauren Sprieser & Gretzky RV, 7 yr KWPN Gelding by Johnson, Third Level
12:15 Rhonda Van Lowe & Escritor HGF, 5 yr PRE Gelding, Training Level
1 Lunch
1:30 Julia McElligott & Finley Nord, 8 yr Danish Gelding by Furst Rosseau, Third Level
2:15 Jean Loonam & Red Hot Chili Pepper, 11 yr Hanoverian Gelding, Third Level
3 Hannah McSween & Montesol, 13 yr Lusitano Gelding, Intermediate I
3:45 Lauren Sprieser & Helio, 7 yr Lusitano Gelding by Dom HI, Third Level
4:30 Barbara Burk & De L’Amour, 12 yr Oldenburg Mare by Diamonit, First Level
5:15 Jennifer Heck & Rudy, 17 yr Hanoverian Gelding by Rotspon, Fourth Level
THURSDAY
7:30 Jean Loonam & Red Hot Chili Pepper, 11 yr Hanoverian Gelding, Third Level
8:15 Lauren Sprieser & Ellington, 4 yr Westfalen Gelding by Everdale, Training Level
9 Lisa Hellmer & Aniko, 11 yr Oldenburg Gelding, Prix St. Georges
9:45 Lauren Sprieser & Gretzky RV, 7 yr KWPN Gelding by Johnson, Third Level
10:30 Barbara Burk & De L’Amour, 12 yr Oldenburg Mare by Diamonit, First Level
11:15 Lauren Sprieser & Helio, 7 yr Lusitano Gelding by Dom HI, Third Level
12 Lunch
12:30 Julia McElligott & Finley Nord, 8 yr Danish Gelding by Furst Rosseau, Third Level
1:15 Jennifer Heck & Rudy, 17 yr Hanoverian Gelding by Rotspon, Fourth Level
While show season is winding down, our educational events are just heating up! Join us in July and August for these great opportunities to learn
July 18-19 and August 29-30: Dressage Clinics with US Olympian Michael Barisone. Michael joins us monthly for two days of fun and focused world-class training, with horses from green to FEI. EventClinics.com has the info for July and for August.
July 26-27: Saddle fitting appointments with Advanced Saddle Fit‘s Colleen Meyer. If you’re in the market for a new dressage, jump or AP saddle, or if you’d like your fit evaluated by the industry’s best, email Lauren to secure an appointment.
August 5: A clinic with Beth Haist of The Horse Of Course on bits and bit fitting. Beth has decades of experience fitting horses from the grassroots to the international Grand Prix ring. She’ll be joining us for a lecture on fit and effectiveness, and then be available for private consultations with your horse. Join us for just $20 for a fantastic education! Sign up on EventClinics.com.
August 18: Groundwork for Riders with USDF Bronze Medalist Sarah Drew. Sarah teaches a fantastic and clear way to help form a better partnership with your horse on the ground that transfers over to your rides. Our students AND trainers love what Sarah has taught us, and we’re delighted to have her back! Go to EventClinics.com to sign up.
Hope to see you on the farm!
Summer has hit us like a freight train, with heat indexes over 100* and high humidity here in Virginia. Summer is long and unrelenting here in the South, so it’s acclimate or don’t ride. Of course on the really hot days we use good sense and will adjust our riding plan accordingly, but my team and I have a few tricks up our sleeves to keep our horses—and ourselves!—happy and healthy when the weather gets hot.
Read the rest at The Chronicle of the Horse!
We’ve come, seen and won some stuff! And we’ve also had some great events both on and off the farm, and made a fantastic trip to The Netherlands. Read all about it and more at our June e-newsletter, and if you don’t receive our news directly in your inbox, sign up!
The Mayo Clinic is one of the finest hospitals in the world and uses a creative approach to patient care: each patient has a team of specialists to treat not only the patient’s primary condition but also to use diet, exercise, wellness, alternative therapies and more together to support a patient’s whole health. Each patient has a team, and that team sees a problem through their own unique lens.
When Puck arrived in my life, he twisted his neck a bit in the bend to the right. And over the last year, I’ve made my own Mayo Clinic approach to solving it.
Read more at The Chronicle of the Horse!
It’s been more than 500 entries and almost nine years since I started this blog. I think I had about 12 readers in the beginning; the last one logged more than 150,000 views in just a few days. That is AMAZING. I am so touched!
