Clover Run

03/12/2025

Special opportunity for an advanced rider looking for more ride time:

I have three nice horses that have been out of work for several months as I have not been able to ride them since the accident due to dealing with healing and court, and then the rough winter. All three need to start with flat work and conditioning, but will be able to jump once they are fit again. Two are hunters, one green, one quirky and very mare-ish, one is a very forward thinking jumper. All three are thoroughbred mares. These are my personal horses, not lesson horses.

If you are not an advanced rider, this opportunity is not for you. If you are afraid of mares or thoroughbreds, these horses are not for you. If I don’t already know you, I will need to see current riding videos, and I will need to speak with your current trainer. Preference given to someone who also would like to take regular lessons here (on one of these, or one of the school horses). Opportunities to show them once fit are available.

This is NOT a paid position.
This is simply an opportunity for an advanced rider who doesn’t own their own horse to be able to ride, or maybe does and just wants to ride more.
Located in Edgewater, Md.
Send me a PM if you’d like to discuss.

03/03/2025

03/02/2025

03/01/2025

To be a student of the horse requires
Humility without self deprecation
Flexibility without loss of discipline
Openness without loss of structure
Study of theory without rigidity
Experimentation without losing principle

And above all
Awareness and curiosity

02/20/2025

NWOT Kerrits stretch competition coat in the very hard to find stunningly beautiful lilac color. 4 buttons, hidden zipper, water and stain resistant. $100 Pick up in Edgewater and or will ship at buyers expense.

Manufacturer details: https://kerrits.com/products/stretch-competitor-koat

02/18/2025

02/10/2025

84” shires 400g heavy turnout blanket. Like new condition- Very lightly used, NO damage, fully waterproof. Hood is attached. Pick up in Edgewater Md 21037
$150

01/28/2025

Welcome to Trainer Tuesday! Each week we ask trainers a question and gather their answers for you. These trainers have a range of experience, backgrounds, and focus points of their programs, so the answers have as much variation as you would expect and also probably much more similarity.  This week...

01/27/2025

Congratulations to our small but mighty NCAEL team on their 2nd place finish yesterday at

This accomplishment is extra impressive as many of our riders haven’t ridden more than once or twice in the past several weeks due to weather! Great job ladies!

01/15/2025

The truth is: many of us are trying to practice above our level, and that is why things feel messy.
Many of us become frustrated or take offense to having the work lowered to a more basic level- we can feel like we are being judged, punished, or held back, but the truth is, working on those basic skills will help our work soar more quickly.
Most people I encounter (and myself included- and this is precisely what I work on with my teachers) need practice on handling their lead rope, reins and tools with better care, learning to sit with better balance and “follow through,” learning to feel the horse better, learning situational awareness, controlling their own thoughts and body around the horse and on -
While all of us want to be working on fun things or higher level things, our work is like a house of cards without control of our bodies, minds, breath - it all comes tumbling down at the first sign of trouble without these hard earned basic skills.
I don’t see these taught to the level they need to be to to the public save for a few rare teachers here and there, including my cherished mentors - and so I find when they are taught to the level needed to the public, people are often startled, offended, or confused. But I believe strongly that this is the change the horse world needs - it needs people to commit to it like their lives depend on it, and trainers to commit to teaching what the public needs above catering to what the public wants: that is what will really make both horses and people’s lives infinitely better.

01/14/2025

Making Strides always has the most amazing end of year ribbons! Only a few days left to get your banquet tickets if you havent already!

End of series ribbons just arrived from Canada

01/13/2025

We greatly appreciate everyone’s support. We need to purchase a “new” truck and trailer in order to have a 2025 show season- we have some in our sights, just need the funds. Insurance has covered nothing unfortunately.

12/12/2024

A small stab in the heart is what you feel when you put up the day's riding list and you see riders sinking heavily in their shoulders when reading which horse they are assigned for the lesson. A small stab in the heart for that horse that for an hour will carry around a rider who has already decided that he does not like his horse. A small stab in the heart for the horse that did not choose the rider himself but still does his best, lesson after lesson.

