Halfmoon Creek Farm, LLC

25/08/2024

🤮 As Michael Page would say- “Jesus Christmas! Quit riding like a turkey!”

14/08/2024

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09/08/2024

🥰

19/07/2024

Good riding requires that we re wire our natural instincts. When we get afraid, we tip forward, or clutch, or pull. We stop breathing, and somewhere deep down we hope the horse will adapt and take care of us. But a good steward takes responsibility: it is our duty to practice honing our reflexes. It is our job to practice controlling our position, our breath, and learning to create a productive mindset.

It is the hardest thing in the world to do to control our natural instincts- but it is the most important. And expecting the horse to adjust to us without the necessary skills is folly. Take the time, put the hours in, get a good coach and an appropriate horse, and master your body and mind.

10/07/2024

🇺🇸

08/07/2024

✨ Vacations for barn owners come few & far between. To have dependable people willing to help and allow peace of mind while I’m away is truly an incredible blessing that I will never take for granted.

✨ A massive shoutout is in order for Cora, Allison, and Olivia - thank you so much for taking care of things on the farm. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate you all!

✨ through rain, hot, and muggy weather, these girls had everything ship shape so that the daily routine of all the horses stayed consistent and covered. You all are rockstars!
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/ .schomer /

08/07/2024

✨ In horsemanship, riding, and life - we must always be willing to learn. Being a willing student is a necessary part of growing in all aspects of what we do and how we live. ✨

21/06/2024

16/06/2024

Though the undersaddle is only one class, it can be a big contributor to your overall results. Hear what the judges have to say about how to perform your best in the undersaddle.

11/06/2024

Post-breakfast naps with friends >>>>>

03/06/2024

We owe it to our horses to be athletically conditioned just as we expect/work them to be!

You can’t run a marathon without training for it! Set your horse (and yourself!!!) up for success!!!

20/05/2024

100%!!!

Imagine you’re assigned a partner project in school. Only one of you gets to read the directions for the assignment, and then you have to explain it to your partner in a language that is secondary to both of you. You’d expect some miscommunications and misunderstandings, right?

That’s basically what’s happening while riding a horse. Whether in a lesson or a ride of your own direction, you as the rider are the only one who knows the assignment. It’s then your responsibility to relay that information to your horse, speaking through intention and cues that are a second language to both you and your horse. Your horse doesn’t understand what your trainer is saying he’s supposed to do - he’s relying on you to tell him.

Keep this in mind any time you’re riding and you feel like your horse isn’t listening, or you get frustrated with a missed distance or a sloppy transition. Remember that you’re the only member of this team who knows the assignment, and your horse is relying on you to tell him the game plan. Sometimes we make mistakes in our cues or our timing, we start thinking too many steps ahead or we forget to clue him into the next movement in time. Sometimes the horse is a little distracted, or tired, or not feeling it today. But most of the time, he’s doing his best he can with the information you’re giving him!

10/05/2024

"My coach teaches jumping. He doesn't teach "equitation."

Have you ever heard statements like that? I have, lots of times.

Someone will come for a jumping school, and, perhaps, her stirrups are too long. As a result, her knee will be her "pivot point", and as a result of the incorrect physics, her upper body, above her knee, will be "trying" to topple forward, and her loose lower leg will swing back toward the hip of the horse. Or bad hands, bad posture, bad timing, you name the problem.

We see this all the time. Fix the rider's position, teach her how to stay centered as a byproduct of a stable lower leg, and a closing of her hip and knee angles, and, "presto" all sorts of other issues magically disappear.

And when I ask why these incorrect basics have not been pointed out, that opening statement "he/she doesn't teach equitation" is a frequent answer.

ALL instruction should be "equitation" because "equitation" is simply correct, orthodox riding, based upon the physics of balance and motion.

Study Steinkraus here. Or study Michael Jung. They aren't "equitation riders"????

What have YOU been smoking?

06/05/2024

The dreaded “but”

How often do we notice those little 1% improvements? The horse settled just a little, the horse is breathing a little more, the horse is not rushing off as much.

I point these improvements out to my students as often as I see them, no matter how small, because I want them to develop an eye and feel for how improvement works- it doesn’t happen all at once, it happens in little pieces. So often after announcing an improvement, I am met with the ”but”-

“But he still isn’t bending”
“But he still isn’t listening”
“But he still is too fast”
And so on

Or even worse, sometimes people write off the improvements entirely and chalk them up to accident

“Oh I don’t think he’s relaxed, he’s just finally tired”
“He just did that because the horse in front of him did it first”
“He’s yawning because he’s bored!”

It’s amazing how much the human mind grabs onto every problem and holds it in its clutches like a treasure. It’s amazing how the human mind sees in black and white, the problem is either there or not there, but struggles to see the gradients.

To guide our horses toward our goals, we have to be flexible, and we have to be sure our goal is even possible being their goal- if we’re worried about bend and they’re worried about safety, we are not operating on the same wavelength.

One thing at a time, one small step at a time. Keep your eye on the long goal but don’t miss the little improvements, even if it’s just one good step, one breath, one little change. That’s what a path is made of- a bunch of little steps taken.

05/05/2024

Insights---

I remember this clearly, and still think of it---

Years ago I was watching a dressage lesson, and one of the spectators that I was sitting next to was a teacher at Putney School.
The instructor made some comment, and the rider replied. “I know, I know.” Who among us hasn’t said that?

The man beside me said, “There’s a Chinese philosopher who said, “To know and not to do is not to truly know.”

Mike drop.

“To know and not to do is not to truly know---.”

01/05/2024

Those springtime pops of color are really doing their thing these days! 🌱🌸

✨ Ireland & Vega ✨