The Equestrienne

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Cowra, NSW
The Equestrienne

Taking a holistic approach to aligning horse and rider in body and mind.

27/01/2025

How special does a horse have to be to loosen off the bailing twine and clip their face to a haybag? Sadly the haybag has not survived this ordeal, may it rest in peices.

26/01/2025

Early start to load up and head home, hopefully beat the worst of the heat. 🥵🥵

26/01/2025

“Out of all the horses I’ve helped you with this one is the nicest”. A huge vote of confidence I really needed. I’ve wavered a lot with Kat, good days are often followed by days where I end up thinking who am I to buy an unstarted warmblood. Well meaning comments often get to me, poking and prodding the parts tainted with self doubt.

Kat is the fourth horse in 9 years who has come with me to clinics. Arwen, Friday, Eowyn and Kat. Maybe its because I’ve learnt more. Maybe I’ve found myself a horse with less issues. Maybe she has a better temperament or her conformation supports the job I am asking for her. Think its a combination of all of the above, none of which are purely by chance. I carry each lesson I’ve learnt forward even the mistakes. The horses I wish I hadn’t started. The horses who were too much. Those I kept going with for far too long.

When Friday and I were here, starting our horsemanship clinics her behaviour was entirely different. She bucked and reared and spun and wouldn’t stop. She was a hot mess. A few years later she is entirely different. I carry this journey with me now giving me hope and faith that I can work this out. I’ve done it before with worse, so with time, patience and my mentors I can do it all again.

25/01/2025

Exhausted after a huge day and on my way to bed but some massive achievements with today adding to our bank of training rather than withdrawing. Kat had some anxiety we were able to work through before Warwick helped me to get her more responsive.

Today showed my journey has deepened again and its become more about how they do things and how they feel when they do. As usual for now I felt a bit like I am a step behind the horse, today showing I definitely need to keep working on my fluidity in training to be quicker to adapt to whats in front of me but we are definitely seeing change.

24/01/2025

Today Kat and I made the trek down to Tominbuck Victoria for a clinic with Warwick Schiller. It was an epic journey made longer by my complete lack of preparation once again being out for most of the week in the lead up to it.

Over the years I have become used to being the furthest traveled person for most of these clinics and somewhere on the Hume highway my mind wandered to ask myself why. Why do I keep doing such long journeys, often feeling under prepared and at such a great cost of resources?

While my mind wandered again and I never really did answer myself, my musings became clear that I keep coming back because these clinics have fundamentally changed me. They have changed how I view horses. Changed my relationship with my horses and myself. So much so horsemanship clinics are almost a right of passage for all my performance horses. There’s just something in helping a horse find relaxation in movement within the pressure of being away from home, among other unknown horses while people watch your every move.

I’m somewhat nervous and apprehensive about what the days to come will bring. I put Kat out for a break after Equitana and somewhere between the heat and life happenings lost all motivation and capacity for the greener members of the herd. But we are here, just as we are and I have no doubt that what ever follows will be just what we need.

20/01/2025

Its been a tough end to 2024 and an equally tough start to 2025. Sick and heartbroken I’ve spent some time away and some time reflecting on what I’d like to invest my time and energy in and what I’d like to let go of and spend less time and resources on.

A lot of what I have done in the past has been driven by the desire to share what I have learnt, a more harmonious peaceful path. A path that can feel good to both horse and rider. I felt shaken. My confidence and motivation took a big hit and its been a hard road to find my way recently. Starting two more horses has also been looming a bit over my head and I just haven’t had the capacity.

Slowly things are beginning to change again. Light is beginning to peak between the dark clouds that have been hanging around. What you focus on you attract more of, so for now I am chasing the light. The little peaks of joy and glimmerings that are present in my day. The little rush of endorphins after pilates. The pure look of delight on Dobby’s face as he lays purring like a chainsaw in my lap. The pride in creating an artwork, even on crappy paper that peels with crappy cheap pencils. The love for the small chestnut pony, an underdog in a world of performance horses and above all things the knowledge that if I can survive this, if I can find joy in this, I have the resilience and grit to do anything.

18/11/2024

First horses on site. Last to leave.

That’s a wrap on EQUITANA Australia 2024. Looking forward to being home and I have no doubt the girls will be too. Its been a big week and a half but overall its been another fabulous experience for us all.

17/11/2024

Today the girls got a bit of love from Matt Horsehelp in his demo which incorporated bodywork techniques to assist the horses feeling comfortable for trimming and shoeing.

16/11/2024

What a place to hang out! 🤩

16/11/2024

Thrilled! 🤩

Its one thing to take your horse to Equitana as a first outing. Its another thing to give your horse to another trainer who hasn’t touched her for 6 months after only a week’s training.

Great to see Kat and Adam put each other through their paces today. Kat could not have handled herself better. If I have learnt anything from watching the Way of the Horse, its time to get a little help and get out of my own head.

Hugely thankful to Adam Sutton Allround Horsemanship for showing me what I couldn’t quite see today. There’s something really special here.

