Posts of only a few paragraphs in length or less.
The emotional kind. Good horsemanship isn’t just about conditioning your horse and riding in the proper position, it also involves self-control. But there is one principle that should never be abandoned, namely, that the rider…
Do you think of yourself as your horse’s leader? Do you expect your horse to willingly follow you (literally and figuratively)? Sometimes we let our ego get so full of itself, we believe just showing up…
It’s been an exciting and busy year, full of discussion by equestrians from all over the world, and representing a number of disciplines. As we put 2014 behind us let’s review what happened at Writing of Riding…
Heads up, this post contains foul language. Don’t say I didn’t warn you. More often than you’d expect, I receive comments that are .. displeased with my writing. But the majority of them always come…
Our culture is rich with self-centric activities. We blog about ourselves; we socialize by posting selfies; we socialize by telling people what we’re doing every second of the day; we are driven by our own selfish desires….
I have a broken neck and still go to the gym every day. What’s your excuse? If you’re asking your horse to do any kind of formal work (i.e. you aren’t just hacking down the…
Have you ever been caught in a situation where you simply cannot win in any regard? No matter the choice you make you lose, and you lose big? I have and it’s miserable. But the…
Really, the most important thing you’re missing right now is not being with your horse 1-on-1. Stop reading this article, put on some barn-appropriate-attire and say, “screw it” to whatever you had planned to do on the computer (those 6 hours of repetitiously refreshing your Facebook newsfeed for example..). The emails you were going to grudgingly respond to can wait until the morning. That series you were going to watch on Netflix can’t compete with the horse hair you’ll be covered in for the rest of the night.
Perhaps you’ve experienced this at some point as well. When I was still very new to horses and participating in my first shows and horse fairs and campouts… I never felt like I belonged, and I didn’t! I wanted it to be about the horse, not about comparing ribbons and trophies. Not about sitting around the trailers, drinking beers and telling bad jokes. Not about rubbing elbows with people who’d “accomplished” things (titles, trophies, wealth). I wanted it to be about learning to be a better equestrian, to take a few steps further in the endless quest for knowledge with the horse.
Which would you prefer; to be happy, or to prove you’re right no matter what? I know what my choice is, yet sometimes I let myself get confused with the thought that being right will make me happy, even if I have to feel absolutely miserable in the process.
Can you love horses and the environment equally? It doesn’t take long to realize that horses can be very destructive to pastures, soil and ground water. Is it possible to keep your horses happy while also minimizing the damage to your property, encouraging the health of your pastures and local wildlife?
After watching the trailer I know I’ll be looking for this in my Netflix queue.. maybe NSFW in some instances.
This brief German documentary is worth a watch – last about 30 minutes. Interviews with Ludger Beerbaum, Princess Haya, Gerd Heuschmann.
Every horse is unique, that being said they all share the common design of their nervous systems and thus function in the same way. There are also five fundamental needs that every horse has in common, that drives the horse in an attempt to meet those five needs.
Dressage is supposed to be a dance, why not combine it with a real ballerina? The girl riding demonstrates the ability to perform high-school dressage moves in a bitless bridle, which is a shame that competitions don’t yet allow.
To me this isn’t terribly new, I’ve had a few close friends who have dealt directly with sloughed hoof capsules and so on. Somehow my curiosity just doesn’t tire of it though and I thought…