Chesterfield South

01/16/2025

Here's Kensley Leiss and her favorite Boone! Thanks Molly Van Scoy for taking this pic!

01/13/2025

Did you know that a horse that hasn't been how to properly support and carry the weight of a rider will instinctually hollow their back away from the weight of the rider? Many riding horses spend their entire careers going around with hollow backs, even upper level competition horses.

Carrying weight with a hollow back is, at best, uncomfortable for the horse, and in many cases is actually quite painful. Many horses tolerate this discomfort because they don't know any alternative. Other horses develop behavioral problems and become labeled as bad horses.

For a horse to remain healthy and comfortable in his work he must be taught how to support the weight of a rider with first a neutral back and then later on with a lifted back. This is a process that takes time, as you can't rush muscle development.

I've found that the best way to teach a horse to lift his back is on the ground first, through classical in hand work. Without the extra weight of the rider, it is easier for the horse to learn how to lift his back and it is easier for him to develop the strength that he needs in order to maintain a lifted back for an extended amount of time.

Once the horse has and understanding of this healthier posture and has developed some strength, it will be much easier for him to accomplish the same thing with a rider on his back.

The horse will then feel more comfortable and have an easier time performing his job. He will be less prone to injuries and behavioral problems and he will be able to continue doing his job for much longer than if he never learned to move in a healthy way.

As stewards of our horses, we owe it to them to give them the best lives possible. That includes taking the time to teach them how to move in a way that is healthy and comfortable for them.

Want to learn more about the horse's back and how you can teach him a healthy posture? We invite you to join our Healthy Movement through In Hand Work course, available in our Virtual Classroom. You'll learn how you can help your horse to move in a healthier way through the use of In Hand Work.

This work is beneficial for horses of all ages, breeds, and disciplines and no previous experience is necessary.

Learn more and sign up here- https://tuskeydressage.com/register/virtual-classroom/

01/13/2025

01/10/2025

No regrets.

01/08/2025

There is a reason, I think, that horsemanship is so hard to teach, and that is because it's truly an art and not a science.

You can go to school for art. You can learn from masters of a particular art form. You can study the chemical composition of your medium and learn about how those mediums behave in different circumstances. You can learn about the history of your art, how it originated and how it's evolved. You can study trends and dabble in different methodologies.

But no matter what, in order to become an artist, you have to experience it. You have obsess over it. You have to go to bed thinking about it and get up thinking about it. You have to become a little bit consumed by it. It drives your passion and your curiosity. You have to dedicate a part of your soul to its inception, creation and development. In some ways, you have to get to the point where you cannot separate yourself from it, as it has become a part of you and you of it.

I have received requests in the past asking me to write more about specific techniques, "how-to's", if you will. I will admit I struggle with this because it feels to me kind of like someone asking me how to have a conversation. I can give you a very general framework, but a conversation is intimate and personal. To write one for someone else would seem to me to be a request to boil down everything that is beautiful and awe-inspiring about horsemanship into base mechanical elements: important, but ultimately in my experience not AS important as the energy, flow and feeling of what is happening between the horse and the human.

Yes, you need a basic skillset to be an artist. You need to know how to hold the brush. You need to know how to choose a canvas. You need to know a thing or two about how your medium behaves and how to bring out the best in it.

But what ultimately creates art is the person behind the tools and the feeling within them. And since no teacher can create this for you, we simply have to try and set up scenarios and allow space and spark inspiration for people to go seek it within themselves.

01/07/2025

Ass in saddle time is key.

The more you ride, the better you become.

Even on the days the conditions are not ideal, you can walk your horse.

You can work on softness and feel.

You can concentrate on body control for yourself and your horse.

Stop making excuses.

Go to work.

www.betweenthereins.us

01/07/2025

So true

Things your riding instructor wants you to know:
1. This sport is hard. You don't get to bypass the hard…..every good rider has gone through it. You make progress, then you don't, and then you make progress again. Your riding instructor can coach you through it, but they cannot make it easy.

2. You're going to ride horses you don't want to ride. If you're teachable, you will learn from every horse you ride. Each horse in the barn can teach you if you let them. IF YOU LET THEM. Which leads me to…

3. You MUST be teachable to succeed in this sport. You must be teachable to succeed at anything, but that is another conversation. Being teachable often means going back to basics time and time and time again. If you find basics boring, then your not looking at them as an opportunity to learn. Which brings me to…..

4. This sport is a COMMITMENT. Read that, then read it again. Every sport is a commitment, but in this sport your teammate weighs 1200 lbs and speaks a different language. Good riders don't get good by riding every once in awhile….they improve because they make riding a priority and give themsevles opportunity to practice.

5. EVERY RIDE IS AN OPPORTUNITY. Even the walk ones. Even the hard ones. Every. Single. Ride. Remember when you just wished someone would lead you around on a horse? Find the happiness in just being able to RIDE. If you make every ride about what your AREN'T doing, you take the fun out of the experience for yourself, your horse, and your instructor. Just enjoy the process. Which brings me to...

6. Riding should be fun. It is work. and work isn't always fun.....but if you (or your rider) are consistently choosing other activities or find yourself not looking forward to lessons, it's time to take a break. The horses already know you don't want to be here, and you set yourself up for failure if you are already dreading the lesson before you get here.

7. You'll learn more about horses from the ground than you ever will while riding. That's why ground lessons are important, too. If you're skipping ground lessons (or the part of your lesson that takes place on the ground), you're missing out on the most important parts of the lesson. You spend far more time on the ground with horses than you do in the saddle.

8. Ask questions and communicate. If you're wondering why your coach is having you ride a particular horse or do an exercise, ask them. Then listen to their answer and refer to #3 above.

9. We are human beings. We make decisions (some of them life and death ones) every day. We balance learning for students with workloads for horses and carry the bulk of this business on our shoulders. A little courtesy goes a long way.

Of all the sports your child will try through their school years, riding is one of 3 that they may continue regularly as adults (golf and skiing are the others). People who coach riding spend the better part of their free time and much of their disposable income trying to improve their own riding and caring for the horses who help teach your child. They love this sport and teaching others…..but they all have their limits. Not all good riders are good coaches, but all good coaches will tell you that the process to get good is not an easy one.

*thank you to whoever wrote this! Not my words, but certainly a shared sentiment!

01/02/2025

Happy 2025 ✨️

01/01/2025

❤️❤️❤️❤️
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10. Cultural Im