Tall Grass Equestrian

08/20/2024

Tall Grass Equestrian is welcoming new clients! If there is anyone looking to up grade from the hamster, Doc, has some rare lesson openings! DM for more information!

08/15/2024

Monkey see monkey do. Stormy, Doc and Big had to have a nice roll. Hopefully we get some rain Thursday. Big is growing tired of his dust baths.

08/09/2024

I laughed a little to hard at this 😂

08/08/2024

Happy International Cat Day!!! We are all very appreciative of the hard work the Grey Team does to keep the mice and ground squirrels at bay. Thank you Steelo, Stella, Percy and Pizza💙🐈💙🐈💙

08/02/2024

What a fortunate day! Between the rain drops, and before the heat hit, TGE students got to enjoy working outside the arena in the hayfield once again. Doc and Sundance were elated about having friends Addy with Dude, and Megan with Big join them once again. We are so lucky to be at a barn that not only grows its own hay but has so much outdoor riding space! However, Becky, Sundance, Doc and I can’t wait for Addy, and Megan get enough confidence to go on an off property outing!!!

07/28/2024

A muddy horse is a happy horse right??? A little bit of elbow grease and voilà there was a horse under all that mud!!!

07/27/2024

😶
Yep…who knows where the journey may go. Have goals and plans. Understand that plans can change and goals take time. It’s about the journey not the destination 😉

07/21/2024

Team All for Fun returned to Mooseheart for their second Hunter Pace. Unfortunately, some of the usual members of All for Fun could not make it this time. Other teams also had members who could no longer attend so in the spirit of fun, the team welcomed honorary members Amanda, Caroline, and Lance! Everyone had a great time making new friends and exploring new parts of the 1000 acre campus. Team All for Fun finished the closest to optimum time and went home with golden horse shoes and blue ribbons! Luck was shining on the team that day and everyone won a raffle prize or two! Don’t let Doc know but I won the certificate to next years Mooseheart Hunter pace!!!

07/12/2024

Big decided to do a reenactment of Artax and the swamps of sadness. His friends weren’t that impressed….

07/06/2024

Doc is an amazing mentor, not only with his human students, but also with horses. He has helped Elle’s young horse, Regina, get used to the world outside. Doc went from the horse that we ponied Regina off of when we first started taking her outside this spring to the horse that accompanied her around the hayfield and the various trails on Silver Spur property to her first real outing at Campton Hills forest preserve.

Using natural tendencies, such as herd instinct in teaching, can make learning lessons much easier. Doc was joined in his mentoring of Regina with P**a on this excursion. Each horse was able to lead, be in the middle and follow behind without a care. Doc and P**a even let Elle and Regina go first over the bridge! Some great horsemanship by Elle throughout the entire ride! I could not be happier with how well both of them did out of their element!

07/02/2024

07/01/2024

Riders often forget the simple things when fretting about their dressage test, corners. Riding into corners correctly helps to set you up for the next movement. They are an opportunity to bend and balance your horse. There are corners before and after any circle done at A or C. The circle does not start in the corner it starts at the letter. Show the judge the difference and you will be rewarded!

06/27/2024

After last week’s heatwave it was nice to get together for a hay field ride. Stepping outside the safe walls and fences of an arena can be daunting to most riders. It’s a pleasure to have students that want to challenge themselves and create well rounded horses. All the horses were very well-behaved and once the conversation started to flow all the riders relaxed. We are very fortunate to have such access to outdoor space without having to leave our property. 

06/11/2024

Team All for Fun had a blast at Mooseheart’s annual Hunter Pace! The team enjoyed the cool weather and perfect footing while exploring the 1000 acre grounds. We walked down roads past houses and a church, trotted through woods, crossed over a waterfall next to a lake, and cantered through fields.

This year we welcomed Paige and Brujita to their first Hunter. Rachel and Moe, along with Kim and P**a, joined us once again after having a missed last years. All five horses worked great together. Doc may even have made a friend in Brujita. Perhaps he appreciated having someone more his size who also has to canter as the others trot.

For the first time the team was too fast and came in at 50 minutes when optimum time was one hour and six minutes this placed them 3rd in their division. At the end of the day it’s all about the fun and much fun was by team All for Fun!!!

