Adamo Equestrian

02/27/2025

02/15/2025

Why do the basics take so long?

The basics actually don’t take much time at all. Teaching a horse and rider the building blocks of balance and relaxation is not that difficult or complicated, as long as both are a blank slate.

What takes so much time is undoing poor basics, undoing poor movement patterns, and letting go of the wrong muscle memories and building the right muscle groups.

I’ve been riding with my teacher for almost a decade now. The first few years I barely made any progress, not because the work wasn’t good, but because I didn’t understand what she was even talking about. It went right over my head, and every lesson I had we sort of repeated the work of the last. My poor teacher repeated herself over and over, but I rode with others who’s work undid what she was trying to do, and I just wasn’t ready to understand it yet.

Then, when it clicked for me, I was all in- but my muscle memories, habits and understanding was counter productive. It took a long time (and I’m still working on it) to let go of the habits I had that stood in the way of progress. Same for my horses - they had habits that weren’t helpful either, especially the habit of coming behind the bit: some of it wasn’t my fault, some of it was. This was a very lengthy, uncomfortable and downright yucky phase. There didn’t feel like there was a lot of winning. This is where most people quit - they find a new instructor because they aren’t getting anywhere, or bounce around to different “methods.”

Then the break through: I finally understood where she was coming from, what the benefits were, and my horses were starting to buy into it too. We were finding harmony, beautiful moments sprinkled in, and getting successes to keep us motivated. This phase required lots of vigilance from my teacher and myself to not revert to old habits when we were tired, distracted or learning something new.

After these new, more productive habits were better cemented, upward progress was possible. It took so long. Not because the learning itself is fated to be arduous, but because I was in my own way for much of the time.

So why does it take so long? It doesn’t. But we make it so- and there’s nothing wrong with that process, because as Ray Hunt said, “you’re not working on your horse, you’re working on yourself.”

02/10/2025

I'm so lucky to have Trevor. He is overhauling the client tack room while I slowly die of a horrendous sinus and eye infection. I also cannot thank Shannon Tiedemann enough for donating her time to this project. Love you both!!!!!

02/10/2025

“Can’t you tell that horse isn’t 100% comfortable?!”

Yes. I can.

I’m going to share from a post from last year…

“At this stage, I’m not looking for 100% relaxation and trust in me.

That’s not realistic, and I’m not going to get hung up on it.

This isn’t about me, me needing the horse to be 100% ok with me.

This is about me meeting and accepting the horse exactly where they’re at… which is NOT trusting me.

This horse needs to trust themselves to read my intention, first.

The more they practice that, the more scaffolding we have to build trust between us.

There is no shortcut. Trust-building is dynamic and accumulative.

There is no 100% trust each step of the way with some horses and some situations.”

This particular horse has a lot of trust in people, but she’s lacked confidence in herself to navigate situations without a herd around at times; which, I guess, comes down to trusting her handler to act as her ‘surrogate herd.’

There’s a lot more education about calming signals and covert signs of stress the last few years, which is fabulous.

But make no mistake, just because I appear to be ‘ignoring’ them, doesn’t mean I’m not seeing them.

That goes for a lot of horsemen.

Even if they don’t have a formal term or understanding, they can still be using all of the feedback from the horse to guide their decision-making, which may or may not involve slowing down or stopping the process.

Don’t assume that just because a trainer doesn’t slam on the brakes when they see calming signals or signs of stress, that they don’t see or understand them. Or that they don’t care.

They aren’t necessarily a stop sign. More often, they’re a caution or yield sign.

That being said, I’d be very wary of anyone whose only response is the gas pedal.

02/09/2025

01/18/2025

The Dressage Foundation is pleased to announce the recipient of the $2,500 Pure Spanish Horse/Pura Raza Española (P.R.E.) Fund grant is Alexis Martin-Vegue (CA). 🥳

Alexis is a professional dressage trainer, clinician, and USEF “r” judge and is currently head trainer at Dorado Andaluz, a P.R.E. Horse breeding farm. Alexis will use the grant funding to train with Pippa Callanan on Galana DA, a 14-year-old mare owned by Susanne Punch and Dorado Andaluz. Alexis’ goal with her training is to work on Grand Prix movements and create the choreography for a freestyle.

Alexis said, “I'm so humbled to be receiving the P.R.E. Fund grant from TDF to be able to train with my incredible mentor Pippa Callanan. Being able to focus on my education while developing possibly the best horse I've ever had the honor to ride, Galana DA, is the most incredible gift.”

The purpose of this Fund is to celebrate and promote the Pure Spanish Horse/P.R.E. as upper-level dressage horses because of the breed’s natural abilities, talent, and disposition. Thanks to generous donors, one annual $2,500 grant will be given to a professional, adult amateur, or Young Rider (over the age of 16) competing at Prix St. Georges (or Young Rider equivalent) or higher.

The deadline to apply is November 10. Information about the Fund and the online application are available at https://bit.ly/3FhBHrv



Photo by Tamera