Partnership Dressage at LNDC

01/23/2023

First Instagram!!

01/21/2023

This may be an unpopular topic, but this is the truth in my opinion

Breed shows- it’s all made up and the points don’t matter.
We’ve done a few breed shows and did well, but the whole time I could see how breed shows are a disservice to the industry.

It doesn’t matter how nice of horses a breeder produces- they can’t count on someone to buy their product and train it up through Grand Prix. Even if that does happen, it takes a decade or more. So I understand why breeders want to compete their young horses at breed shows- it’s really one of the only ways that a breeder can get accolades, which is kind of important if you want to sell babies.

And before anyone comments about them being in it for the money, let me just tell you that if money is someone’s first priority, breeding young horses is not going to be their business model of choice – I promise. They just want to sell their horses for enough money that they can continue doing what they love. 
So you start out as a beginner breeder- you research the crap out of bloodlines and you have a goal in mind. Unless you are in a very small percentage of the population, you have not ridden horses from every potential bloodlines, so you are really just going by looks, performance records,  Word of mouth, and your gut.
You produce a baby or two and then you take them to a Breed show! 
Maybe your babies do okay, or maybe they do terrible, but either way you are sure to see ones that way out move yours, so you pay attention to what is winning and that influences your stallion picks the following season. Surely these winning breeders know what they are doing so you follow their lead picking younger flashier stallions. 

Before too long this creates an echo chamber where are the main things people are breeding for is a flashy trot and what I call “early pretty”.

Do you want to know why G line Hanoverians have gone out of style? Because they are hideous until they are six or seven years old!! 
We have all but lost a very rideable, very versatile, and seriously sound line of horses because they take a long time to mature, and thus are not sellable as youngsters.
Breeders trying to have a sustainable business model have no choice but to breed the stallions that make cute babies…. They can’t hold on the horses until they are seven years old, And buyers aren’t willing to risk buying an ugly duckling.
But breeding for early pretty is often quite the opposite of breeding for longevity and physical “toughness”.

Breed shows do a good job with assessing general conformation, but they cannot assess trainability or character or even the canter!!!!
Let me tell ya, when you move up the levels, it’s always the canter that is the problem!! My Mustang could have done the whole Grand Prix if it was just the walk and trot parts. Piaffe and passage look fancy but you can train a mini donkey to do those with a halter, stick, and bag of carrots…. Tempi changes and pirouettes not so much!!!!

If you are a breeder and you want to produce a Grand Prix horse, your best bet is to breed a Grand Prix horse to a Grand Prix horse!  Finding a Grand Prix mare what is not so easy, so look for a broodmare whose father and maternal grand father were both Grand Prix horses. If you are considering a stallion that doesn’t have much of a performance record, hopefully his two grandsires were Olympic horses.… and hopefully your reason for using him is because you met him and his character is amazing, and not because he has a dazzling trot in his YouTube video!!!!

In some industries this has gotten so ridiculous that the Young Horse classes have taken over- Reining and Cutting futurities have gotten so popular that they have become the end goal, rather than the beginning of the journey.  The triple crown is for three year olds. THREE YEAR OLDS!!!! They should be just getting saddled for the first time, not running the Kentucky Derby. Races for 3year olds shouldn’t award anything more than a ribbon, and should merely be a showcase and opportunity to give baby horses a realistic race experience. Yet somehow these young horse races took over to become the end-all-be-all of American racing. 

01/11/2023

This!

Why are we so afraid of movement?

Why are we terrified of horses running, playing, bucking, interacting with other horses etc.

I’ve seen it at almost every barn I’ve ever been to.
Owners afraid their horses are going to hurt themselves.
Limited turnout.
Horses wrapped up like fragile pieces of glass.
The look of fear on an owners face when their horse is acting wild in the field.

What they don’t understand is this mentality is a double edged sword- and here’s why:

The body adapts to natural stressors that it’s exposed to. Meaning, the more the horse is allowed to run and move freely- the stronger and more durable the hooves, joints, tendons, ligaments and muscles become.
From a physiological standpoint, the simple act of allowing the horse freedom and an adequate amount of TIME in turnout (especially with other horses) is an excellent way to strengthen and prevent injury.

The horse was not meant to live a sedentary life. Their bodies were designed to traverse varied terrain for several miles every day.
So even if your horse is getting worked daily- let’s be generous and say an hour of work plus a few hours of turnout to include mostly standing and grazing. This is STILL not enough to put the necessary stressors on the body to help strengthen it.

Additionally, studies show that horses who are allowed 12+ hours of turnout daily have 25% LESS incidence of soft tissue injury.

Takeaway- Movement is good for the horse. It’s not something we should be afraid of. Providing the right lifestyle for the horse is what allows them to flourish.

Author: AB Equine Therapy

01/04/2023

Jane Pike has changed the way I think, the way I think about riding, and starting to change how I teach. I am a big fan!!! So if you want to change more than just how you ride, join JoyRide ❤️

If you were to run your hands over your body, you are touching what I refer to as the outer tube of the body.

