True North Equestrian

06/06/2024

Things my young horse has taught me about sport psychology

Success is not linear. Highs, lows, forwards, backwards. Buckle up.

Keep your head down but chin up by setting small goals. One foot in front of the other and you’ll be amazed to see just how far you’ve come without realizing it. You’re getting where you’re going, you’re just not there yet.

Progress is a reasonable expectation, perfection is not. Perfect often gets in the way of good enough.

The outcome is never within your control. Your effort and attitude are.

Mistakes are a good thing. It means you’re learning. Put your ego aside and and be coachable.

Appreciate the process. You get to do this, you want to do this, you don’t have to. Riding, especially competing, is a privilege not a right.

Emotional control is mandatory. Lose it on your own time, not on your horse’s time.

Ask for help. Learn something new. Try something different. It’s what you learn after you know it all that counts.

Resilience and confidence are flip sides of a coin. Exhibit resilience to grow your confidence, establish resilience by leaning into your confidence.

23/05/2024

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!

07/04/2024

19/03/2024

Welcome to Trainer Tuesday! Each week we ask trainers a question and gather their answers for you. These trainers have a range of experience, backgrounds, and focus points of their programs, so the answers have as much variation as you would expect and also probably much more similarity.  This week...

18/03/2024

As show season approaches, I share my thoughts on the blog on why Equestrian Canada's coach status program misses the mark.

Last summer, I participated in a focus group in which Equestrian Canada requested feedback about their coach status program. When it was my turn to speak, I shared my concerns about the program. As a young professional with a small number of showing clients, the cost of licensing is prohibitive. If....

13/12/2023

Even though six years have passed, Jessica Van Wyen still can’t explain why she felt so compelled to go see the unregistered 3-year-old Thoroughbred filly whose ad popped up on her social media. It was late 2017, and Van Wyen was a newlywed; she and her husband Reese were putting every penny they ...

05/12/2023

Saddle fitting is a mystery to a lot of riders and for a long time I didn’t have a very good understanding of saddle fit myself: I thought if the saddle didn’t slide forwards, backwards or sideways, it must be an adequate fit, and would often try to remedy those problems with a variety of half p...

04/12/2023

Passing on some great horse show advice from our friend and senior EC official Nanci Picken!

29/03/2023

There are specific qualities I appreciate most in a rider: empathy, coachability, and work ethic chief among them. A rider with these qualities will undoubtedly progress faster and have more opportunities than one who doesn’t. With that said, there is no use in sugarcoating things and pretending t...

17/04/2022

I'm very excited to be an ambassador for Practical Horseman OnDemand. Use discount code CHANT10 for 10% off your membership and access to a full library of training videos from top hunter, jumper, equitation and eventing professionals.

06/04/2022

Our friends at Kenora Bed ‘n’ Bale are offering horsemanship classes in Kenora! Check these out if you’ve inquired with us about lessons and are looking to gain horse experience locally.

17/02/2022

There’s been a post widely circulating on Facebook recently featuring a diatribe that opens with “Dear Young Rider” and concludes with "Ride Better”, posited as the solution to every problem a young rider might face from biased judging to bad footing to competing against billionaires. I will...

12/02/2022

I was doing a photo shoot recently for a tack store when the director asked me to put my hair up in my helmet. I’ve been wearing my hair out of my helmet for so long I sort of forgot I was bucking tradition by wearing a ponytail. Not wanting to get in an argument with someone paying me to take pic...

09/02/2022

One early morning last fall I was riding one of my young thoroughbreds in the open schooling at a horse show when she began to get increasingly wound up by the other horses in the ring, which was having the opposite effect of what I intended to accomplish by riding her in the morning. I elected to e...

28/01/2022

For those of you who have inquired about beginner lessons, we are pleased to inform you that our friends at Kenora Bed n Bale are offering a Horsemanship Fundamentals program.

See what activities, programs and lessons we have available for visitors. Whether for entertainment or education, our farm animals, poultry and horses love to socialize.

10/10/2021

It seems fitting that I finally have time to sit down and write an end-of-show season recap this weekend, as I am very thankful for everyone who made going to horse shows this summer possible.

I have the most hardworking students, and they all put in a lot of time and effort to reach their goals in and out of the show ring this summer. Everyone ended their season on a positive note at Jump Into Fall and we will go into this winter with new goals and a renewed sense of what to work on for next year!

Horse shows are great fun but also teach us lessons in resilience, grit, and being adaptable when things don’t go according to plan. We brought out a very green string of horses this year, and I am very pleased with the progress they all made and proud of my students for the way they handled the inevitable highs and lows of horse shows.