05/21/2024

If anyone is wondering what happened to Piper. The loud new cat that wandered into the barn. He went to get neutered and ended up in a new home! He got adopted by Addy with Dude and Finn. He is starting to figure out how to be a house cat 💜💜💜

05/11/2024

https://www.facebook.com/reel/869760244915001?fs=e&s=TIeQ9V&mibextid=xCPwDs

05/08/2024

I was ambushed by a student with a camera the other day. The little brown horse looks amazing in my eyes. I do wish I had known about the photo shoot so I could have put on my blue pad and cleaned my boots but look at that little brown horse.

Thank you very much for the photos of Stormy Elle!

05/07/2024

https://www.facebook.com/100078505369249/posts/427402533219922/

I AM SO EXCITED!!! Ingrid Klimke is coming out with a new book RIDING OUT. Its release coincides with my favorite season of Hunter Paces! It so good for both horses and riders to step outside of the arena and explore nature. We are very lucky here at Silver Spur Ranch to have access to so much outdoor riding space without ever stepping on a trailer. This helps Doc and Sundance prepare for those Hunter Paces with ease. I am looking forward to adding this book to my collection. Her(and her father’s) books have become standard reference books for me which I revisit time and time again.

“I regularly ride my dressage horses out on the trail.... You can use the energy and fresh air of the open country in your training to give your dressage horse motivation, strength, and expression when ridden in teh arena. Riding out will also benefit his composure and nerves. And riding on different surfaces—sand, grass; dry, muddy—will improve your horse’s balance and surefootedness. The hills undulations, hollows, and slopes can imrove your horse’s physical suppleness and use of his back.” Ingrid Klimke in her new book RIDING OUT, now available from TSB.​​ ❤️🐴📕

05/06/2024

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/wWjoppyCTR386iZf/?mibextid=WC7FNe

Somehow, Bobby could hear Megan yesterday give me the idea for a horseless rider clinic. Everyone get ready to push those wheelbarrels one-handed up the hill!

And remember, the art of riding is being an easy load to carry.

As we move toward the summer riding season, I wonder if lesson barns might be open to a new way to reach new clients ... Weight shaming in the horse world is common. Because so many competitions are judged, critiques of riders' bodies seem inevitable.

But do we have all the facts on rider weight and the horses' ability to carry a rider? A common rule of thumb is that a rider's weight should not exceed 30% of a horse's weight. There is a study by the Equine Studies Institute and Deb Bennett, PhD that seems to confirm this but I disagree.

But knights in armor plus the horse's armor easily exceeded this 30% concept and knights fought close quarters battles. In the Afghan War Uzbeck cavalry rode 14H indigenous horses while carrying supplies, weapons and ammo. The American Horse Society research group, when it is formed, could have a university to do a more extensive study on the horse's ability to safely carry weight. I think they would find that it has a lot to do with the horse's breed and fitness.

I know from my own experience teaching big riders that the most important thing is not rider weight, but rather rider fitness. A fit rider can better maintain a balance with their horse, thus not interfering with the horse's movement with their own weight. There is a huge difference for a horse between carrying a dead weight of 250 or more pounds and carrying a rider of the same weight who is able to achieve a degree of unity of balance and movement with their horse. Plus, a fit horse can carry substantially more weight than an unfit horse. These are the questions we need to look into.

If I am right about this, rider fitness could and should be a primary focus of lesson barns when it comes to big riders, or any riders really. Instead of driving away big riders, if lesson barns focused on fitness, they could attract a new kind of client if they had an onsite rider fitness program designed by qualified Exercise Physiologists. The AHS could have that study done to develop a specific fitness program riders could follow.

A lesson barn rider fitness program for new big riders would include horsemanship training. Before riders achieved the required fitness level to begin mounted lessons, these new clients would learn important horsemanship skills. For example, they would learn things like how to correctly and safely lead a horse through a gate, something I rarely see today. These clients would learn grooming, cleaning feet, bathing, basic equine health care principles, and more. With a rider fitness program, when the time comes for mounted lessons, these new clients would be comfortable with horses and have the level of awareness necessary to become a horsewoman or man, or more than just a rider.

Sadly, horse facilities are closing. Most recently the Potomac Horse Center in MD, an American horse world fixture that no one would have predicted would end, is shutting down. Times are changing and horse businesses like lesson barn have to change with the times. We must offer more to clients today. For the past twenty years, offering entertainment lessons and events was a popular way to keep a lesson barn profitable, but those days might be over.

A well researched rider fitness program for bigger and low fitness riders, accredited by a university study and certified by a reputable source like the AHS, could open a new future for these barns and their clients. equestrian facilities could create a small gym for their fitness program that offers more than the usual lesson experience.

