spin class

Doozy’s recovery from the April Trashcan Incident continues to go as smoothly as any of us could reasonably hope. She’s been very sound, plus the leg has stabilized into normalcy since returning to regular turnout. 

anybody interested in a dozen variations of the same pic???

Building back up to “full work” has been a slow process so far, tho. I feel very tentative, and am especially reluctant to lay out any kind of time frame or expectation, esp re: being “ready” for jumps etc. 

welcome to our farm’s humble round pen. there is a strong history of horses jumping out of it LOL

Mostly because to be perfectly honest, it’s been very challenging to stick with the normal incremental, one-minute-at-a-time progressive plan. 

Where Doozy is concerned, if she can trot, she might as well canter! And where *I* am concerned, when I didn’t feel like cantering was a good or appropriate idea, I therefore concluded that attempting to “just trot” was equally unwise.

doozy is suspicious of the chickens

So we have followed a slightly unconventional path to this point — lots and lots and LOTS of long slow hacks and walking rides, then increasing the small bursts of activity (trot and canter alike) little bits at a time, with as minimal drama as possible.

not, uh, loving the way that saddle is shifting around up there
(in my defense, it’s a loose girth with a riser half pad doing what riser half pads do)

After recommendations from a few different (trusted / solicited / professional) corners, tho, last week we started integrating a little free lunging in the round pen. And it’s been super interesting! (To me, at least LOL…)

“in *my* defense, maybe i’d be quieter if you used quieter tack. just saying!” — doozy, opinionated

I’ve done little bits of ground work somewhat regularly with Doozy ever since bringing her home in 2023, tho with only a very little bit on the lunge. And even then, the purpose has always been communication, aid+response, pressure+release type work rather than just moving her out. 

signs of summer: sweaty soggy everything

And that’s the point of this round pen work too. I’m basically trying to simplify the equation, separate the signal from the noise, so that Doozy and I can communicate more clearly with less chaos and escalation. And, natch, while we’re at it, find a way to start the clock ticking like one would in a more ‘typical’ rehab plan.

another sign of summer: blargh

So far, the basic gist is: getting fully dressed to ride, but then going to the round pen first. We walk a lap or so together to start, during which Doozy is more or less free to stop and smell the roses, gaze longingly out the window, or whatever, ya know? No muss, no fuss. 

same shit, different day. different saddle too, tho!

I eventually peel off toward the center of the pen, encouraging her to keep moving around for the first 5 or so minutes, including practicing a change or two of direction. The practice naturally being as much for me as for her — just figuring it out, together.

roughly 12min out of 16 in our session is spent doing exactly this. boring is our goal!

My interval timer app is programmed to chime after 5 minutes, and then every 2 minutes after that. So more or less, we do our low key wander for the first 5, then maybe more specifically active and continuous walking 2 minutes in each direction, and then it’s trot time!

“fucking chickens tho” — doozy, 100%

My whole goal here is “boring.” I want Doozy to be unhurried and unbothered. Just jog on around. And as such, I am trying to develop (and stick to) a consistent predictable sequence of the absolute minimum aid required to get a response, with a consistent pattern of escalation.

proof: she CAN jiggity jog around like a fat lazy school pony!!

So maybe it starts with a verbal cue — the same one I can use under saddle too — then maybe escalates to a kiss, then a cluck, then maybe tossing the end of the lunge rope onto the ground. And Doozy trots! Lazily!! And then usually breaks back to walk pretty quickly, omg!!

plenty to like in her more normal gait tho!!

And ya know, I let her LOL. Because actually, ymmv, but at this moment in time, I see more value in getting lots of repetitions in asking her to go forward, compared to how our rides have mostly been — ie, constantly trying to slow her down. 

