Are you a therapeutic riding facility? This is a question we get a lot when we tell people we’re a horsey nonprofit. The answer to this is no. While therapeutic riding is awesome, that is not what we do. Therapeutic riding focuses on riders with mental or physical disabilities, sometimes quite significant disabilities, and helps [...]
Learning how to ride is always an interesting journey. Most of the time, people start by jumping into the deep end, getting on a horse and learning the bare bones of communicating with a horse (kick to go, pull on the reins to stop, pull one rein to turn, etc.). Eventually, they'll work on refinement, [...]
Most of the time, when we hear reinforcement and punishment, it gives us ideas of either giving treats or giving lashes with a whip. One seems so positive and wonderful, and the other so awful. But what do these terms actually mean? Reinforcement is somehow rewarding for performing a desired behavior, while punishment is somehow [...]
A lot of times, when people look at different classical trainers, they see or look for trainers from different "schools." But what does this mean? What difference does it make? Well, it can make a lot of difference, depending on your horse and how you ride! A Brief History If you haven't read the post [...]
Most of us have been in a situation around or on horses where our confidence just vanishes. We think about all the bad things that might happen, and our heart rates skyrocket. If we let this fear take over, we find we get less and less comfortable doing what we used to do, and then [...]
So often when we think of a dressage rider, we think of a rider with a "perfect" seat and a horse that can just flow through the Grand Prix. This image, while beautiful, can be discouraging to others. "Oh, I can't do that; I have scoliosis, so my seat will always be crooked." "Oh, my [...]
Self-care. It's almost become a buzzword nowadays, evoking images of soaking in a bathtub with candles and a glass of wine. Most equestrians I know (including myself) sneer at that imagery, instead praising working long hours, dirt under the fingernails, and guzzling gallons of caffeine instead of eating a balanced meal while their horse has [...]
Over the last 30 or so years, there's become something of a rift between classical and competitive dressage. Classical riders often seem to view competitive riders as prioritizing ribbons and scores over their horses, to the point of abuse, and competitive riders often seem to view classical riders as "armchair quarterbacks" that see abuse behind [...]
Claude Debussy once wrote: “The music is not in the notes, but in the silence between them.” This may seem strange coming from a renowned composer of favorites like “Claire de Lune” and “Arabesques,” but it refers to that feeling between the notes, where musician and listener are waiting eagerly for where the music goes [...]
Many of my students know when they ride with me, I'm bound to connect physics, math, and other topics in with the riding lesson (because guess what, it's all connected! Don't worry though; the most math you'll have to do is basic arithmetic, even if we talk about calculus). One of my favorite math principles [...]
