European Riding Academy

07/02/2024

As of today, we have availability for boarders, who like to join our happy place at Majestics Stables:

2 stalls with runs, full care includes turn outs in the mornings and picking out hooves on way back in, shavings, mucking, hay, fed twice daily, and supplements prepared by owner. Feed room and tack room.

3 two-horse paddocks and 1 single horse paddock, these are partial care. Owners muck themselves. Hay always included

We have a covered arena, an outdoor arena with newly added sand, two round pens and an L-shaped obstacles arena, besides almost 40 acres to hack around on, wash racks, 2 inside the barn, 1 outside, plus some hitching posts.

Trailer parking available too.

Interested to join our amazing barn community? Call Dagmar for more details and an in person tour to see if we are a good fit at 541-210-4820. Leave a message or text when I’m unavailable to answer.

06/28/2024

Day 4 of camp was putting things together we practiced these past 3 days into a little drill team fun pattern.

Lil Bit got a bit crumby not being able to keep up with Isabella, whose walk and trot are naturally more forward. It took A. a bit by surprise, and she had to learn how to ride more proactive to make needed changes to keep with the pattern of the team.

That, however allowed Tango to not fall behind Lil Bit, as that might make want him to canter to catch up, a skill for young A. to practice on longe line a bit longer first.

Marie was surprisingly content to bring up the rear, literally close to Tango’s rear at times. Since these two horses are best buddies, C. doesn’t need to worry about it and just focus to keep her moving. It’s great to see her trotting with such confidence.

P. is getting very comfortable on Isabella, developing a good trust relationship with this young horse, that still can act unpredictable at times. Like shying away from a feather in the wind or today, the p**p bucket being placed in a different corner. Isabella has come a long way, she just made a quick, small circle and then came right back to reassure herself that bucket wasn’t going to eat her after all. 😂 All the other horses just stood and waited for her.

We bathed and hand grazed the horses while learning about body parts. Little C. surprised us all with her knowledge.

At the end, we got to practice the safety know again.

06/27/2024

Day 3 of camp started with watching a small herd dynamic while letting Tango, Isabella, and Marie have some fun. Marie might be the smallest, but she is definitely the alpha pony, who won’t let others stay ahead of her. She simple makes a u-turn to run off the opposite direction and everyone turns to follow her again.
Isabella acts like a puppy, trying to get the others to play with her.
Tango runs when he wants to, then parks himself in the right upper corner to watch the others.
These three make it easy to teach the kids about herd hierarchy and how different horses respect each other.

One kid was out sick today, so young C. rode Marie and young A. rode Tango. First trot on the line, just to get comfortable with his movements before trotting him off line. C. found her confidence and trotted Marie around the arena in between all the other horses. Yahoo!

We changed up our obstacle configuration to work more on various circles, ovals, transitions between corridors and frequent changes of direction.

A. on Lil Bit and P. on Isabella still got challenged to improve engagement of inside rear legs, and thus bend, focusing on rhythm and relaxation in all gaits and riding uphill transitions, as well as developing square halts.

For our cool down time we started to work out a little drill team pattern for Friday show off to family. 🐴💕

The last 45 minutes we learned about tack, naming the parts and properly cleaning it.

06/26/2024

Day 2 of this week’s camp started with our farrier Joseph Jordahl giving a great demonstration on basic horsemanship, leg structure and what all must be considered when trimming or shoeing a horse.

Then we went off to ride, again, using same WE obstacles as yesterday. We skipped ground work and used obstacles as relay stations.
Surprise, yesterday, after performing each obstacle on the ground first, Isabella did great with the rope gate. Today, that same rope apparently turned into a dragon 🐉. Ok, a little earlier than planned canter work and then back to gate, making sure to allow time to pause and praise after each movement. Great learning opportunity for all students, especially P.

Lil Bit and A. showed some improvements on the details and required the least assistance from me on the ground.

Young C. wanted to try cantering Tango today (on longe line). Tango is turning into a real caretaker, as much as this horse loves to canter, he kept to a very small trot with C. So she got to canter Marie instead.

Both E. and (younger) A. are capable of cantering on both, either Marie or Tango.

These relay stations sure keep me busy teaching here and there, back and forth, hence, I barely took any pictures.

After taking care of the horses we also learned the safety knot, basic breeds, main colors and a little bit about horse conformation. Then just like that, it was time to go home.

06/23/2024

About 4.5 hours later I’m all organized and prepared for summer day camp (or should I call it workshop? 🤔) starting tomorrow.

When combining mixed skill levels, it gets tricky to provide appropriate challenges and thus advancements for each and every student.

