Phoenix Equestrian PNR

07/18/2022

Playing with my baby stallion puppy ❣️❣️❣️

03/17/2022

The Seat Explained

The seat has two meanings.
One is the specific area of contact that extends from the lumbar
back down to the knee, in other words, whatever moves from the lumbar area down to the
knee is the rider's seat.
But in a broader sense, the rider's seat is everything because its influence is entire, from the top of the head, which should be the highest point, of course, to the bottom of his heel.

The seat should be a cohesive unit that comes to the horse as a communication medium and as a transformation medium, one that is communicating cohesively and as a unit rather than in bits and pieces. I would like to say that even when a teacher gives specific directions to the rider to do something with his arms and with his legs, those directions
influence the rest of the rider. Because the rider is one person, he must communicate as one unit, one seat.

Riders should have balanced, deep, adhesive seats that allow them to make independent aids. Riders who remain adhesive to the saddle and their horses do so because they
understood and they learned that when the horse impacts on the ground the two points of
absorption are in the lumbar back and ankle. Riders who stiffen the ankle paralyse the toe
outward or downward, or push themselves away from the saddle to some degree. Riders
who cannot absorb the horse's movement in the lumbar back will, of course, pop loose of
the saddle and part from it.

Correct riding is done with the abdominal muscles, not with the back.
The rider's lumbar back should always remain relaxed. It should act as a hinge that allows
the pelvic structure to float forward with the horse's motion. The lumbar back allows the rider to remain isometrically toned - not tense -- in his torso while letting the buttocks and thighs remain adhesive to the saddle. The buttocks, the pelvic structure, should not slide on the surface of the saddle. Nor should the buttocks wipe or buff the saddle but rather "stick to it to allow the pelvic structure to surf the “wave" produced by the motion of the horse's back.

In contrast to the loose and supple use of the lumbar back, the torso above it should be
turned into one isometrically toned "cabinet." The rider's “cabinet" is a complex isometric unit.
For its formation, the rider should circle with the points of his shoulder back and down until
both shoulder blades are flat in the trapezius muscle of the back. This action will stabilise the posture of the torso. It will allow the front of the rider to lift the rib cage high, out of the abdominal cavity. It will broaden the chest, straighten the shoulders, stretch the front of the rider, and give him the feeling that the lowest ribs have been lifted, and the waist is more slender.
The rider's upper arms should then hang from his shoulders perpendicular to the
ground. This, importantly, stabilises the arms, hence the hands of the rider because in this
position the upper arms and elbows hang weightlessly. The earth's centre of gravity places
them. The direction of the upper arms and elbows will point to the rider's seat bones, and past them, to the ground. The stability provided by this upper-arm position is at the heart of riding - from the seat to the bridle, rather than wrongly, riding with the hands. For the vertical position of the upper arms is, indeed, responsible for the transferring of the seat's effects to the bridle.

Extract from Dressage Principles Illuminated by Charles de Knuffy p.140

Image:
To understand how to use your lower back to develop an adhesive seat, sit at the edge of a chair, and place
your feet on the floor in line with, and under your hips.
Thrust your pelvis forward so that you lift the back legs of
the chair off the ground. Then rock the chair forward and
backward to various different tilting angles and at different
rhythms without dropping the chair's back legs to the floor.
As you ride the walk, trot, and canter, this action simulates
the movement of an adhesive seat by emulating the pelvic
activity necessary to follow the horse's movement.

11/23/2021

Andromeda PNR ( https://youtu.be/SKj5weTn2YU ) featured in a US Equestrian post 😃 ridden by Jr. Rider: Romane Congard 😍

https://www.facebook.com/94418090418/posts/10159535974340419/

11/21/2021

Somebody had a bit of fun together 😍

11/20/2021

Andromeda PNR 19Nov21

Intelligent, affectionate, and eager to please 5 year old that bonds strongly to her people! She's been raised to love learning with a super solid foundation based on complete trust and confidence in people! She always does her best to figure out what she is asked to do, and is proud of herself when she gets it right.

She loves going on adventures and is safe for children and beginners in confined spaces such as a 60' round pen.

Started under saddle slowly, learning everything from the ground first until her body matured enough to be ready for full work under saddle.

Lifetime USEF & USDF with competition records starting as a weanling!

11/14/2021

https://www.dreamhorse.com/ad/2211422.html

11/12/2021

Bred, Born, Raised, and Trained by Phoenix Equestrian PNR
Currently schooling First Level

https://youtu.be/gb-1g8gMC5s

She is intelligent, affectionate, and eager to please with a touch of sass when she gets tired or bored. The sass comes out in really cute ways, nothing dangerous or scary. She's been raised to love learning, will try to figure out what she is asked to do, and is proud of herself when she gets it right. She understands verbal and seat cues for walk, trot, canter, whoa. She bends to pressure at the girth area from the ground and the saddle.

