Epona Dressage

06/10/2024

Morning helper….. 👀 🌭 🐶

04/23/2024

Congratulations to Amanda Miller on the lease of Willem from Stage Barn! So excited to continue working with you and this fabulous boy! Thank you to Anastasia Soloveva for the opportunity . More horses available for half and full leases! DM for info!

04/17/2024

One of the many uses of the Hay Pillow. Harold Approved…

04/14/2024

In an collaborative arrangement with Stage Barn we have 2 wonderful, schoolmaster type horses available for half lease at High Point Equestrian Center in Patterson, NY! You must take 2 lessons per week with me on whoever you choose to lease. Super facility with a heated indoor!

The first horse up is Ad Libitum. He’s a bay, 20 year old, Dutch Warmblood gelding, 3rd Level Dressage horse. Been there, done that type of horse on the lazier side. He’s great for a rider with confidence issues. Safest horse ever! 🙂

Next we have Willem.. a lovely, kind 19 year old chestnut, Hanovarian gelding. Shown at HITS every summer..third level..has piaffe, passage and canter pirouettes. No maintenance! Safe and with more go than whoa. A fun ride! DM for more info and to schedule a Meet & Greet!

04/02/2024

Make no mistake. It is hard to learn what is correct and best for your horse when the incorrect examples are rewarded and upheld in mainstream Dressage: when most of the “winning” photos show horses with dropped backs, unengaged hind legs disconnected from the flinging and flashy front legs, clear lack of healthy balance, compressed necks, gaping mouths, blue tongues, and eyes that show stress and even pain.

How does the eager student of Dressage learn how to discern what is correct and what is not?

It may puzzle you when you read in classical dressage literature and even in the tenets of “competitive” Dressage that Dressage training should bring out the best in the horse, it should help the horse, it should make and keep the horse sound and happy into old age, and the horse should never be forced or unhappy. But when you look around to see what is rewarded commonly in the competition ring, this is not what you see.

It may feel very disconcerting when you are told how great these horrendous examples are, and how we should all applaud them.

For anyone who reflects and cares about how the training affects their horse, there is a definite cognitive dissonance that occurs. You can even feel gaslit by those who tell you a piaffe on the forehand is in good balance or that the disconnected, back-dropped passage with frantic, jerking legs is “beautiful”.

So how do you learn to ride correctly “back-to-front” in a world that rewards riding “front-to-back”?

I will give a few guidelines here. This may not be an exhaustive list. Feel free to add your own ideas here. We need to empower riders who CARE about doing the right training with their horses with tools and strategies to be able to do that.

1. Pay attention and tune into your intuition. When your intuition tells you something isn’t quite right, you’re probably on to something, even if you lack the understanding or knowledge to pinpoint exactly what is not right.

2. Beware of Gurus who belittle you and make you feel small and disempowered. Anyone who treats you beneath them because you are not as far along as them is threatened by the possibility that you see through them. They will always confuse you and undermine your ability to assess for yourself in order to keep you in your place. Don’t be scared to leave someone who makes you feel this way. Sometimes you have to close one door to open another one.

3. Exercise critical thinking. Look carefully at all the information, observe everything openly, learn how to analyze information and consider biases that conflict with truth. Always question the premise of every statement or argument until it makes sense to you.

4. Learn about classical theory and methodology as well as biomechanics and holistic systems so you can learn to see the pieces as parts of a whole that operate together.

5. Define your values and be very clear about what you will and will not do to your horse (or let someone else do to your horse).

6. Gather people you trust around you who uphold the same values as you. There’s a saying that you are the average of the five people you surround yourself with. Consider this - do the five riders you surround yourself with the most uphold the same values as you? If not, they may be confusing you. It may be cliché to say “find your tribe” but there is some truth to it. You need to find the people who share your values and dedication to riding correctly and classically.

7. Find mentors and teachers who uphold the same values as you and don’t just pay lip-service to these values but actually train this way and teach this way.

8. Develop your eye and understanding. Get someone who can explain to you what to look for and what you are looking at. Watch videos in slow motion. Break down what you are seeing in fine detail so that you can understand the cause and effect of small actions on the whole system.

