Smart Saddle Fit and Riding Instruction

Gabe, Chase and I just got back from Kentucky. I’m going to take tonight to decompress from a very busy week away, but tomorrow I will be in contact about saddle fittings, lessons and clinics.

The position clinic for tomorrow is postponed due to rain!The position clinic for tomorrow is postponed due to rain!

We have an obstacle clinic coming up on June 5th! It's a great first clinic for a young horse. Or a great first clinic for a nervous rider.

Can you say glow up? The first picture is from the day I met Nardi Jim Jim in a kill pen in December 2019 and the second is from this past Sunday at a dressage show (spoiler alert: he won his class). Good horses take time. There’s no magic pill to make them gain weight, or have good feet, or build muscle, or learn to bend properly, or yield to pressure. It all takes work. But sometimes, when you have put in enough work, the results can seem magical.

Let’s talk a bit about disappointment. If you train any horse, they will inevitably at some point disappoint you. But how you deal with that disappointment can make you better as a team or cause you to stagnate. Case in point, I took Harper Valley to a clinic on Saturday. Now Riley has always had a hard time with noises behind him and horses going every which way. But I had worked on it and I thought we were well and solidly over it. Spoiler alert- we were not. Riley had a n...uclear core meltdown when we were all working on obstacles at various speeds together. So, that night I let myself feel a bit defeated and disappointed in his performance. I had a glass of wine (okay maybe two). And then I got over it. I needed to not have that blowup in my mind the next day, when I took him to a dressage show. So I focused on the future. The next day Riley put down a very solid performance. And he could not have done that if I were dwelling on his shortcomings the day before. Now, am I going to ignore the hole in his training that caused the issue? Heck no. You’re going to see us in the warm up pen of many a show we’re not entering. But it’s important as a rider to be able to figure out what the hole is in your training that is causing the disappointment. To let go of your feeling of failure. To move on mentally. And then to put in the work.

Stay tuned for updates: the next two days I will be at a clinic, then on Sunday I have a dressage show!Stay tuned for updates: the next two days I will be at a clinic, then on Sunday I have a dressage show!