Dressage: A Relaxed and Forward Ride.

The foundation of Dressage for the rider/horse is rhythm. I define that as a balanced combination of relaxation and forward. It sounds deceptively simple. A rider/horse can not sacrifice forward for relaxation, or relaxation for forward. The art of riding is in negotiating the balance of the two in both the rider and the horse. … Read more

Equine Gastric Ulcers… and Sage.

I’ll call her Sage. Sage was a thoroughbred mare with classic elegance. A solid bay with a long neck and pointy withers. She was very feminine, not too tall, but she was proud. That’s who she was born to be -but what she looked like was very different. She was in a small stall the … Read more

A Different Kind of Runaway.

It has been a scary week in our horse world. Everyone is aware by now that there is an outbreak of EHV-1, a potentially deadly virus. Get educated and understand bio-secure recommendations. Use the internet to its full and best potential by getting the actual facts as given by actual professionals, like veterinary colleges or … Read more

A Lesson Horse is Born….

… and Grace gives herself a promotion. Dressage borrows lots of language from ballet -after all, we are the dancers of the horse world. Pas de Trois is a dance of three. I have commandeered that phrase to describe riding lessons as a conversational dance between horse, rider and instructor. All three participants have to … Read more