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.
Looking back over the articles in this issue, two themes jumped out at me. The first, and most important, is to always consider your horse and put him first. This point comes out in our interviews with top eventers in “Training Advice from the Top” (page 12). Several of the riders, including Will Coleman, Liz Halliday, Buck Davidson, Tamie Smith and more, speak about listening to your horse, treating him as an individual and not asking for more than he’s capable. The other article this theme appears in is our interview with dressage rider Anna Marek (page 56) and how she developed her top horse Fire Fly. When she first got him, he was scared of the piaffe. Anna shares how she dropped him down from Grand Prix to Intermediate…
Patrick Metzger showed up for his first volunteer shift at This Old Horse looking for two things: an opportunity to volunteer for a cause he supported and a hope to become part of a welcoming community that shared his interests. What he was not seeking—or expecting—was love. By his own admission, Patrick was struggling with feelings of depression and felt doing something physical and useful might help. On the first day he joined the crew for morning chores at This Old Horse’s flagship barn, Wishbone Ranch in Hastings, Minnesota, he received a warm welcome, and he was made to feel his help was highly valued and appreciated by the other volunteers. After chores and a post-chore social gathering for snacks and beverages, he was introduced to an old mare named…
What’s the best training advice you’ve been given? If you’re anything like the 13 competitors we posed this question to at the 2024 Defender Kentucky Three-Day Event, you may need to think about it for moment. Whether an amateur or Olympian, we’ve all learned lessons and had help from other horsepeople along the way. For many, riding is a lifelong pursuit, which means you’re bound to accumulate a lot of great advice over the years. So what’s helped these riders make it to the top? Here are their responses. DOUG PAYNE “In life and sport, you’re going to miss more than you’re going to make it, so learn from every mistake you make and hopefully don’t repeat the same ones.” 2019 Pan American Games team gold, 2021 Olympic Games HORSE:…
Paris seems poised to host an amazing Olympic Games. For equestrians, the Palace of Versailles venue has historic connections to horses and their place in European culture. It’s relatively easy to get to for most of eventing, dressage, show jumping and para-dressage’s power-player countries. The City of Light stages look ready to showcase equestrian sports at their finest. The appeal of Paris, however, has nothing to do with why the United States’ 16 horses and riders will be there. They’re there to fulfill dreams drafted in childhood and realized through years of hard work, patience, persistence, broken bones, broken hearts, big bills, bad days and a million other things about which the rest of us have only a small inkling. And they’re there because they had the right horse, the…
Margo Thomas’ first Olympics was Tokyo in 2021, caring for Laura Kraut’s partner on the silver-winning U.S. team—Baloutinue. Tending to only one horse was the most tangible difference in her role at the Tokyo Games versus the five-star and Nations Cup competitions that comprise her regular schedule. “You can pay every attention to detail to make sure everything is going to go right,” Thomas said. The Olympics bring a new level of pressure, and Thomas found herself managing it better after the first round of jumping in Tokyo. “Getting through the first night was a relief and made it easier to focus on the horse and not my own nervousness about being at ‘the Olympics!’ “I’ve learned over the years how important it is to keep my own emotions and…
When I was a working student in my late teens and early 20s, I thought I was pretty good at judging the right distance to a fence—the horse’s takeoff spot. But as I progressed through the levels, I realized my eye wasn’t as good as it needed to be. Sometimes I saw a distance. Other days I didn’t. I couldn’t put my finger on how to be more consistent. In the course of training with and observing various coaches, I realized I could achieve better accuracy by practicing a variety of exercises. Using these exercises combined with mental strategies, I developed my own approach to help myself as well as amateurs and young riders tackle this challenge. I’ll share this approach with you so that you can develop your skills…