Once a rider achieves the required fitness level, they would have the ability to ride into their 70's and 80's. I'll never forget my boarder, Mrs. Yardley, who at 87 came to my door from the barn to tell me that she was going to stop riding because her horse was getting too old. I told her that it was very kind of her to have such consideration for her horse.

05/02/2024

Honestly riding is all about saying yes at the right moment consistently. Like most things in life timing is everything.

04/20/2024

https://www.facebook.com/LucindaGreenMBE/videos/1081234569831210/

I love that Lucinda Green is doing reels! She is such an amazing horse person. If anyone wonders where I got “the stair way to heaven or hell” came from, it came from her. 😉

04/14/2024

On a lovely day like today you just have to take advantage and enjoy! Doc and I had a lovely hack around the property with Regina and Elle. This little back mare never ceases in impressing me with how she calmly answers new questions. I can’t believe she has only been under saddle for six months. Doc was happy to have another black mare to explore with and only pinned his ears once. We are so lucky to have so much area outside of the arena to explore with out leaving the barn.

No one can make me smile like Doc.
💚💚💚Love this guy💚💚💚

04/13/2024

https://www.facebook.com/100043468792096/posts/1020472859411664/

The top images are of correct military seat jumps. The left is a US Fort Riley Seat jump and the right a British Horse Society type jump. Both are expressions of Capt. Caprilli's Forward Seat that he developed for the Italian Cavalry in 1904. By 1920, this jumping method was the standard for most advanced nations' cavalry and in most countries civilian riders strived to ride in the correct military manner.

The advantage of having a standard of horsemanship for a nation's military was that soldiers could change horses without changing their riding. Likewise, horses easily accepted new riders, who all were trained to the same standard. Without the need for horses to adjust to different riders' styles it was easier on the riders, horses and the armies.

The middle set of images shows our contemporary range of different jumping methods. These images show the lack of any universal horsemanship standard for jumping. The far left image is of the famous John French, HJ Hall of Fame rider, and the third from the left is Lucy Matz, daughter of Michael Matz, jumping using the traditional military seat method. All the different center images are of successful competitors. One might ask, "What is the problem with having different rider jumping methods or styles?" The answer is that while it might not matter to the riders, it matters to horses.

The problem is that horse trainers today, who do not train a horse to any uniform standard. They produce horses that many, if not most, riders cannot easily ride because today's riders also have diverse riding methods, just as the horses do, as a result of the lack of any standards.

People are buying horses today that they do not know how to "operate". We live in a horse world where it is as if every car manufacturer produced cars with different methods of steering, turning and stopping. That sounds absurd, but it is how we produce trained horses in America today. Horses in America are discipline and/or individual trainer specific with no universal standard whatsoever.

The bottom images show a round auto headlight that was the universal standard up until the 1970s. The bottom right image shows many current auto headlights with each one being very different. There Is no headlight standardization today. Ironically, America changed from a standard of auto headlights to no standard for headlight design at the same time that universal horsemanship standards were being abandoned. But there is a huge difference in the consequences of shifting to no standard for headlights compared to moving to no standards of horsemanship.

With no standard for horsemanship, horses must adapt to every different rider. This is a problem for the average rider who, to be comfortable, must purchase a horse that was trained in the same way that they were trained as a rider or retrain the horse. Competition horses must adapt to the many different freelance competition riders that catch a ride at various competitions. Lesson horses must adapt to new students who learned a different standard at a previous lesson barn.

In other words, the consequences of having no standardization of horsemanship in teaching riding or training horses, is that the horses are forced to bear the burden of the differences in the riders. Horses must continually adapt to the many methods and styles because human entitlement demands that the horses always must adapt to the riders because riders are now the main focus, not the horses.

The American Horse Society intends to establish a universal horse centered standard of horsemanship to solve this problem.

04/04/2024

https://www.facebook.com/100064451033652/posts/820812516743775/

As usual, Denny Emerson has a great way of coming to the point in his article. He once again stresses how having a horse and learning to communicate with it is a process that takes time. That we must embrace the journey and not be short sighted on a destination. Please take the time to read his words.

04/03/2024

Wow! I can’t believe that was 5 years ago nor how big he really was. I miss my gentle giant. Arvid was such a sweet special soul. Cancer isn’t kind in any species💔

Thanks for the photo Amanda!

03/30/2024

https://www.facebook.com/100043468792096/posts/1011720070286943/

There are some fantastic photos in the comments that Bobby Wood posted with more information behind it. This is a very good post as you know my emphasis is always horse and rider safety first.