Dusk Horse & Rider Training

06/03/2022

I love this visual 👌🏻

To help maintain a long leg that is grounded to the earth...

Imagine there are magnets on the soles of your boots that are attracted to the earth. The strength of this vertical line of positive tension gives the horse a place from which to balance. —Beth Baumert

Illustration by Sandy Rabinowitz

28/05/2021

in the beginning........

Who invented dressage?

Dressage dates back to classical Greek horsemanship and the military who trained their horses to perform movements intended to evade or attack the enemy whilst in battle. The earliest work on training horses was written by Xenophon, a Greek Military Commander born around 430 BC.

06/03/2021

Your horse is your mirror 🦄 ❤️

Look to yourself.

People are more interested in the results than the method they use to train their horses.
If you can train a horse without fighting him, is that not more classical?
Is it more classical to be able to train 'any' horse to the higher movements, rather than horses that are expensive and selectively bred?
It's so nice to be "classical", but many don't know what it is as it sounds very nice, but in practice it is difficult. As Nuno Oliveira said, he is seeking the horse's approbation, not some judge who is purely looking at results. The rider is responsible and does not blame the horse. He must look at himself or herself first and foremost.
It is the 'way' in which we train that is far more important.
Massage therapists and chiropractors, supplements and the like may help your horse, but it is the training you do with your horse that creates the problems, so the therapist comes and then you undo any good work.
It is pure and simple.
Look at yourself first.

13/02/2021

Walking is so important but its hard when you just want to get going :)
My training sessions are usually 15 mins walk at the beginning, 30 mins of work and then 5-10 mins walk at the end.
And one day each week I ONLY walk for 45-1 hour.
Add some walk into your work sessions to help your horses long-term soundness.
Happy Riding

Do your riders take the time to warm up their horses... even when you are not there?

22/11/2020

Our horses used to do so many more miles....they were hard, tough and conditioned.
And they lasted a long time 😍
I rode 7km to the PC Grounds, did my training then walked 7km home.
Our horses were properly legged up. A forgotten art 🦄

I can credit the polo world for a true concept of proper fitness for performance horses. In good programs, the horses often go out twice a day. They go in sets of 3-5 or so horses. They walk for an hour (walking is IMPORTANT too), they trot for 15-20 minutes or so & walk some more. Most are “singled” several days a week. They short work/school them & breeze them out often. You have to condition their lungs too (that’s a whole other conversation I won’t go into right now but we’ll talk about it later). These horses are in incredible shape. They have to be.

I find proper conditioning to be undervalued & quite frankly, many lack knowledge on it. Whether they truly don’t know or they don’t care to know is a different story. You cannot pull your horse out of the pasture on the weekends & go expect them to perform for you after not touching them all week.
You’ll always see the bragging posts like “pulled sparkles out of the pasture after seven months off & entered the jackpot last night!! 7th in the 6D even outta shape!!”
I’m EMBARRASSED for you. That’s not impressive. Personally, I find it cruel & selfish.
That’s like someone pulling your happy ass off the couch after hibernating all winter & making you run a 5k.

Do better. Be better.

14/09/2020

Collection with Nuno Oliverera...
The weight must be evenly distributed, the horse leaning neither more to the forehand nor balanced more on the hindquarters in order to be considered collected.
Essential to collection as well is the complete lack of resistances, as well as the maintenance of superior impulsion, and absolute submission.
The loins, hindquarters and hocks become flexible, the hocks push the horse’s mass energetically ahead as the movement of the shoulders becomes free and graceful. The head and neck are placed high, and the lower jaw gives way at the slightest pressure of the rider’s fingers.
The horse should be so well balanced that the rider can ask any movement already taught with the minimum of effort, obtaining great promptness of ex*****on.
I bow to the rider who, indifferent to his surroundings, works his horse to his own satisfaction, and having tried to attain his ideal, terminates the lesson, dismounting from the horse content and yet, at the same time, dissatisfied because he feels his achievement to be far from the ideal.
- Nuno Olivera

31/07/2020

Such great advice

"The top line muscles develop only when the following three conditions are met:
1. The horse is in front of the legs, i.e. the hind legs push enough for the impulse to travel along the spine to the bit.
The rider is able to feel each hind leg touching down as an impulse in the rein of the same side.
Any muscle blockages or false bends (energy leaks) that would interfere with the energy transmission have to be removed.

