Heritage Stables

06/05/2026

We were often told by Jenna and Caity's teachers growing up that they "were a pleasure to have in class" and that is the same way I feel about Tracey's girl Dutchy🦄

06/03/2026

The art of being watched 🦄 Does anyone else struggle with it 🫪

There is a principle in quantum physics called the observer effect. It states that the act of observing a particle changes its behavior. The particle, when unobserved, exists in a state of pure potential, simultaneously everything it could be. The moment someone looks at it, it collapses into a single, definite, and frequently disappointing state.

I am that particle.
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For the past several weeks I have been riding Fhil, my six year old, large, enthusiastic, profoundly unbothered warmblood, and I have felt, in the privacy of my own arena, like Carl Hester. Not Carl Hester on a difficult day. Carl Hester on his best day.

The transitions were fluid. The connection was solid. There were moments, I am not exaggerating, where Fhil and I were simply the same creature moving through space with a shared intention, and I thought: this is it. This is what they meant. I have arrived.

I had not arrived.

I had simply not yet been observed.
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Last week Kyla came to watch me ride.

She is not a judge, but she is something so much worse, she is the person who bred Fhil. She made him. She knows exactly what he's capable of. And she came out to watch me demonstrate that I am not.

She sat on the bench.

That's all she did. She sat and watched.

And Fhil, who moments before had been a willing, swinging, genuinely lovely horse, immediately became a different animal entirely. Not because Fhil changed. Because I changed. Because somewhere between Kyla sitting down and raising her eyes to watch, Carl Hester quietly left my body and was replaced by something I can only describe as a beached whale attempting to ride a camel.

The camel was also confused.
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The connection I had spent weeks carefully crafting dissolved in approximately four seconds. My position, which had been quietly excellent, relocated itself to somewhere north of correct and south of embarrassing. My seat, which had been soft and following, remembered that it was attached to a person being watched and began to tense and tighten like that time I ate Bolivian street food.

Fhil, to his eternal credit, did his best.

He is six. He deserved better.
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Kyla said nothing for a long time.

Then she said: "You looked really good before I got here."

She meant it kindly. This is the worst kind of meant it kindly. Because what she was actually saying, what we both knew she was saying, was: I have now seen the thing you become when someone is watching, and it is not the thing you described to me when we talk about Fhil.

I mustered up one more circle.

It was not better.

I brought Fhil to the halt and we stood there together, two beings united in the shared experience of having just been observed, and I thought about quantum physics and collapsing particles and the specific cruelty of potential versus reality.

Fhil thought about lunch.
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I have since ridden Fhil four more times without an audience.

Carl Hester has returned.

He is very good. You should see him sometime.

Just don't come watch.

06/02/2026

Nothing like a load of fresh sand to start the morning off right 🤗

06/01/2026

05/31/2026

Party in the big opened up grass field🎉🦄🦄🦄🦄

05/27/2026

It is wonderful to see the tides starting to turn, it may be slow but at least it is happening... This is why we share what we do.

05/26/2026

A Barn is a Sanctuary...

05/24/2026

Do you ever look at a dressage score sheet and feel a massive sense of disconnect?

You ride a test where your horse feels soft, relaxed, and genuinely balanced, but the scores are mediocre. Meanwhile, a flashy, tense, hyper-flexed performance walks away with the high marks. It’s one of the hardest pills to swallow for the conscientious rider, but it brings to mind the profound warnings in Charles de Kunffy’s "The Ethics and Passions of Dressage." Charles reminds us that classical dressage is a sacred art designed to liberate and elevate the horse, and yet the modern show ring all often enough commercializes the horse, rewarding superficial spectacle over true structural harmony.

When the mainstream standard shifts from classical artistry to a circus-like exhibition, modern judging criteria inevitably clash with long-term soundness. If a particular judge is looking for a forced, artificial frame and explosive, tense movement, then a lower score from that viewpoint isn't a failure. It’s a badge of honor. It means you refused to sacrifice your horse's physical and psychological well-being on the altar of competitive vanity. You chose your horse over a ribbon.

To be fair, this isn’t an indictment of the entire judging system. We are fortunate to still have many conscientious, deeply educated judges sitting a C. True keepers of the flame who recognize self-carriage, appreciate genuine relaxation, and will absolutely reward correct classical work when it crosses their path. The real test for us as riders is to remain steadfast regardless of who is sitting in the booth that day. We must be entirely willing to risk scoring poorly under a judge who rewards tension, while remaining deeply grateful when we encounter a judge who still protects the classical standard.

Don't let the score change your mind. It is the rider's absolute ethical duty to preserve the horse's health, longevity, and dignity. When you look across the warm-up arena, you know the truth... you wouldn't want to trade horses, or the inevitable long-term physical outcomes, with the rider on that high-scoring, "flashical" horse. So don't hope to trade scores with them, either. Not on that day, at least. Not under that particular judge.

We have to stay anchored in the passion and the principles that brought us to this form of horsemanship in the first place. Stick to your principles. Trust your process. And remember, as we strive to honor the classical traditions, that the horse is not just the object in this sport - he is the objective.

05/16/2026

When the afternoon light starts coming in it's magical 🌞 Clara is always close by too 🩷