When I was a kid I started riding at a dressage school that kept all the horses in stalls most of the time. They’d be let out in the arena for about two to three hours in the morning and then turned back in, and then the staff would tack Read more…
“When I was a working barn rat kid, I just wanted to be around horses. But over time I became aware of another level of barn life. I saw the fancy girls on their imported horses riding in shows. They seemed so elegant, so smooth, so refined. After that just Read more…
“I think it’s a hard thing to overcome – the anxiety and the comparing and the general awkwardness of being a beginner. I do not believe anyone is too old to start riding. At the last barn I was at I met a 55 year old woman who had just Read more…
“Equestrians must be the most optimistic people in the world. Every time we enter the competition arena, we have a chance to achieve perfection. But we so rarely actually do it. At least we seldom think we do. There’s always some mistake, some reason to beat ourselves up. But we Read more…
Every day I fight the urge to take short cuts with my horses. But I get it. I totally get why it happens. Success is more than a business model, it’s an addiction. We’re no different from any other artist in that regard. And we are artists. Like singers or Read more…
It was all going so well until it wasn’t. The wheels just fell off. We went from jumping small grids to me not even being able to safely lead him. There was pain involved. Apparently a lot of it. The crazy thing is he never really showed anysigns. No limping, Read more…
“He really was a piece of cake that way, he naturally carried himself in a frame and he loved to show off. I would rarely ride him at home between competitions. I’d turn him out and work him on the long lines with his surcingle to keep him fit. Arabs Read more…
“If your discipline of choice involves jumping you’ve done it. We all have. The question is why do we do it? That pick, pick, pick which causes us to take away, when what we should do is gallop on. That indecisiveness out of the corner, the one that inevitably Read more…
(2/2) “So I talked to her. She asked: what do you want to work on today? And I said: a motivation problem. She asked what was wrong. I explained: my horse doesn’t like the work anymore and now I don’t like it anymore. I don’t feel motivated to continue this Read more…
(1/2) “I have a history of asking too much of myself and my horse. I don’t do it intentionally; I just have a hard time not pushing the boundaries when I’m working on something. I never feel like I’m good enough, that what I’m working on is good enough. I’m Read more…