Ever Consider Becoming a Horse Show Official? Now Might Be the Perfect Time...
There are certain moments in sport that can never be replicated. One of them was Scott Brash’s last four jumps on his way to becoming the first and still only rider to win the Rolex Grand Slam of Show...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Bare It All: How Top Sport Horses Are Competing Without Shoes
The Swedish show jumpers have been the talk of the town lately, and it’s not just because they won the gold medal and jumped more clear rounds than any other nation at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games. If...
View ArticleTake a Lesson with Phillip Dutton, Laura Graves and More!
Ever dreamed of taking a lesson with the “messiah of eventing,” two-time Olympic gold medalist Phillip Dutton? Do you long for the dressage tutelage of former world number one Laura Graves? Or wish to...
View ArticleClik here to view.
So You Want to Be a Mustang Trainer? Here’s What You Need to Know
When Babbie Styslinger arrives at her 56-acre farm in the town of Leeds, near Birmingham, Alabama, her presence rarely goes unnoticed. Sure, Babbie’s training partner Brandy Jewell Dempsey generally...
View ArticleClik here to view.
EQUITANA USA, the Game Plan: Day One
I’m a planner. And if there’s an event that requires a little coordinated planning, it’s EQUITANA USA. With an enormous trade fair at the equally enormous Kentucky Horse Park, spectacular evening...
View ArticleClik here to view.
EQUITANA USA,the Game Plan: Day Two
The EQUITANA USA planning extravaganza continues! Between the enormous trade fair at Kentucky Horse Park, the show stopping entertainment, and 150 seminars and clinics all across three days, October...
View ArticleClik here to view.
EQUITANA USA, the Game Plan: Day Three
Between the 150 seminars and clinics, enormous trade fair and phenomenal entertainment, EQUITANA USA is a wealth of education and shopping options. But I’m pleased to say my game plan is coming...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Falls Happen, Protect Yo’self
When Benjamin Franklin proclaimed that, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,” he was referring to fire prevention in Philadelphia. But, this sage piece of wisdom is equally applicable to...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Innovation at Utrecht University is Changing How We Manage Equine Athletes
Utrecht University’s Equine Clinic is performing cutting-edge biomechanics research that is reshaping how we think about the equine body and applying new technologies to enhance health. Last month...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Free Webinar: Evidence Is Everything in Sport Horse Evaluation, Performance...
Canadian horsemen Tim Worden, PhD, and Sean Jobin are out-of-the-box thinkers. Their evidence-based approaches to equine athlete selection, development, performance and management are gaining notice...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Why Do We Call It “Posting” Trot?
I must admit I had never found the word post remotely interesting until I decided to figure out why we call it a posting trot. Turns out, the word post has about 1,200 meanings, and we use and know...
View ArticleWhat Ever Happened to “Serviceably” Sound?
When I first got out of veterinary school and started looking at horses prior to purchase (usually referred to as a “vet check” or a prepurchase exam), the horses usually fit into one of three...
View ArticleThe Incomplete History of Longeing (aka Lungeing)
When you’re as immersed in the horse world as me and you, we tend to lose sight of how odd some of the words are that we use. Then, for reasons unknown, I type a sentence in a word document that has...
View ArticleThe AXCs of Dressage Letters
A – Enter at working trot X – Halt, salute. And from there, things get a bit chaotic, letter-wise. For the love of all things horsey what do these letters mean and who on earth thought of them? I’ve...
View Article“Natural” Balance?
I am constantly amazed at people’s taste for “natural.” I mean, really, humans have spent most of their civilized life trying to get away from natural. Now, it’s constantly being used as an...
View ArticleThe Hidden History of Jingle Bells
Now that I call myself an “investigative reporter” on all things horsey and of minimal importance, and since Christmas is upon us, I thought I’d take a deeper look into the song, Jingle Bells. We’ve...
View ArticleHacking in a Hackamore and Other Thoughts
I was thinking about hackamores the other day, as you do, and thought it was another fine example of a strange word we so often find in the horse world. “I’m going hacking in the hackamore today,” you...
View ArticleClik here to view.
X-rays Can’t Predict the Future
I cannot imagine that I am the only person who wishes that I could predict the future. Try as I might, I just can’t. Not even if I have an X-ray machine. The reason that I bring this up is that for...
View ArticleKeep Calm and Read On: Here’s How to Adapt to the New Changes to USEF’s Minor...
You can’t be a practicing USEF member or even a casual participant in the sport these days without feeling the winds of change nipping at your heels. Mostly, they come in the form of updated U.S....
View ArticleClik here to view.
Carl Hester Is Not Out to Kill and Other Dressage War Stories
Dressage is regarded as an art form today. But its intended purpose, as I am sure you know, was to train horses for battle. So, I wonder, are any of the movements we see Carl Hester and his esteemed...
View Article