Stephanie Solverson - Horse Training

07/18/2021

Keep your horses health in mind on smokey days! Let's hope for widespread rain 🌧️🤞

07/14/2021

07/08/2021

A great way to judge how well your horse is connecting through its back is to see how much stretch they will give you in a free walk on a loose rein.🐴❤️

Miss Tia💞

06/07/2021

Great resource for understanding judging of dressage tests. Great judge, great explanations, love how she always rewards good riding even if it comprises the move a bit. You can find all the USEF tests on YouTube 😊

CDS San Diego 2019 Test Symposium - 8 Dec 18 - 2nd Level Test 1 Rider: Dawn White-O'Connor Judge: Kristi Wysocki Video: Kaanjii Productions (kaanjii@gmail...

05/31/2021

Yesterday I posted about some tips on how to test your horses level of connection, today I'll address a way to test your own.

- no stirrups!!

Such a great way to work on your self and find any shortcomings that may be hiding... 🎶"You'll find things you never knew you never knew!"🎶🤣 ( Name that Disney movie ?)

It's been a while since I have had a horse at a point where I can really focus on my own riding and where I might be lacking.

Appreciate that Triton is at that place and his owner understands that the best way to better our horses is to better ourselves! ♥️🐴♥️

05/30/2021

💯

Few things I’ve learnt over the Years:⁣
1. Let go of things you can’t control ⁣
2. Avoid Comparing ⁣
3. Trust your gut - if it doesn’t feel right, don’t do it⁣
4. Have a positive/optimistic outlook on life always perspective is everything, negativity grows negativity and positivity grows positivity⁣
5. Follow your heart and do more of what lights your fire⁣
6. Back yourself always⁣
7. Work hard⁣
8. Avoid humans that drain your energy⁣
9. Surround yourself with those who support you. ⁣
10. Ignore opinions that don’t enhance your life - do you and ignore the noise⁣
11. Keep being the student and keep learning⁣
12. Don't be afraid to fail or be wrong. Learn and grow⁣
13. Respond don’t react - give yourself time to learn to respond and not react. Reactions are driven by heighten emotions, responses by logic
14. Be patient, no hurry, no pause
15. Be consistent, gradually, gradually, suddenly.
16. Goals - know where your going before you start driving
17. Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment
18. No expectations
19. GIVE
20. Be kind.

What else would you add?⁣
⁣
📸 NZsupergroom and Photographer

05/29/2021

As riders, open hips are important to enable us to fully connect with the horse and get the most of our position and movements.

This is a quick exercise video I have been using as my go to morning stretch lately to help get my hips open and even to help improve my riding. 🧘‍♀️💪

Just thought I'd share for anyone else that may be looking for hip opening stretches and exercises.

Happy riding everyone! 🐴😘

Have you tried FitOn yet? Join this exclusive course so we can workout together: https://share.fitonapp.com/html/invite-message/9ebf10e0878d437495fa91d8fc6f549f

05/28/2021

Anyone who talks to me about horses knows I am a huge fan of hill-work! ❤️🌄🐴

A great way to get an idea of where your horse is at in terms of balance and connection is downward transitions on a gentle downward slope. Aiming for quality transitions, maintaining connection without raising the head or dropping the back. ( Pretty pleased with this guy today! Not quite perfect but we're getting closer every day 🥰)

Leg-yield work on both upward and downward slope adds another element to the move and speeds up progress, muscle development and increases precision of movement.

It is crazy how fast a horse will correct themselves, balancing out, coming off the forehand and improving self carriage with little interference from the rider with long and low "hill" work! ( Hoping to put together some before and afters of some of my rides, even beginning to end of a single ride it is noticeable! No better thing to do for horses coming back into work after time off particularly, but always is good too 😉😂)

05/28/2021

Ryder 🥰🐴

05/14/2021

Ruber and Tia 🥰

05/11/2021

The dream team.🐴😍

Tia, Triton, Ruber and Ryder. Going to be having some fun with these beautiful beasts for the next little while 😊🥰.

🤞For winning lotto numbers so it never has to end 🤣🤣🤣

05/09/2021

All my horses are between a 2&3, the level at which you do each exercise in the book are dependent on the horses core level.... I have been working through each exercise accordingly, working on some level 1 exercises with some of my mounts🥰

05/09/2021

Love when the book you pick up outlines almost exactly your program. 🐴❤️

Book my mum gave me for developing cores and therefore backs of our horses
... First exercise plan is almost exactly what I do with every horse to determine where they are at and continue to work a huge part of every ride, clients that get ride updates can attest for how much of my rides contain these exercises 😊

05/04/2021

Why we should ride young horses forward and down...

