Maybelle Farm Equestrian Centre

16/06/2025

!! IMPORTANT !!

If anyone is available to fill any of these volunteer slots tomorrow Tuesday 17th, please contact [email protected] or [email protected]

Volunteers get morning tea, lunch, and afternoon tea, and if you volunteer for over four hours you are paid!

This event can't run without our amazing volunteers, thank you for all your help!

11/06/2025

Give some thought to this. Our HUGE dressage festival opens on Saturday. We have judges from all over Australia. Scribing is a great way of getting some free education. And you even get oaid for it! Riders, trainee coaches, owners/parents this is good for you all!

05/06/2025

Session 5: Coach Update – Meet the Presenter
Coach Development Day | Presented by Equestrian NSW Coaching

Sally-Ann Barbera is an Level 2 General and Dressage Coach and experienced Coach Educator with a rich background in showjumping, dressage, and eventing. Originally trained in England, she brings a performance-focused, cross-training philosophy to everything she does.

Sally has spent numerous years serving on both state and national coaching committees and has a passion for developing confident, competent coaches, Sally-Ann helps others grow their own unique coaching style. Her ongoing training with leading educators ensures she’s always evolving—and helping others do the same.
Don't miss your chance to learn from one of the most respected voices in Australian equestrian coaching.

Accredited coaches, judges, and officials enjoy complimentary entry with their current EA accreditation. For all other attendees, affordable admission options are available—join us for a half day or immerse yourself in the full experience. Held on the non-competition day of the Hawkesbury Dressage Festival, it’s the perfect opportunity to drop in, learn something new, and connect with the community while on site.

All coaches are welcome—across every discipline and accreditation level.

The Coach Development Day is supported by Equestrian NSW and the Hawkesbury Dressage Festival and our presenters and riders are proudly wearing VALA Equestrian’s Smooth & Sculpt Breeches and the “Connected” long sleeved polo shirts.

To register follow this link:
https://www.trybooking.com/events/landing/1395434

COACH DEVELOPMENT DAY
📍 SIEC, Indoor Arena and Conference Room
🗓️ Wednesday Jun 18 – 9am-4pm

30/05/2025

Tack room clear out!
An oldie but a goodie! Aussie made Peter Horobin jumping saddle. Very good quality leather this will last 100 years! Probably could do with a re-flock as it’s quite hard but still an amazing saddle. Secure enough to cross country in but not an old fashioned ‘bucket seat’. A good working saddle.
PM for deets.

30/05/2025

Another Italian saddle, this one a bit older. Prestige Doge. 17” and 34 wide.
Also on Marketplace. PM for details.

30/05/2025

Beautiful Italian made dressage saddle. Equipe Emporio, 17.5” and wide gullet. Lovely to ride in, just not quite right for my boys 🙁 Advertised on Marketplace
PM for more details

22/05/2025

🥰The Galloping Groom, Sharon Beahan 🥰Been clipping 35 years pretty much to the day as she did her first horse in Rome in 1990. Been clipping for me for almost the same as she first clipped Deek around ‘91.
And here’s Ben getting his smarten up for the Hawkesbury Dressage Festival next month. All drug free! Good horse! Great clipper!! 🥰

20/05/2025

Love this 🩷

Choose dressage?
Nah. Dressage chose me.

Like a bad habit. Like a cult. Like a beautifully choreographed breakdown.

Choose snapping your pelvis in half just to start another youngster.
Choose a sport that tweaks your lower back and foam rolling is scheduled between rides.

Choose riding a fire-breathing dragon with a French manicure and a six-figure price tag.

Choose trainers who speak in riddles. “More through.” “Over the back.” “Feel it.”
Feel what, Karen? The shame? The void? The $900 clinic fee evaporating with every wrong step?

Choose gaslighting yourself into thinking this is fun.
Choose selling a kidney to afford a new custom saddle that your next saddle fitter says doesn't even fit.

Choose lameness, ulcers, mystery swelling, and that one puffy pastern that haunts your dreams.

Choose smiling through the blood in your mouth when someone says, “You must be rich to have a horse.”

Choose braiding horses at 5 a.m. with frozen fingers and the kind of hope only lunatics possess.

Choose precision. Obsession.
Choose never being good enough and doing it anyway.
Choose chasing stillness in chaos, grace in pressure, and meaning in the sweat between strides.

Choose telling yourself next year will be the year.
And then telling yourself that again.
And again.

Why?

Because there’s something holy in the madness.
Because for one second, your horse breathed in time with you, and the world held its breath.

Because the arena is the only place your mind shuts up.
Because you don’t just ride. You become.

And you’d rather break yourself in half chasing that moment
than live a life where you never tried.

02/12/2024

Richard Weiss talks about dressage:
“Although dressage performance, the sport, is closely related to ballet in that every movement must be adhered to according to the test, training is an entirely improvised form.”“Every movement, every nuance of every movement has a particular expression in both the body of the horse and the body of the rider. Elements of balance from rhythm, bend and impulsion all need to be clearly expressed in the body of the rider so the horse can follow them seamlessly.”
https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/2023/01/dressage-is-like-the-tango/

02/12/2024

COACHES | *Important Notice Regarding Equestrian Australia Coach Accreditation*

Please be advised that only individuals who are current, registered, and compliant Equestrian Australia (EA) accredited coaches are permitted to advertise themselves as EA accredited coaches.

Any coach who is not currently registered or does not meet compliance requirements is not authorised to use the EA accreditation or promote themselves as such. Misrepresentation of EA accreditation status is a breach of EA policy and may lead to disciplinary action.

If you have any questions regarding your accreditation status or compliance requirements, please contact the Equestrian Australia Coaching Team at [email protected] or visit our website www.equestrian.org.au for further information.

28/11/2024

Interesting POV and very true. All very good for any horse, jumper or dressage alike.

Gymnastic Lines---A discussion

One definition---there are no doubt others---“A gymnastic line is a series of fences set at predetermined distances to attempt to obtain predetermined results.”

For example, you might start with something as basic as trotting poles, roughly 4 ½ feet apart, A trotting bounce will be around 9-10 feet for an average horse. A trotting one stride will be 18-19 feet for an average horse, a two stride might be 29-33 feet.

So you might set a bounce to a one stride to a one stride to a two stride, and the distances might be 9-18-19-31, or something like that. You have to watch what is happening and adjust accordingly.
The biggest problem with using gymnastic lines is that setting them up and adjusting them is a LOT of work, constant measuring, hauling standards and rails, changing, resetting, and so forth.

The way someone gets confident with doing all of this? You have to LIVE in a jumping arena. You must know distances. You must have an accurate stride. You must be watchful. You can totally mess up a horse if you get it wrong---You can even cause a wreck. So if you want to become a good fence setter, you must make a commitment, and if you are not willing to become educated, leave it to those who know more than you.

A slightly shorter interior distance might get a horse to land, rock back, and get his front end up faster, whereas a longer distance doesn’t challenge the use of his his knees as much. You just have to live it to learn it, A few will, but many won’t. that simple.

14/11/2024

Pole clinics!