Cedar Springs Equestrian Center

04/04/2025

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04/04/2025

🌟 Exciting News from Cedar Springs Equestrian Center! 🌟

Thanks to the generosity of Lee Ellis, we’re offering 2 half-price camp scholarships for this summer’s riding camps! 🐴☀️

📅 Camp Dates:
• June 9–13 (Beginner/Intermediate)
• June 23–27 (Beginner/Intermediate)
• July 7–11 (Intermediate/Advanced)
• July 28–August 1 (Beginner/Intermediate)

Whether your rider is just starting out or ready to level up their skills, we’ve got the perfect camp for them!
Interested in applying for one of the scholarships?

📧 Email: [email protected]
📞 Call/Text: 479-799-3384

Spots fill up fast—don’t miss out on this amazing opportunity! 🐎💙

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04/04/2025

It's already that time again. Sign up is open for Summer Camp at Cedar Springs :)

04/03/2025

One to watch.

04/02/2025

First show of 2025- Green Country Spring Fling. We brought 7 riders (3 of them new), 6 horses, and lots of energy to the show. They all did awesome. Thanks to Green Country Arabian Horse Association for putting on a great show as usual. This is our favorite way to start the year.

02/19/2025

All horses are doing fine with the cold weather. They have extra hay and are being watered multiple times a day to make sure they get enough. Ill try to get some pics this afternoon.

02/17/2025

FREE Live Feed for the Scottsdale show. Enjoy!

2025 Scottsdale Arabian Horse ShowFebruary 13 - 23, 2025FREE Live Streaming: Equidome Live Wendell Live Reining Live International Live FREE full day replay videos from prior days: Equidome Replay Wendell Replay Reining Replay International Replay Downloads of specific classes: 2025 Free Video Downl...

01/12/2025

This is what it's all about, that red dot center of mass. The image shows where, when a horse is standing still, the mean of all the horse's bone, soft tissue and everything converges and where a horse feels their physical center. Horses feel this all the time, standing or moving. It's their center of physical comfort. As riders, it is our responsibility to keep that center more or less in the same centered place, so the horse always feels comfortable.

The percentages shown, front or back are expressed in plus or minus because every horse is a little different. This is due to conformation differences. If the horse's back is longer than average, the percent in the back gets a little larger. If a horse's neck is longer than is typical, the percentage in the front gets a little larger. Every horse is different.

The first thing I do when I get on a horse I have never ridden is feel where that red dot is for the particular horses I ride. This is so I can preserve it as best I can when I ride. And BTW for the nit pickers, some people call it the center of balance or gravity, but the name doesn't matter. What matters is the horse feels good when it's in that centered place.

And then we move off from standing still and the horse's center of mass begins to change. If we ride well, when the center changes along the line of impulsion (yellow lines), and if our horse is fit and we have the feel and the skill to keep that red in our horse's comfortable physically centered place, we have a great ride.

That's it folks. There isn't much more to riding well than this. It is all about the physics of energy and mass. We have to feel it. Some of us, who have watched riders and horses in lessons, training and competition almost every day for decades, can see it. When we teach, we don't teach forms like heels down or more hip angle. We teach, "let the horse move you" so you can feel it. When we train a horse, it's about keeping that red dot in the horse's comfortable center. When we judge, we evaluate how far from that center a rider mistakenly moves that center out from where the horse needs it.

If there was ever an "easier said than done" context, it is riding a horse well. This is why riders after a lifetime of riding, even with great instructors and horses, say they never learned enough. It's that challenging. But we do it anyway because nothing feels better than getting closer to this goal. This is the paradox of horsemanship, enjoying the impossibility of it all.

01/10/2025

Snow day 2025. Time stands still....except for barn chores.

01/07/2025

Dreaming of Spring....

01/02/2025

12/25/2024

Merry Christmas to all our family and friends. Photo by Delaney Blanchard.