Follow the excitement of one of the most prestigious horse events in the world at the Rolex web site. It looks like the weather is going to hold out for another spectacular event. The inspections went well Wed with only 2 horses withdrawing from the competition. Good Luck to all the competitors and safe travels [...]

Start getting your horses fit with long trot sets. Use the snow to help with your horses fitness. You always need to work on good footing so take care to avoid the icy hard ground. Also use the hills to build your horses heart rate up slowly. Start with 5 minute intervals trotting and build [...]

Imported Andalusian from Spain is the perfect gentleman. Duende which means Gobelin, is a lovely horse with excellent ground manners and tons of fun to ride. He loves riding out cross country, as well as working his movements in the ring. Anyone can learn a great deal from this amazing soul.

Effective immediately are many new rules for eventing. It is the responsibility of the rider to know the rules of competition, they can be viewed on the web site www.useventing.com Here is a sample of one of the new rules: TECHNCIAL ELIMINATION = TE “Technical Elimination” is a term now adopted for use at recognized [...]

Training properly requires tremendous patience and disicpline as well as a gifted teacher. Many of us often work alone and benefit greatly from the “eyes on the ground”, that is someone who can tell us exactly what is going on that we may not feel or see from the saddle. It is critical while training [...]

As a judge, I pay particular attention to the horse’s transitions for an overview of the quality of training accomplished. Recently new tests score specific transitions, lending more weight to the final score of the test. This was done for a very good reason. Riders tend to train movements in each test, often straying from [...]

Once mastered, flying changes are fun to ride. To the uneducated eye, this movement looks like skipping as the horse shifts his balance from right to left and back again. Riding a change on a well trained horse is simple. By shifting your weight from one seat bone to the other the horse changes his [...]

Cosmo is a 6 year old Irish Sport Horse imported one year ago from Ireland. He is an elastic supple horse with the potential to be a show jumper, event horse or high level dressage horse. He is kind, easy to ride and learns quickly–always looking to please his rider. This gelding is an uber [...]

This is a lovely horse who is clearly demonstrating an incorrect neck position–that is he is falling behind the vertical. You can see how the topline just before the poll is broken, thus preventing the energy from the hind legs to push through the back and into the bit. The rider should try to ride [...]

A wonderful book published in 1939 has recently been re-published for the benefit of true horsemen. Udo Burger and Otto Zietzschmann describe in clear and precise language how to succesfully train your horse so that he can enjoy a happy, healthy long life. The authors explain the physiological and psychological factors that come into play [...]