9. Learn insatiably. Go down the rabbit holes. Ask the questions that you are intimidated to ask (if the person you are learning from cannot or will not answer it, keep asking others). Your actions actually have a ripple effect on the entire horse community. Focus on making a positive impact by learning and doing the best you can.

10. Don’t give up. You will not be perfect, and you will make mistakes. It is part of the learning process. Unfortunately, no one can start out knowing and doing it all perfectly. Every Master started out knowing nothing. Anyone who is good at something used to be terrible at it. Even when discouraged, take heart. You are not alone. You are not crazy. And the sheer fact that you are trying your hardest to do your best for your horse is good enough for now. Put in the consistency, keep caring about doing it right, practice self-awareness and self-reflection, and your efforts with pay off.

I would love to hear what other tips and suggestions you would want to add to this list to help those who are struggling on this journey, trying to figure it all out.

While I am at it and before I bring this to a close, I just want to remind you that the doors are open for our Contact & Connection course with the next round starting April 5th. We will guide you through this whole process, and the new bonus added this year is a side project where we will be breaking down many videos of many riders in the context of contact and connection. We will explain in fine detail, so you can see it in action, what good contact, connection, and balance look like. We will also show bad examples and explain what is wrong with them, how you can tell, and show you the ramifications on the horse’s balance, biomechanics, and explain how this affects the system (of the horse and training) as a whole. Get all the info and sign up here - https://courses.artisticdressage.com/contact-and-connection-course

If you are looking for “your tribe” and mentors you can trust and who support your learning, I hope we will see you in the course.

03/22/2024

03/16/2024

This….

03/07/2024

We are settling in nicely at this wonderful facility!

I’m thrilled to announce that I have some lesson horses available for you horseless friends who have been asking! Lesson packages are available! 😀

I, also, have a limited amount of full board stalls available for students interested in doing training/ lessons packages. Reach out for details!

03/06/2024

This!!

“I’m not a dressage rider” is a typical sentence that is heard throughout the disciplines. The word “dressage” can strike fear into the hearts of many riders. Typically because it’s seen as a rigid form of rules, that only if you “look” a certain way, with rhinestones on your browband and your Kastel sun shirt and riding with short reins and a noseband — do you fit into the crowd. *Kastel shirts are AMAZING btw 😘*

But “dressage” is so much different than it’s stand alone as a discipline.

It’s a set of theory’s that quiet and soften the muscles and the mind.

It’s a connection that forms communication to influence footfalls to create a sequence of engaged muscle pairs.

It’s strengthening and prolonging a career of soundness.

It’s increasing flexibility and strength of muscles and ligaments and tendons.

It’s applicable to any partnership, any horse, any discipline.

It’s Medicine.
It’s Movement.
It’s Balance.
It’s Therapy.

It’s applicable to you and your horse wherever your discipline choices lie. Regardless of your saddle, bridle, whether you ride in jeans or jodhpurs, whether you have a pasture, or an arena.

Dressage isn’t “picky” on who it helps. It’s inclusive to anyone willing to pursue it.

03/02/2024

Pretty much…. 🙌

Hoof Up, Back Down

Interestingly, the horse’s anatomy and biomechanics taught by the ones who think from the hoof up to the back, differs from the ones who think from the back down to the legs and hooves. It is the same horse; body parts are described using the same name but don’t appear to function similarly. The hoof-up approach talks about measurements and expected results. Experienced riders who think from the back down to the legs know that nothing works in isolation. The horse’s physique functions as a whole, and numerous elements modify the expected effect of whatever rider aid, hoof, or saddle adjustment is applied.
Human and equine umwelt are different. As the therapist advises, a human might concentrate on keeping the body aligned. On the contrary, a horse tries to fit the adjustment to his familiar patterns. When Doctor Gian Piero Brigati made a hoof adjustment, Gian Piero explained to the rider how the horse’s physique functions and the conditions where the adjustment might work. For instance, overloading is a major cause of the development of arthritis, and speed often causes overloading. Dr. Gian Piero Brigati often talks about the frequency. Rushing the horse faster than the horse’s natural cadence and body actions quicker than the horse’s natural frequency have adverse effects. Rushing the horse on the forehand is the common cause of arthritis development. Injecting the hocks and allowing the rider to apply the riding technique that caused the problem in the first place is good business for the veterinarian because the hocks will have to be injected again soon. A more effective and ethical approach is explaining to the rider the conditions that might allow the horse to benefit from the adjustment or therapy.

