Stable Riding

02/21/2025

To cheer ourselves up on this cold winter day, we thought we would reminisce back to April of 2024 and Stable Riding’s debut at Equine Affaire, Inc. (Official) 😇

Solange Ellis loaded up her 2 Equicizers and brought down a whole crew of amazing Stable Riders to help man the booth 💪

They had 55 Stablity Check slots available and they ended up doing over 70!! 🤩

The booth was packed all day! This helped us win Best Booth Award 🏆

Something we are all still very proud of 🥳

We will be back at this years Equine Affaire April 10th thru 13th, but with an EVEN BIGGER booth and THREE Equicizers! As well as a Special Guest Appearance from Frankie Lovato on Saturday 👏👏

Interested in a Stability Check with Solange? Sign up here!
https://signup.com/go/pMUAMnk

To follow up this event we are happy to announce we have our first Equicizer Clinic at the best tack shop in Columbus Equus Now! on May 10th.
Here is the link!
https://signup.com/go/QtbWzNZ

If you have questions about either Stable Riding event, you can message us here or email [email protected]

02/19/2025

This past weekend the LAB had hosted the Bath Pony Club 😎

About 20 young riders came in and had Stability Checks with Solange on Equicizers, rode the Might Bucky and devoured delicious cookies from ocelotcafeandbakery.

It was a good winter day to spend warm in the LAB ❄️🔥

02/18/2025

❄️❄️❄️
🐐🐐🐐

02/14/2025

🎉 Big News for Stable Riding 🎉

We have TWO Fabulous events coming up 😎

First!
We are making a triumphant return to Equine Affaire, Inc. (Official) with 3 Equicizers in our new and improved triple booth space. Number 713, by the food court!

Solange will be giving 20min Mini lesson/Stability Checks in booth all 4 days.

Sign up here!
https://signup.com/go/pMUAMnk

On Saturday April 12th we have a celebrity guest joining us 🤩 Frankie Lovato the creator of the Equicizer will be there to meet everyone and talk about his amazing invention 💪

Second!
Equus Now! the premier tack shop in Columbus is hosting a “Stability with Solange” clinic May 10th. Solange will be teaching 90 minutes sessions on her Equicizers. If you are interested in Riding More and Falling Less, this clinic is for you 😎

Sign up here!
https://signup.com/go/QtbWzNZ

Any questions?
Email : [email protected]

02/13/2025

Frankie Lovato and Solange Ellis did not want to leave out our western riders! 🤠

Here is the Equicizer video highlight exercises in your western saddle 🤩😎👏

http://stableriding.us http://equicizer.com Solange from Stable Riding offers some riding tips using the Equicizer. Video taken at the Equicizer workshop.00...

02/12/2025

Rider Intensive Re-Cap 🔊🔊

Another FABULOUS one day intensive 🤩

We spent the morning with Solange Ellis, they started in the LAB and focused on a combination of hip motion, heel depth and back pulling vs arm pulling.

They used the Home Horse to start then went over to Woody, the OG Equicizer of the LAB 💪

From there it was Tulip Time 🌷

Already there was visible improvment in her hip motion, keeping her seat bones in better contact with the saddle in both the sitting trot and canter 😎

The first 3 hours flew by and then it was time for Martial Equestrian to take over.

They did a deep dive into hip mobility with a range of exercises. Some on laying on a mat or upright using the wall, excellent for riders who are looking for exercises to practice at home in between rides. Some on the equicizer.

We rounded out the day positively flying around the arena on Zippers 🪽🪽

A canter breakthrough was definitly had! And with this rider being a local, regular Stable Rider we are excited to see the progress continue at her next lesson.

Brava 👏👏👏👏

02/11/2025

Since it’s Valentine’s Week 💝

Please enjoy Scooter Goat eating a pink heart sprinkle donut hole 🥰

Sound up for goat-y gobbling 🔊🔊

02/08/2025

We are officially ready for today’s 6 hour Rider Intensive 👏

The first 3 hours are with Solange Ellis, the second 3 hours are with Martial Equestrian.

