Golden Reins Equestrian Center

09/19/2025

I never came back with the answer to my mounting question, which seems many of my horse friends knew the answer to that one. We mount from the left because in sword carrying days, the sword was carried on the left side of the body. Swinging a right leg over was the wiser move. Now, I am curious what the lefties did?

Most times today, we still teach to mount from the left as a universal rule. However, many people teach their horse to be ok with mounting from either side.

09/15/2025

Love this one!

Train Long to Grow Strong: What Science Says About Muscle Length and Performance

Did you know that training muscles at longer lengths leads to greater strength, growth, and athletic performance?

Research shows that when muscles are loaded in their lengthened position — rather than short and compressed — they experience:
• More mechanical tension
• Greater muscle fiber remodeling
• Stronger signals for growth and performance

🏇 What does this mean for horse training?
Exercises that encourage a full range of motion — like hill work, cavalletti, and long-and-low frames — promote:
• Stronger, more resilient muscles
• Better stride length and joint stability
• Improved dynamic performance in sports like dressage, jumping, and barrels

⚠️ Short, choppy movements or always working in a collected frame can limit muscle development by avoiding these lengthened positions.

✅ Want to build strength that transfers to real performance?
Encourage your horse to move in full, fluid ranges — not just for fitness, but for long-term soundness and athleticism.

Follow this link for more interesting info -
https://koperequine.com/articles/

09/11/2025

Seems here at GR, while our lesson program is healthy, we're in a place where we could move in a few directions. it just depends on what we want to really focus on.

We recently had a boarding spot open up, and no one has taken it yet, so I've been talking to Lilly about a training horse.
Many follow her and see what she's accomplished, we've also got some neat conversation going with what could be a really great connection for her and some outside training opportunities.
So if you know anyone with a horse that needs a refresher, some pattern work, or even a young horse started under saddle, reach out, and we can chat about what that might look like.

I'm still very open to a boarder also, must be a good fit for our barn environment. Details to anyone interested.

09/09/2025

I love a good post like this one!

09/06/2025

Question time:
A common topic in my lessons is why do we get on the left side of our horses when mounting.

Is this something you were taught, did you research yourself, or how did you learn the answer?

If you know why don't give away the answer just yet, only say yes or no in the comments, and where you learned or heard it. I'll come back later with my answer and want to hear yours too.

08/22/2025

Keep learning

The Body Doesn’t Lie

I’m a little (a lot) increasingly worried and frustrated about the postures I am seeing horses worked in. I saw a post yesterday of a horse being worked in side reins comparing day one of using them to day two; day one — bracing; day two — horse sucking behind the side reins, opening mouth, compressing the wither (and everything else) to avoid pressure.

The day before that, one professional rider riding a 4 year old hyperflexed with draw reins in one clip and a tight martingale in another.

The day before that, a client told me that another therapist had told them to just shut their horses mouth with a flash to stop contact evasions… when in fact this horse is experiencing significant discomfort.

Today, a video saying if your horse leans on the contact to just give them a sharp upward motion of the rein to get them to sit back… because there surely isn’t a physical or rider issue why they do that!?

IF you DON’T think what you are doing is wrong, LOOK and FEEL your horse.

If you’re ignoring their signals in every other way, their body won’t lie. If you’re doing everything right, they’ll look right.

If you’re constantly battling with the same issues, if your physio keeps noticing a tight poll/lacking muscle/stiffness, if you can see your horses ligament clicking and flicking over the top of their neck every time you change bend, please please widen the gaze and realise — this is not right, this is not normal for their body, what is going wrong?

There is no shame in breaking away from a trainer you’ve used for years; or changing from a saddle you once loved to a new one; or giving your horse a little while off whilst you sort your body out and make sure you’re not hindering them. This is the part of the “sport” (I hate that word in this context) that has been so massively overlooked of late.

Even if you’re a professional rider only riding a horse for 30 mins a week, we are our horses GUARDIANS on this planet. Every interaction means we should care for every part of them whole heartedly. If something isn’t right, they will try and tell us however they can — big or small.

Speech and panic over… resume your day 🙃

08/15/2025

I really like the reference to the Spanish riding school lunging their students for a year. This was often mentioned in school at the Manor.

08/06/2025

It's been way too long since we've had our first Friday night bible study, I happened to see this coming Friday is open for me ( yes in like 2 days).
If we decided to meet this Friday who could make it?

08/05/2025

So important!

Don’t assume that every horse with a high poll is correct, and don’t assume that a horse that is low and round is incorrect. You have to look at the state of the horse’s *back* to truly judge how correct it is.

The horse’s back should be relaxed, swinging, and elevated under the saddle, rather than still and hollow. When the horse’s back is properly “up” (arched upwards under the rider’s seat,) he will be correctly seeking the connection. And this can be achieved with many different relative heights of the horse’s neck.

Never forget that it is equally as damaging to horses to ride them with a high head and neck with a *hollow back* as it is to ride a horse cranked down in Rollkur.

08/04/2025

We are still in search of the right candidatefor an instructor position.
Part-time with LOTS of room for growth.
We aren't just teaching riding, but horsmeanship, problem solving in the saddle, how to be a "driver" (as I like to call it) vs. a passenger in a very biomechanic environment.
Schedule will depend on skills, the ability to shadow and learn is highly encouraged.
Open to an English or western disciplined rider with a dressage, centered riding foundation.

If you think this could be for you, let's talk further.

The right candidate could offer programs to more targeted areas. I've done a few over the years with lots of ideas that never came to fruition due to lack of time.

07/18/2025

Such an important piece, i even tell my riders if they catch me to say something. Lol

The most common riding flaw I see among today's riders, including pros, is that they look down. To maintain correct balance, we need to ride with our head up and our eyes forward. I see riders posting images all over the internet of them riding that show they are looking down. This might seem a minor issue, but it is not.

When your eyes are down, your horse can feel that your balance is more forward to varying degrees over their horse's forehand. This might seem like a minor issue, but it will put your horse onto their forehand. When your eyes go down, your head that weighs 15 pounds (7 kg) goes down and forward, and usually your shoulders begin to close. All of this together causes a horse to fall forward onto their forehand. The fact that your head is up high at the end of an effective lever, that is your upper body, multiplies the forward weight of your head and shoulders significantly affecting your horse's balance.

The negative effects this has on your horse show up in several ways. It makes both upward and downward transitions more difficult for your horse because this imbalance interferes with your horse's need to engage their hind to reach under themselves. Simply said, when you shift your weight forward in this manner it becomes more difficult for your horse to use its hind. The same is true in lead changes. Rider weight over the forehand, even a little bit, makes all movements that depend on hind engagement more difficult for your horse.

This common riding flaw also affects the rider. Looking down makes it more difficult to develop "feel". To develop "feel" a rider must be centered in unity with their horse's balance. Being forward, ahead of the horse's center of balance creates an obstacle to feeling the horse's balance.

If you look down when riding, just stop it. If you have to look down for a reason, move your eyeballs, not your head. If you keep your eyes and head up and your shoulders open, many improvements will follow. You will sit the canter better because your head and neck position will no longer interfere with your hips swinging to the beats of the canter. "Eyes up". It's simple and fixes a lot of things.

05/27/2025

Someone deserves credit for this one! I don't know who but it wasn't me.