L'Esprit Equestrian

08/11/2024

Great article about our friend Cass Kordecki and the importance of a solid foundation.

https://useventing.com/news-media/news/nurturing-the-next-generation-of-eventers-how-an-ecp-workshop-helped-cass-kordeckis-coaching?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR2_UCZDXWM0yERsR4br-YeJeNxTNNoyCIxhqkCNde_sz11p6Rh_y_xd-Pk_aem_xwM9IHcVjtw1zrCd4rbouQ&mibextid=Zxz2cZ

Nurturing the Next Generation of Eventers: How An ECP Workshop Helped Cass Kordecki's Coaching

07/28/2024

Incredible Opportunity to Lease an Amazing Horse

It is with great excitement that we can share with you this incredible opportunity to lease a super horse that we know and love!

2* Winner Available for In-House Lease!

Fiona Cotter's self-produced Miltown Malbay or "Kydd" is a 2010 Irish Sport Horse gelding imported from Ireland as a 2 year old. He began his eventing career as a 7 year old and went from beginner novice to 2* in one season. He is a cross country machine and as brave and forgiving as they come. He never says no!

Kydd competed through the intermediate level and has a stellar record with many top placings and an FEI win. He is an absolute gentleman both under saddle and on the ground. Kydd is only available as his person of 12 years (Fiona!) will be starting school in the fall.

Lease will require Kydd to be kept at Jigsaw Farm in Woodstock, IL and in the training program of Jennifer Howlett Rousseau (L'Esprit Equestrian). This will be a lower level (novice/training) lease with the possibility of more should Jennifer decide it is okay. Kydd requires regular maintenance and some management like any upper-level eventer might.

Please contact Jennifer Howlett Rousseau directly by PM or email if you are interested in learning more about the terms of this lease.

[email protected]

07/17/2024

Rare Opening for PASTURE Board!! Looking for a friend to add to our gelding full time PASTURE Field - beautiful fields, large sheds and excellent care! A perfect spot for your boy and a wonderful barn family. Grain x2 - free choice hay all winter - access to facility and Bull Valley Riding Club Trails with membership!

Come take a tour to join our Jigsaw Family!

06/30/2024

THE EVENTING COACHES PROGRAM PRESENTS

The Teaching of Jumping Workshop

OPEN TO ALL
• Coaches, instructors, riders, officials, students, supporters.

• Mentor: Mary D’Arcy, Irish National and Olympic Coach.
Elevate your skills and knowledge of the sport, of riding, of
horsemanship, and of rider safety and horse welfare.

Contact: Jennifer Howlett Rousseau, L’Esprit Equestrian,
847-501-0190 [email protected]

06/27/2024

Deadline to apply to represent Area IV YR at Hagyard Midsouth Team Challenge is fast approaching!

Don’t wait get your application in today to be apart of this team challenge.

Links to the Midsouth application can be found on the Area IV YR website.
https://www.useaivyr.org/midsouth

06/26/2024

06/26/2024

When a horse walks, trots and canters its body throws off waves of motion. Some riders get flung around by these concussive forces, some can pretty well be in rhythm with the horse, while the best riders have become so integrated into the motion of the horse that they become almost one flowing entity, like the Centaur of myth and fable.

Having this blending seat and body more than any other skill defines the better riders, so much so that the former multi-gold medal winning USET 3-day coach Jack LeGoff phrased it like this---

“What are the three things that you must have in order to become a good rider?”
1. A good seat
2. A good seat
3. A good seat

Jack wasn’t big on listening to riders in self-praise mode. I have heard him say more than once, “Don’t tell us how good you are. Get on that horse and show us.”

Almost instantly he could spot the fakes from the real deals just by whether or not they were part of the motion or apart from the motion. The seat doesn’t lie. You either bounce or you don’t bounce.

If your body isn’t supple enough and trained enough to merge with those waves of motion thrown off by the moving horse, you are not, by LeGoff’s high standards, a good rider, nor will you be until or unless you learn to blend.

If this seems harsh, too demanding, that’s not LeGoff’s intent. He wasn’t a coddler, rather he was telling a truth as he saw it. You either can sit the gaits or you can’t sit the gaits. Pretty basic and simple as he saw it.

06/26/2024

We are so blessed to be a part of this incredible, beautiful story❤️

06/20/2024

For your consideration: Our beloved, patient, honest, reliable, sweet, and forgiving flashy gelding offered for sale. Ideally for an adult amateur learning the ropes or a move up mount for a developing junior who wants a safe, reliable education from a guy whose been there done that, ready to show his next person the next chapter in a lucky someone's journey.

