Galavant Equestrian

10/30/2024

10/27/2024

This!

This image captures the essence of the relationship between a coach and an athlete. It shows how coaches invest pieces of themselves—knowledge, experience, passion—into their athletes, helping them grow, excel, and reach their full potential.

Behind every great athlete is a coach who believed, guided, and gave more than just instructions. They pour time, energy, and heart into molding not only the athlete’s skills but also their character, resilience, and mindset. Coaches are mentors, motivators, and sometimes even life-changers. They give so much of themselves to see others succeed.

To all the coaches out there—thank you for your selflessness, dedication, and unwavering support. You shape not just athletes but also leaders and strong individuals for the future. 🙏

04/02/2024

Flash Point HU, Owned by Cindy Olson. Bred by Anne R Sparks. This talanted youngster showed his first 1-3 test and earned a qualifying score at the last show at Global! He has so much power and is maturing nicely! 🤩

03/24/2024

First Dressage show for Alison Derrick is in the books!
Great riding and a Qualifying score! Proud Trainer 😁Amigo was the bestest boy, taking Training 3 very seriously. 💕

12/24/2023

Merry Christmas to everyone near and far! Our small family is finally together for Christmas. So grateful! 🥰🎅🌲🥰

08/18/2023

He finally arrived! North Dakota FF. Congratulations Raquel Tudela Ronacher ! We can't wait to see what the future holds! Thank you to Maria Anna Digman - Kwinten Maria Anna's International Dressage & Equine services for finding him!

03/06/2023

Have you ever wondered who is on a Grand Prix Quadrille Team, who the choreographer is or who created the music for the freestyle? Wonder no more—go to challengeoftheamericas.com/whos-who and check out all the info you need to be in the know.

03/06/2023

A Muddy Mayhem Guide: The Dressage Diva.

This is the Dressage Diva. They may look quite complicated but they are actually pretty simple to understand. They are fuelled by Diamanté and Prosecco.

The Dressage Diva likes to spend their time doing Dressage Tests. Dressage Tests are when the Dressage Diva wears a pair of gleaming white breeches that cost the equivalent of a 3rd world country’s debt and gets the horse to dance around a pristine sand arena, whilst a judge tells them how bad they are at getting their horse to dance. It is like Strictly Come Dancing just with more make-up and sparkles.

The Dressage Diva has an amazing memory. They can remember the aids for a perfect half pass, they can remember every piece of music from Valegro’s winning test at London Olympics and they can remember every best score they have had at every single dressage level. What they can’t remember, as they are trotting down the centre line, is whether they are supposed to be turning right or left at C.

The Dressage Diva might tell you their horse was a bit tense in his test. What The Dressage Diva means by that is their horse forgot every fu***ng single piece of training they have ever done and cantered around the arena like a fire-breathing, 3 legged goat. The Dressage Diva is just relieved they got to the final salute without being bucked off. The Dressage Diva needs a large glass of prosecco and a browse through the Equissentials catalogue to help them recover.

This is the scoreboard. The Dressage Diva stands here with the ultimate poker face. Even though The Dressage Diva appears devoid of all emotion, inside they are screaming at the sheer fu***ng injustice of their score and trying to work out how they can assassinate the judge

When The Dressage Diva wins their class they will be very proud. The Dressage Diva will post a picture of their rosette & test sheet on Instagram. The Dressage Diva will spend 15 minutes before they take the picture arranging the rosette & folding the sheet so it hides any s**t marks & judge comments.

The Dressage Diva goes to The Trainer. The Trainer stands in the middle of the arena, holding their head to one side, their hands behind their back and shouting at The Dressage Diva. The Dressage Diva part hero worships and is part absolutely terrified of The Trainer.

The Dressage Diva loves matching things in pretty colours. They will spend all of their food shopping money on the set that they absolutely must have. The Dressage Diva may tell you that their aim is to ride at Grand Prix, but the truth is their aim is to have an outfit where the ear bonnet, bandages, saddle cloth and their t-shirt are the perfect shade of peacock blue.

