When you’ve been waiting, waiting, waiting to turn six years old so you can have your first riding lesson that birthday is a pretty big deal.  Such a big deal that you might even want to wear your little pink skirt under your riding breeches.

Seriously, have you seen a cuter picture than this one?  The pink socks over the breeches, the pink skirt and pink shirt, all to celebrate turning six and getting to ride!  Sometimes when I walk through the barn the things I seen really do require a double take and this was one of them.

The consequence of the little pink skirt is that Andrea (instructor in the purple shirt) has announced a new rule at the farm. On your birthday you can ride in a skirt!   Since it’s actually Andrea’s Birthday today (April 26) I think she should ride in a skirt today too!

-Hollie McNeil, Owner/Trainer:Riding Right Farm, Author:40 Fundamentals of English Riding

Sign of Spring

A sure “sign” of Spring here at the farm? Take a look at the lesson board.  It’s almost like blooming daffodils, budding trees, and greening grass makes the phone ring with people wanting to take lessons.  Mind you, we’re not complaining.  A busy day of lessons is a good day.

In spite of the fact that we have an indoor arena and operate year round the business clearly has seasonal fluctuations.  Spring and fall seem to be the high seasons.  Summer is busy but somewhat to my surprise when we first started this operation sixteen years ago (!) it seems that vacations take a good chunk out of the schedule.  Obviously, when winter sets in a percentage of the riders tend to fade away.

There are the year-round, hard core riders that keep the farm humming along and for those folks, I can say “thank goodness.”   No matter what the weather, the horses eat seven days a week, stalls never stop needing cleaning and we pay for the arena, barn, tractor and every other aspect of the facility whether it’s 90 degrees in the shade or 30 below with wind chills.

There’s an old saying in farming, “you’ve got to make hay while the sun shines.”  We’re making hay and happy to be doing it!

-Hollie McNeil, Owner/Trainer:Riding Right Farm, Author:40 Fundamentals of English Riding

Patience Rewarded

The truism with horses is that you can plan all you want about how things are going to go but ultimately the horse has the final say.

My example is Cris.  The Holsteiner/Appaloosa cross came to the farm more than a year ago for training.    It was anticipated that it would take about six months or so to get him moving nicely enough that he could get in the dressage arena and do some low level, i.e. intro and training level, showing.  Now, more than a year later, Cris’s owner, Adria has finally had the opportunity to get on his back and feel safe about it.

It didn’t take long to realize that this horse had his own list of issues and problems to be sorted out.  He was tense and nervous, easily worried and very sensitive to the saddle on his back.   After a long series of veterinarians, chiropractors, drugs, supplements, saddle fitters, work in the round pen, etc. , Cris is finally in a place where I can reliably get on his back and do some work.

As the trainer in Cris’s world, I’ve come to know him really well and I can judge what frame of mind he’s in on any given day.  I feel like I know when I can push him and when I just need to back off and let him be.  It was just a couple of weeks ago when I felt confident enough in his training to get his owner up on his back.  I was there to guide and help but ultimately this was a ride between Cris and Adria.  The upshot is that everything was great.  Cris behaved.  Adria rode well and managed him with confidence and good riding position and aids.  The thrill for me (and for Adria) was getting this far even if it seems like it took forever.   At times along the way it felt like this day was never going to come.  I give Adria a ton of credit.  I know many other horse owners would have given up long ago.  To see Adria now riding her own horse and looking so great is evidence that  patience does have its own reward.

-Hollie McNeil, Owner/Trainer:Riding Right Farm, Author:40 Fundamentals of English Riding

The Barn “Community”

If you’ve never been a part of a barn you probably have no appreciation for the social dynamics that go along with it.  I can guarantee though, that if you are at a barn now or ever have been in the past you know what I’m talking about.

There’s a vibe that goes through every barn.  It’s an undercurrent of feelings, emotions, and attitude that permeates every aspect of the barn.  You come to find out that it’s not so much about the horses at the barn, but the people who own those horses that dictate the atmosphere of the barn.

Some barns are so negative, backstabbing and nasty that you feel like you’ve entered a hornet’s nest.  These barns are tough to be a part of.  It can get so ridiculous that it’s common to have people pull in the drive-way only to see that one of the “nasties” is there too.  People actually turn around and leave just to avoid being around these difficult people.

The “complainers” can be a caustic element of the barn as well.  These are the people who have to complain about the stalls, the lights, the mud, the footing, and anything else that comes to mind.  The danger of having one complainer (whether in a barn or in an office setting) is that once one person starts it can turn into a chain reaction of complainers.

There are the internally competitive barns too.  The ones that are all about who has the best horse, best saddle, nicest blanket, etc.  This turns into the “keeping up with the Jones” syndrome.

As a counter-point to all that, I’m including this lovely picture of a baby shower that we had for one of our boarders a few weeks ago.  The point of the photo is that folks in our barn took it upon themselves to celebrate with Kayla the fact that she’s going to have a baby in a few weeks.   Kayla was touched by the generous spirit of the barn community.  I think it speaks volumes about the kind of barn that we have.  The people are welcoming, unpretentious, kind, thoughtful, generous and fun to be around.

We need to remind ourselves why we pursue the sport of horses in the first place.  It’s to have fun and part of the fun is sharing our love for the horse with other like-minded people.

-Hollie McNeil, Owner/Trainer:Riding Right Farm, Author:40 Fundamentals of English Riding

Riding With Three Whips?

Whips are considered auxiliary aids in the theory of correct riding.  You use a whip if your other driving aids of seat and leg need a little assistance.   Okay, so there’s your definition for the correct use of the whip.  Sometimes, however, the whip can be a creative “position” aid.

I have been on a streak of torturing my students by making them carry the whip behind their back with their elbows.  What a great way to get a rider’s body to be upright and tall, rather than round shouldered and hunched over.  I will also use a whip under a rider’s thumbs and ask them not to tip the whip off a horizontal line.  Again, it’s another great positional fix.  The rider gets the idea of keeping their hands level and steady with their thumbs on top as they hold the reins.

Well, poor Julia got both “whip related” fixes in her lesson the other day, plus she continued to carry her own whip in the traditional way.  Three whips at once?  It was a first for me, as an instructor.  Julia wasn’t fazed in the least.  She smiled and proceeded to walk and trot in this configuration.  Were her shoulders back and her chest open as it should be?  Yes.  Were her hands steady and upright forming a soft, kind connection to her horse’s mouth?  Yes.  Was she able to carry her own whip and use it to correctly to ask her horse for more forward motion? Yes.

Teaching and learning can be a creative and endeavor.  Just ask Julia.

-Hollie McNeil, Owner/Trainer:Riding Right Farm, Author:40 Fundamentals of English Riding