Nehanda horseback riding

23/10/2024

We L❤️VE them!

17/10/2024

There is so much more to it than just jumping

All I Want To Do Is Jump

I ran a fairly large lesson program for almost 20 years. This is a statement I have heard over and over, both in my lesson barn days and from colleagues today.

All I want to do is jump.

There are a few problems with this. Let's start with the horse. I love the old horseman's saying " horses only have so many jumps in them ". Is that 100, 1000 before it becomes lame.... No one knows....but horses certainly weigh a lot and the concussion landing on those small little legs is significant. Horses also get bored, burned out....and let's face it...sour.
Respect for the horse . The riders job is to do the best thing for the horse. Most horses only need jumped a few days a week. That means if a lesson horse works 5 days a week, only 2 of those are jumping days. 3 of those are purely flatwork or hacking.

Riders : most of jumping well has NOTHING to do with jumping. Riders need to work on pace, transitions, straightness, their position, effectiveness of aids, balance, ability to change positions smoothly ( from 2 point to sitting etc ) and so much more.

So if you are one of those students who Just Wants To Jump , please replace that with "I want to be an effective rider and horseman or woman . I want to do what is best for the horse "

And instructors who cave to this plea from students
Only YOU can set the CULTURE of your barn. Talk frequently about horsemanship and doing right by the animals.

03/10/2024

This is so true. I like how he describes the journey with horses as a toll road. There were (and still are) many things that I have given up to have horses in my life.

17/09/2024

02/09/2024

So cool

01/09/2024

22/08/2024

27/07/2024

21/07/2024

Six months after Lexington died, his skeleton was exhumed from outside his barn to be displayed at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. In preparation, the bones were shipped to Upstate New York to be bleached in the sun and mounted. Due to the huge amount of work that needed to be undertaken, the skeleton was not ready in time for the fair, but was instead donated to the Smithsonian Museum as a national treasure.

By the 1970s, Lexington’s skeleton was being shown in the Bone Hall of the Natural History Museum but only as that of a generic horse. His glorious pedigree and extraordinary success as a racehorse had been wiped from memory. His illustrious identity was not rediscovered until 1999 when plans were made to move the remains to the American History Museum as part of an exhibition featuring the first mass produced stopwatch.

Geraldine Brooks and her novel, ‘Horse’, will ensure that the life of Lexington is never forgotten again.

Skeleton of Race Horse Lexington in Castle Yard
Smithsonian Institution Archives, Record Unit 7074, Image No. SIA2015-004061

21/07/2024

Summer Olympics are fast approaching.
Are you going to watch?

08/07/2024

11/06/2024

All true 😂