This sweet boy is officially recorded in the USEA and USEF records under show name, “Laplander”. He is a fan favorite with everyone who’s had the privilege of learning from him within our riding program which he has been a part of for the past few years. In the barn this handsome guy is fondly and more commonly referred to as “Dancer”.

Standing at 16.1 hands, he’s a big bodied, flashy grey, 2010 model of Thoroughbred; Canadian bred by the iconic Stronach Family, AND he’s never been raced. His Dam is “Maysville”([https://www.pedigreequery.com/maysville2](https://www.pedigreequery.com/maysville2)) and he is out of the Irish thoroughbred stud, “North Light” (~[https://www.pedigreequery.com/north+light](https://www.pedigreequery.com/north+light)).

Dancer was bred to be an athlete and he was started by a top Canadian event rider. In Canada, Dancer was introduced to the lower levels of Eventing through the Training level before being purchased in January 2021 by his current owner. He was purchased with the intention of being a move-up horse for a junior coming off a pony and ready to do more than Starter, and he was the perfect vehicle for that goal! The pair has successfully competed in a robust schedule of beginner novice, novice and training events successfully, including the qualification and participation in the American Eventing Championships in both 2021 and 2022 at the novice level both years.

As a testament to his reliability and consistency, he is the same horse at home or away, and he goes over fences and on the flat in the same rubber snaffle bridle. Dancer is quiet and patient enough for a husband/boyfriend to trail ride or a friend with no horse knowledge to have an up-down lesson. He’s equally keen enough to be competitive in low level jumpers and dressage, and he loves cross-country, with experience through the Training level. He has spent the past year teaching a beginner adult the basics of riding. His primary rider is now home from college and is currently schooling him up to begin their competition season at Fox River Valley Horse Trials at the Novice level. He is routinely working over 3ft-3’3 show jumping courses as well as cross-country schooling at novice/training height. He has automatic changes both directions and consistent, even flat work.

Dancer is a teacher to his riders and will always show up as the same, level-headed, consistent boy. He holds his riders accountable to thoughtful and fundamentally correct riding. He would be perfect as a steppingstone horse or a multi-family member horse with his ability to wear many teacher’s hats, or to just go down the trail on a Sunday afternoon. He has been healthy and sound throughout his tenure here, with one round of joint maintenance in the spring of 2023. He has four good feet. He does enjoy his regular visits from the chiropractor and massage therapist,

Finally, he loads, clips, bathes, stands for farrier or vet. He’s up to date on shots and de-worming.

Looking for his perfect new partner and home, five 🥕 starting with a 2.

Located in Woodstock, IL. Please contact Jennifer Howlett at 847-501-0190 or [email protected] (preferred) for further inquiries.

06/16/2024

06/04/2024

We are hosting two USEA Eventing Coaches Workshops. The workshops are an excellent investment in your own skills and personal development, and in the success of your students. Still space available!! If you pm me your email address I will send you additional info. I cannot recommend them more highly!! Mentor is Mary D'Arcy, Irish National/Olympic Coach
Teaching of Dressage June 17-19
Teaching of Jumping July 23-25
Woodstock, Illinois
Contact Jennifer Howlett Rousseau at [email protected] or Nancy Knight at [email protected]

06/02/2024

Pat them. Pat them pat them pat them. If your horse even thinks about thinking about how to think about the thing you want him to think about, PAT HIM. Praise every right thing, all of the time.

DO NOT ‘make the right thing easy and make the wrong thing hard’.

JUST MAKE THE RIGHT THING EASY, and forget about any botched efforts or wrong answers. Don’t take it personally if the horse doesn’t get it right first time. He doesn’t speak your language. He doesn’t understand your ambitions. He doesn’t understand conflict through the lens of human interpretation. He just knows how to horse, yet he is willing to learn, adapt and change for YOU. Make sure you do the same for HIM.

Horses are the only animal on the planet willing to try for us and to give us everything they have, for absolutely no return for themselves whatsoever.

If you do not foster the horse’s desire to try, you will lose this most precious gift.

05/27/2024

The Importance of Foot Work for Eventing Horses

05/17/2024

Three Phase Schooling Weekend - space still available

Season Kick Off Training Camp

04/19/2024

This is a very good historical lesson in a concept I have always believed, and which influences my coaching every day. The American System was revered by other countries as I was developing and honing my own craft in the 70’s. Many countries copied us, or tried to. And then, as this author describes, that “balanced seat” system of riding began to be diluted by other systems, primarily European.
I have stuck to the principle of balanced seat riding as I was taught by so many great military horsemen through the years. In my humble opinion, it provides the best basis for success on the flat and over fences. We would do well perhaps, as a country, to revisit our own history and recommit to our own American System which served us so well on the world stage.
The USEA Eventing Handbook provides an excellent source of inspiration and expertise for the craft of developing riders and their skill set, for all disciplines. My objective in spearheading the project was to start the journey towards redeveloping and popularizing a current, relevant, American System.

https://www.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1025151682277115&id=100043468792096&mibextid=cr9u03

Did you know there is an authentic American riding method or Seat. Most people don't. In fact, most Americans think that their discipline is a Seat when this is not often true today. For example, Hunter Seat Equitation is not an authentic Seat. It is fifty years old while Xenophon's horsemanship, a method referenced since the 4th century BC being 2,500 years old, is a true method.

