Is dressage natural? That depends on how you view dressage. The word “dressage” simply means “training.” Is training natural? Absolutely – training/teaching/learning are part of adaptation as a species. Horses’ ability to learn and adapt determines their survival in the wild. Mares teach their foals, sometimes directly with a warning nip when the foal gets a little too rough. Sometimes indirectly, through example. Photo Credit: Jess Mayfield Photography What about humans trai

How much of your life do you spend in the present moment? As someone who has always tended to worry about things, I can tell you that I have spent a lot of time in the potential future. Not even the actual future; the potential future. Why is it only the “potential” future? Because, if you think about it, a lot of the things we worry about don’t end up coming true. Photo Credit: A Sharper Image Photography Have you noticed that many of us who own or ride horses seem to be pro

Are you the mirror, or is it your horse? We often hear the term “mirroring” when it comes to riding. We know that our horses mirror us in our emotions and behaviours. We are all too familiar with the way we can transfer our confidence and softness, or our tensions and fears, to our horse. Likewise, they can also influence us. If you’ve been on a horse that spooked, you’ve probably felt your heart rate climb and your muscles tense immediately after your horse’s did.   This doe

What is it about the end of one year and the beginning of the next that inspires us to make resolutions and change things in our lives? Is it tradition? Or is it something energetic?   February 16, 2026, ends the year of the Wood Snake in Chinese astrology. As we leave 2025, we have a choice to leave the past behind us, like a snake shedding its skin. In numerology, 2025 was a “9” year (2+0+2+5=9), which signifies endings. Now we are moving into 2026, which will be the year o

Seems like a no brainer, doesn’t it? Consistency is obviously key - we all know this to be the case when it comes to achievement. But what about in day to day riding and building a relationship with your horse? Ever heard the expression “Clarity is kindness”? This is such a key phrase when it comes to working with horses. They don’t speak our language, other than a few words here and there which they pick up along the way. We need to be extremely clear in our communication wi

Do you let your horse have a voice? Do you listen to what they have to say, or do you unintentionally talk over them? No quality conversation is one-sided. When we speak with our human friends, there is dialogue. Why, then, do our conversations with horses sometimes turn into a monologue? Photo Credit: Mutt Love Photography Horses might be non-verbal in most of their communications, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t saying as much or more than we are. Horses are highly intuit

Do you set goals? Most of us do. Sometimes they’re very specific and ambitious, such as achieving a certain result at a specific show. Other times they’re more ambiguous and open-ended, such as “I’d eventually like to show at least Third Level.”  Photo Credit: Mutt Love Photography We can easily get caught up in our excitement and hyper-focused on goal achievement. Maybe we just got a new horse, or we had a super show season, or our training at home is going extremely well. S

Riding is hard in every way. Obviously, physically it’s a challenging activity. All four quadrants of your body must be doing different things simultaneously, while sitting on a horse who has a mind of its own and is moving different parts of its body in different ways – sometimes unpredictably. Anyone who says, “You just sit there, the horse does all the work!” is showing their hand – we instantly know they’ve never actually ridden a horse. I deal with those comments by sayi

What is the voice in your head telling you? The answer to this question will provide you with a lot of insight. We are almost always our own toughest critics. So often we worry about what others think or say about us, when we should really be focusing on our own thoughts and our feelings toward ourselves. Photo Credit: Mutt Love Photography Those of us who ride in a specific discipline, such as dressage, engage in riding as a sport. We set high goals and standards for ourselv

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