Actual marketing demeans the rider as a useless passenger and pretends that the shoeing, saddle fitting, and diverse therapies fix the horse. Corticosteroids and hyaluronic acid accelerate the development of arthritis. Fascial tissues transmit 40% of a muscle’s power to its adjacent muscles. When a saddle adjustment targets a muscle group, the whole muscular system of the back reacts to the adjustment, not to please the fitter theory but to protect the horse’s physique. Indeed, the chances that the horse’s reaction will fit the predicted effect are very slim. True for the saddle fitting, valid for the shoeing, and factual for the therapies. It would be as ridiculous for a rider to pretend to balance the horse’s hooves from the saddle as for a hoof care provider to pretend to balance the whole horse from the hooves. There is an interaction, but the actual marketing has reached delirium.
Even when I was involved in high-level competitions, my heart has always been on developing and coordinating the horse’s physique for the athletic demands of the performance. Everyone around me was satisfied with making the horse do it. I never felt pleasure in feeling a dysfunctional horse’s piaffe, tempi changes, or fly over a large oxer. This mindset made me realize that the dressage movements and jumping performances were not the cause of injuries. The cause was the practice of movements and jumping performances with a dysfunctional physique. Indeed, recreating proper function restored soundness.

Trimming the hoof to perfection does not create proficient locomotion. The hoof is part of the gait quality, but the rider must efficiently coordinate the horse’s physique. Whether we start with a good athlete and develop superior gaits or buy a horse with superior gaits, the proper function of the horse’s physique is the recipe for longevity and soundness. Indeed, the proper function of the horse’s physique is the most efficient preventive and restorative therapy.
Jean Luc

02/17/2024

Every tool has a place, somewhere in the world. We should value the training aids available today, but there is no such thing as a tool taking the place of BALANCE.

Without BALANCE, the horse cannot develop his muscles correctly.

Without BALANCE, the horse cannot develop collection (flexion of the joints)

Side-reins are only to be used CORRECTLY. This photo is NOT of correct usage. No tool should close the poll!! Side-reins can aid balance of the horse, particularly the young horse, often to help keep him safe while learning the beginning of carriage. (Keep him from tossing the head and potentially injuring himself).

Here we see reins too short, and the horse being pulled into a dysfunctional position, then chasing the straining hind-legs up under the body.

Is this building a top-line? Where it might cause some of the muscles needed for the top-line, it does not strengthen all of the muscles. Worse, it's forcing the horse into poor carriage!!

Why? No balance or thoracic lift.

If the nose is behind the vertical, the horse is unbalanced and dysfunctional. The poll is to remain the highest point at all times!!

Top-line/ engagement comes from balance.

(Training horses uphill/forward is not speed. Each horse has an individual rythm, speed, tempo and stride length.)

Photo: Gaited RMH Kismet Joe, >2 years in training.

02/13/2024

02/12/2024

I’m thrilled to announce that Epona Dressage has a new home base at High Point Equestrian Center! Join us!
Stalls available at this beautiful facility.
Among the many wonderful amenities are a heated indoor arena with wonderful footing, round pen, huge outdoor arena, spacious paddocks, deeply bedded stalls and wonderful care! Please, reach out to schedule a tour!
Located about a mile away from our previous Brewster location.

02/07/2024

Stop in and meet your next horse!

REMINDER!
Akindale is hosting a Valentine’s Open Barn on Saturday, February 10. It’s the perfect chance to meet some adorable (and adoptable) horses, as well as all the folks who make this place go ‘round. Come spread the love with us!

Register for this free community event at akindale.org or at the link below!

REGISTER HERE 👉 https://akindale.kindful.com/e/valentines-open-barn

02/02/2024

😀🤩❤️

01/24/2024

01/22/2024

Probably the most simple thing I think about during each session with every horse is the "locked long/locked short" analogy that I learned years ago from Jim Masterson.

This directly refers to agonistic and antagonistic pairs - in order for one muscle to shorten, the muscle on the opposing movement vector must lengthen.

