This is taken from the Carolina Omnibus sent out by Kay Whitlock - it's a good read! Reach out to her at kaydq@fastmail.fm to be on her distribution list for shows in the Southeast or for her great articles. What does it take to be a USDF/USEF Judge? Today's "S" judges have traveled a long, stressful road to reach this goal. You don’t necessarily become a officiant at a horse show because it’s all glamorous and fun. It is a long road to get to become a judge. If you haven’t s

Our last blog was about halting. The sneaky way it gets thrown into competition tests when all we’ve been focusing on is moving our horses freely forward. If you added the exercise from the last blog to your training regime halting should be more the ‘normal’ thing you do like picking up the walk, trot or canter. Now it’s time to improve your halt. The idea is to get it balanced and square and get yourself balanced and equal in the saddle at the halt. You will need mirrors o

We spend a crazy inordinate amount of time to get our horses to go forward. We push them and ourselves to get used to a steady active tempo without feeling like we’re running out of control. And, then we go to a show and they throw us a curve ball because the first thing you do is halt! Oh my! Anyone ever notice how hard it is to halt at the test beginning and easier at the end? In fact, eventers have taken some halts out of the entrance of their tests since its so hard to g

I was listening to another podcaster Brandon Turner on a different topic and he is using the acronym FEEL to help him maximize his life. I was totally blown away how it can apply to our Riding! So here goes: F = Focus E = Educate E= Execute L = Learn So, first Focus on what you want in this ride with your horse. Focus on being the best rider you can be with what you know now, the skills you have and the horse you have. Then Educate yourself by studying and hanging out with wi

Let’s just accept it – horse riders are a special breed of human. What we do with our horses would turn the average person green. Don’t believe me? Discuss cleaning a sheath. Or, jump a coffin. Yes, I said coffin. Or roping a calf with a horse with cow sense. That’ll make someone’s head swim for sure – horses with cow sense? We E gene types (that means equestrians) find strange fun in a very hard sport that takes a lot of our time, money, effort and sometimes our very soul. T

https://images.app.goo.gl/ZB4wVrxdCgS9pb637 Riding corners happen a lot in arenas. Usually there are at least 4 of them. Some arenas that are oval or round have rounded corners. But in general, a horse must go through a corner at some point in their riding journey. Here is some easy corner exercises. First, put a cone in your corner about 3 feet away from the deepest point of the corner. When your ride closest to the point of the corner going to the left or the “right” of th

Did you know that riding horses by some is considered hard? In fact, a lot of RIDERS think riding is hard. I talk to riders all the time and they tell me that riding is SO HARD sometimes. I used to think the same. I was convinced I would never get beyond a 20 M circle. And then a funny thing happened – someone asked me how best to ride a 20 M circle. I had to explain it. Out load and with words. I had to go over it several times. I put out cones. I walked with the horse and r