Blue Moon Dressage

08/18/2024

Any locals interested in a large hay steamer? I’m selling my full bale steamer and before I advertise it I’d live for it to help out my local peeps!

05/25/2024

12/15/2023

Juno showing off her big trot

09/18/2023

Juno playing nice…

09/17/2023

Juno putting 2 and 2 together and arriving at 6 instead of 119. She gave a really great feeling in the trot after her attempts at half steps!

09/17/2023

Juno looking like a proper dressage pony.

03/06/2023

Available rider spots in the upcoming Richard Williams clinic March24-26. Message me to reserve yours!

02/26/2023

One full care stall available. Message for details!

10/28/2022

Great spread before the theory lecture.

08/20/2022

Starting to plan the fall lecture series. Will probably begin late October. Hoping to offer equine nutrition as the series opener. Stayed tuned for details!

06/15/2022

Preliminary schedule for the Richard Williams clinic. Auditors must preregister for the lecture and rides. Message me for the details!

05/30/2022

This exercise from Ingrid Klimke encourages strength, precision, throughness with willing cooperation, and longitudinal bend. This exercise comes to us from renowned Equestrian, Olympian and author Ingrid Klimke. It was originally published in her book Training Horses the Ingrid Klimke Way. This is....

05/29/2022

Blue Moon Dressage has limited availability for full care board. Indoor, outdoor, small group turnout.

Accepting new students as well. FEI trainer on site. Message for details.

05/13/2022

Team USA’s international dressage rider Leslie Morse has officially announced her retirement from international competition on May 9, 2022. The 40-year veteran to dressage has decided to begin a new chapter in her career and focus her efforts and experience on the next generation of American dress...

04/30/2022

Dewey figuring out the hard stuff!

04/03/2022

We had a successfil launch to our planned educational lecture series with Pat Reilly, Chief of Farrier Services at New Bolton Center. Stay tuned for more opportunities to learn the latest in horse health and care. Hoping to do something 5-6 times a years. If you have a topic you'd like explored please DM or leave a comment and we will try to accomodate the request!.

04/03/2022

Fantastic lecture presented by Pat Reilly! Thanks to all who came!

03/28/2022

new work by the hubs!

New work in the shop!

03/20/2022

We had a great weekend of insights and learning as Richard F. Williams helped us all refine our understanding of contact, bend, straightness and impulsion. We will certainly have him return!

03/17/2022

The Seat Explained

The seat has two meanings.
One is the specific area of contact that extends from the lumbar
back down to the knee, in other words, whatever moves from the lumbar area down to the
knee is the rider's seat.
But in a broader sense, the rider's seat is everything because its influence is entire, from the top of the head, which should be the highest point, of course, to the bottom of his heel.

The seat should be a cohesive unit that comes to the horse as a communication medium and as a transformation medium, one that is communicating cohesively and as a unit rather than in bits and pieces. I would like to say that even when a teacher gives specific directions to the rider to do something with his arms and with his legs, those directions
influence the rest of the rider. Because the rider is one person, he must communicate as one unit, one seat.

Riders should have balanced, deep, adhesive seats that allow them to make independent aids. Riders who remain adhesive to the saddle and their horses do so because they
understood and they learned that when the horse impacts on the ground the two points of
absorption are in the lumbar back and ankle. Riders who stiffen the ankle paralyse the toe
outward or downward, or push themselves away from the saddle to some degree. Riders
who cannot absorb the horse's movement in the lumbar back will, of course, pop loose of
the saddle and part from it.

Correct riding is done with the abdominal muscles, not with the back.
The rider's lumbar back should always remain relaxed. It should act as a hinge that allows
the pelvic structure to float forward with the horse's motion. The lumbar back allows the rider to remain isometrically toned - not tense -- in his torso while letting the buttocks and thighs remain adhesive to the saddle. The buttocks, the pelvic structure, should not slide on the surface of the saddle. Nor should the buttocks wipe or buff the saddle but rather "stick to it to allow the pelvic structure to surf the “wave" produced by the motion of the horse's back.