When we have muscular disbalance, the horse's posture will alter from neutral. To view this through a very simple filter, some muscle groups find themselves more readily in a concentric (shortened) state - AKA locked short - whereas their opposing muscle groups find themselves in an eccentric (lengthened) state - AKA locked long.

When we widen this lens, and look at myofascial chains, when one part of the chain becomes pinched (locked short) the opposing part of the chain becomes stretched (locked long).

As a very visual person, this is what I am visualising when I assess a horse. I look at their posture, I look at the deviations from neutral and I visualise the myofascial response:

Which tissues are "locked long"?
Which tissues are "locked short"?

This, combined with palpation and dynamic assessment, gives me an indication of where I need to work and what I need to target with movement therapy.

-

This is before & after of a 1 hour session with this lovely mare -

I've detailed the muscle groups which feel shortened relative to the muscle groups that feel lengthened as a fun way to train your eye.

Notice how in the after photo her forelimbs are more perpendicular with the ground and her withers have lifted.

Notice how there isnt such a steep rise up to her croup from the base of her withers.

Her body is now headed towards neutral and can now support this posture with training.

-

I'm on a mission to empower humans to make informed choices for their horses, and so I have the following offerings -

The Fundamentals of Horse Posture:

https://www.yasminstuartequinephysio.com/fundamentals-of-horse-posture

The Fundamentals of Exercise Programming:

https://www.yasminstuartequinephysio.com/fundamentals-of-exercise-programming

❤️

01/16/2024

This…

Expectations, Versus Reality
A horse can mimic our gestures or obey our aids. The result is the same: a move executed with a physique incorrectly coordinated for the effort. The outcome is nagging discomfort or pain and the development of pathology. Forces generated in the fibers of any muscle are shared throughout the entire biotensegrity locally and globally via the softest and hardest fasciae. This changes our “one muscle, one movement” ideology. We apply aids and expect a response. For instance, we put pressure on our inside leg, expecting the horse’s inside hind leg adduction. The horse could not respond to our leg’s pressure for a thousand reasons. One is the intensity of the pressure. A horse can react to pressures that are too light for the human to feel. The intensity of our leg pressure might trigger protective reflex contractions. The frequency might also trigger a protective reflex from the horse. If the frequency of our leg action is faster than the horse’s natural frequency, the horse will instinctively protect himself from our leg action.
When a farrier makes a hoof adjustment, considering the hoof deformity, the theory might be right. The problem starts with the expectation. Some horses might react as expected, but most protect other issues and react unexpectedly. Considerable forces act from the body down onto the leg and hoof. The study of the function of the navicular apparatus: “The Equine Navicular Apparatus as a Premier Enthesis Organ: Functional Implications,” by Michelle L. Osborn MA, PhD; Jean Luc Cornille, SOM, Uriel Blas-Machado DVM, PhD, DACVP; Elizabeth W. Uhl DVM, PhD, DACVP, discusses the how the anatomy of the navicular apparatus, including the presence of previously undocumented fascial connections, is explained by the need to manage the mechanical forces impacting horses’ feet during movement. The pathology reveals how these adaptations are overwhelmed in navicular syndrome by pathomechanical forces generated by problems in how the whole body is functioning. The article is open-access and can be read by anyone. Here is the link. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/vsu.13620:
While advances in imaging have led to earlier detection of the soft tissue damage characteristic of navicular syndrome, they have also led to more confusion about exactly how to define the disease. Most of this confusion would be resolved, as it has been for other diseases, if the definition of navicular syndrome was based on its primary cause, mechanical overloading of the foot, rather than on the fine details of the resulting tissue lesions (Osborn et al).
The main cause of overloading of the foot is the forces acting from the horse’s body down onto the legs and hooves. The cure is the rider’s ability to reduce the intensity and the frequency of the forces loading the lower legs and hooves through advanced education of balance control. Gravity acts from the body down onto the legs. Inertia accelerates gravity, creating forces loading the lower legs and hooves in a direction, frequency, and intensity that damage the navicular apparatus and hoof structure. We can believe that the horse mimics our gestures in perfect body coordination, but horses suffer from humans’ naivety. Instead, they benefit from human knowledge and integrity.
“The true test of any theory about how a horse should be trained is in its application, not in the logic used to justify it. The ultimate test of athletic training is whether an athlete can perform at a high level for extended periods of time without breaking down. Unfortunately, while this is increasingly the standard for training human athletes, it is not generally applied to horses. In fact, looking at images of horses working, many people in the equestrian world miss obvious indications that chronic overloading of the joints is occurring. This is a major problem, as chronic degenerative joint disease is induced by the repeated impact of forces that cannot be managed within the normal functional range of the tissues and the joints. If these forces are not corrected the tissues/joints are damaged and will fail. What is even more unforgivable is that when a horse does break down, especially at a young age, it simply is accepted as ‘bad luck’ or the inevitable consequence of a horse being asked to perform, rather than assessing the specific causes of the failure in how the horse was performing. If such assessments were routine, ways to train horses that allow them, like human athletes, to perform for extended periods of time without chronic catastrophic tissue damage would be the norm.” (Elizabeth Uhl, DVM. PhD, Dip, ACVP)
Jean Luc.

