Crossroads Farm

10/22/2025

Longevity is the goal! Or it should be...

𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐃𝐨𝐧’𝐭 𝐁𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐝 𝐚 𝐇𝐨𝐫𝐬𝐞 𝐎𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐅𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐬

Polework is the most undervalued training tool we have and it shows. Everyone says they want a sound, confident, long lasting horse. But then you see ponies Grade A at seven years old, and you can’t help but wonder, how much jumping did that take? How many schooling rounds? How many miles on joints that aren’t even fully developed until they’re eight?

𝐒𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐜𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 “𝐭𝐚𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐭.” 𝐈 𝐜𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐢𝐭 𝐮𝐧𝐬𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐡𝐨𝐫𝐬𝐞𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐩.

At six and seven, horses should still be learning how to use their body, not hammering around 1.20m tracks twice a weekend. By rights, their job at that age should be rhythm, straightness, balance not chasing points.

And this is where people roll their eyes, because the truth isn’t glamorous, polework is where the real training happens. Not when you’re on top of a fence. Before you ever get there.

A horse that can’t regulate its stride over poles won’t suddenly fix it over a jump. A horse that can’t stay straight on the ground won’t stay straight in the air. If your polework is weak, your jumping is a lie. You’re skipping steps. And skipping steps comes with a bill later usually in the form of lameness or fear.

We don’t have a jumping problem. We have a patience problem. Everyone wants the result, nobody wants to put in the miles. Polework doesn’t “look impressive” on a sales video. It doesn’t get likes online. But you know who did polework religiously? The horses that were still winning in their late teens, the ones who stayed sound long after their peers were “retired due to injury.”

You put a young horse through poles like the set up shown below, and you will learn very quickly if they drift, if they rush, if they lengthen one stride and shorten the next, if they think their way through questions, or panic through them. That’s education.

𝐓𝐡𝐚𝐭’𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐰𝐡𝐨𝐥𝐞 𝐩𝐨𝐢𝐧𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐛𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐨𝐧 𝐚 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐠 𝐡𝐨𝐫𝐬𝐞, 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐨𝐟𝐟 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐚𝐥𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐲 𝐝𝐨, 𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐞𝐚𝐜𝐡 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐦 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐝𝐨𝐧’𝐭 𝐲𝐞𝐭 𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰.

It’s not talent that makes a future horse. It’s time. Time spent in walk over poles. Time spent in trot learning rhythm. Time spent building the brain before asking for the jump. Anyone can point a brave horse at a fence. A horseman builds one from the ground up.

And let’s be honest, this industry has stopped prioritising the horse. It’s not about producing athletes anymore; it’s about producing price tags. Horses are being fast tracked up the levels not because they’re ready, but because someone wants to sell them before the weaknesses start to show. We talk about welfare, but then applaud speed of production. The answer isn’t more jumping. It’s more polework.

𝗕𝗲𝗰𝗮𝘂𝘀𝗲 𝗽𝗼𝗹𝗲𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸 𝗶𝘀𝗻’𝘁 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗶𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝘁’𝘀 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗼𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂’𝗿𝗲 𝗶𝗻 𝗶𝘁 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗵𝗼𝗿𝘀𝗲, 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗺𝗼𝗻𝗲𝘆.

Photo credit: RFS

10/19/2025

Yesterday was magnificent 🤩

10/18/2025

Safety is not optional. Horses are unpredictable enough without cutting corners and allowing unsafe riding to appease unrealistic clients. I'm definitely "annoying " about my standards! 😂

One of the most important things an instructor can do is not harm their students or the public who admires them

The safety of my students is very important to me. When I give them tools and skills, I work hard to give them what THEY can do safely, and not what I can do.

I am a pretty laid back person in a lot of ways, but basic safety around horses is a topic I’m willing to be annoying over, especially given the wreck and injury stories equestrians love to share (many of which were preventable).

But I find alarming the growing trends and fashions that throw safety to the wayside - seeming to say, if you were as noble as me, if you had the relationship I have with your horse, you don’t need basic safety -

You can lay around on the arena under your horse. You can walk around barefoot beside your loose horse. You can stand on your head and trim. If you really are pure, no horse will hurt you.

Maybe that’s true for those individuals. Horses are very receptive to energy, that’s true. But reflexes, timing, and some athleticism are also very involved..

do I want my students laying on the ground next to their loose horse? Do I want them walking around barefoot in the pasture? No I do not.

In this day of confusing signals from professionals ,  I want to be able to contribute something positive. I don’t want to be the source of anyone  or their horses injury if I can at all help it.

Photo by Nicole Shoup

10/16/2025

Busy week of sunshine and smiles 😃

10/06/2025

What rain?? 😆

10/05/2025

Food for thought 🤔

Hunters were designed to mimic the challenges of the hunt field, testing style, brilliance, and natural ability. But according to Geoff Case, USEF R Judge, trainer, and clinician, today’s hunter ring has strayed far from those origins.

“Every time you change something and it makes something more difficult, it makes it harder for the horses to go around like that,” he said. “I feel like the hunters were creating dressage with jumps in the way. Essentially it’s the same eight-jump pattern everywhere you go.”

The result? A discipline that increasingly looks like performance art, polished, robotic, and predictable, rather than a sport designed to test horse and rider.

Case believes hunters have become overly rigid in penalizing anything that deviates from a narrow picture of perfection. Cross-cantering, missed lead changes, even headshaking are all faults that weigh heavily on a score. “It was supposed to mimic the hunt field,” he noted. “And now it’s something else entirely.”

That rigidity discourages brilliance. Horses are worked until they are flat and expressionless, their personality stripped away to avoid deductions. “To be crisp and jump their best, they need to be a bit fresh,” Case explained. “But we’ve worked the brilliance out of them. You take the personality out.”

