All Star Equestrian

28/06/2024

Things your riding instructor wants you to know:
1. This sport is hard. You don't get to bypass the hard…..every good rider has gone through it. You make progress, then you don't, and then you make progress again. Your riding instructor can coach you through it, but they cannot make it easy.

2. You're going to ride horses you don't want to ride. If you're teachable, you will learn from every horse you ride. Each horse in the barn can teach you if you let them. IF YOU LET THEM. Which leads me to…

3. You MUST be teachable to succeed in this sport. You must be teachable to succeed at anything, but that is another conversation. Being teachable often means going back to basics time and time and time again. If you find basics boring, then your not looking at them as an opportunity to learn. Which brings me to…..

4. This sport is a COMMITMENT. Read that, then read it again. Every sport is a commitment, but in this sport your teammate weighs 1200 lbs and speaks a different language. Good riders don't get good by riding every once in awhile….they improve because they make riding a priority and give themsevles opportunity to practice.

5. EVERY RIDE IS AN OPPORTUNITY. Even the walk ones. Even the hard ones. Every. Single. Ride. Remember when you just wished someone would lead you around on a horse? Find the happiness in just being able to RIDE. If you make every ride about what your AREN'T doing, you take the fun out of the experience for yourself, your horse, and your instructor. Just enjoy the process. Which brings me to...

6. Riding should be fun. It is work. and work isn't always fun.....but if you (or your rider) are consistently choosing other activities or find yourself not looking forward to lessons, it's time to take a break. The horses already know you don't want to be here, and you set yourself up for failure if you are already dreading the lesson before you get here.

7. You'll learn more about horses from the ground than you ever will while riding. That's why ground lessons are important, too. If you're skipping ground lessons (or the part of your lesson that takes place on the ground), you're missing out on the most important parts of the lesson. You spend far more time on the ground with horses than you do in the saddle.

8. Ask questions and communicate. If you're wondering why your coach is having you ride a particular horse or do an exercise, ask them. Then listen to their answer and refer to #3 above.

9. We are human beings. We make decisions (some of them life and death ones) every day. We balance learning for students with workloads for horses and carry the bulk of this business on our shoulders. A little courtesy goes a long way.

Of all the sports your child will try through their school years, riding is one of 3 that they may continue regularly as adults (golf and skiing are the others). People who coach riding spend the better part of their free time and much of their disposable income trying to improve their own riding and caring for the horses who help teach your child. They love this sport and teaching others…..but they all have their limits. Not all good riders are good coaches, but all good coaches will tell you that the process to get good is not an easy one.

📝 Kimberley Reynolds

📸 Max & Maxwell: Equestrian Photography

04/06/2024

https://www.facebook.com/100064451033652/posts/858459152979111/?

I read a theory about why so many riders lack a deep command of basics, and it was explained like this---

Correct basics are hard to master because there is an enormous amount of repetition involved, and if someone has tried something hundreds, possibly thousands of times, and still can’t do it, it is easy for the person to conclude that he/she is taking on an impossible challenge.

In his book “Mastery,” George Leonard wrote that on the quest to become good, there will be long stretches of “seeming non-improvement.”

Like watching grass grow, change is happening, but so slowly that it can’t be measured daily, weekly, or even monthly. But at some point, for those who stick with it, “suddenly” they can do things that before they couldn’t do.

The issue is giving up in frustration before putting in those many many many many months of practice.

That is ONE theory. I am sure there are many others, but this one does ring true.

18/04/2024

The Spanish Riding School has very strict rules about riding etiquette and arena courtesy, allowing the entire team to train harmoniously and without disturbing each other. Colonel Podhajsky took the time to record these rules in his book, The Complete Training of Horse and Rider:

In particular, the director of the Court Riding School must enforce strictly that no rider takes the liberty to make comments, much less to argue, while mounted on horseback. If a comment appears necessary, it must be made formally and modestly after having dismounted.

The impeccably groomed and carefully tacked up horses are led from the long side to the center line and squared up parallel with the short side.

Before mounting, every rider has to check the grooming, saddle and bridle of the horse that was brought to him. He immediately alerts the Chief Rider as to any irregularities and remains responsible for the proper tack as long as he is riding.

The rider always begins on the right rein and salutes the portrait of Emperor Charles VI.

Every rider has to salute the director of the School as well as his teacher after dismounting.

When two riders meet, the one riding on the right rein always makes room. In lateral movements, there are the following exceptions:
Riders who are practicing the shoulder-in make room, regardless of whether they are on the right or left rein. Riders who are practicing haunches-in, piaffe, or an extraordinary gait, remain alongside the wall, regardless of whether they are on the right or left rein, while the other riders always have to make room for them.

Riders who are practicing renvers or gaits in counter-position always have to leave the outside track to the other riders.

If two riders meet who are both practicing lateral movements, renvers, piaffe, or extraordinary gaits, the one on the right rein has to yield, as indicated above.

When individual riders ride patterns, it is the responsibility of the other riders not to disturb them.

Passing on unspecific lines is to be avoided as poor etiquette. Instead, the rider must pass on a straight line until he reaches the next corner, or he has to turn.

It is strictly forbidden at all times to wander around aimlessly. Every rider must adhere to the formal lines, circles, and turns. The teacher as well as every observer will then be able to recognize the rider's intentions immediately, because the latter cannot cover up the mistake when he succumbs to the horse's will. Instead, he is forced to keep the horse obedient every step of the way.

Photos: SRS

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Methods to limit choose lower grass species, limit grass intake, manage pasture for lower sugar concentration, soak hay, rotational grazing, strip grazing.

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