12/10/2023

Figuring out the things… body/hoof . Light Saturday night reading! 😀🤓

12/03/2023

12/03/2023

It didn’t compute for me, 70 years ago, just how little force was necessary to get a calm and well trained horse to go along with the signals/aids of a rider.

I weighed maybe 95 pounds, wore sneakers, had a halter and a leadrope for steering and stopping, and I could ride Paint for miles and had zero need of whips, spurs, severe bits to get along with him.

But then came years of Kool-Aid, all those sayings that were so normal back then, “Show that horse who’s boss” being the essence of that training concept. And for too many decades I bought into all of that, until I gradually began to question and to think, “There has to be a better way than force to get along with horses.”

I had already known that when I was 11, but then I forgot, for years and years, something I had already experienced.

Now fast forward 7 decades to 2023 when the equestrian press is teeming with all sorts of responses to a European trainer getting captured on camera using forceful means, like that is some deep dark secret. Be real. Lots of force is employed every day, and I get it because I did it, too.

You either learn better ways or you resist learning them, because in 2023 there are enough quiet trainers, the ones like Carl Hester, Buck Brannaman, whose methods are widely available on Google to any who want to use quieter methods.

But today, December third, 2023, plenty of horses will still be ridden with big sharp spurs, harsh bits, draw reins, all that apparatus of force, and some of that will be done by the very people who are vilifying the guy who got caught on camera.

Being gentle with horses is a choice. You decide to or you don’t, pretty simple. It took me way too many decades to relearn something I sort of already knew.

11/05/2023

The radiographic diagnosis of kissing spines has become so prevalent that some veterinarians are making the assumption that it only matters if the horse is clinical. I’m assuming ’clinical’ means painful in the area that’s abnormal on the radiograph.
How does the body respond when things are rubbing against each other and it hurts ? It tries to stop the rubbing by contracting around the area and adding in more tension to the soft tissue structures. These will then start to pull on other areas as they work to stabilize the area that hurts.
This creates compensation.
When a horse tries to stabilize the withers they will contract lots of muscles. I just named a few on the picture - but these muscles will pull on other muscles. Soon the fascia around the lower part of the neck gets involved and the lower cervical vertebrae start to move a little ( red bones at base of neck). That movement causes the muscles in that area to contract as they must stabilize these vertebrae. Pretty soon those 1st couple of ribs also feel a tug - the second rib is red, you cannot see first. What’s in that area ? Well a giant nerve plexus. As the horse starts to press his leg into the side of his body to stabilize and he presses on this plexus and it gets inflamed and the horse starts acting girthy and short striding. At this point the withers feel fine but the horse has compensated creating other areas of pain.
This is the problem with making assumptions about how a horse feels about something. They prioritize, they compensate, they internalize and shut down, they act out.
Kissing spines are the result of too much tension in the system. Treat the whole horse when treating kissing spine.

