Lighted Way Equestrian Program

08/14/2024

Baby's first saddle!! First time with a saddle on and didn't blink an eye. Good job Will!

07/27/2024

It was truly a lovely evening at Lighted Way!!

07/19/2024

Jump standards now available! Jump through summer at these great prices $70. a pair. (Jump cups not included)

07/13/2024

A simple exercise for green horses and rider's learning to utilize their eye and space keeping clean lines and smooth turns. Every exercise is practiced slowly and methodically to develop good habits for both horse and rider. At this stage, developing confidence through accuracy over low jumps and ground poles will help keep, both horse and rider, safe as the difficulty increases over time.

09/17/2023

To all the buyers and sellers who came out today... Thank you for coming!!! For anyone who was unable to attend today, there are lots of wonderful things left that are still available!

09/17/2023

Some of the things available at the tack swap today.

09/11/2023

Such a lovely evening at Lighted Way!!

02/03/2023

Horses are all in and snug as bugs in a rug!!❤🐎 🌬

07/09/2022

This is an early driving lesson with this pair. Coming soon will be the follow up video to view how dramatically they've improved over the past 14 months. https://youtu.be/ahhi0yvu3A4

In this lesson, we are working to improve the driver's use of eye to focus and plan as well as to utilize correct position and effective use of the aids to i...

12/17/2021

A lovely drone shot of the farm from 200'

11/14/2020

Archie, the pony, developed a habit of stopping at the trailer and refusing to load. All the folks at Lighted Way were looking forward to him coming to stay with us but he was refusing to load on his owner's trailer. So I told them I'd come and get him. This is the video of me using safe alternative methods to ask him to load up rather than demanding he load up. Unless it's a life or death emergency, as a rule, I never force a horse on the trailer. When they give me even a little... I make a big fuss over their willingness to try. This is the result.

4K resolution available on our youtube channel: https://youtu.be/DLZAW-BbptY

10/26/2020

10/19/2020

Hello my equestrian friends and colleagues 👋
We made a short film styled video of Kaitlynn & Misty's visit to our farm. We do hope you enjoyed it. If you would like a similar video created for your social media, website, or even for a virtual show entry please contact Lynn directly about our availability or leave a comment below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VzlK4knZ8eU&feature=youtu.be

This video is about Kait and her lovely mare, Misty. She reached out for some help as she was having some difficulty regulating her tempo. Misty had some pas...

10/14/2020

10/08/2020

Castle Black, affectionately known as Big Red Merlin, is going to demonstrate the stretches we do prior to a workout. Many people do "carrot stretches." I find that this set of accu pressure based stretches are very beneficial in a broader sense to prepare the horse for an upcoming workout.

4K resolution available on our youtube channel: https://youtu.be/k2RBvevnsL0

10/07/2020

Castle Black aka Big Red Merlin

10/06/2020

Both Rachel and Red Reddington had both had a great deal of time away from riding for various reasons. When Rachel first started up again, Reddington was full of shenanigans which caused Rachel to ride a bit on the defensive side. In this video, we made some subtle position changes that seemed to help them both move beyond that stage and enjoy the ride again. Reddington is a bit mouthy so we'll be checking the bridle adjustment as well as continuing to help him seek the bit.

4K Resolution is available on our youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hkm9Fip6QSw&feature=youtu.be

10/04/2020

Winston is a sweet young OTTB. He's been very kindly carrying his rider without any fuss but its time for his education to expand. So today, he's being introduced to balance and contact. At first, when I close my leg and ask him to come up to the bit, there's quite a bit of resistance. As time goes on and he discovers that by lifting his back, lowering his head, and stepping up from behind to counter his balance...it becomes easier to carry my 60-year-old weight. At the same time, he's learning to accept direction from the leg not only to go forward but to move over. Rather than overtaxing him with too much that he doesn't yet understand...I layer his understanding with the use of an open/leading rein inside and an outside bearing rein. This helps him to see the path that's open vs the path that's closed. He was a trooper throughout and is on the way to discovering balance. Good job Winston.

4K resolution available on our youtube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KhmoPzl-ums

10/01/2020

Alan's Legacy... just coming back into work after pulling a muscle in the field. We have him in loose side reins in order to give him as much freedom of movement as possible. He's a bit resistant at the beginning of this light workout but improves with time. He'll be brought back into work carefully till his back fully recovers.

10/01/2020

The day before I worked Alan to the left. The side reins were quite loose so as not to interfere with his movement at all. What I discovered was his ability to resist going forward across his topline by bulging his shoulder out in certain spots. Today we made 2 changes. One was to shorten the side reins ever so slightly in order to take the place of a riders outside hand to establish a boundary. This was NOT done to set his head. Rather, it was done to help keep the energy flowing through over his topline instead of escaping out the bulge like a hole in a hose. His movement was overall much more consistent today. I was very pleased with his slow and steady progress.

09/30/2020

Alan & Casanova peacefully grazing in the field

06/16/2020

The primary goal of longeing is to help the horse balance himself without the weight of the rider. This is achieved by establishing a round circle in a steady tempo that is neither too fast nor too slow.

Correct arena patterns, such as a round circle or a straight line that is truly straight, help to straighten the horse and to find his lateral balance. A crooked horse, on the other hand, will always leave the arena pattern by drifting in or out, which creates an imbalance in the direction in which the horse is drifting.

A steady tempo (strides per minute) helps the horse to find his longitudinal balance. Together with straightness, it forms the foundation of balance, which is the prerequisite for relaxation (Losgelassenheit), permeability (Durchlässigkeit), impulsion, and collection.
During the initial training at the longe line as well as during the retraining of correction horses, the rider’s main task is to even out all the irregularities that occur. When the tempo becomes too fast, you have to slow it down. When it becomes too slow and sluggish, you have to energise the horse and speed up a little. When the horse drifts in, you have to send him out to the circle line. When the horse drifts out, you have to turn his shoulders so that he comes back to the circle line.

Whenever the horse drifts away from the line of travel, he gets crooked and loses his balance, which will lead to a tightening of the back and inverting.

When the horse speeds up or slows down, he will also lose balance and invert.

The rounder the circle becomes and the more metronome-like the tempo becomes, the more the horse will start to make a steady contact with the longe line, to relax, and to bend his spine. Most horses will start to stretch forward-downward, too, when they find their balance.

Thomas Ritter