As Sharon White would say, ‘no drama, just clarity!’

lol she practices her own forward and back transitions…

We keep that going for about 2 minutes, then walk quietly and calmly again for two minutes — changing directions etc. Then another 2min cycle of trot, followed by another 2min of walk. Always ending with an intentional active cycle of walk, bc again my whole purpose here is the relaxation first and foremost. 

baaaaaaasically the same thing, right??? hahaha…

We’ll probably increase the number of trot intervals in the round pen too, as well as maybe doing some light experimentation with side reins, but so far we’ve stuck with a simple session of about 15ish minutes, give or take, with 4min total of trot.

“brb, gotta go check on those chickens tho!”

After which, naturally, it’s time to ride!! We finish up with the round pen, then transition back out to the outdoor ring just like we would for any normal ride — with the free lunge serving hopefully as both a physical and mental warm up session. 

“CLUCK CLUCK, MOTHER FUCKERS!!!” — doozy, obsessed

And it’s been super interesting to see how Doozy feels after that. Like, her tension is deeply rooted and associative. This has been true for her since the day I brought her home: when she gets somewhere, she expects something to happen. So she gets to the outdoor and immediately anticipates. 

anyway. there’s a point to all this madness:: civilized trotting under saddle

But so far, so good — our rides so far using this new round-pen-integrated approach have been solid, with the mare able to accomplish another couple of 2min intervals at trot even while going large around the full ring. 

I don’t know why exactly she can suddenly maintain her gait after what is an undeniably basic ground work session. And who knows, maybe it isn’t the ground work at all but rather just a coincidence, the natural consequence of getting back into the habit, back in practice? 

“fiiiiine, i guess i can” ….. “but only if there are cookies involved!!” — doozy, negotiating

And sure, she still occasionally sneaks in some canter — but following our lesson with Matt, and also the conversation with Steph, I’ve let her just go with it. Large around the ring tho, rather than the small circles we worked on with Matt. Mostly bc.. Well.. Doozy can canter a very small circle, which… I’d rather not do a ton of at this moment in time. 

But also, more to the underlying point: forward is fine too.

rinse repeat, forever

Which, realistically, is mostly an issue of framing for me, and not the horse. On one hand, yes I want to be careful and conservative while moving Doozy thru this rehab phase. But ultimately the end goal is still to gallop across an open field on a soft contact, right?? 

And Doozy is actually a trained and capable horse at this point too. Chaotic and occasionally unhinged, obvi, but she does actually know things. So I’m feeling hopeful that we might finally be graduating to a more predictable (and measurable) phase of the rehab, finally able to track the minute markers and improve confidence around deciding when to go to the next step. 

Everything will be easier when she’s free to run and jump around like a lunatic haha, but for now it’s one light spin class at a time lol.

my wild orchid

We’re supposedly finally getting a reprieve from the intense heat dome that’s stretched across much of the country this past week… And not a day too soon, either. Endless days of triple digit ‘real feel’ temperatures are exhausting for everybody, bleh.

bunnies. bunnies everywhere

Well. Almost everybody, LOL! 

I like to joke that Doozy is impervious to heat, that she IS the heat, she is one with the hotness haha. The rest of us might be wilted and begging for mercy, but not Doozy!

106*F put the kibbosh on basically all riding tho
(also, feel free to ignore my tire pressure warning, as i do every day!)

Tho a friend was talking about how the orchids she planted outside were thriving and going wild with all the heat and humidity, and I was like, Aha! Maybe that’s the perfect analogy for Doozy!! I mean, we always knew she was a hot house flower anyway, right???

“garçon, my snacks!” — doozy, impatient

Anyway, she might not mind the conditions, but even I have my limits, so it’s been a fairly quiet week around these parts. Not really the worst thing in the world, given her current rehab status. 

Like, sure, I’m still all inspired from a lot of the conversations, feedback, and ideas I got from Windurra camp — and actually a few preliminary sessions prior to the heat dome felt really really promising in terms of getting us back on track on a more traditional rehab schedule. The mare actually trotted 4 whole minutes under saddle with zero shenanigans, no tiny circles required!!

sample serving of purina replenimash came in the windurra camp auditor’s goody bag

But all the same, time is still our best medicine for any sort of recovery, so a week off is just fine.