2. The hind legs engage enough so that they touch down underneath the rider’s heels. This engagement can be produced by riding curved lines and sidestepping with the bend against the direction of travel.

3. The hind legs allow the half halts to go through, i.e. the rider is able to create a connection from the body mass and the reins, through the horse’s legs, to the ground.

When these three conditions are met, the horse will also be relatively well balanced and straight.

If the horse is behind the aids, he will not engage his hind legs enough.
If the hind legs lag behind instead of engaging, they can’t support the back and they are out of reach of the weight and rein aids.
If the hind legs are out of reach of the weight and rein aids, half halts can’t go through."
(Thomas Ritter)

Painting: Laura Hughes,
www.laurahughespaintings.com

26/07/2020

Where I studied for my German riders licence
Such an amazing experience 🦄

23/07/2020

A very good vet once said to me that the best physio is a good rider! Wise and true words but at times you feel stuck and then a good physio can make all the difference. I always work with Carola Bierlein when somehow something doesn’t progress the way it should. Having competed at international level herself she knows exactly what I am talking about.

19/07/2020

Inside leg is king 🤗

To avoid using the indirect inside rein when you should be using your inside leg...

"Imagine your inside rein has paint on it and every time it touches your horse’s neck, you get paint on him. (And you have to get off to clean him up!)" —Lendon Gray

🎨 Illustration by Sandy Rabinowitz

07/07/2019

The only way to grow is to get a bit uncomfortable 🦄

GROWTH is a choice competitors make!!!

Remember that improvement is what's best, and that you cannot just shoot to the top after one event.

Get comfortable, being uncomfortable

No growth in the comfort zone and no comfort in the growth zone!

Remember you have a choice of two things
“fear of failure” or “faith over fear”.

30/05/2019

I'm a chestnut mare kind of person ;)

i think this is true 🤔🤔🤔

22/05/2019

En pointe

15/05/2019

Couldn’t have said it better myself 😍

WHERE YOU NEED TO BE

The world seems to move faster and faster. Everyone needs a new horse, a better, faster, prettier, younger new horse, then they need the new things to go with it, then they to go to the new “hot” instructor, and all the new, magic supplements, then they get bored and need a new horse.

It’s hard to keep up. The posts are on Facebook of this show and that show and before the dust has settled everyone has moved on and is excited about the “next” event, the “next” big thing, next, next, next.

I confess, I feel the pressure. I feel the judgement and confusion, the dismissive opinions of others. The little bullets, “You should be doing this. You should be coming here. You should be buying this, or doing this, or attending this.” Everyone is bursting to share their new idea, their new stuff, their new horse.

There’s always going to be another “next”. There’s never going to be another “now”. What happens to all the things that have been sat aside for the “next?” That friend you cast aside, the horse you sold to purchase the new “better” one, or the one before that. What happened to that ribbon you won and chucked in the bin as it wasn’t as important as the “next” one?

We can focus on the next, or we can focus on the now. Right now, I have some amazing horses to ride, who are teaching me every day. I have some truly inspiring people in my life, helping and supporting me.

When I get caught up in someone else’s idea of what I “should” be, or what’s “next”, I risk missing out on moments like this, where everything is right in the world, and I know, I’m right where I need to be.

Happy riding x

18/03/2019

I apologise to all my horse for my innate inadequacies.......it is a gift that our equine friends are so tolerant and forgiving 😍

02/03/2019

Are you ready to get outside your comfort zone?
DUSK is coming :)

25/02/2019

Never give up on your dreams

Dreams do happen

Dreams really do happen and none so more than for Robert McKay, chairman of Equestrian Life in riding his first Prix St George test at the mature age of 75!

To see what else is in the current issue, visit:
www.equestrianlife.com.au/pages/In-This-Issue-Of-Equestrian-Life

25/02/2019

always :)

30/01/2019

30/01/2019