HC Equestrian

05/01/2024

Only 2 weeks left to sign up! Link in comments

04/14/2024

Early Bird Registration for Santa Cruz Super Clinic ends tomorrow. Only a few spots left, reserve your spot before the price goes up on Tuesday! 💸

03/15/2024

08/22/2023

Rode in the wind and rain today. Lena’s jog is feeling 🔥

08/06/2023

I taught a clinic full of wonderful horses and riders today, and this was the only photo I took. Isn’t this dog fabulous?!

08/03/2023

This morning I rode Lena through the murder of crows out on the field. Our goal was to move through them, without then flying away. I looked down and saw our shadow. I thought there way the little flowers showed up on us was beautiful.

07/31/2023

A snakey day at the ranch! One beauty by the Dressage court, and another in the barn! 🐍

07/20/2023

Channeling my inner .colman and trying to take a pretty picture of a good horse.

07/16/2023

River and I tried a ranch riding trail class on a lark. It was fun and we have transferable skills!

07/11/2023

Bug and Chocohen.

07/09/2023

New trick for River! My cue got in frame a little too 🦵

04/07/2023

Happy 30th Birthday to Poni! She is still sound and jumping. She hasn’t slowed down 😂. Poni lives at Webb Ranch and is a member of Saratoga Pony Club. She is lovingly owned by Alice Bizri’s family. Please share your favorite memories or pictures of Poni in the comments!

08/04/2022

Congratulations to Norma on her purchase of Magic Mike! He’s already bringing joy and making us laugh ♥️

07/19/2022

Food for thought

Preparation

I was late to the mechanic today. My car was booked in at 8am sharp, and I rolled in the driveway at 8.05.

Many may read this and think that ‘5 minutes’ doesn’t really matter, and I guess 100 years from now it won’t. It did however get me to thinking about something my mentor said to me many years ago.

I was attending his clinic, and I was already ready to go in the arena, like many others. It was about 8.55am for a 9am start and I was chuckling about one of my fellow attendees who was ‘faffing about’ still brushing her horse and saddling up. I said “I don’t think she is going to make it” as I saw his gaze cross over to her. “You watch how it reflects in her horsemanship” he said - and then he had my full attention.

I must have looked at him with a quizzical expression because he went on to say “it’s true. If you watch the people that are late, then watch them with their horses and you will see it makes a difference”.

Over the years I have learnt that there are many areas where this is reflected.

Rushing. Usually when you are running late you have a ‘hustle’ in your movements. This is picked up on by the horse and can translate into confusion in aids and a general air of anxiety in your interactions.

‘Good enough’. If you thought that 5 minutes wasn’t really a big deal, this can translate into a ‘good enough’ attitude. “Oh he did the movement, it wasn’t perfect, but it was ‘good enough’. Good enough is the enemy of excellence.

Loss of training and learning time. Every 5 minutes is 5 minutes you could have learned something, trained something or taught something. Did you know that if you miss 5 minutes per day on a 5 day week, over the year that is 21 hours of training!

It would be remiss of me to not mention the impact to others. Turning up late to a clinic or lesson is not only disrespectful to your coach who has made the effort to be on time, but is disruptive to your fellow students.

Back to my being late to the mechanic. I had allowed 1.5 hours to get there, and it is usually about an hours drive, however certain things happened at home which caused me to get on the road late. At 7.55am I was still all set for being on time, but then was caught in roadworks just before the mechanics shop. This caused a delay of 10 minutes. I could ‘blame’ the roadworks, but at the end of the day preparation is not about leaving 45 minutes before your appointment when you know a ‘good run’ gets you there in 45 minutes. It’s about leaving an hour or an hour and 15 minutes before to have time for any ‘unexpected’ issues.

As we practice this preparation in our day to day life, it is reflected in the quality of our horsemanship.

Tk

Train with

July 30 & 31 - Liberty clinic, Port Macquarie NSW

August 18 - 27 Cadillac horse course 10 days, Glenreagh

September 3 & 4 - Connection & Self Carriage - Gold Coast hinterland

September 3 & 4 - Cowboy Dressage Wauchope

Shine by CEN Horse Nutrition

03/17/2022

Hang tight everyone! You don’t want these cooties.

03/04/2022

Stay put everyone!

12/09/2021

New from USAWE, objectives for the levels. Very helpful for understanding performance expectations at each level.