Tho obvi I’m still out to see Doozy every day just to check on her, scratch her bug bites, and feed her fancy snacks. As one does! That’s perhaps my favorite thing about being a thoroughbred person: it’s easy to just keep plugging her full of foodstuffs without really having to think too deeply about it lol.

doozy was a fan!

Like this fancy Purina RepleniMash that was part of the Windurra Camp swag bag. It’s marketed as basically a wholesome mash with ingredients like electrolytes and their Outlast gastric support product, intended as a supplement to regular feed, or quite literally, to “simply let your friend know you care.” (assuming, hopefully, that your friend isn’t an air fern!)

she’s still loving her triple crown stress free fortified forage too

Does Doozy already get a lot of gastric support from me? Do I already give her electrolytes? Yes and yes lol… But, eh, Doozy thought it was delicious, plus a nice big sloppy mash when it’s a million degrees out seems nice too, so I ordered a bag LOL. 

stübben grooming spray + a baby pelham in their fancy flexible plastic composite

I’ve also been eager to play with some other goodies from the camp swag bag — like this fancy grooming spray from Stübben! It’s different from other grooming sprays I’ve used bc alcohol is a main ingredient, but it’s supposed to make them super shiny and dirt repellent. So we’ll see!!

Oooh and the bit I ordered arrived too. It was not part of the swag bag, tho we did get a nice discount code to use. The baby pelham cheek pieces are apparently among Boyd’s favorites for a variety of reasons, but I’m also really interested in this mouth piece too. 

reader poll: is my bebe kitten already giant? or is this the littlest yeti you’ve ever seen?
(trick question, the answer is yes to both… they grow up so fast!)

Only time will tell if it goes into regular rotation for lessons or shows, or if it’s more of a specialty use bridle, like our hackamore. Time will also tell if this fancy flexible plastic material holds up any better than the rubber nathe Doozy chewed through in just a few short months, too.

“garçon! it’s spa time!!” doozy, itchy, ready for a cool down bath!

Regardless, I’m eager to give it a try, and get back to riding again too. We’re hopefully signing up to lesson with Matt Brown again in the near future, and ideally I’d like to show him a slightly… more civilized version of how we go this time around. 

this stuff usually lives in my trailer for rinsing off after lessons, but it’s the perfect refreshing rinse in these oppressive heat dome conditions

The new approach we started experimenting with prior to the heat dome includes a bit more ground work — a mishmash actually between feedback from Matt in our last lesson and also some pointers from Peter Wylde and Steph Simpson at the Windurra camp. And you already saw a few pictures from Doozy’s first foray into our at-home round pen. 

probably a lot of you are already familiar with this stuff, it’s got great ingredients

None of it is necessarily groundbreaking stuff in the grand scheme of things, probably it looks like exactly the type of routine practice and work that most people do with young or green horses.

kitten is trying to create his own spa day too,
natch by making a mess of my AC tower’s condensation drainage…

I’m learning with Doozy, tho, that so much of our success (or lack thereof) in deploying any given tactic or technique is honestly rooted in my own understanding, framing and approach. That it’s not enough for me to just do it with this horse, but I have to have a really clear sense of why, how, and for what purpose. 

#loveabletrouble

Bc at the end of the day, this horse is too sensitive to distinguish a muddled signal from all my noise, ya know? She hears it all, whether I mean it or not.

We’ll see, tho. Hopefully this week will be a bit more normal conditions, at least normal for July. So probably still moderately malevolent mugginess lol. I’ll take it, tho. We’re officially half way thru the year and I’m eager to keep chipping away at our 2026 goals! 

windurra camp: dressage

The last major focal area for the camp was certainly not the least — in fact there was probably more dressage action than anything else. 

Each clinic participant had two dressage lessons, one with Silva Martin and one with Australian Olympian Brett Parbery. Plus US Olympian Laura Graves did a demo with Silva, and also taught lessons for a small contingent of pure dressage clinic participants — most of whom were working on the FEI levels.

nbd just Silva Martin and Laura Graves doin’ a dressage demo!