10/25/2023

What are you reading?

https://www.horsejournals.com/blogs/jec-ballou/read-or-not-read-old-dressage-books?fbclid=IwAR2LcTqa47SIFo0FE3kmBkNYK3-kGkvk-w66x_kKmi5VkR125GvMis5088A_aem_AQiznUCmKLeDR8UK6ySJf85lcDO6j7LDMH8ofF55ip0w1KiZzqAjKi32EC4sqbb6RHI

My conversation last month with renowned trainer and veterinarian Gerd Heuschmann did not lead where I thought it would, having started with muscles but ending with books. He said he believed many of the disappointments in modern training are due to students no longer being committed to the scholars...

10/08/2023

This..

10/04/2023

10/01/2023

This…..

2381 likes, 44 comments. “Make sense! ”

09/24/2023

Word….

😂😂😂🐴

09/07/2023

Doing Better

While the fascial system can be viewed as the fabric of continuity and communication, biotensegrity can be seen as the model for explaining the architecture underpinning continuity and communication.
Manchester was lame for eight years, but doing better. All the therapies focused on the hind legs, which were chronically inflamed. When the owner asked me to look at the horse. The owner commented with sarcasm referring to what he had been told over and over, “he is lame but he is doing better.” I told him that from my perspective, the hind legs were not the problem; The horse had a thoracolumbar dysfunction inducing aberrant kinematics of both hind legs. It was a waste of time and money to treat the hind legs.
The owner was surprised and angry. He walked away with his horse and came back without the horse asking me to explain. I did. The owner asked if I could fix the problem. I told him maybe but the horse has developed over many years so many layers of protection that the usual mechanical thinking is unlikely to work. I would have to explore a dimension that is suggested by advanced research but not accepted by academic thinking. The owner took his decision. “If you feel that you can restore his soundness, I will give the horse to you.” This is how I became Manchester’s owner.
Biomechanically, the problem was not accepted by the usual paradigm as it was not the hind legs that created the back problem but instead, the thoracic dysfunction that caused aberrant hind legs kinematics and consequent pathology. I was already advanced enough in my experience to know that correcting thoracolumbar spine dysfunction corrected limb kinematics abnormalities. A change of tension anywhere within the system is instantly signaled everywhere else in the body both mechanically and chemically There is a total body response beyond the usual paradigm. I was concerned about the complexity of Manchester’s body response.
The term “Biotensegrity” was not out at this time, but Biotensegrity restored Manchester’s soundness. Each time I envisioned a logical orchestration of the different body parts, I met a dead end. I was not aware of the close kinematics chains. I did not know that a percentage of the forces created by a muscle is transmitted to adjacent muscles through fascial tissue. In my mind muscle force is transmitted to the bone or joint through the associated tendon. Manchester’s reactions did not match biomechanical thinking. I already believed in the horses’ willingness and participation in their work and Manchester showed me that the horse’s mental processing was a lot more sophisticated and willing than we are traditionally trained to believe.
As Manchester’s rehabilitation moved forward, I observed that for both of us, our physique developed a sophistication in our perception and also greater ease in our physical interaction. When I read Scott Grafton’s physical intelligence, I read explanations of what I have felt. Soon. I became comfortable with the thought that I did not know who reeducated the other. Often, I did not understand why Manchester was now capable of executing this move, but this move opened the door for a more sophisticated coordination of his physique.
I was already aware of this fact, but it became obvious that our whole human psychology of submission handicaps the horse. Manchester refined his close kinematics chains and the processing was out of my control. I created situations, frequency, synchrony, and body alignment likely to direct Manchester’s mental processing in the right direction and I observed his processing. At times, Manchester went in the wrong direction and I suggested a different reaction. Other times, Manchester’s reactions were not in the direction I expected but improved his body coordination. We learned to ask each other questions. Manchester felt that soundness was now possible and I understood that his body function was more complex than my actual knowledge. Our aim was his soundness, not my ego.
Manchester became sound and graduated as our greatest school Master. Once during a clinic, A student was nervous working Manchester in hand. Manchester could not understand the student’s energy. Her muscle adjustments were not bad but she changed too fast. Her frequency confused Manchester. I approached Manchester on the other side and walked by his shoulder adjusting my tensegrity and frequency to him. Manchester responded to the delight of the student. Elizabeth Uhl (Betsy) was the next student to practice with Manchester. She placed her hand on Manchester’s wither, started to adjust her body tone, and told me smiling, “Go away; I saw what you did. I want him to adjust to me, not to you.”
Jean Luc