“No matter how fast your fingers are at opening and closing — holding and releasing tension — your elbows are nearly always faster and more fluid.” (more…)
“I expect that when asked, my horses would ride towards what they should run away from. The gallop-off-into-the-sunset would be a last resort, albeit a fantastically swift one.” (more…)
“He looked at one puddle-fence combination, but otherwise clicked around his courses, did everything asked and hung out like a seasoned gentleman all day. All it took was some trust under saddle and a better, more tailored-to-the-horse turnout situation.” (more…)
“I think these often-comical personalities exist in each of these horses, but there actually is a recipe to allowing it to flourish: Embrace the chaos but have clear boundaries.” (more…)
“In riding, whether flatting, jumping, executing a dressage test, or smartly blasting around cross country, we all think about rhythm and pace. While we have a lot of terms to get at the quality of a round, I think the idea of ‘flow’ is due an equine resurgence.” (more…)
“The me who raced my redheaded Appendix down dirt roads and knew every stretch of potentially hundreds of miles of local trails, never gave one lick about whether or not he stayed obedient or balanced through his transition to canter. Turns out, I was missing out.”
“… to exclude the good ones because they are a touch too short seems silly and often tells me more about the newness of the buyer to this game than about their ability and desire.” (more…)
“In contrast, when one slows one’s body down, the slow translates from the rider to the horse; steady, soft and balanced in the tack encourages quiet and responsive below the saddle.” (more…)
“Correcting head tilts, therefore, comes in at the point where the horse is pushing from behind and elevating their shoulder (even if they can’t hold this strong position for too long). Then you can start to ask them to straighten out. Easier said than done, of course.” (more…)
“I know that as a good horse gains the hope and the expectations that sneak in, they often get fast tracked. He’ll only go BN this spring if he is ready for it. And I’m having to be careful of my enthusiasm for the seemingly quite talented and sweet redhead.” (more…)
Anyone who has ever had a horse — Thoroughbred or not! — has likely said, “This horse is going to drive me to drink.” For those of you who do imbibe, this week’s Thoroughbred Logic offers a sometimes quite necessary barn hack (and let’s be honest, it’ll work for your soda cans, too). (more…)
“…perhaps one of the absolutely most important things to riding young, green, anxious or slightly nutty horses is that you cannot close all the doors at once — you must in fact leave at least one open and give them somewhere to go, lest they exit through a closed window or punch through the ceiling.” (more…)
“Overall, stall rest sucks. But, with patience and a little tactful creativity, most horses make it out and eventually back to the fields and competitions.” (more…)
This week’s Thoroughbred Logic is the first part of a series on injury rehab. Today’s article takes a look at the options when it comes to post-injury confinement. (more…)
“I’m going to chalk 2022 up to being a transitional year – one where the building and the progress is the proverbial two-steps forward one — or 14 — steps back.”
“[T]he biggest determining factor of getting around a course successfully is having the horse in front of the leg, and thereby having the quality of canter to indeed tackle all of the obstacles with both power and balance.” (more…)
“[H]ere’s hoping the breaks that you take are those you choose — with an eye to growth and a bit of a reset before the sun comes back out and the next season sneaks up and kicks off.” (more…)
“The same goes for jumping … There’s a plan to the fence and after the fence. Having a plan that is responsive but not reactive makes the difference between a ride that gets to all the fences … and a ride that has refusals and run-outs.” (more…)
“So according to me (from the point of view of an Eventer making sweeping statements), here’s a ‘where to skimp, where to focus’ on the ins-and-outs of getting started and getting on regarding tack.” (more…)
“… if that barefoot, forage-only Thoroughbred needs shoes as the ground gets harder, or needs grain to help supplement their hay and grazing, I want to make sure mine are in a position where the owner will simply run to the feed store or call their talented farrier and make sure they get what they need.” (more…)
“Those who own Thoroughbreds at some point or another, struggle with their feet, their condition, their brains, and their post-track bodies. But somehow, with this breed, the struggle is collective… communal.”
“Trust and patience help transform the off-track horses that come here into quiet and manageable creatures on the ground, even if some have some pretty sh*t… errr…I mean… pretty “complicated” tendencies when they arrive.” (more…)
“There’s always more to do, always more ways to do it. But, even if you’re like me and you hate lunging, getting the horses through this basic set of skills is worth it in the long run.” (more…)