We always prepare the facility before each intensive rider 💪

The arena gets a fresh drag, the LAB gets reset and staged from is constant use in lessons. Horses are ridden in preparation, tack is pulled out and set aside.

We have it down to a science 🧪🔬

All the rider has to do it show up 😎

02/07/2025

📣 Rider Line Friday is Here! 📣

This week we have Devon, one of our in house local Stable Riders 💪

Here she is positively flying over fences on Otto 🪽🪽

Now, what is important to know about Devon is she naturally has tricky body proportions for a rider. Devon has a long torso compared to her leg length.

This makes her light seat positions ( posting, standing, galloping, jumping) more difficult to access in a Stable position than her longer leg/shorter torso counter parts.

Next if we look at Otto, he is also a nontraditional body type for a jumping horse. Otto is a pacey Arab cross of some sort. And has a extremely high head carriage all the time. At rest, under saddle, walking, trotting, cantering, jumping.

Otto loves to jump! But when you jump him, his head is in your lap.

The common instruction for riders when jumping is to bend forward at the waist past stability and throw their hips back. Pitching their head down towards the horses neck.

If Devon does this she falls off, and if she tried it on Otto his neck is in the way!

So, Solange modified Devon’s position for her skeletal body conformation and the horses skeletal body conformation.

The result? A stable rider on a happy horse!

Most riders and most horses do not have the “ideal body conformation” and therefore need something other than the common instruction riders receive.

Stable Riding is for All Riders.

Questions about your riding body type?
Want to be a Rider Line rider?
Email : [email protected]

02/05/2025

It’s Intensive Season here at Stable Riding 💪

You hear about “seasons” in the horse world.

Show Season.
Hay Season.
Breeding Season.
Foaling Season.
Shedding Season.

But only here at Stable Riding do we talk about Intensive Season.

Because…we invented it!

Originally the program was for our Mongol Derby riders who fly in, but since 2014 when we had our very first intensives…

We have taught 22!

TWENTY TWO different riders for their Half Day, Full Day, Two Day and Three Day Intensives 💪

Some were getting ready for the Mongol and Gaucho Derbies.

Some wanted to learn to canter.

Some wanted to be more confident.

Some wanted to fall less.

Some were only with Solange Ellis.

Some included Martial Equestrian.

What did ALL these riders do?

They learned, they rode.

And they left here better riders and more importantly happier riders!

In the next 8 weeks we have two 1 day intensives and four 3 day intensives 🤩

Buckle up.
It’s about to get LIT 🔥 ((as the kids say))

02/04/2025

Baby Goat knows that if you are going to be In The Way, you need to look Fabulous doing it 💅💅

02/03/2025

This week we are pleased to introduce Navy! ⚓️

She has a real name 🤨 But her barn name has been Navy so long no one remembers it! 🧐

Navy has been with Solange { REDACTED }.
An amount of time that makes Solange feel an age she cannot possibly be.

Navy has done just about every job at the barn over those { REDACTED } years 💪

Lately, she can be found here two days a week, cleaning stalls, making ramen and helping with math. 🍜🧮🐴

Navy has done it all and can do it all 💪

Every barn needs a Navy and we are so lucky to have one of our very own 🍀😇🤩

THANKS KID!!!!

02/02/2025

Negative Comment Post! Pt 2!

A few days ago I posted a video of a rider having a great time cantering their horse around, for fun. For the joy of cantering ❤️

And this post immediately got a strong reaction, with comments about how what this happy, forward, stable rider was doing wrong.

I was surprised as a rider just riding along, having fun on their horse seems innocuous 🤷‍♀️

But then again, it is unusual?

Is it unusual to see someone talk about riding with Joy?

Is it unusual to see a new rider ( under 5 years ) canter about calm, happy and stable?

Is is unusual to see a rider on a horse
of unknown breeding, pick the tack and position that works for them and just go ride?

Is it unusual to see a rider who doesn’t show, doesn’t compete?

Is it unusual to simply just ride?

For Joy of doing it?

Maybe.
Maybe not.

But I ride for fun all the time.
And I think you should too.

Here is a photo of Tiger, the last horse I rode who made me exclaim with joy ❤️

02/01/2025

Let’s talk Negative Comments!
Part 1!

