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.
After walking my horse, Merlot, around the ring a few times recently, I picked up the trot. He felt pokey and a little like he was walking on eggshells. I continued to walk and trot him around for the next 15 minutes, but he got only marginally better so I ended our ride for the day. There was a time that I would have hopped off immediately and called the vet. But Merlot is almost 23 years old now, and he has some good days and some stiffer days. At those times, if he doesn’t work out of his arthritic creaks, I turn him back out, watch him for a few days and then try riding again. Needless to say, this issue with its senior-horse focus was of particular interest…
1 This is a good rider who could make a few small changes to be even better. Her heel is very far down. Some trainers might say it looks a little overdone, but I’m OK with it. The stirrup iron is a little close to her toe—it needs to cross the ball of her foot so the outside branch leads the inside. Her calf is in contact with her horse’s side. She needs to shorten the stirrup by a hole for two reasons: There is very little angle behind her knee, which should be between 100 and 110 degrees. She also is jumping ahead, partly the result of a too-long stirrup. Jumping ahead, where her buttocks are too far out of the saddle and her crotch is in front of…
Now that the holiday season is over, let’s sit down and have a talk. You have big plans for yourself and your horse this year and I want to make sure you have done everything possible to make those plans become a successful reality. I know we have talked about these things in the past and I have asked my editor to link to a sample of my columns on future planning so that you can review them. You can find the columns at www.PracticalHorsemanMagazine.com. But I take this sort of thing seriously and want to go over the main points again with you. Horse care: Whatever we do with horses always starts with their health and well-being. Fortunately, you already have a full workup planned for your horse next…
PH How did Danny & Ron’s Rescue get started? RD Danny and I were always going to animal shelters and greyhound kennels in Florida to try to find homes for dogs. Then when Hurricane Katrina hit in August 2005, we became aware of the thousands of dogs that were pulled out of the floodwaters but then put in crates in warehouses. The state didn’t have the staff to take care of them. So we sent a horse trailer down and got the first 25–30 dogs. We ended up taking more than 600. That fall we loaded an extra trailer and brought dogs to Harrisburg for the Pennsylvania National Horse Show. We adopted out 50 dogs at that show. People were so generous in wanting to help. Horsepeople are animal lovers—I…
Last month, Grand Prix rider Nicholas Fyffe explained the importance of having consistent aids and expectations when working with your horse on the ground. This month, his husband and business partner, David Marcus—an Olympian and accomplished Grand Prix rider—shows how to translate those same goals into your work under saddle. The world’s best riders make dressage into an art form by creating and controlling their horses’ power with opposing aids—producing energy with the legs and seat and using the body and rein contact to channel it. They do this so harmoniously that you rarely see their aids. What you also don’t see is all the homework that went into getting to that point. To achieve such finesse, you must be effective at every level. From the very first time you…
Born in Omaha, Nebraska, David Marcus moved to Canada in 1996 and became a Canadian citizen in 2011. He and the Danish Warmblood gelding Chrevi’s Capital represented his new country in both the 2012 London Olympics and the 2014 FEI World Equestrian Games in Normandy, France. The pair also competed on multiple Nations Cup teams and topped the North American League to qualify for the 2013 FEI World Cup™ Dressage Final in Göthenburg, Sweden. Throughout his career, David has won many Grands Prix, including CDIs at Dressage at Devon and the Adequan Global Dressage Festival. He won the 2016 Adequan/USDF Intermediate II Dressage Horse of the Year award aboard Binjora. Recently, he was selected as the guest rider and judge for the KWPN Championships’ Pavo Cup in Ermelo, the Netherlands.…
