In Stride Equestrian

01/12/2025

12/31/2024

Luna’s progression over the years starting back in the spring of 2020 ❤️

I got Luna as a 4 year old back in 2019 who was finishing up rehab from a ddft tear. I took a bet on her and just wanted to see how far we could go in her development.

It has all been slow and steady, with lots of ground work and work in hand, and very basic fundamentals in work under saddle to ensure that she was developing proper self carriage. We would only progress forward when I was given all of the green lights to do so, both physically and emotionally. And of course this would change day to day which meant sometimes we went back to the beginning or back to basics to continue to progress.

I love her to death and she is a gorgeous mare with a huge heart, but she has never been a naturally talented mover. Being part draft, she often was more than happy not really engaging her hind end and just pulling and plodding along with her front end. And so I cannot stress enough just how much work and time went into getting her to where she is now. Where I can look out in the pasture and see her moving in lightness on her own accord. Seeing this puts even more faith in my work as it is now not only beneficial for work under saddle, but it has improved her own carriage and movement outside of anything that we do. Riding should always add to their life, and never take anything away ❤️

This is the message I want to bring into this coming year, take the time you need for the horse that you have. Work on their timeline and be proud of the progress you make together

12/26/2024

I’m an advocate for the average horses, those who aren’t super flashy movers, who may not be so naturally inclined to be lighter on the forehand and who’s pedigree may not have those we have considered great.

In so many ways these horses are far from average. They are raw, honest and grounded. Their fire brought out with the artistry of their rider, who knows the challenges they may face, but still chooses to take that journey with them. To help bring out that confidence in lightness.

To see a horse many consider average become magnificent is well worth the wait ❤️

12/25/2024

Merry Christmas, happy Kwanza, happy Hanukkah and happy holidays to all of my wonderful friends, family and clients who make all of this work so special.

I am truly grateful for all of the relationships that I have with each one of you and how they continue to grow in so many ways. I am grateful for how you all believe in me and the work that I do, it truly means so much to me ❤️

As someone who isn’t religious, I often take this time to reflect on how much I am truly grateful for and how I can take that gratitude into the coming of spring.

This year has left me with so much to be grateful for! Taking the next step in life with Josh and officially being able to call him my husband, connecting with my horses on an even deeper level as they grow and evolve, my wonderful family and the soon to be new additions to it, my reconnection journey and connection to the earth getting even stronger, new friends, new clients, and seeing all of the growth each one of my clients are making with their horses!

I want to step into this coming year holding onto all of these amazing things! What are you grateful for?

12/24/2024

Part time position available!

ISO punctual and savvy individual to help with am and pm chores Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday for 9-10 horses max. Opportunity for more hrs for the right person!

Morning duties include feeding and bringing horses into their stalls, checking waters, taking off blankets and feeding the best barn cat! It takes roughly 45 min for morning chores to be completed.

Evening duties include checking waters, filling pasture and paddock hay nets, picking and cleaning stalls and water buckets and blanketing as needed. Evening chores take about 2 hrs total.

Pay is $25/hr and horses are well behaved and easy to handle! Farm is just minutes from downtown Aiken on wire rd

Please pm for more information and attach resume and references 😊

12/23/2024

With the temp dropping again 🥶 here are some small things that can be done in daily maintenance and chores that will help improve your horse’s balance and stability! Bc let’s face it, not all of us are as young as we used to be riding and working in all types of weather and lean more into being a fair weather opportunist.

1: lead horses in and out of the barn on both sides. This can help improve one sidedness and crookedness as they can naturally slightly bend towards the direction they are being led.

2: hang indoor and outdoor hay nets at varying heights. This helps in developing stability and activating different core muscles as they eat. Horses are browsing animals and can be seen eating not just from the ground, but shrubs, trees and even over the fence 😆

3: put small logs, branches, ground poles etc at random in high traffic areas to encourage them to step over and walk through the obstacle (or they may choose to walk around it). This can help with flexion of the limbs and pelvis on those chilly days where they may tend to get more stiff

4: adding a few steps of backing up into leading them. Again this will help with flexion of the pelvis as well as activating different stability muscles.

5: upkeep of a dry fluffy place where they can feel comfortable laying down to rest and stay warm. Of course this doesn’t work any muscles, but just like many mammals, if cold, muscles tend to get more stiff. Providing warmth and a dry spot to rest will help those muscles break tension and relax. (Which if we are going to ride would make sense! What horse wants to be ridden with a tight back)

12/18/2024

In light of the negativity a post by the chronicle of the horse has received for posting an article regarding DEI in the equine community, this article by usdf has resurfaced also bringing up the conversation. There is progress in even having these conversations, but we still have a long way to go

I’m just gonna leave this right here.

We learn to ride dressage by letters. Three of the newest - DEI, for diversity, equity, and inclusion - test our flexibility, “forward thinking,” and harmony, not with our horses but with previously underrepresented and overlooked equine enthusiasts.