The ribbons and photos we have as keepsakes of these events are the product of a lot of early mornings, late nights, and long drives. I am lucky to have a great group of horses and riders at our farm and want to say thank you to everyone who played a role in making this a successful show season!

24/08/2021

We had another fun and successful outing at the horse show at Birds Hill Park this weekend.

After a large amount of much needed rain on Friday, we were unsure if we would show on Saturday but all four horses were able to get in the ring thanks to the dedication of the MHJA and the Manitoba Horse Council.

Parker settled in easily and demonstrated lots of maturity for a young horse at a new venue.

Grace put in consistent rounds on Seamus on Saturday and Dixon on Sunday, adding lots of ribbons to our banner!

Mel and Dixon made their long awaited show ring debut and achieved Mel’s goal of “doing well in the flat classes”, winning the under saddle on Saturday to add to her collection of red ribbons from the weekend.

Glow was on her best behavior all weekend, and jumped everything in perfect form winning over fences as well as on the flat.

I am lucky to have such hardworking clients (special shout out to Tessa Dale for coming to help this weekend) and we are all grateful to have had another opportunity to show this season.

04/08/2021

After months of feeling ready to go with nowhere to show, we finally got the opportunity to get in the ring at the Manitoba Hunter Jumper Association Sizzling Summer Horse Show. Now that I’ve unpacked from the show and our horses are enjoying a few leisurely days in the paddock, I’ve decided to ...

03/08/2021

Help wanted:

We are looking to add someone to our team as the girl who helped us last year is off to school this fall.

We are looking for a mature, reliable person to do morning chores. You will be responsible for feeding, blanketing and turning out a small number of indoor horses, cleaning stalls, sweeping the aisle, and preparing grain.

This job can be done in less than two hours and we are flexible on days however you must be available at least three days a week from January to March, 2022. We offer competitive pay and this is a good opportunity for someone who has a few hours available in the mornings.

Training will be provided however we will only consider someone with prior horse experience as you must be able to confidently handle well-mannered but large show horses unsupervised.

Riding or boarding opportunities may be discussed on a case-by-case basis for someone with suitable experience. Our farm is located approximately 20 minutes from downtown Kenora and you must have your own transportation.

If you are interested in this position, please send us a message here or email [email protected].

02/08/2021

I am so proud of our students and horses who all worked hard to make this weekend at the horse show a success.

Being involved with the MHJA, I can’t overstate how much behind the scenes work goes into running a horse show, and we are all grateful for the opportunity to be at a show doing what we love! I am so proud to have clients who put their horses’ best interest first and demonstrated great sportsmanship this weekend.

Seamus rose to the occasion and went around the hunter ring like a seasoned pro, getting great ribbons each day and putting in a wonderful round to place 2nd in the hunter special with Grace! Grace did a great job of riding with poise (and navigating the warmup ring) and you would never know it was her first time at a horse show. She brought home lots of ribbons on the flat and over fences and showed huge improvement each day.

Dixon was on his best behavior in the warm ups on Thursday, then had an unfortunate mishap when he stepped on the clip of his shoe which became loose in the warmup and had to scratch for the rest of the weekend. Mel handled this big disappointment so gracefully and put on her show clothes on Sunday to show off some slick inside turns on Seamus in the medal.

Glow and Mackenzie had some of their best rounds to date, winning an over fences class, pinning in the under saddle and showing off some impressive flying changes. The Red River Ex is an eye opening venue for any horse but especially a young OTTB and Glow and Mackenzie both handled it well.

Parker was a star in the jumper ring at our first show together and we likely exceeded everyone’s expectations on Sunday by going fast and getting no time faults. I am so excited for the future with Parker and looking forward to the next show!

Thank you to everyone who put in time and effort to make this show possible and to Mel, Grace, Mackenzie, Dixon, Seamus, Glow and Parker for representing True North Equestrian well this weekend!

19/07/2021

Me aboard my jumper Molly Brown in a classic at WEF circa 2008 I wear a lot of hats at the farm -- rider, coach, trainer, groom, stall cleaner and treat dispenser, among others. In the winter I have the privilege of being a student both online via the University of Guelph and on horseback at Oasis S...

19/05/2021

Hello! My name is Cate and I am a rider and trainer based in Kenora, Ontario. I decided to start this blog as a space to share knowledge I’ve developed in my experiences with horses and share my thoughts on riding, the horse industry, and the many lessons I’ve learned through horses, especially ...