The authentic American seat is called the Fort Riley Seat, or sometimes the Balanced Seat in civilian books. The images below represent the evolution of our national American riding method. The story of our national method begins with Fredirico Capprilli, an Italian Captain Cavalry (top left) who came up with his Forward Seat in 1904. Prior to Caprilli, the nearly universal method, generally called the "chair seat", of riding went back to Xenophon. There have been several significant changes since Xenophon, such as those from William Cavendish, Duke of Newcastle, in the 17th century that included improvements more natural for the horse.

The top right image reflects the next step in the development of the American method that came from the French Cavalry School at Saumur. This step includes an unsettled controversy between the Italian Cavalry and the French. The Italians claim that soon after 1904 the French stole Caprilli's Forward Seat and renamed it the Saumur Seat. Be that as it may, the next step in development of the Fort Riley Seat came in 1914 when the US Army, seeing that WW1 was inevitable, decided that the US Army needed a central cavalry training school to replace the long standing, Colonial regimental system of training cavalry.

At the time of this decision, the US Cavalry did not have a horsemanship training manual with each regiment having their own training tradition. This made it difficult to transfer cavalrymen between regiments. The French came to our rescue when they provided the US Army their Saumur classified cavalry riding manuals. The French manuals were the basis of horsemanship training at the Fort Riley Kansas Cavalry School until the 1920s.

After WW1 Harry Chamberlin, shown jumping in the bottom left image (with the 1940 US Olympic Team from Fort Riley beneath him), updated the Saumur manuals creating the final version of the Fort Riley Seat. While the Fort Riley Seat is little more than 100 years old, its roots go back thousands of years to Xenophon and through horsemen Cavendish. This is very different from the new riding methods or styles from individuals like Morris, Parelli or the other new fragmented variations on authentic horsemanship like modern reining, current western pleasure and modern dressage.

Lastly, the bottom right image of a cowboy represents the western ranch riding influence on the Fort Riley Seat. Chamberlin, an intense student of horses and riding methods, appreciated the cowboy's practical effectiveness he saw in Fort Riley recruits. Many Fort Riley instructors, like Gordon Wright, came from the ranks of the Cavalry cowboys who thought nothing of sixteen hour days in the saddle.

Our uniquely American Seat became the envy of the horse world until the 1960s when US military riders began to retire or pass on. As a boy, I was fortunate to have a Fort Riley method instructor starting in 1953, ten years after the US Cavalry replaced the horses with mechanized fighting vehicles.

The family tree of global horsemanship is ancient and has many branches. The methods that have endured the test of time. The changes in horsemanship since Xenophon up until the 1970s were the result of new military battlefield advantages with horses. When one nation's cavalry found a better way, other country's cavalry copied and adapted innovations from their enemies or allies.

After the 1970s American horsemanship has been in chaos having lost its connection to military goals and standards, while most European countries kept theirs. Later I will explore these horsemanship methods from countries like the Spanish Riding School, the Russian Hussars, the Ottoman Empire horsemen as well as others like the Portuguese and Spanish methods.

The point is that if you are receiving riding instruction, it is important that you are learning an authentic riding method or seat with an evolved history. The American horse world is now confused by the many instructors who teach the new commercial methods, from Morris, Parelli, etc. or a random combination of methods they usually call "my own combination of what I learned".

These instructors have no real method and you, in order to learn how to ride safely and effectively, must have an instructor who teaches an authentic Seat. It is OK if an instructor includes other influences, but they must teach from a core system or Seat in order to give you a safe practical way to ride.

04/08/2024

Upcoming three phase training weekend - space still available. Start the season with a boost from USEA ECP Coach, Coach Developer, and USEF "r" Eventing Judge Jennifer Howlett Rousseau
Questions: [email protected]
or find info and sign up by clicking below

Season Kick Off Training Camp

03/28/2024

https://www.facebook.com/100064451033652/posts/816451277179899/?mibextid=cr9u03

They W-I-L-L N-O-T D-O I-T.

Will not do what? Use active walks for strength training as an. add-on to their regular training schedules. Eventers, show jumpers, dressage riders, whoever could gain benefit from having stronger equine athletes.

