Monthly Archives: September 2013
The Eventing Show – the new monthly, online TV Programme
Thanks to Equestrian Index on Twitter (@equestrianindex) I spied the release of a video show I have previously heard about but failed to notice their launch.
“The Eventing Show is a monthly on line TV program connecting you directly to the worlds top eventers. Engaging, honest & open discussions, news round up and the all important FEI & British Eventing leader boards. Find out who’s up, who’s down and who’s hit the ground!”
PART 2
“Horse Hub brings you The Eventing Show, filmed on location at The Land Rover Burghley International Horse Trials. Hosted by Steve Wilde and starring special guests; Badminton & Burghley winner Jock Paget, European Silver medallist Ingrid Klimke and International Dressage rider Anna Ross Davies. Featuring The Eventing Show regulars Jonty Evans and Paul Tapner.
In this episode we look back at events in August 2013:”
Cruelty is made of soft leather, sweet iron, sheepskin, gel padding. It comes with no pre-warnings…
Fear is the parent of cruelty.
James Anthony Froude
It seems that wherever “training” is involved, in any area of human life, cruelty is present. Bullying and pushing to the limits are seen as often, if not more frequently as the non-violent methods. We patent cruelty by giving it complicated names, shiny packaging and “educational” manuals.
Cruelty is made of soft leather, sweet iron, sheepskin, gel padding. It comes with no pre-warnings, no labels saying “Unsuitable for insecure, fear driven individuals” or “Prior animal mental & physical health knowledge required”. It dresses up in glorious style of Tradition, shoes by designer label of Been Done For Donkeys’ Years.
I am so sickened by so many instances of cruelty in horse training, keeping, managing. Why oh why should this be part of human nature…I don’t want to turn this blog into name & shame of cruelty cases but I do believe in collective responsibility. Please read the article behind the photo above. And please share it.
The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people but the silence over that by the good people.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Related articles
- Horse dies after controvercial training method (fox5sandiego.com)
Ceri: Why everyone deserves a photoshoot :)
I keep seeing many riders arranging for having photo shoots with own horses or their friends’ horses. Even riding school riders started to immortalise their experiences with their favourite school horses. Having Ceri of Pure Essence Photography as a guest blogger on here I thought it might be interesting to look into the why’s of having your photoshoot done.
I personally love good photography. Sometimes I even like bad photography too! As long as the photos catch a moment in its essence forever framing it in a priceless second, even underdeveloped or over exposed snaps have their merit.
If you simplify things a little you might say that life is just a milliard photo snaps one by one running on a time treadmill, we all wish we could stop it sometimes…could a photoshoot be a vehicle for a mini handbrake that lets us re-live the emotions we would love to keep for longer?
Over to Ceri…
WHY EVERYONE DESERVES A PHOTOSHOOT BY CERI OF PURE ESSENCE PHOTOGRAPHY
A photo shoot can be an amazing experience, a chance to spend a couple of hours having fun and posing with your four legged friends and at the end of it some wonderful photos that you can keep to cherish forever.
Want to capture some memories of your children with their first pony? Those early years fly by so quickly and are filled with so many firsts…. first canter, first jump, first rosette. Don’t let those memories fade as the years pass by.
The bond between horse and owner is incredibly special, celebrate that relationship and show it off to your friends.
Perhaps you’re saying good bye to an old friend, keep the memories alive with a beautiful print.
Aspire Training Day at Rockley [Farm] Rehab Reunion 2013 – when reasons come from purpose…
Aspire at Rockley Rehab Reunion 2013
As I mentioned in my yesterday’s blog, I had a great day teaching fabulous Rockley “graduates” at Milton Keynes Eventing Centre this past Saturday. Normally I like to have everything organised well before the day but this time some riders confirmed their attendance last minute and some joined in on the day so this coupled with the fact I was compressing 3 days of content into one day made for a grand improvisation 🙂 I think we managed to get main points covered but I am hoping we can run a repeat with more coaching time next year!
As always I start with a chat with all riders to get to know them and their horses. As most of us follow Nic’s blog on rehabilitation processes with all the horses, nobody seems a total stranger.
Even a little chat with riders can be revealing regarding the real reasons for various riding issues. It’s important not to waste time on trying to sort out various symptoms. It’s the causes that need addressing for the riders and horses to benefit from long lasting effects. The biggest downside of very limited time is that many things just cannot be covered and worked through.
We did my ABC (awareness-balance-connection) workshop in the morning which I would normally do on a Friday when running the training as a full weekend event (you can read about the main principles of it in my post: Show me how you walk…). We had plenty of fun with that 🙂
Using Equine Simulators in all-round rider development
It’s been crazy two weeks with an especially busy last weekend so it’s now back to the blogging board with updates 🙂 On Saturday 14th I had a pleasure to run a training day at Milton Keyens Eventing Centre for a fantastic group of riders whose horses underwent rehabilitation at Rockley Farm. I will write a longer blog about this tomorrow as it deserves a proper write up on its own.
Today, I will chat a little about the Sunday 15th training day during which I used a Racewood equine simulator again. I am becoming increasingly fond of Ithacus, the mechanical horse, because he is showing me his fantastic value in training of amateur riders. As I am sure you can gather from this blog, my particular coaching interest lies in training a kind of “in between” type of rider…The clients who tend to find their way to Aspire are not professionals but neither they are average recreational riders per se (even though many would be classified as such in theory).
Over time I realised that the riders who enjoy Aspire ethos are those who, like me, love exploring their own abilities, knowledge and skills. They are seeking riders with inquisitive minds. They work hard to both understand and help their horses develop physically and mentally, to help the animal be in best shape for carrying a rider.
Teaching riders like this makes me too feel challenged and encouraged to enjoy learning everyday.
Mechanical Powers
Ithacus is a many riders’ dream horse. He never colics, he never has back issues, his legs and feet are never a problem. He doesn’t buck, rear or bolts. He is a perfect body awareness schoolmaster…
Continue reading Using Equine Simulators in all-round rider development
Our Responsibility to Dressage Trainers
Great article worth reading by all amateur riders, not just of the dressage variety 🙂
Dressage trainers, and indeed trainers and instructors of all disciplines, must balance the convergence of commerce and ethics. On one hand, most people who become dressage trainers do so because of their love of horses. A person doesn’t wake up one morning, stare into the rosy fingers of dawn and think, “By golly, I want to be rich! I think I’ll become a dressage trainer!” There is a huge amount of passion that is poured into this sport, dreams and ideals and aspirations that have nothing to do with a month to month paycheck. Dressage trainers, for the most part, have ridden a roller coaster of emotional highs and lows along their careers that most adult amateurs can not even imagine. But that aside, the practicalities of a mortgage, insurance and a car payment cannot be ignored and so we must put a price on our services, hang our shingle…
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