Quintessential Dressage- Functional Training

06/01/2025

Grafton peeps! Come and train with me! All levels welcome, message Livvie (details on flyer)

03/01/2025

‘Perfectionism’
Virtue or trauma response? While praised in our society, perfectionism can be a frustrating loop. Horses can get easily frustrated by perfectionism, which will affect your relationship with your horse.
How to address perfectionism and what to replace it with will be explored in our two day workshop ‘The emotional equestrian’s labyrinth’

20/12/2024

Is your inner critic holding you hostage? Are you struggling to find the balance in the age of modern horsemanship? Are you struggling with Anxiety?
We have an immersive workshop coming up on the Australia Day weekend!
Napoleons , 3352, 1h25 from Melbourne ✈️

10/12/2024

I’m about to pencil in dates for next years clinics, please get in touch if you would like to host a clinic! Those who have been waiting patiently for me to get back to you, I’ll be in touch very soon to sort out dates!

03/12/2024

***SPECIAL***
Jump for joy! QD has a beautiful new location!! We want you to celebrate with us 🥳 and because it’s Xmas
For the month of December we offer half price lessons (one pp) at our new location in Napoleons near Ballarat!
📸 Louise Sedgeman
Me on Lucio , BHF 24

30/11/2024

Update: day full, but please message to go on waiting list 👌Woodend Vic lesson group is meeting again on the 14.12
These lesson days are held monthly in a private indoor arena and spots are very limited 🌺
Please message to apply for a spot 😊

23/11/2024

This is as close as you get to bottling knowledge
Please like the page and support Quintessential Dressage’s new wellness product, H4 Healing Clay

We are so excited to launch our beautiful H4 Healing Clay after months of testing and optimising the recipe in collaboration with horse professionals, farriers and people experienced in natural cosmetics! Our aim was to create a safe but highly effective product that can be used for a multitude of applications. Smelly frog? H4 Clay. Swelling? H4 Clay. Sunburn? H4 Clay. Skin barrier? H4 Clay. Tendon strain? H4 Clay
While this product is sold for ‘animal use only’ , we of course have tested it on humans (would we truly be horse people otherwise?)
Facemask, makes my skin feel like a babies bum! Headache; I slapped some on my sore tight face muscles and felt heat in spots where it drew out ‘something’ and felt much better the next day. A friend used it on her plantar fasciitis and reported it definitely soothed her pain.
I’ve made this paste for years to stop trush under shoeing pads that don’t see daylight for 6 weeks, it never disappoints. It clears up trush and creates a barrier in barefooted horses if applied two to three times a week. It draws out lingering abscesses in two days if made into a poultice. I’ve put it over a wire cut at the hock (over medicated cream) to draw out swelling while protecting from flies (it contains insect deterring oils)
We have only included oils and clays that are 100% safe if ingested and 100% safe for the environment and the bees and waterways 🙌
Current production is in Clunes, a mother daughter team that are super passionate about natural healing and cosmetics, every batch is infused with that love and combined knowledge 🌺🐴

So, we warmly invite you, to discover our restorative and unique H4 Clay! We know you will love it because; it does what it says, feels luxurious and not slimy, it’s all natural and non toxic, it comes in a keep fresh jar, it looks good in your tack room or wrapped as a gift, and it smells DIVINE
➡️ get yours ➡️ via this page (postage available), Happy Horse in Ballarat, Quintessential Dressage, and a small number of select farriers,(pickup only)

23/11/2024

Light contact is easier said than achieved. For horses and riders that have gotten into bad habits, light contact seems a far away dream. For those, I apply the 3 second maximum rule of rein tension. After 3 seconds there needs to be a give, no matter if you got a response or not. You can retake the rein tension again if needed, but only for three seconds. Target is to reduce the seconds and increase the space between the rein tension. Of course there is more to this but the 3 second rule is a good start towards better habits

15/11/2024

We are opening our bookings for wholistic equine rehabilitation, performance optimisation for all horses and active spelling (for race horses)

08/11/2024

Unwanted behaviour? REPLACE don’t suppress!
In a recent conversation with a dog trainer friend the subject of unwanted behaviour came up. It reminded again how horse people focus too much on attempting to turn off unwanted behaviour. One of the golden rules of dog training is, you have to replace the unwanted behaviour with something else. Because NO alone leaves the animal clueless as what to do instead, and if the behaviour becomes habitual, then saying NO is just what you get your owner to do. Examples are; horse shies, rider grabs and gets strong, horse shies anyway, or, horse is aggressive at feed time, owner yells, horse is aggressive at feed time anyway)
Replacing the behaviour is easier than you think, sometimes it takes a bit of creativity. Here’s some examples; Horse shies, Rylana goes around putting chopped carrots on the fence posts in the scary corner, horse gets to go and find them, horse feels involved, gets braver, even starts to initiate going to the scary corner. And; Horse is angry at feed time, Rylana teaches horse to stand on a piece of carpet (or the bow or lie down in one of my cases) OUTSIDE of feed time , and once understood I’ll put the mat next to the feed bin and ask the horse to stand on it. Pretty soon, the horse starts thinking about the ‘replacement behaviour’, eg starts going to the ‘mark’ or starts positioning the body for a bow.
📸 Keely relaxing into some mandible manipulation

29/10/2024

What does horsemanship mean to me?
I grew up in a horse community where there was still very strong ties to the kavallerie. Discipline was expected from the students that wanted to become professionals. But there was also a strong connection to preserve and uphold the cultural values of the history of horsemanship. The head rider of any kings stable had to not only be an exceptional horseman , but also possess excellent human traits and virtues. Horses give us the opportunity to practice those traits, so we can become a better person. All those qualities are required when you train horses. If I see a equine professional that does not strive for that, then, no matter how good they are, to me, they are not truly practicing horsemanship
Here is a (probably incomplete) list of traits

Honesty

Integrity

Courage

Accountability

Responsibility

Tact

Fairness

Self-awareness

Compassion

Patience

Humility

Loyalty

Discipline

Respect

📸 Egon von Neindorff , pub C Ackermann
Hearing Herr von Neindorff speak, makes me sit up straight automatically. But there is also a sense of safety, because the rules never change.

14/10/2024

~The way we treat horses, is a direct reflection of where humanity is at, as whole~

11/10/2024

Most of the resistance that we encounter comes from too much pressure and taking away the horses autonomy over their body.
It is so very important that we let the horse organise his body into a position that they can give us the movement
THE HORSE NEEDS TO ORGANISE HIS BODY!
Push before that has occurred and you will train resistance
📸 Rod and Bo at the Canberra clinic