When it comes to DEI, “How are we doing?” is as complex a question as the aids for an upper-level dressage movement. This macro-level look at the current state of DEI in the horse world is about more than the struggle to fit different kinds of hair into riding helmets; it’s about how historically marginalized people are working to fit in at the barn, the show, and the dressage arena.

In this reprint from USDF Connection magazine, we take a look at where diversity, equity, and inclusion stand in the horse world right now. Read on: https://yourdressage.org/2024/09/24/dei-new-letters-new-tests/

Photo by Taylor Pence/US Equestrian

12/17/2024

Applying an aid vs pushing aids is something that seems to have been lost on so many when it comes to training. A true physical aid should act more like a cue that the horse understands. Therefore they should be light in application to get a light and quick response.

But this process takes lots of patience and time. It’s different for every horse in how they learn and learning is the key. If we don’t truly educate them then they don’t learn what each aid is when applied. It becomes a “use enough pressure for the horse to move off of” type of aid. And that is a completely different conversation.

As you all know, Ollie is a heavy boy and always surprises people with how light he can be in his aids. Here in this photo I applied the aid for canter and asked for a walk to canter (for the first time at a clinic 😆) I didn’t push my leg into him, I didn’t pull, I didn’t try to manipulate his body to do what I wanted it to do. And I sat a bit forward to make sure that I didn’t get in his way of what I was asking. I offered the aid along with a light tap of the whip (which means more hind end engagement) and off in the canter he went!

The biggest “trick” to riding in lightness is to be patient and not try to force things to happen. You will never get light responsiveness if you are quick to man handle your horse into doing what you want asap. That’s a reaction, and there’s a big difference between the two.

12/16/2024

To the boss mares ❤️
Fierce in their vocations and planted in their opinions
Unwavering and unfaltering, they know their worth.

Labeled difficult, bitchy and too opinionated,
For this they are often overlooked.

But my heart always goes to the boss mares,
The ones who will continue to fight.

Because I know all to well just how it feels
When someone else tries to extinguish your light.

To win the heart of a boss mare means becoming her friend, her equal and nothing more or less. On more than one occasion I’ve had people tell me that Luna would go to war for me, and I have zero reason to not believe this to be true. And I will never take that for granted ❤️

12/14/2024

Through my years of training and education, trial and error, and countless horses that I’ve worked with, there was one major factor in training that had become super important. That without getting, would inhibit optimal movement and function throughout the body. And that was release and function of the neck in conjunction with the thoracic sling (inlet/chest).

It just made sense to me, especially as a dressage rider, that you couldn’t get true engagement through the body and into the hind end if you couldn’t get the front end out of the way. And so it became a quest to figure out as many ways as I could to help this critical junction in the body as so many horses seemed to be so locked up there. Not only locked up but dysfunctional in movement in so many ways that moving “correctly” seemed almost too challenging for them.

The fun part in all of this is that there are so many underlying reasons as to why a horse could be compensating and moving in dysfunction in this area. It could be teeth, improper bit, bridle, saddle fit, sore feet, an unbalanced trim, heavy hands, use of gadgets in training, navicular, arthritis of the neck, ecvm, epm, the hyoid being out, tmj issues, kissing spine etc. basically anything that would disrupt freedom in movement through the body, and through the vertebrae, starting at the poll and going through to the tail.

After peeling back the layers to address the initial cause of disruption, reteaching movement patterns so that horses do not fall back into dysfunction, especially in the neck and chest is the key and is something that can be the difference in enduring longevity in work, and even how they carry themselves on their own without a rider. This also means retraining yourself to help the horse 👀.

It means learning and understanding how certain things affect them whether it is positively or negatively. Whether that be saddle fit, or a chronic illness/change in their body that would need consistent help in finding and keeping functional movement.

In the photo below, 3 of the 4 horses in this picture have been in work/training/care with me for at least a year while one horse has recently began with me. You can see the clear difference in how the other three choose to move on their own accord in running and playing in the pasture! And this is why I will stand behind the process in which I work with horses and address function in their movement. It is beyond important, across disciplines, breeds and individual needs of each horse ❤️

12/13/2024

It always puts such a big smile on my face when I see horses that have been through my program thrive in every way! This special guy is up for sale and is an absolute dream ❤️ Mackenzie has done such a wonderful job in continuing to bring him along in her program 🥰

12/12/2024

Jennifer Mallozzi’s new horse Tucker came in last night safe and sound all the way from Michigan! He very much so appreciated going out and getting to meet some of his neighbors before breakfast this morning ❤️

What breed do you think this guy is? 👀 (Jennifer don’t give it away yet 😝)

12/11/2024

Redundancy in information seems to dominate social media platforms. There is so much information out there ranging from peer reviewed and backed research, papers, and studies to anecdotal information, personal speculation and small group efforts all over the globe.

