Alexander Equestrian Center

03/16/2023

Make every ride count with stay in the saddle - exercises for horse and rider bring fun and purpose to every ride, improving your skills and your horse's training.

03/16/2023

These two beauties had been barn mates but were separated for a few months. This is was what happened when they saw each other at the horse park after their long absence from each other. Photo courtesy of Jenn Wang.

03/16/2023

01/13/2023

Happy New Year!

08/17/2022

AEC Davy and Opie cooling off

07/08/2022

Will in the pasture 🐴

07/08/2022

05/23/2022

Zorse photo by rarity acres

05/22/2022

Richard Watjen, who has been considered to have sublime position once said, "No fault in rider position was ever corrected by suppleness. Suppleness is the result of riding in the correct position for years." This is an excellent statement. Riders need to come to riding with the idea of an alert body capable of efficient toning, not slumped or relaxed. There is a great quotation from the brilliant and legendary French music teacher Nadia Boulanger. An advanced student came in one day and began to present a new composition that he thought was free-flowing and rangy. A little way into it, she stopped him with stern look. "Let me tell you something," she said, "loose is not beautiful. Loose is loose." The Zen master Shunryu Suzuki told his students, "It is easy to have calmness in inactivity, it is hard to have calmness in activity, but calmness in activity is true calmness."
- Dressage for the 21st Century, Paul Belasik
Photo Credit: Jessica Gadbois
Find the book here:
https://xenophonpress.com/products/dressage-for-the-21st-century-signed-paul-belasik-ltd-edition

05/16/2022

Beware the stories we tell ourselves

Riding with Charles de Kunffy is alway an experience that I find centering - It recommits me to the principles of harmony and suppleness, always working to avoid egoic pursuits at the expense of the horse’s wellbeing. One of my favorite quotes from Charles is that “riding is a metaphor for a life well lived” and I am always seeing parallel lessons between the training of the horse and with the journey of personal development.

Today, as I introduced my horse, Gran Tango, to Charles and to the auditors, I explained that he can get very anxious during the ride, particularly in the canter work. I felt like two years ago, as his powerful hind leg really began to kick in and we were upping the intensity of the work, Tango would get quite anxious. Emotional breathing would ensue and he would have the tendency to run as his hind leg became quicker and quicker and his back would get tighter and tighter. That rapid hind leg would then cause him to push strongly into my hand which would then make him more anxious. It was like he had so much power but not enough strength to manage it and that would make him quite nervous. I did my best to bend him, soften my hands and rebalance him to the hind leg while maintaining emotional control and an encouraging demeanor.

Through the systematic training of strengthening and suppling, Tango has begun to find a way of moving with a softer back and his trot is really starting to swing. His canter still gets pretty powerful, especially the more I do of it but without the same emotional intensity that he had before. Now his hind legs get a little charged up but he is much more responsive to my half halts and bending aids and he remains confident. However, that is not the story I told. When I told Charles that Tango gets really anxious, I was really explaining the horse of the past.

It is really important to be careful about the stories we tell ourselves. Thoughts repeated over and over in our mind and out loud can become beliefs and beliefs dictate our behavior. By labeling Tango as “anxious”, I was limiting myself to an experience centered around that belief. How many of us are held back because of these limiting beliefs? These stories we tell ourselves become so real that they begin to hold us back. One of my other horses has had quite a time with the flying changes and I could easily center my belief about her around that and by saying over and over again “she struggles with flying changes or she is not very good at changes”, I would create that very experience!

Our thoughts are powerful and we must be aware of what is truth and what is simply a belief. They are not always the same! How many of us tell ourselves that we are not good enough? How many of us say that we are too stiff, too short, too tall, too heavy, too thin, etc…? Maybe we fell as if we should be farther along than we are. Or maybe that negative inner voice comes out after a rough horse show, telling you that you should have never been there in the first place. These beliefs harm our confidence and keep us stuck. To move forward, we must stop telling ourselves these stories. Here is a new mantra for you whenever you start to tell yourself the same old stories:

“Every day in every way I am getting better and better!” - Emelie Coue

Drop the old stories, embrace the new forward thinking attitude and enjoy the ride!

-Jenna Stern Arnold

05/14/2022

05/09/2022

To correct your seat and posture…

Imagine your pelvis as an old-fashioned goldfish bowl. To maintain your posture while you ride, keep the water in the bowl level. If your pelvis is tipped forward, the water will pour out onto the horse’s withers. If your pelvis is tipped backward, you will pour the water out onto the haunches.—Janice Dulak

Dulak is a Pilates master instructor and the creator of Pilates for Dressage® and the Ridermanship Training Program.

Illustration by Sandy Rabinowitz

05/08/2022

Carry on being AMAZING!