Holloway's Pretty Good Horse Barn

Saturday jump groups are so much fun!!!

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.

😎

Everyone has an interpretation for “Inside leg to outside rein.” Well, not everyone, but those who have interest in dressage based training do.

Jack Le Goff talked about having enough of a curvature in a horse that is on a turn to “resemble rail road tracks. The inside fore and the inside hind are on one track, and on a parallel track are the outside fore and the outside hind.”

Think of inside leg to outside rein as contributing to such a curvature.

Stephany Fish Crossman is a Competitive Dressage rider, coach, and sought- after rider biomechanics instructor. In addition to teaching and riding, she has authored several articles in the popular magazine, Dressage Today.

We are delighted to have Stephany coming to teach at the Pretty Good Horse Barn April 10-12, 2026!

We hope you can join us for three days of creative and fun instruction. Lunchtime Q and A session on Saturday at 1:00 pm. Come on out and learn a ton!

Open to English and Western riders

Limited stabling and electric hookups available on site.

Clinic cost:

*1 hr private lesson (required for all new riders' first lesson) - $185

*1 hr semi-private lesson - $95

*New student package - 3 rides (1 private, 2 semi-private)- $360

*Returning student package - 3 (semi-private lessons) -
$270

Stabling - $25/stall per night - includes 2 bags of shavings. Please bring your own buckets, feed, and stall cleaning tools. Participants are responsible for clinic horse feeding and care.

Electric hookup - (only 3 spots!) $15/night

Contact Meggan Holloway directly to sign up. Entries close 1 April and entries/stabling must be paid (check or PayPal) in full by 1 April.

When we look at many current photos of riders in the air over jumps, it becomes apparent to those WHO KNOW THE DIFFERENCE that many of these riders were not taught the correct basics.

And most of these current riders don’t know what those basics are, and if they don’t know them, it’s no wonder they don’t possess them.

Here’s a photo, probably from at least 50 years ago, of Mike Plumb, the ONLY USA rider to have been inducted into the US Olympic Hall of Fame. He won the big equitation finals. He won medal after medal in international eventing. He catch rode to second place in the Maryland Hunt Cup.

Study his mastery of the basics. His eyes are up, his hands are soft, his hips are back, his legs are directly beneath him, his heels are down. He is completely in harmony with the motion of his horse, and here’s the thing---

Most modern riders can’t do all of this because they have not been correctly taught HOW.

This is an instructor failing more than it is a rider failing. Do the instructors know how? Maybe the failing began with the instruction of the instructors?

This missing link in USA riding CAN be repaired and regained, but is there enough interest?

Thoughts?

Reminder!!

Holloway’s Pretty Good Horse Barn is hosting a Free-Jump on Saturday March 7th. $50 sign up fee per horse. You can sign up through the Holloway’s Acuity page or contact Meggan Holloway directly.

Learning from William Fox-Pitt today at the beautiful Willow Draw in Weatherford