She loves going on adventures, sometimes she is even better in new places than at home because she is less likely to get bored. She bonds strongly to her people and may get a little nervous with a nervous person, until she matures a bit more.

She has matured slowly, and was therefore started under saddle slowly, learning everything from the ground first until I felt she was physically ready to be put into full work under saddle.

Safe for children and beginners in confined spaces such as a 60' round pen.

10/30/2021

Baby stud

10/25/2021

100' x 250' arena 😍😍😍 right next to my 60' round pen 😃😃😃

10/11/2021

Silly boys

10/07/2021

All played out

10/07/2021

Playing with Magico the baby stud, silly boy!

09/29/2021

When the ground is sloppy and gross but Venus is too cute to ignore 😍

09/26/2021

Andromeda learned about reaching for contact today. She's coming along very nicely!

09/25/2021

Magico learning responsiveness amidst all kinds of distractions - like a herd of mares....

09/22/2021

Magico the baby stud learning self control near a flirtatious mare. Such a good boy!!!!!

09/21/2021

Just had my first ride using the Equilab app on my phone! I can keep track of each and every ride on each and every horse and add notes! How cool is this! I think her trot is so smooth it tracked a lot of our trotting as walking, but, still, very cool!

09/20/2021

100' x 250' arena is coming together nicely!!

09/12/2021

Romy & Romy

09/10/2021

Such a gentle baby stud! Even with geese cleaning up the grain he spilled 🤣
Before I got my camera out and walked over, they were all around and UNDERNEATH him! 🤣🤣🤣😂

09/10/2021

Magico IX PNR - 2 yr old stallion
First place 2 yr old on Friday - qualified for finals
3rd place Colts/Geldings in the finals
The one and only stallion at the competition for the entire weekend!
Magico was amazing! Several times he needed to enter an arena full of mares and fillies or dams and foals and was an absolute gentlemen! The only thing he struggled with all weekend was standing still 🤣. Now we know what we need to work on, other than getting a bit more forward energy 🤣
I couldn't be more proud of our baby stallion! He is attentive, kind, intelligent, and an absolute joy to train!

08/27/2021

07/27/2021

MOLD SOLUTION FOR LEATHER
With all the rain and humidity mold is becoming a problem! I found a solution that is safe to use on leather, it's insane! I literally just wipe the mold away with this and it's like it was never there!

07/25/2021

Mítico PNR w/t/c long line

07/24/2021

Venus worked really hard today!

07/18/2021

Nice day for a swim

07/16/2021

Had a lovely jog this morning with Mítico reinforcing verbal cues and increasing his responsiveness to communication through the bit. Such a good boy!

07/15/2021

4 month old c**t competing in 2019 USDF Breeders championship qualifier with Jr handler.
Yes, he qualified 😍

07/14/2021

2 year old stallion learning "Trot"

07/10/2021

Riding "bridleless" out in the open. With bloopers

I highly recommend trying this in a much safer set up! Try having a friend/instructor/trainer put you and your horse on a lunge line while you experience trying to ride with a bit but no bridle. There are lots more cons than pros, so I don't recommend using this to train your horse, but it is very eye opening!

PROS:
I could feel everything!
I gained a lot of awareness for how you set your bridle to position the bit in the horse's mouth!
I gained awareness of how much more comfortable it is for the horse to be able to move the bit around in their mouth!
I gained awareness of how the elevation of my hands impacted my communication through the bit!
These are things I was already "knowledgeable" about, but FEELING it really impacted my awareness of it!
It was absolutely adorable feeling all of her thinking with such a weird experiment! 🤣

CONS:
Venus got really frustrated that the bit almost fell out everytime she tried to move it around in her mouth. There were a few times that she got so frustrated, she tried to spit it out. Twice, she was successful 🤣 She and I really had to work together to keep it in there! Thus, the tension in her mouth continued to increase throughout the less than 10 minute ride.
It was REALLY difficult to ride with my body because the amount of focus I had to use to keep the bit in her mouth was extremely distracting.
I couldn't give her a true release for fear the bit would fall out. She wasn't too thrilled about going "straight to work" as soon as I got on. Normally we ride on a loose rein for our warm up, but I had to skip over all that and neither one of us had the opportunity to "put ourselves together" and get ready to "work".
I found myself holding my hands up high trying to keep the bit in her mouth. This made communicating through it very difficult. If I lowered my hands, the bit would slide down and she'd have to work harder to keep it in her mouth. Fortunately, she is very forgiving and tried very hard to figure out what I wanted for the most part.

All in all, this was definitely interesting! I think I'll stick to using bits with bridles though. 🤣