But that means I’m getting lots of new readers, so I thought I’d take the opportunity to introduce myself again. Hi! I’m Lauren. My last name is spelled SprIEser, and pronounced SPRY-zer. I’m a Libra, which allegedly means I’m well balanced, which is hilarious. And I’m a September Libra, which is apparently a thing, though I have no idea what it means.
I grew up outside Chicago to non-horsey parents, and while I’d ridden horses at summer camp and on family trips, I got serious about it at age 11, after a football accident left me with a broken femur. My football and figure skating careers over (lol), I started taking dressage lessons. As a kid I’d ride my bike from home to the public library, where I had a job putting covers on books, then pedal to the barn for my lessons, and then head home.
The book thing stuck too, because I went to college in New York to pursue a degree in Writing And Reading Stuff. While there I had the great joy of riding with Lendon Gray, going to three NAYRCs, and taking a semester to work in Germany with the late George Theodorescu. I graduated and taught freelance for a bit, then was a working student for Carol Lavell and Pam Goodrich before moving to northern Virginia to run my own facility about 50 miles west of Washington, D.C., in the heart of Horse Country.
Read the rest at The Chronicle of the Horse!
Parents, let your daughters grow up to be horse girls.
Let them learn early the joy of dirt under their fingernails and the responsibility of cleaning tack or sweeping aisles. Let them learn that if they don’t do the chores, or if they don’t keep their grades up, they can’t go ride. Let them struggle it out with lesson horses that aren’t very skilled, only to then earn their way to either a horse that is kind and fun to ride, or a horse that is just a big enough monster to keep them humble, and to maim them just a little, but not permanently damage them. Whichever one they start with, make sure it’s followed by the other.
Parents, let your daughters go to horse shows. Let them learn to deal with nerves, with crowds, with going from hearing their coach in their ear every step to being totally alone. Let them learn to plan ahead, or let them forget their breeches or hairnet or test, and don’t save them, so they learn to take some ownership and not do it again.
Let them set goals and reach them. Let them set goals and fail miserably. Let them learn that, if they work incredibly hard, practice like hell, ride the best quality horse they can and take impeccable care of him, they’re sometimes going to get beat by someone with 10 times the money and one tenth the drive.
Read the rest at The Chronicle of the Horse!
Show season is here! And we’re ready, with our first round of results and with some awesome educational opportunities including saddle fit, bit fit and Michael Barisone. Read all about it in our April e-newsletter, and be sure to sign up to receive our monthly report in your inbox!
UPDATE 4/23 – Below is the schedule for our April 25-26 clinic with Michael Barisone. Sign up for auditing at EventClinics.com!
WEDNESDAY
11:30 Rhonda Van Lowe & Escritor HGF, 5 yr PRE Gelding, Training Level
12:15 Lee Phaup & Rainy, 15 yr Hanoverian Gelding by Rosenthal, Prix St. Georges
1:00 Hannah McSween & Avatar, 12 yr Oldenburg Gelding by Art Deco, Third Level
1:45 Judy Sprieser & Stratocaster, 12 yr Oldenburg Gelding by Sir Donnerhall, Fourth Level
2:30 Jodie Harney & Mia MC, 9 yr PRE Mare by Venidero MC, Second Level
3:15 Lauren Sprieser & Gretzky RV, 7 yr KWPN Gelding by Johnson, Second Level
4:00 Beverley Thomas & Fiero, 11 yr Oldenburg Gelding by Fidertanz, Third Level
4:45 Lauren Fisher & Eureka BBR, 9 yr KWPN Mare by Sir Sinclair, Third Level
5:30 Liza Broadbent & Victorious, 16 yr KWPN Gelding by Patijn, Grand Prix
THURSDAY
7:30 Liza Broadbent & Victorious, 16 yr KWPN Gelding by Patijn, Grand Prix
8:15 Lee Phaup & Rainy, 15 yr Hanoverian Gelding by Rosenthal, Prix St. Georges
9:00 Lauren Sprieser & Gretzky RV, 7 yr KWPN Gelding by Johnson, Second Level
9:45 Judy Sprieser & Helio HI, 7 yr Lusitano Gelding by Dom HI, First Level
10:30 Beverley Thomas & Fiero, 11 yr Oldenburg Gelding by Fidertanz, Third Level
11:15 Lauren Sprieser & Ellington, 4 yr Westfalen Gelding by Everdale, Training Level
12:00 Lunch
12:30 Jodie Harney & Mia MC, 9 yr PRE Mare by Venidero MC, Second Level
1:15 Stacy Gallagher & Eva, 9 yr Fjord Mare, Second Level