Become a Superhero for Your Horse! 

You’re on the most beautiful beach you’ve ever seen. You can hear the waves crashing on the sand. The air is fresh and cool. You feel energized by your surroundings.

Now imagine you’re on your horse, riding along with a few of your most favourite horse friends. You decide to race along the sand and feel the greatest rush of excitement, as you gallop ahead.

Your horses are all breathing quickly, in unison to their increasing tempo. You begin to collect bugs in your teeth from your enormous smile. You bring your horses back down to a trot and then walk into the water.

You all have a gorgeous swim, laughing and playing together.

Take a deep breath and feel how much joy and connection you just created from reading this little paragraph. Can you imagine bringing these feelings with you for each of your rides?

This is the beauty of visualisation.

You can take a few moments to let your imagination soar, in order to bring...

~~Installing Bookmarks to Improve Your Riding~~

When I embarked on my very first cross country event, I entered the Green as Grass division.

You know, the one with the smallest jumps possible, as one does when they are just starting out in something new. I rode my sweet Keeper, a twenty-years young caretaker of a thoroughbred, who had already done plenty of Events in his time.

So much so, that when it came to the cross country section, he was moving faster than I wanted to go. He thought we were going for time. I could feel him ‘looking at his hoof’ (wrist watch) and telling me, come on lady, I’ve got you.

We would have won the entire division, if my nerves hadn’t gotten in the way. We were first in Dressage, cleared the Stadium, and I just felt like I needed a circle in front of one of the fences out in the field, to slow my excited boy down. Which of course counted as a refusal. ‍

So I came home with a green ribbon, instead of the blue. But in my mind,...

It’s pretty common for riders to overthink their ride and create unwanted tension. I’d like to present a very simple solution when you find yourself stuck or frustrated. I want you to imagine you’re putting on a new thinking cap.

Take the word CAP and think of these three words:

C for Curiosity

A for Appreciation

P for Playfulness

When you think about being curious, it puts you in a more powerful state of mind. You start looking for solutions and seek out assistance. Instead of feeling helpless, you can start to get curious on how to make things better.

Let’s say you feel like your balance is way off lately. Instead of just saying, “Oh, I feel like I’m just flopping around and not feeling strong enough in the saddle…” Decide to say, “I’m curious about how I can improve my balance.”

Then you can start seeking out solutions. You might decide to cross train with yoga, pilates, or even sit on a balance ball in your...

You’re in the warm-up arena and your horse’s energy is a little bit higher than you’d like. You can feel your heart beating faster and you’re doing your best to feel both seat bones in the saddle so you don’t float away.

This is a very common scenario. Our horses will feed off the energy at a competition, as well as our own nervous energy. I’ve dealt with this all of my life.

When I was eleven years old and starting to ride my trainer’s older event horse, Calcutta, I would get butterflies in my stomach with just the thought of my little jumping show coming up that month.

The fluttering continued, even as a young assistant-trainer in my twenties, when I would ride any youngster that the main trainer decided needed experience in the show ring.

I remember coming home after the long days of a horse show, feeling good that I had managed, with my entire essence, to successfully support the nerves of the squirrely off-the-track thoroughbred every...

Before we can trust another living being, we need to be able to trust ourselves. What we desire to see in our world, must first be cultivated and nurtured within.

If you want to build trust with your horse, you must embody being trustworthy yourself. How does one go about this?

First, you must take a good look at your patterns. Are you quick to judge what’s going on? Or do you take some time to examine your situation and decide what the best course of action would be?

To be an Inspired Rider, one who trusts their intuition, listens to their horse, and thus builds trust by default, you must slow down and build awareness.

These are the steps I suggest to my students. If you truly desire transformation, I highly recommend taking these ideas to heart.

1. Get out all of your thoughts that no longer serve you. Write them down. Shed some light on them. Take time to decide what thoughts are pushing you towards a better relationship with your horse and which ones are holding you back....

I'm sure you would agree that there's just so much information out there. You scroll through social media posts, which can lead to inspiration; yet often ends up leaving you with mixed emotions.

If you've felt overwhelmed and even a little frustrated after seeing so many ways of interacting with horses, you're not alone.

Did you know that you already have one of the best, most powerful tools in your possession, to help you with making decisions about your horse journey?

It's true!

It's your own inner guidance system.

You know, it could be those little gut feelings, whispers in your ear, or if you're like me, very strong feelings to stop what I'm doing, slow way down, and write out some thoughts to process what messages I need to focus on. Yes, it's like our very own built-in voicemail system from the Universe!

If you don't already have a way to tap into this powerful means of finding answers, I'd love to invite you to try out these simple, yet powerful routines:

1. Take ten minutes...

1. Take a few moments each morning to count your blessings.
2. Breathe deeper and slow down–the less frantic you are, the more zen and connected you can feel to your world
3. Try something new each Even if it is brushing your teeth with your other hand. See what might happen.
4. Really thank your horses for allowing you to interact with them, especially riding them…It is an HONOR to be able to do what we do with these magnificent creatures.
5. Allow yourself to DREAM BIG. Write down some goals. Whether they be the most outrageous things you can think of…or simply something you think is possible for that day. Just WRITE IT DOWN. If you forget about it later on, you can look back and think about how much closer you are to those dreams. It might really surprise you.
6. Take care of yourself. Think about what your body might want in order to THRIVE. Each body will tell us if you get quiet enough to listen. Experiment on a menu. Just scan and allow your heart to guide you to what your...

Equestrians are often on a quest to improve their horses and their riding abilities. They take countless lessons, go to clinics, and read as many ‘top ten tips’ blogs as their eyes can scan in one sitting.

Riding horses well requires more mental focus than most people realize. We become detective-like when it comes to how the tack should fit, what kind of food protocol your horse should be on, which lateral work to play with, or how often to go out on a hack.

The truly committed riders are always thinking, deciding on the best course of action, and are willing to make shifts accordingly.

Let’s allow one of the greatest (although fictional) detectives to give us some insights. And yes, this is another ‘top tips’ blog, but we'll just go with five today (not 10). 

All quotes are of course by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle:

1. “It has long been an axiom of mine that the little things are infinitely the most ”

When you focus on the tiniest details of...

How often have you heard your instructor say, 'let's do that exercise one more time'?

While repetition is useful in most cases, it's really important to know when you and your horse should find a happy stopping point in your ride.

Many riders trust their instructor to make the decision to end the session for them, but what if you have a voice inside of you that says, you know what, that was good enough and I think I've reached my capacity for learning for today.

Are you able to voice your opinion in those instances? If it feels uncomfortable to say it out loud, just let your instructor know that you want to focus on quality training and you're concerned that if you push yourself, things might not end well. That should open up a conversation with your instructor, so they can help you figure out when those good moments happen, in order to stop and praise your horse and yourself!

Can you notice when your horse is also feeling like they're telling you they are done?...