Riding is a privilege and something you have chosen to do. If you chose to ride at a riding school, your instructor assumes that you actually want to learn how to ride. The instructor's highest wish is that you get good at it.

Often there is a plan and a thought as to why you are assigned to that exact horse. Before you mount up next time, ask yourself "what can this horse teach me today?" All horses have something to give, a feeling or a new tool in the box.

The art is actually in being able to get a lazy horse to move forward, to get an uncertain horse to gain confidence, a naughty horse to focus or a tense horse to be released. It takes work. If you think a horse is boring, it's more likely that you don't ride the horse as well as you think! It's not easy to be confronted with your own shortcomings, but it is in that very situation that you get the chance to truly grow as a rider.

The excuse that "it's not my kind of horse" is actually a really bad excuse. A good rider can ride any kind of horse. A good rider has trained many hours on different types of horses to become a good rider. A good rider can find and manage the gold nuggets in every horse.

If we absolutely want to ride, it is our duty to strive to do it as best as possible, even if it's only for fun. We owe it to every horse that carries us upon it's back.

Copied and shared with love for all of our horses, ponies and riders 🐎❤🐎

12/10/2024

How do you get to ride lots of different horses?

Good question.

1. Be born mega rich, buy em and ride em.
2. Be a barn rat. Ride anything that won`t hurt you too badly.
3. Never say "not today, thanks" if you are offered a ride on any horse. Your key word is "yes", followed by "thank you."
4.Work to become good enough so that people want you to ride their horses.
5. Like the guys in Top Gun, when they walked into the bar full of young women "YES! A target rich environment!" Hang where there are lots of horses, not where there aren`t any.
6.Learn the Yiddish expression, "No for an answer I already got." Ask if you can ride extra horses. Maybe they say no. You`re no worse off than if you hadn`t asked.
7. Don`t be a lazy toad. If your barn owner offers to trade extra riding for weekend stall cleaning, be the kid who says "yes", and let your worthless friends sleep in and miss out.
8.Get a horse job, and be the eager beaver. Many horse owners are not truly horse riders, and they are often looking for a way to weasel out of riding today. Be there to pick up the ride.
9. Think of other ways.

(When Russ Fawcett (directly behind me) asked if I wanted to ride Iron Cloud out in Jackson, Wyoming, I said "yes please", and "thank you.")

12/05/2024

More on the German phrase that says “riding is only learned by sweeping.”

I remember an example of this one night, about 40 years ago, when I was spending a month at Walter Christensen’s dressage training stable, Stal Tasdorf, in Tasdorf, Germany. (photo of Walter teaching)

Walter’s main barn had a cobblestone type of floor, hard to keep clean because of all the indentations, and in various corners were funny little Hansel and Gretel type brooms, straight handles with what looked like a bunch of twigs wired to one end.

Everyone had left, all the working students, all the riders, and here was the master, then coach of the Swedish Olympic dressage team, vigorously giving the aisle one last cleanup before turning out the lights.

In the great scheme of things, why would it matter one iota whether the aisle was immaculate? Early next morning, when all the horses were being fed, hay and straw would get spilled all around, and who was going to see that floor in the middle of the night?

But that’s not the point, is it? And for those who do see the point, they probably would have been at one end of the broom. And for those who can’t grasp why it mattered to Walter, they’d have left it as it was.

To what extent can pride in a way of doing things be taught? Because that’s what’s at play here, I think.

And pride in one detail spills over into pride about other details, until it creates a mindset, a way of being. Or not---And in that way, sweeping teaches riding, tenuous as the connection might seem.

11/27/2024

BY DAPHNE THORNTON OF TWO BIT TRAINING When it comes to riding lessons, I understand that riding is the overwhelming desire, as well as the underlying principle, guiding most participants. However, sometimes riding is not possible, or even advisable. On those days, I am a fan of unmounted lessons.....