It was kinda funny too, bc at one point they actually had the pure dressage FEI horses riding with Laura in the same ring as the BN eventers riding with Brett… And obvi it’s natural to be drawn into watching the big fancy impressive moving warmbloods doing fancy upper level stuff vs the scrawny TB learning a leg yield lol… 

But realistically there are always more direct and tactical takeaways from auditing the lessons working at my own level, right? Real talk, tho, I kept trying to find a horse among the various groups that went most like Doozy, so that I could try to follow them around and see how the clinicians handled them… Except, joke’s on me — none of the horses went like Doozy, bc maybe most people are smart enough not to take that kind of hot mess out in public, LOL!

Laura on one of Silva’s horses

Ahem, cough cough, Moving On! Let’s start with the demo, wherein Silva and Laura shared high level thoughts on their approach and training philosophies — while simultaneously floating and flitting hither and yon on extremely fancy creatures, as one does.

They both emphasized the importance of intentional careful practice, of confronting the details right away, every day. Whether that be in developing our strength in our position, or the quality of a gait, or execution of a movement.

Laura in particular noted that she often sees people “get desperate” — a similar theme that Peter brought up in his show jumping lessons too. She said you’re always better off just taking a break, a circle, a breather, regrouping to try again, rather than getting desperate and maybe teaching the horse the wrong thing, or sacrificing positioning etc.

Silva demonstrating a variation of the exercise she coached in many of the lessons

She advised riders to “get out of a movement before failure, even as you work on pushing the boundary.”

Which is when Silva chimed in with the note I shared in an earlier post, that you have to let the horse do things he’s good at too, to help them like it and give you a reason to praise them.

The example she used was teaching eventing horses the changes — she’ll often halt straight and do a rein back after a bad change, NOT because the rein back is punishment for the bad change, but rather bc the horse can easily and correctly answer that question and then she can praise it right away for that, then go back and try the change again. Her point was that the horse can’t be scared of doing the wrong thing.

A lot of hotness in the horses comes from that insecurity (Editor’s note: Uh, **noted**); and while Laura pointed out that some positive tension is required in order to go forward and have energy, we want to avoid it bubbling over, avoid the desperation.

clinic riders did two dressage lessons — one with Silva

The warm up for the eventing groups was remarkably similar to the xc warm up, which was itself remarkably similar to the show jumping warm up. Are you sensing a theme here??

Silva started her groups moving immediately into trot / canter transitions, with changes of direction, to get everyone moving forward right away. From the more forward gait, she then asked riders to zero in on shoulder control, and particularly straightening on the outside rein. 

After a couple transitions between gaits, next came transitions within gaits — first in trot: forward and back in trot, almost walking then trotting forward, with changes of direction. Then in canter — lengthen first, then come back. Riders could use the ring geometry to help, like lengthening down the long side, closing into the corner. 

In one large circle, she wanted to see riders able to execute quiet smooth transitions every quarter — bring back, then normal, bring back, then normal. Again and again and again.

and another lesson with Australian Olympic dressage rider Brett Parbery

Laura kept a similar theme even in her lessons with the pure dressage horses. She noted in particular that riders and horses alike can make mistakes in these exercises — but that by finding that edge, that boundary, then you know where it is and can work on it. The key is being fair when there’s a mistake. 

Tho she noted, we can’t have greater expectations of the horse than the structure we provide. Our aids are only correct when the horse gives the right response (in other words, the horse hasn’t read the textbook, right?). The point of a correction to a mistake is to help the horse understand the original aid, not to have the correction itself become the aid.

Laura also taught lessons for the pure dressage participants

Especially when it came to quality of gaits, adjustability and transitions within the gaits, Laura was constantly asking her students: do you like this walk? Is this the trot you wanted? If not, does the horse know that? In her words, riders need to “make up your mind and act” bc the horse will only know what we tell them.