16/11/2024

We are on our way to Adam Sutton Allround Horsemanship’s demo at EQUITANA Australia.

16/11/2024

Another great lesson on adjustability and balance from Chloe Phillips-Harris: Adventurer.

The more I listen to people, the more I hear the same things in different words. Energy and balance. The principles of training transcend discipline.

15/11/2024

Super proud of the girls. Its been a massive lesson in resilience for Kat, who in 6 months hasn’t been anywhere to then land herself in the midst of Equitana. Its building resilience for me too.

The instinct is to protect those we love from discomfort including our horses but if we try to save them from the discomfort entirely their world gets smaller and their capacity to handle the pressure of life in a human world diminishes.

Not being completely out of herself and completely overwhelmed I gave her the chance to settle helping her where I could. Its the clarity and consistency that come with using tools to get through experiences like this over time which build trust and capacity in the partnership.

15/11/2024

Fantastic lesson from Will Rogers in the dressage masterclass helping the 4 year old relax in the environment through connection and movement. Great to see Will normalising hopping off and working on what the horse needs in the moment and the feel of release and relaxation in ourselves first.

14/11/2024

Snuck away from the stable managers office to see a little of The Way of the Horse. Great message from Adam Sutton Allround Horsemanship on clarity and having a clear picture of what it is we want when we ask anything of our horses.

This is where I see so many riders getting stuck particularly when learning something new. We focus on whats happening with us or around us and forget about where we going, what we would like to feel and embodying that intent.

11/11/2024

Just a little pony in the big city. Really glad I have been able to give Friday the experience of a royal staying at the showground without the pressure of competing at one.

Chunking down what are often considered normal tasks is a huge part of my training program for competition horses. I never expect them to be ok with a competition day before they have gone through each step of it on its own without the added pressure of competing so by the time they do compete nothing about the experience is new.

11/11/2024

Well the girls and I have made it to EQUITANA Australia. Melbourne Showground is transforming all around us as we prepare for about 500 horses to come and go over the event.

Are you coming? Who is on your list to see? What’s on your list to buy?

09/11/2024

Proud the work has paid off. Two tests over 70% for a third overall in a big field. 🤩

Huge thank you to Cedar Lodge Equine Products for the awesome prize that went towards more gate guards for the champion little houdini.

Address

Barrs Road
Cowra, NSW
2794

Telephone

+61428552879

Website

http://www.theequestrienne.co/

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Friday’s off and flying! 💥💥 Not to be out done by Clint and Bonnie in lessons with Heath, Friday pulled out a flying change so the first one is done and dusted. Now we’ve got something there we can shape it. I’m so thrilled with how far we’ve come. For years its been slowly ticking along, working hard at the basics and trying to not be down or deflated by comments and scores along the way. Now she’s really building some strength and getting into gymnastic exercises it becoming so fun to train and see what we can do. Every ride is an adventure into unknown territory, half pass, shoulder in, canter pirouettes. So much fun to be had. What she lacks in movement she certainly makes up for with heart. So much love for the pocket rocket red head ❤️❤️

Nothing like a pony ride after work 🦄 First ride for Olympia ✅✅ Cool as a cucumber 😎

The number one lesson I’ve learnt doing dressage on horses and ponies that aren’t naturally balanced and collected is to reward the try. We don’t teach kindergarten kids the alphabet then immediately pass around War and Peace or Pride and Prejudice, expecting them to become literary geniuses before Grade 1. Yet with our horses as soon as we teach them something new we expect them to be balanced, round, through and with correct bend. Just as it takes time to learn to read, it takes time to develop understanding of the aids, strength and balance. Give them and yourself the grace of time to develop. Proud of how far this little pocket rocket has come no matter how far we still have to go. I’ve got all the time in the world for her.

Happy holidays my wee friends. #pony #dressagepony #equestrian #holidayfun #summervibes

Gold stars to Eowyn today. 🤩🥇 She’s a been out on grass and is feeling good, as well as being known for lugging me around a bit and being either super dull or super speedy. 🫣 It was great to see her today settle in to a beautiful rhythm without dragging me about the place and finding relaxation as she went. The secret sauce was to correct the balance, doing as sharp a corner to the inside as I could get when she fell out through the outside shoulder. A couple of many lessons from last weekend’s Dressage Naturally with Karen Rohlf-Training, Clinics, Educational Material clinic, don’t be afraid to overshoot the target and alignment is in the middle- they’ll find it themselves when you allow them the choice. 🎯🎯

Sometimes progress feels so slow you need to look back to see just how far you’ve come. 🦄🥰

When you are a smart girl you bring yourself in from the storms for dinner. #horses #dressagepony #showpony #loveher #goodgirl #summer

The Equestrienne

27/01/2025

26/01/2025

26/01/2025

25/01/2025

24/01/2025

20/01/2025

18/11/2024

17/11/2024

16/11/2024

16/11/2024

16/11/2024

16/11/2024

15/11/2024

15/11/2024

14/11/2024

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09/11/2024

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