The mindset around mistakes is also harsher in hunters than in other disciplines. Piper Klemm observed that hunter riders can be “debilitated by their 76,” while jumpers with a rail down might be frustrated but move on. Case agreed, adding: “You pop chip in the hunter ring and it’s like your life is over. You want to crawl in a hole. You pop chip in the jumper ring and, if the horse leaves it up, you laugh about it and show the video to your friends.”

That difference in culture drives a wedge between hunters and other disciplines. For perfectionists drawn to the hunter ring, small imperfections feel catastrophic, while jumper riders are often able to shrug off a mistake.

In Case’s words, hunters today have become “performance art more than a sport.” The pursuit of an idealized picture, a horse going perfectly quiet, in perfect rhythm, without the slightest bobble, has overtaken the original goal of showcasing athleticism in a natural way.

Even efforts to inject brilliance have fallen flat. When international hunter derbies were introduced, horses were supposed to be allowed to be expressive and a little fresh. But in practice, the judging didn’t change. “They were supposed to be allowed to play a little bit,” Case said. “But the way those things were judged changed very little, and that was still penalized. So people went back to the same old way.”

📎 Continue reading this article at https://www.theplaidhorse.com/2025/10/01/art-or-sport-has-hunters-drifted-away-from-its-roots/
📸 © Lauren Mauldin / The Plaid Horse

09/24/2025

This weeks shenanigans 🤪. I walked 7 miles around the farm today, pretty typical for me on the daily. Taught 5 hours of lessons and ended the day with the cutest canter pair possible.

09/20/2025

Today was Challenge Day!!! There will be sore legs tonight!!! 😂

09/14/2025

Riding lessons are more than time practicing your skills in the saddle. They’re opportunities to grow as both a rider and a horseman. But to get the most out of every minute, it takes more than showing up and hoping for the best. From preparation to mindset, small choices can make a big difference in your progress. Here are ten simple but powerful ways to maximize your next lesson.

1. Listen to Your Trainer
During a lesson, your priority should be to focus on what your trainer is saying. You’ve paid to learn from them, so keep your ears open! Enter your lesson with the intention to listen rather than speak. This goes for apologizing as well. You don’t need to apologize throughout your lesson. Your trainer knows you didn’t mean to make a mistake. Instead, use your focus to improve, not to beat yourself up or make excuses.

2. Keep Going
When performing an exercise, assume that you should keep going until your trainer tells you to stop. Preemptively pausing or stopping an exercise may show that you’re not fully committed to the lesson at hand. Your trainer knows what is hard and how hard to push you-trust them enough to see their pedagogy vision through.

3. Arrive On Time
Keep in mind that your trainer has a busy schedule. Arriving late to a lesson not only impacts their schedule for the day, but also takes away time from your lesson. Being timely helps to create a trusting relationship between you and your trainer.

4. Show Up Prepared
When you arrive at a lesson, be prepared to hop right on your horse or pony. Come appropriately prepared so that you aren’t putting on spurs or other equipment at the last minute.

5. Prioritize Your Fitness
Put some time and effort into keeping yourself in shape out of the saddle. This could look adding workouts to your routine or even offering to do some extra physical activity and chores around the barn. Being fit outside of the ring is essential to maintaining your athleticism atop a horse.

6. Remember What You’ve Learned
It’s important to bring the work you’ve done in previous lessons to your current lesson. Keep in mind the areas where you’ve struggled or succeeded and use that past knowledge to build upon those skills.

7. Listen to Your Horse
Never forget that your priority in the ring is your horse. Keep a close eye, ear, and hand on your mount to make sure you’re both operating at your best ability. If you discover something is off with your horse, always speak up—even if you aren’t sure. Your trainer will help you assess and you find the best solution for the horse.

8. Stay in the Moment
Your attention should be focused on what’s happening in the present during a lesson. Not what happened at school or work that day. Not about the show next weekend. What’s going on right now in your lesson. Watch other people do the exercises before you, so you can get a handle on how it rides. Notice how others excel and what mistakes to avoid. Appreciate the time you have with your trainer and truly listen to their guidance and advice.

9. Be Considerate
In private and group lessons, always be considerate of who you may be sharing the ring with. This includes not interrupting another lesson with a personal question or issue. Stay attentive and mindful to keep yourself and those around you safe.

10. Don’t Forget the Basics
At the end of the day, perhaps the four most important words to remember are some of the most basic reminders: heels down, eyes up.

Every lesson is a chance to learn, not just from your trainer, but from your horse and yourself. By staying focused, prepared, and considerate, you set the stage for steady improvement and stronger partnerships. Keep these tips in mind the next time you head to the ring, and see how much more you take away from each ride.

📎 Save and share this article at https://www.theplaidhorse.com/2025/09/10/10-ways-to-get-the-most-out-of-your-next-lesson/

09/07/2025

Slower is Faster With Horses
Let’s face it, we’ve become a society of instant gratification. From fast food, to fake nails, we like immediate results. This quest for instant results carries over to horsemanship, too—from flying lead changes, to side-passing, to collection. These are skills that riders everywhere hope to master, yet aren’t willing to “do the time.”
Read on:
https://signin.juliegoodnight.com/articles/free-articles/julies-blog/slower-is-faster-with-horses/?

09/06/2025

Morning rounds! Some fabulously matched partners this morning.
Some brand new riders and two of the best helpers anyone's ever had!
Thank you Stella and Findley for being awesome!!

09/05/2025

What a lovely day. Students and horses of all levels benefit from gymnastic ground poles and patterns that encourage bending and rhythm.