Possibly the most interesting thing Laura did with each lesson related to that overarching theme of finding forward first and always: Many of her clinic participants would come in wanting to work on a specific movement, two examples were pirouette and half pass zig-zag. Almost invariably, after they’d do the movement once (and thus demonstrate why it was an issue for them), Laura would break it down in the same way. 

She’d have the rider focus solely on establishing the pace and positioning for the movement — be that piro canter or half pass bend — but then just ride forward down the quarter line instead of turning into the movement itself. And it quite literally broke a few brains — even as it made her point crystal clear: so often, our tendency is to get wrapped up in the desperation of the full movement, that we sacrifice the fundamental components (ie, forward). But if you can’t hold the preliminary positioning on a straight line, maybe that’s actually the underlying issue?

nbd just super fancy and inspiring!

Anyway, tho, as fascinating as that was, it’s maybe a little less directly or tangibly applicable to me lol. Well. Except for the mantra of remembering the “forward and straight first” part!

Brett’s lessons with the eventing groups, however, continued to bring those same concepts to life in more relatable ways — particularly with some exercises I hope to repeat at home as Doozy continues in her rehab. 

He had riders working on the same transitions between and within gaits — that’s clearly just something that maybe everybody in the whole wide world is doing all day, every day, and I just forget to even think about it…? But he also introduced more complicated transitions too. 

it was amazing how many threads carried through all three clinician’s sessions

For one of the BN/N groups that had three very different horses, he had them all do the exact same exercise of a small-ish (think ~5m) figure-8 at walk, then after a circuit or two, as you change the bend do a walk-canter transition. Carry on in canter on a circle for as long as you can hold the organization and control the shoulder, then back to walk, regroup, repeat. 

The objective of this exercise is to help the horse arrive in a smaller canter right away, to help set the horse up for the organization, not try to impose organization after the fact. And it was interesting to see how well it worked for each of the horses — the behind-the-leg horse got more prompt, the overly-forward rushing horse got less strung out. Definitely something to try!

every individual horse and rider pair was so different, but they all benefited from the same simple classic exercises 

Tho Brett advised that it’s really all about slowing down the placement of aids — getting acceptance of each component, one step at a time. Prompting each moment of action without panic or desperation, without sacrificing correct posture and positioning. 

Something that will be important for me to remember with Doozy: It’s not just one big movement, it’s actually several smaller aids and steps and moments that each need their own breathing room. And that is what becomes the schooling, becomes the acceptance of independent aids.

Overall, lots to chew on, lots of food for thought, and a LOT of ideas I’m eager to start weaving into our daily practice — especially since a lot of this seems fairly rehab-friendly, too. 

Hopefully there are some good ideas or thoughts or takeaways in there for you all too, and the notes actually make some semblance to sense beyond just a massive download from hours and hours of auditing and lecture LOL! Or maybe some of this is already a major feature of your regular work?

windurra camp: show jumping

There were so many groups, so many sessions, and so much activity throughout the weekend that it was impossible not to experience at least a little bit of everything. For whatever reason, however, I gravitated to the show jumping ring again and again. 

And as a result, there are lots of notes and takeaways haha. The tl;dr version is that if you have a chance to ride with or audit lessons with Peter Wylde, you should. There’s so much information, so many notes, bc literally every single thing about the course itself, and how he wanted it ridden, is Intentional and On Purpose.

Olympian Peter Wylde & Boyd tag-teamed the show jumping demo

Day 1’s riding sessions kicked off immediately with demonstration rides — first with Boyd on Fetiche des Rouges (Radish), then with Peter on Cooley Nutcracker (Bali) — while whoever wasn’t riding provided commentary and insights.

The way they warmed up, put together the exercises, then rode the course was exactly how every single lesson, horse, and rider did it too — everyone from the BN group, to the modified group, to the random non-clinic lessons like with Boyd’s assistant riders etc, young horses, olympic horses, Nox & Lulu, everyone did it the same.

Which, ya know, means you can do it too!

