Starlight Farm

29/08/2026

A good explanation about how to ride a distance to the fence

15/08/2026

Finding a good distance…….

03/07/2026

These sort of days are magic. This is when we fall in love with winter.

01/07/2026

Well worth a read for those developing our future champions. Same can be said for our riders. They all develop at their own pace. As the conclusion of this article says to create a high level athlete.....More often, it is defined by patience, careful development and continuous improvement over time.

https://www.hippomundo.com/nl/news/the-late-bloomer-study-how-important-are-young-horse-results-really?utm_id=97757_v0_s00_e0_tv2_a1demoo4zeyhvk&fbclid=IwY2xjawSyfMJleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZBAyMjIwMzkxNzg4MjAwODkyAAEe3VLTWSMnAl7TterjOWxX__fNys4Y0jYb61vluIYakzyRhF8xkUiB8nLG1AU_aem_677fZzsfj7YQ7J6XAKmZ4w

Does young horse success predict Olympic success?

05/06/2026

The jumps are only part of the test……..

29/04/2026

Balance and rhythm on the XC. So important to develop in horses of all levels.

29/04/2026

Read this before, worth reading again

I’ve told this story before, but it bears repeating---

Sid Shachnow, pictured with me a few years ago, had been the commanding general of all US Special Forces at Fort Bragg. He was also a rider and one time I was telling him about a mutual acquaintance who had a bad habit of jumping ahead of the motion.

“I can’t get him to stop doing it,” I said. “It’s so instinctual for him to do that.”

Sid said, “Denny---The most instinctual thing that a soldier can do if he is suddenly ambushed is to turn and run, which is the most likely to get him shot. We have to train our guys to run directly at their attackers and to fire their weapons at them, which gives them the best chance of survival.

Now Denny----If I can train my guys to run into live rifle fire, you can train your student not to jump up the neck.

TRAINING HAS TO OVERCOME INSTINCT.”

Which comes---finally---to the main point of this post, which is that old Boy Scout motto, “Be Prepared.”

Preparedness comes through training and practice, and if YOU are a rider who has ambitions to become a better rider, those two words, training and practice, which lead to being prepared, are your go to words.

Don’t want to train and practice? Then be prepared for sub-par results, It IS that simple.

23/04/2026

This can be a life saving technique for anyone breeding.