No-one knows how many matchy things The Dressage Diva owns, even The Dressage Diva isn’t really sure. As part of this collection you might think The Dressage Diva has 5 beige saddle pads but this simply isn’t true. The Dressage Diva as 1 beige saddle pad, 1 taupe saddle pad, 1 light caramel pad, 1 dark oatmeal pad and 1 café-crème pad. All 5 just look beige.

The Dressage Diva has a pair of very shiny riding boots. The reason they are so shiny is because The Dressage Diva can only wear them for 20 minutes at a time or they dislocate their kneecaps. But damn they look good!

The Dressage Diva once went to watch some eventing with a friend. They saw horses getting muddy and things that didn’t match. This made The Dressage Diva a bit sweaty and anxious. They had to quickly drink some Prosecco and find something sparkly to buy.

The Dressage Diva might seem like a strange creature but really they’re not. They have never forgotten the moment that a perfect dressage test with the horse and rider almost as one, captured their heart. Whether they are competing at Grand Prix or an intro test The Dressage Diva is awesome, dedicated, passionate and maybe just a touch obsessed.

11/23/2022

https://www.facebook.com/203612946356598/posts/2870694516315081/?mibextid=Nif5oz*

10 handy facts about lameness

1. A forelimb lameness is identified by looking for the head nod. The head will go up when the lame limb hits the ground and down when the sound limb hits the ground. It is easier to notice the 'head nod', therefore when the head nods, it is the opposite leg that is lame.

2. Check for heat and a pulse. Inflammation brings blood to the area.

3. A horse with arthritic wear and tear (common in older horses), will often get better as he goes, which is known as 'warming out of it'. The lameness will usually be less obvious after a few minutes. Additionally he will often be worse on hard ground (tarmac) in comparison to the ménage. This is due to more concussion on his joints.

4. A horse with soft tissue damage will often get worse as he goes and is often lamer on a soft surface (ménage), as the tissue such as an affected tendon or ligament is being stretched more than it would be on a hard surface with no give.

5. A horse with bilateral forelimb lameness will be harder to detect as the head nod will now be apparent when both limbs hit the ground. However he will show a shorter cranial phase (his forelimbs will not come out very far from underneath him resulting in a 'choppy' gait).

6. If you are struggling to detect lameness get the Slo-Pro app for your mobile phone and record your horse. This will slow everything down until you train your eye into detecting lameness.

7. A hind limb lameness is more difficult to detect. If you watch the horse trotting away from you, the lame leg usually has more movement at the hip. It helps to attach white sticky tape to both hip bones to make this more obvious to the eye.

8. Putting a horse on a circle (lungeing), often shows up a forelimb and hindlimb lameness more easily.

9. If the horse looks lame on one limb, but has a stronger pulse in the opposite limb, it is usually because the sound limb has taken more weight to allow pressure relief of the affected limb.

10. A horse can look completely sound without a rider, and then almost three legged once someone is on board. Therefore if your getting a feeling that something just isn't quite right, do not just jog him up on the straight or on the lunge and assume all is well.

** Shoeing/trimming intervals should be kept as short as possible. Studies have shown that as the toe grows, the foot 'shoots' forward (long toes, low heel), putting excess strain on the flexor tendons. If your horse always looks slightly 'off' just prior to shoeing, then this is a very probable cause and it may be worth shortening your shoeing cycle.

As a horse owner, developing an eye for lameness is one of the greatest skills you can learn. This will not only allow you to have your horse treated more quickly, but will hopefully nip smaller issues in the bud before they escalate into far bigger ones.

E. J Westwood.

11/19/2022

Missy got a new classy fall coat Thank you! Lena Henriksson. 💕

09/11/2022

https://www.horselistening.com/2013/04/27/what-being-on-the-forehand-means-to-the-horse/

What does being on the forehand really mean, from the horse’s perspective? Here are a few thoughts.