It presents step by-step training programs and showing advice from recognized experts in hunters, jumpers, equitation, dressage, and eventing, along with money- and time-saving ideas on health care and stable management.
The past week I’ve been soaking/ wrapping my daughter’s foot (infected from a splinter), caring for seven foster kittens and spending a lot of time in the office. When I finally found a few hours to make it out to the barn, I didn’t have the energy to try any of the training tips or exercises in this month’s issue, usually one of my favorite things to do. Trotting around on my horse, though, I recalled something grand prix rider Callan Solem told riders in a clinic (page 42). She shared with them a four-point list she reviews every time she rides. One point is to check her position. Overall, I think my position is pretty good, but as I rode, I realized an old habit of letting my shoulders…
George H. Morris is the former chef d’équipe of the U.S. Equestrian Federation Show Jumping Team. He serves on the USEF National Jumper Committee and Planning Committee, is an adviser to the USEF High- Performance Show Jumping Committee and is president of the Show Jumping Hall of Fame. 1 Despite the fact that this rider is reaching for her stirrups, her base of support is excellent and she is demonstrating a beautiful automatic release. I can tell her stirrups are too long because there is little angle behind her knee, which needs to be about 110 degrees—she should shorten her leathers about two holes. The iron needs to be twisted so its outside branch is ahead of the inside. This rider’s heel is down, her ankle is flexed and her…
Based at Fox Covert Farm, in Upperville, Virginia, Jim Wofford competed in three Olympics and two World Championships and won the U.S. National Championship five times. He is also a highly respected coach. For more on Jim, go to www.jimwofford.blogspot.com. I was sailing through Am. Lit. 201 in college until I bumped into William Faulkner. Thank heavens for CliffsNotes! I never really got my head into Yoknapatawpha County, but Faulkner did say one thing that stuck with me: “There is something about jumping a horse over a fence, something that makes you feel good. Perhaps it’s the risk, the gamble. In any event it’s a thing I need.” When it comes to jumping, I totally get Faulkner. There are no feelings like the glorious uncertainty of the approach, the sensation…
Q As a German native, you decided to emigrate to the United States in 1985. Why? KH I was working for the second biggest dressage barn in Germany as bereiter FN (a licensed instructor), riding and training both Grand Prix dressage horses and grand prix jumpers. A German coach told me to look at what Americans were doing in jumping. They had a lighter riding style that would be the style of the future—it was easier on the horses. So I decided to move to America to see this new style for myself and learn to incorporate it into my riding with a strong German background. At 24 years old, you have no fear. When you are training horses all day for your job, going to America is no big…
About Elizabeth Gingras Canadian native Elizabeth Gingras competed in her first grand prix at age 18. Since then, she has represented Canada on many Nations Cup teams, both in North America and Europe. Among numerous international successes, she won the 2014 $100,000 Spirit of the West Cup at the inaugural CSI*** Royal West Show Jumping Tournament in Calgary and the 2015 $2,250,000 MXN Veracruz Grand Prix at Coapexpan and was the highest-placing Canadian at the $3 million CP International last fall. She and her current top mount, Zilversprings, were the traveling alternates for Canada’s 2015 Pan American Games team. Elizabeth is now based part-time in Wellington, Florida, and part-time in Belgium. When you canter to your first fence on course, do you wonder if you have the correct canter? Amateurs…
If you build it, they will come” was the guiding mantra as the Broussard family first set to work developing Rebecca Farm. When they purchased 640 acres of Kalispell, Montana farmland in 2000, it was a blank canvas ripe for possibility: a true field of dreams, carpeted in bright-green billowing grass and framed by lavender mountains, the most distant of them capped in snow year-round. Originally from Louisiana, Jerome and the late Rebecca Broussard, who passed away from breast cancer in 2010, moved to northwest Montana in the mid-1980s, drawn by its warm Western ambiance, spirit of independence and rugged beauty. The area they settled in, Flathead Valley, is a gateway to Glacier National Park and its residents tend toward strong connections to the natural world—horses included. In the valley…
