Patina
20 Sunday Nov 2011
Posted in Sunday Photos
Author Archives: Katie
Something different
19 Saturday Nov 2011
I’m not a tailgater and I don’t like being tailgated. Years ago, when a car would come up on my tail, I’d slow down in an attempt to get the other driver to back off. It never worked.
My then-husband bought a GMC Typhoon. Whenever someone came up on his tail, he’d accelerate and say “eat my dust.” His attempt to get the other driver to back off always worked.
I assumed it worked for him because the Typhoon was just so fast. But one day, I decided to try the same maneuver in my VW Cabriolet. It worked, where my slowing down never had.
Sometimes, we just have to try something different. Even if we think that it can’t work, because what we’ve been doing should work and will, if we just try hard enough or long enough.
At the Equine Affaire, Tina Konyot got on a young horse who didn’t want to completely accept the leg or the contact. The horse fought. Tina was persistant. The horse continued to fight. Tina insisted. The discussion didn’t go on long, maybe seven minutes or so.
Schwung
18 Friday Nov 2011
Posted in Equitation
I got home from yoga last night feeling life in my hips. We spent the entire session — almost two hours — on pelvic exercises, and as I drove home, I danced in my seat to the music on the radio.
This is only my second yoga session since I broke my back in June, and it was interesting to observe where I am. I no longer have the rotational flexibility I had before, but I am happy to feel spirit where there was static.
It made me think about how easy it is for us to get stuck, in our bodies and in our minds, and how easy it is for our horses to get stuck in the same places.
So if we want our horse’s backs to swing, we have to let our bodies swing a little, too. Or “shwung.”
Cosmic
17 Thursday Nov 2011
Posted in Uncategorized
The happy athlete
16 Wednesday Nov 2011
Posted in Training
Lots of trainers talk about how they’re “all about the horse,” but the reality is rarely in accordance with the promise. At the highest levels of the sport, it becomes harder and harder to put the horse’s needs first, as the demands on the horse increase along with the rider’s ambition.
Nonetheless, for Tina Konyot, the second highest ranking dressage rider in the US, the horse does come first. I wrote about it in an earlier post. She made the point again last weekend, in one of her clinics at the Equine Affaire, saying “keeping him [the horse] happy and comfortable through the levels of his training is the most important thing.”
Wofford on the half-seat
15 Tuesday Nov 2011
Posted in Equitation
It’s not unusual to hear people talk about the fact that a horse can feel a fly land on him, and therefore, can be expected to respond to light aids.
Which is why a horse responds when we ride in a half-seat, which is the same as a light three-point seat. In a three-point seat, which is what we usually ride in without thinking of it as “three point,” contact is extended to the seat bones in addition to the “two-point” contact of the knees. In a half-seat, the contact of our seat bones is light.
Jimmy Wofford, some of whose fans call him the Woff (always with a silent exclamation point), explained the advantages of the half-seat over the two-point seat in his gymnastics clinic at the Equine Affaire in Massachusetts last weekend:
Limbo
14 Monday Nov 2011
Posted in Uncategorized
Today, I found my 16.2h warmblood in an area of the field where I didn’t expect to see him. It’s an area that periodically gets wet, and one of his favorite places to play. Last spring, after he pulled a shoe for the second time, we cordoned it off with two bands of Horseguard tape and fiberglass posts (non-electrified).
As I got close to the area, I saw that the lower band of tape was broken. I removed the top band and walked in to lead him out. He just got shod last week and I didn’t want him leaving one of his nice new shoes with the borium studs in the muck.
He acted as if he wanted to watch me repair the fence, but I knew he just wanted an opportunity to walk back in and slosh around. I shooed him away and he obliged, being the gentleman he is.
Haunting
13 Sunday Nov 2011
Posted in Sunday Photos
Because of the snowstorm, Halloween got cancelled in much of New England. My little niece Eloise has still not recovered. This is for her, and for you.
All star days with Anne, Tina & Jimmy
12 Saturday Nov 2011
Posted in Uncategorized
The line up of clinicians at this year’s Equine Affaire includes three of my all-time favorites: Anne Kursinski, Tina Konyot and Jimmy Wofford. Although their disciplines are showjumping, dressage and eventing, respectively, they share a classical tradition.
I rescheduled lessons and obligations so I could relocate my life to the Big E for four days. I was there all day yesterday, all day today and tonight, when I went to the extravaganza they call Fantasia with my nieces. I got home after midnight, and I have to be back early in the morning to see Jimmy!
Unfortunately, I need a lot more sleep than a horse, so I can’t give you the highlights now. But you can look forward to lots of notes & quotes from this clinic junkie in the coming week.
Congratulations Sam!
11 Friday Nov 2011
Posted in Uncategorized
My niece Samantha, who rides with the IEA (Interscholastic Equestrian Association) High School team at Rising Star Equestrian Center in Medway, Massachusetts, has qualified for Regionals!
Sam has been blessed with the ideal rider’s body and it was difficult for her to find tall boots that were tall and slim enough. But that’s not what got her those ribbons that are hanging all over her room. It’s her talent, her desire and ability to bond with any horse she rides, and her competitive nature. Sam wants to win.
Getting ready to ride
Reflections on Riding 