HP Dressage

Happy 1st Birthday Mo! He was wide-eyed about the myler balloon only for a moment, then he wanted to eat it, which is pretty on brand for him.

Anyone who knows me knows I'm a solar-powered being. But I'm grateful for an occasional rainy day that forces me to slow down and spend some undemanding time with my horses.

Undemanding time is where the relationship is built.

Every January, I ask my students to make a list of goals for the new year. Not only does this help show us what we've been able to accomplish throughout the year, but it shows me (as the instructor) what really interests my students.

One of my own goals is to be better at posting on my business socials. 😅 I take a lot of progress pictures and usually forget to post them. I have a wonderful group of students that need to be bragged on!

Eliana has made a lot of progress with Cozzi in 2025! She is learning to turn her kindness for the horse into assertiveness. Here she is successfully cantering with Cozzi (who can be quite lazy).

So.... I've kind of been sitting on a secret. I bought a c**t! Surprise!

This handsome guy is Moroccan Heart (barn name Mo) by Monterey.

As most of you know I have been searching for a young horse after we lost Pantomime last year. I have looked a probably hundreds of foals since then feeling only Meh about what I was finding. When I saw this guy's ad back in April, I knew I really liked him. After reaching out to his breeder for info, I was neck-deep into looking for horses for clients so I briefly put my own search on hold.

That was long enough to see that Mo had sold to someone else.

AH MAN... I really messed around and found out.

So I messaged his breeder back and inquired about her other foals since I liked him so much. As luck would have it, a couple of days later, his new home couldn't take him any more, so I put a deposit on him that night! I am not generally speaking a lucky person, so I'm taking this as a sign we should be together.😁

Mr. Mo had his Westfalian inspection today and is an officially a signed and sealed Handsome Boy! His overall score was a 7.6 which makes me a very happy momma.

Now, he has to finish his weaning period and we can have a finalized transport date. I'll keep everyone updated when he makes it to the farm!

Contact and Connection: Two concepts that go hand and hand, but are vastly different.

The third step on the Training Pyramid is Contact. A horse that willing accepts and "takes" the contact can start using their body biomechanically correct. This is why our stretchy trot and free walk movements are double scored at the lower levels. The horse's desire to stretch long and low into the contact is paramount. At this stage in training, the rider should feel a steady pull equally on both reins. I find this confuses students, as they think if the horse is "light" they should feel nothing in their hands. If you feel nothing, your horse is evading the contact.

Connection, however, is the idea that the entire horse's body is connected BACK TO FRONT. The hind legs push energy over the horse's topline which travels through the poll and into the mouth before being recycled by the rider through the contact with the reins.

These 2 pictures are moments apart, but show very different moments. This is Muffin! The 1st picture shows me opening up my inside rein to allow her shoulders to come around the circle. At this point in her training, she tends to have a tense neck & back. A lot of riders will think that because "her nose is in" that this is correct. No. No. No. No. No. She is NOT accepting of the additional contact I put on the rein. Her back is dropped and her body is not connected.

The 2nd picture is more correct. She is trying to stretch outward and you can see this by following the line of energy along the top of her neck. This would be an appropriate stretch for the medium walk at her level of training.

Pole work Feburary! With the Ingrid Klimke clinic coming up soon we have been using her as inspiration and working with poles and cavaletti. This has been a fun new challenge for everyone.

The weather is gorgeous! These are the days we step outside, take a deep breath of fresh air, and really feel the joy of being an equestrian. When things get tough, remember why you started riding.

Happy Father's Day to all the horse dads. We couldn't do this without you!

Just like any other sport, ocassional riding isn't enough to make progress. If I can do it, you can do it.

I have been neglectful about posting the progress pictures I take of my students, so here is a bit of a photo dump of recent pictures. Everyone has been making some great strides and I am so proud of the group I have riding with me!

Tick, tick 🤯

HP Dressage on Instagram: "Is it the most expressive change ever? No. But hot damn! With the soundness issues Nigel has been having over the past almost 2 years, I was starting to think he'd not ever be anything but pasture sound. Nigel is the... 0 Likes, 0 Comments - HP Dressage () on Instagram: "Is it the most expressive change ever? No. But hot damn! With the soundness issues Nigel has been having over the past almost 2 years, I was starting to think he'd not ever be anything but pasture sound. Nigel is the most giving horse I....