MagazineNewsHorse SportsHorse CareCOTH StoreVoicesChronicle ConnectionMarketplaceDates & Results
 

Blogs

May 23, 2013

The Decision Not To “Go Pro”

By: Kristin Carpenter

There are all types of professionals in the horse world, and each one possesses an importance and a joy in what they do. Someone must hook the kids with pony parties, someone must teach them how to post the trot, someone must breed the horse they ride…you get the idea.

When I decided not to “Go Pro,” for me it was a decision over whether or not to train and compete at the top levels of the sport. While there are many paths in the horse profession, that is simply where my interests and decisions led me.

May 23, 2013

The Octopus On Roller Skates

By: Lauren Sprieser

Johnny is my third personal 4-year-old—Ella came to me at age 5—and as different as they all are now and were at the same age, they all have a few things in common. They tend to follow a pattern, and as such, I have a loose pattern on my approach to them.

May 21, 2013

Self Sufficiency

By: Lauren Sprieser

It was not the week I'd planned on having.

The Plan looked like this: make prompt recovery from The Plague, get back to work, go to horse show with awesome clients, win everything, party down.

May 15, 2013

The Aftermath Of Five Feet Of Water

By: Taylor Flury

Taylor Flury had to completely evacuate AliBoo Farm with the help of family and staff when rain caused substantial flooding on April 18. The flood only lasted one day, but the clean-up continues.

May 15, 2013

Expect The Unexpected With Horses

By: Jennie Brannigan

The rollercoaster in the life of an event rider is often times an interesting one, and I have to say that the past few weeks of my life have lived up to that ride and then some with Rolex Kentucky and now Jersey Fresh in the rearview mirror.

Rolex was such a big buildup, and I know in the back of my mind I was holding my breath, anticipating the downfall that so often comes when you’re trying to get to a premier event like that.

May 15, 2013

The Day The Waters Rose

By: Taylor Flury

I didn’t sleep well on Wednesday night. I’m a natural born worrier, and it was raining so hard I thought we were in the middle of a monsoon. It was one of those rains that usually only lasts a few minutes, but it went on for hours, and I was terrified of what that amount of rain would bring in the morning.

So I was shocked when I went out to feed at 5 a.m., and it wasn’t flooding. I expected the pastures to be full of water, but they weren’t. However, by 7 we knew we were in for it because the rain was coming down hard again, and the water had started to flow south toward us.

May 13, 2013

Put It In Park

By: Lauren Sprieser

Every year or so, usually after a few months of running myself ragged, I go through a two-week period of serious enthusiasm. I mean, I am JONESED. I'm getting stuff done. I'm up late, sans caffeine, and then up early again the next morning with a big smile on my face. I tell myself that I must be doing something right; I must be eating right or doing really well with whatever exercise regime I'm on, or that maybe I've just biologically hit my stride, because, clearly, all this energy is so great.

Then I get the Plague.

May 6, 2013

Trust The Process

By: Paige Cade

Trust the process.

There’s a certain lightness, a space somewhere between leaving the ground and landing when you can feel your young horse begin to understand how to use his parts well and truly jump. His withers arc up underneath you, and out of the corner of your eye you might just see his knees. It’s a feeling that’s difficult to describe in words, so I find myself using sounds, like “pa-pow!”

May 5, 2013

Who Knows What You Can Learn When You Broaden Your Horizons

By: Taylor Flury

As every great horseman knows, you can never know all there is to know about horses and riding. There is always more to learn, and we can't be picky about where we learn it. Even though I compete in the jumpers primarily, I've realized over the years that I can and want to learn something from everyone.

Comments

chevy_sweetheart_4
2 weeks 16 hours ago

Horses

I completely agree about the always learning new things! I recently started a blog myself and I'm going to make my blog all about horses too! For right now it's for my class at school but I'm going to change it. I hope to hear back from you!
AClarke
6 days 5 hours ago

Thank you!!!

Thank you so much for posting this!!! A friend and I had dinner the other night and were discussing just this. My background is primarily hunters, but I also LOVE watching eventing. I was telling her about how watching Andrew Nicholson win Rolex this year easily could've been a winning medal trip. At the end of the day, good riding is good riding, whether it's dressage, jumpers, hunters, equitation, cross country, reining, horsemanship, whatever. And I think turning down the opportunity to potentially learn from another discipline just because it isn't "yours" can only hurt you in the long run!
May 5, 2013

Playing The Whack-A-Mole Game

By: Kristin Carpenter

The relationship between horse and rider in eventing is unlike any other sport. While eventing demands the obedience of dressage, the horse must think for itself. While it requires the carefulness of a show jumper, the horse must be equal parts bold. But greater than any trait horses are born with, successful event horses must trust their riders more than they trust their instincts. Cross-country is unique to eventing, and it requires a horse to trust that the lake its rider asks it to leap into is shallow, and that the drop jump into the horizon will have land on the other side.

randomness