What are you talking about?

Well, this---In 1974 Jack LeGoff had a shallow bench of advanced 3-day horses to send to the World Championshipd to be held in September at Burghley. He had six riders and six horses, zero extras if one got hurt. He wanted to maximize their fitness, because cross country day, back then, would be over 17 miles long, and would require one hour and twenty minutes of trotting and galloping.

So he used vigorous long walks three days a week in addition to the normal schools. So say we did 45 minutes of flat work in the morning, which, with warmup and cool down might take an hour, give or take. Then, in the afternoon, say Monday, Tuesday and Thursday, he would have us saddle up again after lunch, and go hike around the open hills at Wylie. About one to one and a half hours, as I remember, each walk day.

Walks do not stress horses much. They are highly unlikely to cause injury. They build base strength and create muscular development. They are a win-win.

But virtually NOBODY does this, Most human sports teams now employ strength coaches because when technique starts to fail, raw strength can create that winning edge. Why would human horse trainers not want stronger horses?

But does ANYONE grasp this in 2024? Or, if they do, do they make the effort to actually do it?

There’s a hidden gorilla in the room, actually more of a train than a gorilla, It is called the Excuse Train. Nobody wants to admit being lazy, so they dig up reasons to deflect.

“I don’t have time.” That’s a big one.
“I don’t have a place to do it.”
I don’t have enough help.”

But the real reason is usually more basic, six words. “I don’t want to do it.”

Everyone wants an edge. Strength is an edge. There’s a reasonably safe and straightforward method to add strength, Take Jack’s advice or deny it----.

-

03/25/2024

https://www.facebook.com/100069109110980/posts/722130763433888/?mibextid=cr9u03

The WALK - mother of all gaits

Most riders spend little time at the walk outside of "cooling out" or "warming up".

Not realizing it is the gait that BIRTHS everything you do, and REVEALS everything you may need.

"The FEI rule book once stated that it was at the pace of the walk that imperfections of dressage are most evident"

Every issue can be felt and seen through the magnifying lens of the walk.

"François de Lubersac, a master from the legendary School of Versailles in the 18th century, recognized that in dressage training, the first gait in which to train is always the walk.

Remarkably, de Lubersac, trained his horses only at the walk, and when he decided that they were ready, his horses were able to do everything at all gaits."

The walk is an anchoring gate. To teach and refine the horses balance, collectabilty, lightness, refinement, propreoception, suppleness, relaxation, lateral gymnastics, and understanding of aids... just to name a few.

There is no better gait to school these concepts then the walk. Testing things up the ladder of movement; trot and canter, and then anchoring back to the walk to fix, progress, or prepare.

The walk is the gait you "polish the stone" of all these qualities, more than any other gait.

It is the gait you come back to again and again, where the root of it all lives.

And remember, as with any gait, there is more than "just ONE walk".

Tempo, balance, stride, and frame can change in so many ways within any single gait that it lends itself to many "changes of gait within a gait", based on what that horse needs at any given moment.

In my opinion, a classical rider can easily spend an entire ride at the walk, and the higher up they ride, the more time they may spend at the walk...polishing the stone.

Mindful footfalls live in the walk.

What is your walk telling you?

03/20/2024

The USEA Eventing Handbook by the Levels: Your Ultimate Resource

03/01/2024

Didn’t want to let the week go by without congratulating Coco Fiorito and her lovely home bred, self-produced horse Oskar, for winning her very first attempt at the Novice level this past weekend at Three Lakes. She won easily by nearly ten points on her well-deserved dressage score of 22.5! Way to go Coco!

02/02/2024

Empower, Educate, Excell: The Eventing Coach’s Ultimate Journey

Creating Engagement in the Canter on Day 3 of the 2024 ECP Symposium

01/31/2024

01/18/2024

Clinic full! Auditors Welcome!
We are hosting Jane Hamlin for a clinic February 17 & 18! Jane is a sought-after dressage judge and eventing official at the highest level of the sport. In her role as an FEI 5* judge she has officiated at the following events: Land Rover Kentucky, Badminton, Adelaide, 2020 Tokyo Olympics, 2019 Pn-Am Games, European Young Rider Championships, North American Young Rider Championships and many others. Please reach out to [email protected] for further information.

01/18/2024

Some new stuff, new knowledge, new tools and new collaborators - should be an epic session!

Eventing Legends and Industry Experts Set to Lead the 2024 ECP Symposium

01/14/2024

This was a little mini-symposium exercise we did in St. Louis - and it was huge hit! Get in on the full deal January 30-Feb 1 in Ocala.

Preparing for the 2024 ECP Symposium with a Mini-Symposium Experience at the 2023 USEA Annual Meeting & Convention