The saying is that a picture is worth a thousand words, yet so many involved in Dressage want to deny what the pictures tell us. The most common complaint is that a photo is “just a moment in time” – yet, without the “moments in time” that Eadweard Muybridge gave us, we would not know the … More Fun with photos: the trot
In a recent post, I discussed the general notion of how you can change the horse’s body, for better or worse, based upon the nature of the work. The inspiration for that post came from Coffee. Recently, my mother had been commenting on how much more handsome Coffee is than when he came here. I … More Sculpting the Equine Body, Pt 2
One of the aspects of classically based Dressage training is the way in which it changes the horse’s physique. It is true that any equine activity that involves a level of conditioning will tone muscles, and should make the horse more attractive. I say “should” because there are definitely activities that condition a horse but … More Sculpting the Equine Body, Pt 1
A Facebook friend recently posed the question as to why so many people enjoy watching today’s competition, and don’t see the ugliness and the damage done by the training methods being used. Why do they not seek the beauty that many of us in the 50-plus age group grew up with? The answer is simply … More Eye of the Beholder
The controversy still swirls around the method known variously as rollkur or LDR (low, deep, and round). Someone from a Facebook group I’m part of recently posted photos and video from Falsterbro, a high level competition in Sweden. This evidence showed that the method has truly become mainstream, with not a single rider working in any other fashion. … More Which would you choose?
Someone shared this lovely video on Facebook, and in my estimation it has not had enough views – so I’m doing my little part to spread it around. The video is of the top two rides from the 1976 Olympics. You can find lots of vintage Dressage videos on YouTube – but what makes this … More How it was: 1976
Horse Crazy Once Again 