It is a commonly accepted training principle that we should encourage young horses to have a low head carriage. But why is this?

The muscles of the horses back are still immature at 3,4 and even at 5 years old. This is a combination of being developmentally (age related), and physically immature, in the sense that they lack the muscle condition which comes from years of training-induced exercise. Of course the maturity of their muscles will come naturally with time, and as we work them through groundwork and under saddle. But how can we get to this point, while protecting these fundamentally weak muscles and avoiding musculoskeletal injuries further down the line?

By utilising the passive ligament mechanism, we can allow the horse to support the back and carry the weight of the rider with very little muscular effort. This allows the epaxial muscles of the back to be free to perform their primary functions in movement, rather than acting as weight lifters.

The passive ligament system of the back is primarily composed of, well ligaments, the nuchal and supraspinous ligament to be exact.

The nuchal ligament is a strong, collagenous structure, originating at the extensor process of the occiput (the back of the skull), forming attachments to the cervical vertebrae, before inserting on the spinous process of the fourth thoracic vertebrae. Here the nuchal ligament broadens in the region of the withers, before continuing as the supraspinous ligament running along the top of the spinous processes of the thoracic and lumbar vertebrae and terminating in the sacral region of the spine.

This creates an inverse relationship between the position of the head and neck and the balance between flexion and extension of the spine.

Generally speaking, lowering the head induces flexion in the thoracic region (the back is lifted) and conversely, raising the head creates extension in the thoracic region (the back hollows/drops). This is because the elongation of the strong and elastic nuchal ligament created when the head is lowered, creates a forward traction on the high spinous processes of the withers, and travels through the supraspinous ligament to lift the thoracic region of the spine. Comparatively, shortening of the ligament raises the head.

This system has provided an evolutionary advantage to the horse, as while they are grazing, the weight of the thorax and abdomen is supported passively by the ligament with very little muscular effort over long periods of time (up to the 16-19 hours per day they can spend grazing in the wild). Equally, because of the stored elastic potential energy in the liagement when it is stretched for the head to be at ground level, the horse can quickly raise its head to gallop away at the first sign of a predator.

Furthermore, lowering of the head and neck, stretching downwards and forwards, straightens out the natural S curve of the horse's spine. This lifts the bottom of the S curve, the cervico-thoracic junction and the ribcage, which creates lightness in the forequarters when the horse is moving. Further back, flexion in the thoracic region, increases the spacing between the dorsal spinous processes as the most dorsal aspect of the spine is stretched out. This posture is particularly therapeutic for horses with kissing spines.

In fact, the degree of flexion of the back is most marked between the 5th and 9th thoracic vertebrae, but is also significant between the 9th and 14th. Consequently, the arching and lifting of the back takes place directly under the saddle and therefore works to support the rider.

This is particularly useful in young horses; it allows the young horse, whose muscles are not mature enough to carry the rider, the chance to support its back and lift the weight of the rider by moving the head-neck axis rather than using active muscle contraction.

This means that the horse can use its muscles solely for movement; creating a loose, swinging back, free of tension, and suppleness in the gait.

Here we have the opportunity for us to slowly develop and condition the epaxial musculature of the young horse. Which will create a foundation of strength and suppleness of the back and the core to support more advanced movements later in their career.

Comparatively, if this system is not used, and the young horse is pulled into a shortened outline, it is the Longissimus Dorsi muscle which takes up the role of supporting the weight of the rider. But theLongissimus Dorsi is not designed for weight carrying, it is primarily a movement muscle.

Muscles act in the direction through which their fibres flow; the Longissimus Dorsi works in the horizontal plane, originating in the sacral and lumbar region of the spine and inserting through the lumbar, thoracic and ending in the cervical region. The Longissimus Dorsi primarily acts to extend and stabilise the entire spine, while also acting unilaterally to induce lateral flexion of the back. You can see the Longissimus Dorsi in action when watching a horse moving from above; the large muscle contracts alternately on each side of the back in the rhythm of the gait to stabilise the movement.

Once the Longissimus Dorsi is required to lift the weight of the rider, the muscle becomes blocked and stiff. Muscles are designed to work through a process of contraction and relaxation; held too long in contraction (to carry the weight of a rider, or support a shortened outline) and the Longissimus Dorsi will fatigue. This will lead to muscle spasm and pain within the muscle. Not only will the horse lose the strength to carry the rider, but they will also lose the natural elasticity of the back which will reduce the fluidity of their gaits.

Over time with greater overuse and fatigue, the Longissimus Dorsi muscle will atrophy, requiring the recruitment of other muscles, such as the Iliocostalis, to take up the role of stabilising the back and supporting the weight of the rider. Other muscles which are equally not designed for weight lifting. And so the cycle continues and the performance of the horse suffers.