I know the students are as excited as this teacher to start the educational fun with horses tomorrow 🐴💕🌞

06/16/2024

We really do have a fantastic barn community, whose contributions made it possible to add more sand to our outdoor arena. ❤️
Al worked 3 long days with his tractor to prep and then spread evenly.
The footing feels fantastic now. Roxy and Isabella got to initiate the arena this afternoon. It took TK later all but three steps to enjoy a good role and Oliver apparently galloped and played in it like a young foal!
Thank you Al Realini Sr. for all your hard work to make this possible. Happy horses, happy owners 🐴💕❤️

06/09/2024

ISO
Reliable Barn Helper, part time only.
Do you love caring for horses, and earning some pocket money while enjoying the physical workout that comes with it? Then this might be just the right gig for you.
Experience preferred, but willing to train right person, who wants to work outdoors year around, regardless of weather conditions.

My best helper is graduating college and as she takes on her career, she will have to reduce her time at the barn.

This leaves an opening for morning chores on Saturdays as well as some pm feedings.

Call Dagmar for more info (541) 210-4820. Best time to chat are during morning chores time. Otherwise leave me a voicemail or text and I’ll get back to you outside lesson hours.

05/27/2024

So I did a thing… Last Thursday I was interviewed by Trish Hyatt! I’m now one of her many guest instructors on her “Coffee At The Barn” site. I’m honored to be among some really famous trainers, chatting about one of their favorite exercises! I love listening to so many different tips and tricks from other instructors, and applying them to my own riding and teachings. What a great resource to keep adding to my own toolbox. Trish puts a lot of effort into this, providing an invaluable learning opportunity for all of us. Go ahead and subscribe to enjoy it too!

https://coffeeatthebarn.com/DagmarRealini

05/26/2024

Posting for my friend, who boards with me as she isn’t on here.
Angelica is a very sweet mare, who truly needs a sensitive and experienced rider. She doesn’t like making mistakes, yet gets easily flabbergasted when being taught new moves. Definitely a forward thinking horse, easy gaits and definitely looks to bond with one person.
Her owner has health issues and no longer rides her mare, hence she advertises her as a broodmare. She needs a forever home with someone who understands the sensitivity of this magnificent breed.

Since I’m technically challenged 😜 I will post more pictures of Angelica in comments.

Grey Andalusian Mare, Broodmare in Oregon. DreamHorse.com is the premier horse classifieds site with horses for sale, lease, adoption, and auction, breeding stallions, and more.

05/26/2024

Summer riding camps coming up before we know it 🐴💕
Monday through Friday from 8:00 to 12:00, with show off day and potluck on Fridays.
Sign up by calling or texting (541) 210-4820

05/26/2024

Another fun EOH class this morning. Too bad I didn’t stop to take any pictures
We worked on double slalom, using cones to measure evenness of half circles and to show how straight lines ended up to be ridden. Boy, was that an eye opener. Getting every half circle to be the exact same size, same roundness and spacing without loosing rhythm, no falling out of shoulders or haunches… that is a lot more difficult than it seems!
Once cones were places as guidelines to follow it helped a LOT.

We worked some more on spear ring obstacle combination. Keeping the horse in a straight line while picking up and even drops off is definitely easier than during attempts to get the ring.

We ran out of time to practice the rope gate, so we ended with rein-back L. Every rider got the backing through the corner relatively ok, but struggled with marching backwards keeping enough tempo to maintain diagonal foot pairs.

Fun class and obvious improvements were achieved! 💕🐴❤️

05/18/2024

And because that exercise was so much fun with the older ones, this young rider got to experience it as well. With the same incredible result of actually steering and bending my pony Marie much better than with both hands on the reins. 💕🐴

She also got to try the circle with the pole exercise. Best thing to do to improve her own circle balance. Like magic, Marie mimics her circle balance perfectly and willingly.

One of the best tool to encourage any rider to ride more from behind than with their hands. ❤️❤️❤️

05/18/2024

Fun lesson today, using single slalom pattern with pole in hand, in walk and trot, and one unplanned canter round 😆 We will work up to that, but not quite yet 🤣
Isabella was actually trying very hard to remain relaxed having to turn into pole on her right, not just during slalom but also with TOH and TOF.
Tango and Roxy both don’t care what one does with that pole. No worries on their parts.

Why I love this exercise? It raises student’s awareness to their body movements. They were surprised to realize the slalom actually works better when riding it one handed! Their accuracy improved dramatically. Why? Simply, because it encourages them to ride truly from behind (seat and legs) and not stirring with their hands. And that’s what it is all about 🐴❤️💙

05/12/2024

The hardest part of today’s EOH class? Getting a picture with all the ears forward 🤣
Ok, just kidding. We were way too busy to even think about taking pictures as we learned more about challenging obstacles.
Backing up straight without rails during “rounding posts” is a lot harder than it seems.
Gate and side pass obstacles are always a task for sure, as are the drums. Amazing how many details it takes to actually ride three same sized and ROUND circles!
The bridge ridden correctly entails a change between medium and free walk with very little time for the needed transitions.
Everyone achieved great improvements with every obstacle. Such a fun way of learning the finer details of a harmonious partnership between horse and rider 💙❤️🐴🐴 Just another perfect example why we all love WE!

