I know, its been quite a while since I posted. While I’m normally all for airing my concerns, challenges, and questions about my own riding and being an amateur on this blog, I’ve frankly been at a loss for words over the past few months. Like so many people in 2020, I’ve had to hit the pause button on so many things, including my FEI dreams. That said, I think I’ve finally been able to break free of the uncertainty and doubt of the past several months, and am ready to share the story of the worries that brought me to a very low point, and the path I’m taking with Halle in the months ahead. 20 ..read more

It takes a full year to really know a horse and form a partnership. Elva has been in my barn for that full year now and I feel like I finally have a good sense of who she is, in all her wonderful mare-moods. Here’s what we’ve learned after year one of dressage training with my little Arab/Friesian mare. Ah, mares… You can tell a gelding, ask a stallion, or discuss it with a mare. Oh, how true that is. One of the first things I learned about Elva is that she very much enjoys the discussion. When I first brought her home, there were a lot of discussions. Discussions about standing on cross ties ..read more

Time seems to stand still this year, but in other ways changes are happening all over, fast and furious. Here at the farm, we have changes happening on the farm, and flying changes happening in the horses. All this despite the frozen time warp we’re all living in. Learning the flying changes I went camping for a long weekend recently and it seemed like a good time to drop Halle off with my trainer for a couple weeks of pro rides. I’ve felt tantalizingly close to the collection necessary for Third Level for a while, but can’t seem to quite get over the hump. Lauren was really pleased with her f ..read more

Its that time of year, when I need multiple showers a day, sweat through all of my riding clothes including my boots in under an hour, and I swear I drink a gallon of water an hour. That means its July in Virginia, and summer dressage training is in full swing. How we dressage in July Let me first say that I love Virginia, and even though I will complain about the beastly heat and humidity in July and August, I wouldn’t trade our springs and falls for anything. We were especially fortunate this year, pandemic and all, to have a long, mild, and thoroughly spectacular spring. Even June, which ca ..read more

I was fortunate enough this week to snag a ride time at a clinic with Ali Brock, 2016 Olympic Team Bronze medalist. Lauren Sprieser, my regular trainer, has been riding with Ali for the past year or so, and was finally able to schedule time for Ali to visit Sprieser Sporthorse in Marshall, albeit with just 10 days notice. When offered the chance to ride with her, I jumped at the chance. Why Clinic? Riding in a dressage clinic with a different trainer than your own can be a dicey proposition. I know a lot of people spend tons of money doing it every year, whether because its the only way they c ..read more

Work is hard, lets face it. And physical work can really, really suck. Horses find so many ways to avoid working hard. In the last month or so, Halle has been giving me a master class in how to evade work. Here’s a short list of greatest hits when it comes to evasion. Any way but forward “Hind legs to the bridle” is one of the cardinal rules of dressage. But keeping those hind legs underneath the horse’s body and moving forward is not as easy as it sounds. Halle has an amazing ability, especially for a horse who isn’t particularly loose in her back, to swim her hind legs around to they’re goin ..read more

One of the unfortunate consequences of the current pandemic and resulting stay-at-home orders is the loss of my gym. I know a lot of people are in the same boat, making do with home workouts and online trainers. I’ve had my share of training and de-training cycles with running and running related injuries, so I know how hard it is to get your fitness back after a period of decreased activity. Muscle memory for all kinds of activity is important – whether its the cardiovascular memory of running that tenth training mile or the core muscle memory of a collected trot. That FEI feeling There’s a f ..read more

A recent thread on the Chronicle Forums got me thinking about how possible it is to succeed as an adult amateur in dressage these days. With the cost of well-bred, talented (and even some not-so-well-bred-and-talented), dressage horses soaring, how is the average adult amateur supposed to compete? Is it possible to compete, move up the levels, and score well, and should we even try? I say the answer is yes. Defining success One of the keys to understanding success is defining what it looks like. Is your definition of success winning at every show? Please give that up now. Not even t ..read more

When this year started, I was very, very sick and didn’t know when I’d feel better. My plans for the year, for Halle, for Elva, for myself, were almost non-existent. Then I looked at how much travel I’d be doing for work come spring, and Elva banged her fetlock, and I really questioned making any plans for the spring. And then Covid-19 hit. Of course, whatever sketchy ideas I’d had needed to be thrown out the window and I’d need to make a whole new plan for 2020. The plan for Halle Halle started this year stuck somewhere in between First level and Third level. On good days, we could d ..read more

I’m sitting at home writing this on the first weekend after the U.S. declared a state of emergency for COVID-19, my employer told everyone to work from home and not travel at all, and the world apparently went wild with expectations of a toilet paper famine. Early spring has sprung here in Virginia, and instead of thinking about horse shows and vacations, we’re all contemplating how much food to stock in our pantries and whether that tickle in our throat is allergies or COVID-19. I’ve also been counting my blessings that I’m a horse person during this uncertain, unsettling, and even scary mom ..read more