Occasionally a post of mine will get the type of comment that could be read as “negative”. Generally these commenters are disagreeing with the position I put riders in.

FB is like a ladies high tea compared to the wild wild west of Tiktok.

It’s pretty tame over here and I’m generally un-offend-able in all things, including Social Media 😇
So I’m not bothered.

But as an instructor I felt a follow up may be helpful. We shall see, the internet is fickle on the best days 🙏

In this post I want to make clear my postion on rider position ((see what I did there??))

I will put a rider in the most stable position for their body, their horse, the activity, the amount of time the rider has been riding, the tack….the list goes on.

So it’s never *exactly* the same. As there is complex nuance.

The majority of the time, I DO NOT put riders in the classical equitation position that the masters teach.

Such as the shoulder hip heel alignment of the classical dressage and cavalry masters.

Why?? Cries the comment section!! 😫

Simple.

The classical riding masters were men.

They were tall and thin…like me!

And tall thin curve-less riders (like me!) who have the correct horse and tack can ride in that classical position all day long. ( I can! But I don’t always. )

And I do teach men, and some are really tall and lean.

And sometimes they ride like that, and sometimes even they do not. (( and it’s ok ))

But the majority of riders I teach are not advanced skill set tall thin men.

They are :
Women
Kids
Short
Curvy
Older
Have joint replacements
Have injuries
Have young horses
Have green horses
New to riding
Returning to riding after a long break
Nervous/anxious or low confident
Are on gaited horses
Are in all different types of tack
Are performing all different actives with their horse

So for these students, that singular highly specific riding position is not the most stable.

Something else is.

So I teach them what is in their own best interest.

Because I believe All riders deserve to be stable.

Not just tall, thin, men.

01/31/2025

🎉Rider Line Friday🎉

This gentleman is a c**t starter and horse trainer, he asked a friend to have his Rider Lines done 💪

Stable Riding is for everyone 👏
Even horse professionals!
And if any of us are interested in stability, it’s those of us breaking your young horses to saddle 😎

Let’s dig in!

The top green line shows his head is perfectly level ✅

The green lines on his legs show a perfectly deep seat lower leg position. His leg bones are on the vertical line to the ground. With his toes out and heels down. His stirrups are the correct length and he is interacting correctly with his stirrups.

The Red Torso line shows he is rounding forward from his shoulders, this is from his hand position. He has over released his reins to give the young horse totally freedom from the bit in what’s probably one of his first canters under saddle. This is a common “trainer position” and one that he can only access because his feet are so correct.

Bringing his hands back, will align his shoulders over his hips. This change will allow better application of his weight aides via his seat bones as well as better stability if his horse moves out from under him.
He can still allow the young horse a large amount of freedom to travel forward by simply lengthening his reins from that new closer to his body hand position 👍

Thank you Sir, for participating in our series 🙏

We are looking for a future Rider Line Rider 👀🕵️‍♀️🏇
Could it be you? 🫵
Let us know 😎

You can message us here, or email [email protected]

01/29/2025

Solange here! I have a question for you.

When was the last time you whooped with joy on a horse?!

No. I’m serious, think about it 🧐

When was the last time you felt so stable, so comfortable, so safe. That on your horse at a canter you felt and allowed yourself to express joy?

I can tell you exactly when it was for me.
Oct 2023, galloping across Fayoum Egypt on a Stallion. He leaped across a dip in the sand dune and like a little kid I whooped!

This video is of Phillip, whom you may remember from his Stable Rider in posts March of last year.

He flew up from SC for a 3 day intensive to learn how to canter.

Looks to me like he did 💪

Canter on Phillip. You earned that joy ❤️

01/28/2025

BE ON THE LOOKOUT!

A gang of small hairy car thieves have been spotted in the parking lot.

All we currently have is this blurry back up camera footage and a hind-end mid break in.

We are doing all we can to apprehend the suspects and put them in the pony barn where they belong.

In the mean time if you see any suspicious activity below knee height please call the official hotline at 1-800- Why-Do-We-Have-Goats.

Thank you for your cooperation 🫡