05/08/2024

Yesterday, it was time to re-visit the double lounge line with Mia Isabella. Only this time, using the round pen instead of large arena.

As expected, she did ok going left, then tried to outrun the touch of the lines going right. So I started to count a canter beat for her and just like that, she cantered nicely. She does listen very well to my voice commands, yet gets a bit “pushy?” when fear sets in. Pushy as of pushing against my hands. I taught her to make a smaller circle before asking her to turn around , facing the fence. Which is the opposite of what I had taught her for free longing. Of course, that’s ground for confusion.
Kept practicing these turns until she stayed in walk, which took a lot longer on the right than on the left. What else is new?

Then today, my student B. rode her through EOH course, while I rode Marie, using trot and later canter between obstacles. Walk to canter transitions improving nicely, staying in it still challenging, as well as downward transitions in time for obstacles proof more difficult than anticipated by B. However, picking up pole, spearing ring and dropping off not really an issue. (Remember, B. is left handed 🙂)

05/04/2024

Due to today’s rain, we switched our small in house WE Fun Show to tomorrow.
Lucky for me, yesterday was a beautiful day and I got to set up in the sunshine 🐴☀️

05/02/2024

Amazing what one can do by simply placing two poles on the ground, in the middle of the arena. So many exercises are possible here, some WE related, some just basic gymnastics of a horse.

In Isabella’s case this morning, 🐴💕 it gave her a different focus point for transitions, backing up, square halts, TOH, TOF, side pass…. and walk to canter transitions. She did great! And her boogie baby at C almost completely disappeared 👏

04/26/2024

Ready to go for tomorrow’s practice run for upcoming in house WE schooling show. Love WE, which offers such a fun way to combine skills with precision around obstacles. 💕🐴❤️

04/14/2024

ISO

Do you love horses? 🐴❤️
We, at Majestics Stables are looking for a competent, reliable and independent barn helper:
PM feeder for Thursdays and Fridays
Weekend feeder for Saturdays pm, Sundays am and pm
Morning chores on Saturdays (2-3 hours), and if capable enough, possibly some Monday mornings (3-4 hours)

Ideal candidate is familiar with horses, detail oriented, able to lift up to 50lbs, loves to take care of horses, speaks and comprehends English and possesses reliable transportation.

Trade off board and/or lessons could be considered.

For an in person interview call Dagmar at (541) 210-4820, best time to do so: Monday through Saturday between 7:30-9:30am.

04/14/2024

Spring is here…. 🤣 🤪

04/14/2024

A few semi-private classes for WE today. Last one was a regular lesson gone EOH just because I didn’t have time to remove obstacles beforehand. They loved it, but I didn’t take any pictures.

Today’s major take aways: our tension/relaxation in our posture most definitely affects the horse. TOH and TOF truly are essential moves to have in one’s repertoire to successfully complete several obstacles

Great students, wonderful horses, fun times. 🐴💕

04/13/2024

Due to expected rain tomorrow, EOH class will happen under cover. Double Slalom, Pen, Jump and rope Gate. Oh my, what fun lies ahead for tomorrow’s classes 💕🐴

03/31/2024

Happy Easter to you all!

03/30/2024

All ready for tomorrow’s EOH classes. Weather promises to cooperate. Students and I are excited to work on Figure 8, Jug, Rein-back L, and picking up pole, spear ring, drop off pole.
No promises, but I shall try to at least take some pictures 😉🐴💕

03/27/2024

Be aware…

03/17/2024

The 2nd group for today’s EOH class were all riders on their own horses. It does make a difference regarding how well connected they are with their own horses. Hence we got to work on more variations of the side pass obstacle, besides the single slalom, bridge and bell corridor.
Yet, even with this group, it shows why there is no side pass in L1. This is a lot harder than it seems, and our poles are still all on the ground!
Great job to my 3 Chestnut Musketeers ! 🐴💕❤️💙

03/17/2024

First EOH group did better than expected ❤️
Isabella, ridden by B. showed no signs of fear, not even over side pass pole (which she couldn’t get a hang of last time we worked on EOH, last October, shortly after her arrival)
Tango, ridden by M. was often leading the way for others, as these two are a seasoned team by now.
New to this was R. on Marie, she handled it very well, even the more difficult parts.
Great class you’all, will be fun to watch the improvements. 💕🐴❤️

03/16/2024

So excited to start our bi-weekly EOH classes up again. Can’t wait to see how our newcomers will fare tomorrow 🐴❤️, including Isabella, ridden by my student B. 💕