Boyd and Fetiche des Rouges (aka Radish) 

It started with warming up on the flat. Now again, the Windurra horses would have arrived at the ring with usually at least 20min hacking under their belts, so adapt accordingly for yourself. But it was virtually the same for everybody:

Peter started the groups trotting forward on a circle in a light seat, not too fussy about the connection to start. Change directions, trot forward. Sit the trot, canter a circle or two — collected to rolling canter to collected, return to sitting trot, canter again, back to sitting, change directions, rinse repeat: sit, canter, canter on, canter collected, sit, canter, sit, post, walk. 

The transitions, especially with the sitting trot, were intended to help collect and balance the canter and bring the trot together. The contact and connection were developed through the exercise rather than as a fussy starting off point.

video of the full course

Then it was right into warming up over fences. See the diagram below. Riders started with a simple low vertical (with a somewhat impressively heavy gate as the top element) placed at least 14-15 steps in from the rail so that it can be approached from both canter leads. 

warm up was universal — everyone did exactly the same series, including boyd and peter and their other non-clinic lessons with working students and assistant riders etc.

Riders did their first pass on the left lead, which in this course was the tighter turn (larger diameter than a center line turn but smaller than a 20m circle). To Peter, the landing was almost more important than the jump. For many horses, this meant landing and quietly bringing back to walk *before* the turn. Peter likes this first jump to be far enough from the end of the ring that riders have to ride the landing first rather than relying on the wall.

Repeat again off the next lead — which Peter had riders approach from the quarter line rather than the rail, creating a slightly wider turn than the other direction, but still a small enough half circle approach to develop connection and engagement in the forward step. 

Peter was up next in the Demo with a schooling ride on Cooley Nutcracker, Liz Halliday Sharp’s Paris Olympics horse

Then with the magic of a jump crew, the vertical is raised and riders do it all over again — really focusing on schooling the landing side of the fence. Jump the jump, then deal with the horse first, then the turn.

The oxer was next, positioned at the other end of the ring on the same line as the first vertical (tho I didn’t see anybody ride the line directly). Same idea with the approaches off each lead, tho for the second trip Peter had riders go all the way out to the rail and open the canter up a bit, before collecting into the corner to make a good straight turn.

warm up vertical

Some horses did more repetitions than others to get the landing right, but basically without deviation, next came the bounces! A simply constructed straight line of low vertical to X to low vertical, 9’ distances, ground lines on both sides of everything, to be ridden off a circle in both directions. 

More advanced horses put much more of a curve into their line, like Peter and Bali below, with a main focus on holding the correct lead, while greener pairs rode it a little straighter. But everyone basically did it twice on a circle each way. Peter loves this exercise especially for helping develop connection and softness in the flatwork. 

warm up bounces, ridden in both directions

Next came the main feature of this particular course design: Peter’s quadruple 2-2-2 line, which is apparently one of his favorite exercises that they use often. 

looking tidy down the quadruple 2-2-2 line

This gymnastic grid measures 30’ to 31’ to 32’, with placing poles to the B, C and D elements spaced 8.5’ out. Riders were instructed to ride in collected and connected, land and wait, wait through the first stride to the cavaletti, relax hand over the jump, then wait, wait, etc, down the whole line. Staying straight and steady. 

This line is intended to really help a horse understand his footwork, especially helping him bring his hind feet together to push off, while also getting comfortable jumping from a close distance. It’s generally positioned going away from the in gate to help avoid rushing.

distances in the quadruple were 30’-31’-32’, with V poles and ground line boxes for each of the four elements. cavaletti was spaced 8.5’ from each jump except the first (which had no placing pole)

Peter’s preferred construction uses three height elements with a rail and panel toward the top of the jump, and a third rail toward the bottom. Boxes for ground lines, placed slightly ahead of the jump. Heavy cavaletti for the placing pole 8.5’ out, and ~2” diameter / 9’ length PVC poles to create the “V” guide rails. 

lovely demonstration of the quadruple line by Nox & Lulu!