There are proven methods of care, training and connection that work in every way and others that are proven to fail. And at the end of the day it all boils down to personal choice. Choice of the trainer in how they want to work with horses, choice of the barn owner on how they want to care for horses and choice of the horse owner as to what they want their horse to experience.

So we have this over indulgence of information on social media platforms bc now algorithms will only push certain posts and information based on what is attention grabbing, or whether or not it is paid for. And the average every day horse person is flooded with information…. Every Single Day.

I’ve seen it transform over the years and totally understand how overwhelming it all is, and also that at the end of the day it is the choice of the individual on what they choose to believe, use, follow and learn. And all I have to say about all of that is to be your own detective, peel back the layers and do what is best for your horse at the end of the day.

Many are good at talking the talk, but what’s their walk look like?

12/10/2024

Does your own spiritual connection come into play when it comes to work we do with horses? I don’t mean any sort of religious affiliation, rather your connection to yourself and to the world around you.

I don’t often speak of spiritual things here because to me it is something sacred that should never be advertised or for sale. And so I want to speak of it through story and relevance. Because at the end of the day, spiritual connection is vital in connection and working WITH our horses.

Again spirituality is separate from religion and religious practices can be ways that you express yourself spiritually but the two are not one and the same. Spiritual connection to self is something unspoken that truly cannot be put into words. This connection brings us into our bodies and is a driving force in body awareness as well as self awareness. And while I speak of its relevance to horses, I do have to note that it is so much bigger… it’s our connection to everything and everyone!

Our spirit works in conjunction with our nervous system giving us feedback that allows us to deepen our connection and understanding, and the more connected you become the more you are able to see, feel, touch and reciprocate. Just as our journey with horses is a never ending means of learning, so is this connection. There is no end or phase of completion, just continued growth.

The other day as I was winding down for the evening and getting warm back in the house, the horses decided they wanted to tell me something. Manny, Macho and Luna. They told me that this move was transformative for them too and that they wanted some different things. Manny was the first one to speak. He told me that he wanted a deeper spiritual connection with me, with him starting to get older and understand more that he was ready for that. Macho told me that he wants to be more fierce and he wants me to help him unlock that part of himself. And Luna? What she said came as no surprise and all. She said she knows how bad ass she is and that she can do all of the things that I ask of her but I need to trust her to bring her out and show her. She wants to do it and show everyone else how bad ass she is.

I’ve always been a very spiritual person and have always felt connected to myself, the earth and all living things. But if you asked me 10 years ago that I would get to where I am now in my connection I would have never thought so. For a long time I felt stuck. I felt like I was lost. In reconnecting to my indigenous ancestors and deconstructing so much of what I was told I should be, I was able to embrace who I truly am and understand her on such a deep level. Like I said before, a level of connection and understanding that is inexplicable.

I cannot deny the importance of this connection and how much it impacts me in every aspect of my life. And its relevance with my horses is undeniable.

Our connection to ourselves is an ingredient to working with horses (and going about life in general) that makes it all so challenging. Why? Because we constantly have to work on ourselves to get there. We also have to work almost daily to combat what this industrial world says we need, want and have to do. We need to strip ourselves down on the regular and be real.

12/07/2024

I’d say it’s been a long day, but it’s more than that… it’s been a long week. And if I’m being completely real… it’s been a long month that also seems to have flown by.

When things are quiet here it is usually because a lot is going on! And there has been a lot, but oh so many good and sweet things that it takes the bitterness out of the physical exhaustion I’ve been feeling lately.

First things first: we moved (Again 🙃)! It was a much needed pivot and change needed both personally and professionally and it already seems like a well made decision though it is where a good chunk of the chaos has stemmed from.

Josh and I had been spending the last several weeks moving all of our things as well as stuff for the farm and yesterday with the help of Jean and Flo, the horses were moved! Because of all of the back and forth I was an anxious mess yesterday morning getting the trailers set up and extra things loaded. My mind was thinking of every possible worst case scenario. Macho and Manny had never been on straight load trailers, only slant load or stock… what if they don’t get on (I didn’t have time to prepare them either 🙃)? But they did. And I couldn’t have been more proud. Manny honestly couldn’t care less as he waltzed on and tried to find anything he could to play with on the trailer. And not only was Macho nervous, but he was handled by Flo who he had only met a few times. When he realized that she would reward him the same way I do, he gave it his best shot through his uncertainty and we were all so damn proud of that little horse! At that point we all took a big breath collectively and went on our way to our new home.

My horses always find ways to remind me that I shouldn’t doubt myself or them. That the work we do sets them up for just about every challenge they face, and because they grow in confidence as well as trust in me and other people… they will always give their best, even when faced with uncertainty. And in this way, they remind me that home is not a physical place but the relationships we build with all living things ❤️