With this knowledge in mind, we can understand why it is so essential to make use of the passive ligament system, by striving for that forward and down head carriage. Furthermore, that we also allow our young horses regular breaks, working on a loose rein to allow our horse to come out of the outline, stretch out, and reduce the risk of fatigue.

I always marvel at the intricately designed systems of energy conservation to create efficiency in the horse's way of going. It is our role as a rider to have an awareness of and make use of these systems; to allow our horses to go in the most efficient and beneficial way for them possible, upholding their standard of welfare.

Image credit: Tug of War, Gerd Heuschmann

04/13/2021

Another horse I just want to keep 🙈♥️🐴

Meet Quick ( AKA Hovde)

04/06/2021

Sneak peak at Triton.

This beauty is coming up for sale by a friend. He is so sweet and will make a great partner for some one. ♥️🐴

03/25/2021

Very happy with Miss Gypsy today 🏇🥰

Gypsy is a horse used for lessons and often has trouble maintaining her canter and holding herself together through corners.

It might not look it (cause she was doing so good! 😉😎😆)
But those are some pretty tight corners for any horse!

She maintained herself so well!
(Drops out a tiny bit in the last one but we had lots of good ones that my camera decided the wall was more interesting for 🙄)

Tight corners= another great way to build backs, bums and connection 💪🐴♥️

03/20/2021

Loving what you do is happiness. Doing what you love is freedom. 🥰

03/20/2021

No better way to work on developing a reaching contact, muscles through the back AND balancing back than finding a nice, gentle slope in the great outdoors !🌄🏇

In my opinion, it is the best thing you can do for a horse that has a tendency to drop behind the bit, or favours a 'head-set' over proper connection.
(but also great for horses on the other end of the spectrum, that want to have their head in the air- dropping through the back🤔🤯. )

It establishes a full reaching connection, stemming from the back and hind-end 💪🐎....ANNND you get to be out of the constraints of a ring or arena- good for their mind and yours 😉!

03/19/2021

Pretty happy with miss Peach today. 🍑🐎

First time jumping a measured distance. And only ever jumped a handful of times.

So willing 🥰

03/17/2021

Couple of stills since my page is so lacking in actual photos of me riding😂
.. Not anymore thanks to Pivo 🎥📷 😁, just have to train my technologically challenged self to get it properly figured out 🙏

03/17/2021

We get to ride outside!!! 😍

Peach was loving it ( though not the alpacas at first 😂).

Not much for video as first location was still a bit slippy and second was a bit far to lug my camera in hand (backpack already put in my truck 😉)

Yay spring!! ☀️

03/17/2021

Skor's ride today. 😊🐎

Main areas of focus:
maintaining a connection without dropping behind the bit, balance in the canter and not bulging out and timely transitions coming from behind/ maintaining connection..... Annnnd lateral work which we had really well today and I THOUGHT I was videoing 🤦

03/09/2021

New Training tools 🤩🐴

My highly anticipated and long awaited Pivo tracking camera mount 📸 😁

And a Garmin watch with incident detection, that will send a message to my emergency contacts if I fall and don't stop it. 📲🚑.

Excited for the productivity (and fun 😉) as well as the sense of security these tools will add to my early morning, solo rides. 🥰

Stay tuned ☺️...

03/04/2021

Pulled out some fun stuff for Cali's ride today ☺️

03/04/2021

First day over fences with these two beauties 🏇❤️ ( with me anyways )

Kept it super simple to see where everyone's at and couldn't be happier with either of them ☺️.

Also had some great progress with the scary blow dryer. Even had this boy relaxed enough to c**k a leg, accept a treat and take a photo mid drying ( last week I would have been jumped on if I lost focus long enough to take a picture 😂)

All about celebrating the small things❤️

like Argo looking as ready for spring as I'm feeling in her new blanket and longer days meaning these views on my way to the barn every morning ☀️😍 ( and not catching my first horse in darkness 😉👍)

02/24/2021

Today we worked our minds 🧠🤯

Everyone did great!! ❤️👍

02/24/2021

Another good day at the barn ☺️.

Had a productive ride on Argo and a good first ride on Skor!🐎🥰

Excited for the upcoming weeks with my palominos 😁 ( and all my other rides too of course 😉)
... An added picture of Peach to complete the Palomino trifecta ❤️😉.

02/22/2021

When our work is done.... We play 🥰🐴

( All the video I am capable with after a shipping mishap with my Pivo 😔.... Soon🤞)

02/21/2021

Frost free walls! Even at 6:45 am 😍👍!!