Alternatives could include just using 3 elements instead of 4, tho the length of the line is really the main point of instruction bc jumping in too hot will catch up with you. You could also do three oxers instead, and maybe add 1’ to the distances between (tho keep the cavaletti the same). Peter also likes using lines of 5 or 6 bounces especially for horses that are tricky on the flat.

Peter advised always starting with a low height bc it’s a LOT to jump into!

He likes using the “V” poles for basically everything (obviously) as a straightening device, and says they can often be just as effective on the floor too, or even on the landing side — tho he advised placing them at least 6-10’ back from landing so horses aren’t stepping all over them. The idea is to passively train out drifting while building the strength to jump straight and square.

For less careful horses, he might rest the poles so that the ends are about 6” above the height of the rail, with a gap between them as narrow as about 18”. In the gif above, that would look like bringing the poles to the inner edges of the red bands instead of the outer. 

picture for my own benefit — basically two full steps from the cavaletti to my feet here, then slightly plus 1’ to the ground line box, which is itself pulled out slightly ahead of the jump

Anyway, from there, the next schooling exercise was to put the first line together — starting with the same oxer riders warmed up over, then bending in a patient 7 strides to a vertical jumping into the corner. 

Peter said he likes to set a lot of distances that are about 3’ short, and especially likes starting and finishing his courses with shorter distances to help the horses not anticipate or spool out. Again, everything is all about the little details. 

this oxer doubled as a warm up jump, and as the first jump on course — bending in a short seven to the vertical

For most lessons, the riders did this line at least twice — starting from the right lead, then rolling through a polite and organized turn on the landing to come back down on the left lead — letting the canter open a bit on the long side before collecting again — to jump the line a second time, this time walking in a straight line on landing into the corner. 

straight to the corner! no cutting in, finish riding the landing before the turn

The important detail in these polite landings is the smoothness, to show the horse the improvements not by roughing them up, but by calmly and firmly asking for just the one answer: walk in a straight line before the turn. 

Peter advised that the worst thing you can do is have a tantrum on a sensitive horse here… which like. Yea, I can see that LOL. But that doesn’t mean you can hide from the issues either. You have to confront them, and help the horse understand the rideability on landing.

second line on course, another oxer right bend, this time on a true 12’ stride in seven

The idea is that if you start your ride by focusing on those little details, the course should basically put itself together. Riders started again with the same first oxer bending to blue vertical in a patient 7 strides, then down the quadruple 2-2-2 gymnastic. 

like so!

Then onto the next bending line, this time actually set to a true 12’ stride but still in seven. For folks who might be interested in setting this up at home, but who would prefer to have both a right and left bending line, you could square that turquoise oxer instead of putting it on the diagonal to change that bend from right to left.

then a finish down a triple combination again set on slightly short “comfortable” distances

The course finished down another combination set on distances that were all about 3’ short, again to help horses learn not to keep snowballing as the course goes on. And riders were instructed to finish their circle politely. As with every other line, fix your lead, fix your canter, as if you intended to keep going.

An alternative construction could include a 5-1 oxer-vertical-oxer instead, which is apparently another of Peter’s favorites for practice. He said he sometimes likes putting a liverpool at the A element jump to force riders to ride forward into the line even tho the distance is short.

sketch of the full course, lmk if you want any additional details

Overall, Peter described his training approach and course design to be all about helping horses and riders avoid the round snowballing out of control. Sometimes he’ll use cones in the ends of the ring to cue walk transitions in the middle of a course, or maybe he’ll plop in a trot jump like you’d see in an equitation round. 

But basically, he wants riders to be able to create a transition at any point in the course, to break up the building adrenaline, and develop tools and techniques to prevent desperation. “Develop” being the operative word there — rather than “demand.”

Personally, I can’t wait to try setting some of this up, and practice some of the techniques and approaches from these lessons. But ya know. Rehab comes first… so in the meantime, maybe one of you will give it a shot and let me know how it goes?