Nehanda horseback riding

20/12/2024

Horses in gaming is so dodgy
😂

13/12/2024

Do our modern horses descend from just one domesticated population, or did it happen many times, in many places? Answering these questions has been tricky, a...

07/12/2024

💯💚🐎

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07/12/2024

I took a class way back when I was in college. I found it very interesting and it really helped me to see things I hadn’t before. If you get a chance I highly recommend.

29/11/2024

How great is this!

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