In contrast to the loose and supple use of the lumbar back, the torso above it should be
turned into one isometrically toned "cabinet." The rider's “cabinet" is a complex isometric unit.
For its formation, the rider should circle with the points of his shoulder back and down until
both shoulder blades are flat in the trapezius muscle of the back. This action will stabilise the posture of the torso. It will allow the front of the rider to lift the rib cage high, out of the abdominal cavity. It will broaden the chest, straighten the shoulders, stretch the front of the rider, and give him the feeling that the lowest ribs have been lifted, and the waist is more slender.
The rider's upper arms should then hang from his shoulders perpendicular to the
ground. This, importantly, stabilises the arms, hence the hands of the rider because in this
position the upper arms and elbows hang weightlessly. The earth's centre of gravity places
them. The direction of the upper arms and elbows will point to the rider's seat bones, and past them, to the ground. The stability provided by this upper-arm position is at the heart of riding - from the seat to the bridle, rather than wrongly, riding with the hands. For the vertical position of the upper arms is, indeed, responsible for the transferring of the seat's effects to the bridle.

Extract from Dressage Principles Illuminated by Charles de Knuffy p.140

Image:
To understand how to use your lower back to develop an adhesive seat, sit at the edge of a chair, and place
your feet on the floor in line with, and under your hips.
Thrust your pelvis forward so that you lift the back legs of
the chair off the ground. Then rock the chair forward and
backward to various different tilting angles and at different
rhythms without dropping the chair's back legs to the floor.
As you ride the walk, trot, and canter, this action simulates
the movement of an adhesive seat by emulating the pelvic
activity necessary to follow the horse's movement.

03/09/2022

Who would be interested in a clinic with Claudio Oliveira? Pi/pa specialist, late spring or early summer. Need minimum 20 rides, 24 preferred. Fee will likely be around $300. Message me with dates you can commit to ride.

03/03/2022

Pat will be lecturing at Blue Moon Dressage in April. Message to join us!

Should a horse be barefoot or shod? What is the role of science and research in shoeing horses, both now and in the future? Farrier Pat Reilly, Chief of Farrier Services and Director of the Applied Polymer Research Laboratory at the University of Pennsylvania, shares his insights on these topics and...

12/22/2021

Carl Hester on balance and self carriage:
“Self-carriage is really easy to see. It’s that tension into the hand that we were just talking about with Valegro, the first place you see it is through the whole of the top line of the horse. The best thing you can do for self-carriage is the give and re-take of the reins. It is amazing how you forget to do that when you ride on your own. That constant giving the hand, taking, giving, taking, making sure that the outline is stable, the mouth is soft. You only have to look at the mouth to know how it is working, the horse is carrying its own head and neck.”
https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/2021/02/balance-self-carriage-and-the-importance-of-rider-position/

12/09/2021

Only every other day. Find the joy and take the pressure off yourself!

Brett Parbery, an Australian Grand Prix rider and 2018 WEG team rider, recently shared this insightful post on his page with the following words of wisdom.

12/08/2021

Thought on Lemons and Lemonade

While I'm still working on my lemonade recipe, I'm sure I'll find one that's truly awesome. The lemons of having to take my horses out of work, particularly Dewey, particularly when he is going REALLY well, AND when i feel the pressures of passing time and a bag o bones that clearly is struggling with this whole aging business, are bitter indeed. But i am also exhausted, in rather constant discomfort if not outright pain, and find myself questioning the wisdom of my choices.

While surgery is never to be undertaken lightly, and boy my anxiety level was pretty high, the forced slow down, rest and reliance on others will ultimately help me recharge. And the horses will be fine. They really don't care if they train....they might, as critters of habit, experience the change in routine as an oddity and I'd like to think Dewey will wonder why im not there everday to scratch his adorableness...but the rest will do them good as well. And for a few weeks i get to sleep in (sorta...the dog still has needs), stay warm, dry, unbuffeted by the perpetual wind, and neither stepped on, bitten, kicked or dragged around by these beasts that have made my heart sing for 45 years.

11/27/2021

Dewey getting stronger with improved engagement.

11/27/2021

Team Tate Academy is a fantastic tool to further your understanding of the theory and application of classical dressage training, whether you ride a fancy prancer or your husband's horse... Dressage will help EVERY horse become their best selves!

Use this link during open enrollment to gain access to weekly content, Tack Room Chats and an superbly supportive online community!

https://www.teamtateacademy.com/a/46608/qgaPxNa8

11/22/2021

Free Full Length Video from Team Tate AcademyOne of the best ways to prevent injury and prepare your horse’s body and mind for learning is a proper warm-up.J...

10/30/2021

Blue Moon Dressage has openings for full board or pasture board in January. Message for details.