Underneath this layer of outer skin, we have a layer of fascia called the skin bag of fascia, whose shape and size mirrors the exact shape and size of our outer body.

If you were to peel away only the skin bag fascial layer, you would be able to get a good sense of the person to whom it belonged; their height, weight, and overall physical shape.

In the parasympathetic system, there is space and movement between the outer tube of the body and the skin bag underneath. The skin bag of fascia is free to move and slide, without stickiness or adhesion, allowing the structures underneath to do the same.

But it's not only my physical life that impacts these structures; it's my emotional life too.

Every emotion we experience has its own physiological expression, its own way that it expresses in the body. To allow an emotion to cycle through means that I allow the entire cycle of that expression to run its course, by which point the cycle is complete.

When this is not allowed to happen, the emotion gets stored in the fascia as a physiological reflex pattern, causing a literally holding pattern in certain areas of the body that shows up as a stuck-ness or adhesiveness in the tissue.

What's fascinating to me is how little movement is needed in order to create an emotional "release". For example, tomorrow in JoyRide (my membership group), I am teaching a workshop on cellular breathing. Cellular breathing is one of our developmental movement patterns that are established in utero, which begin to establish the vibrational patterns in the body.

The particular practice I teach is largely informed by the research of Bonnie Bainbridge-Cohen, who has done extensive research on the various patterns and their effects.

Cellular breathing itself is quite a passive practice, and our focus is largely on the skin layer of the outer body and the skin bag of fascia underneath. As the body becomes more open, and the two layers start to separate, it's common to feel what we might generally label as "emotional".

Why so?

When we emotionally guard and lock down into self-protection, everything draws towards the centre. The outer skin layer and the skin bag layer pull together. As my body increases its vibrational tone, it becomes more open, and I begin to wiggle loose the patterns of guarding and defence I've been holding onto, making my conscious brain aware of the thought patterns attached to them.

This intermediary zone can be temporarily uncomfortable; I'm simultaneously in the process of opening up, yet confronted by the guarding mechanisms I've created to navigate the world at different times.

Allowing them to move through requires that I become a "noticer" of my own experience, without attachment, and to continue on with the physical practice allowing whatever it is that needs to move through to do so without conscious interruption on my part.

An art in and of itself.

There is no separation between mind, body and emotion. Each weaves the other into existence.

Onwards.

❤️ Jane

PS. If you are interested in joining me in my membership, I'll post the details for you below!

12/25/2022

Such a cool photo. Reminds me of how we are all unique and one of a kind. And of how cold it is lol

Trudging through ankle breaking trenches
Mud frozen in divets
To deliver water and hay

Horses, with their frosty muzzles
Steam and heat rising from their warm bodies
Greet me at the gate

It’s electric cold
The kind that burns
But possesses some kind of magic-

There is a whole world that wakes up in a deep freeze
Light dances on ice
The sky a vibrant blue
And your breath, sharp, on intake
A message from the universe
to wake up

Setting hay down is a religious practice
Flakes divided like counting rosary beads,
I take off my gloves so my fingers can feel the soft stems,
Giving the somber ritual the attention it deserves

This pasture, with each little flitting bird in a branch
Deer, and horse my cathedral

Their steaming breath a prayer rising up to the heavens

Invoking peace
And presence
And all the lessons a horse has to teach a human

Photo by Terra Bortels

12/22/2022

Yes!!! Standing up in the saddle is one of my favorite exercises to check the self going nature of the horse.
I’ve tried to do passenger lessons, but Dressage students are typically very adverse to “wandering” around the arena, especially in canter. But I keep trying!

Self-carriage is easily interpreted as the horse ‘carrying’ their own balance and posture without the help of the rein…

But we can’t forget to interpret it as also meaning the horse carrying themselves forward without the help of the leg…
Self-impulsion, if you will.

We hear “More leg!”
But if we’re truly seeking self-carriage and self-impulsion, what we’re actually looking for is LESS leg…
More ‘Response-Ability’ to the leg.

Not only do I want a green horse like the one below to be able to self-regulate and walk, trot, and canter on a loose rein, I want them to be able to self-regulate and walk, trot, and canter without any help from my seat or legs, as well.

Standing all the way up in the stirrups in walk, trot, and canter not only gives me an opportunity to work on my leg position and stability… it gives me an opportunity to check to see if a horse is truly ‘off the leg’ and ‘in front of the leg.’

I should still be able to get upward transitions, and the horse should still be able to maintain the same gait, and rhythm, and tempo…

If not, this might tell me I’ve been nagging and babysitting with my seat and legs.

The saying is, “First you go with the horse, then the horse goes with you, then you go together.”
NOT,
“You make the horse keep going.”

The way of the herd is to ‘go with’ one another, each member responsible for their own self-carriage and self-impulsion.

12/21/2022

My mantra: the horse is the truth, we need to listen!

Always trust the horse's opinion first

12/18/2022

Yes

We all have an unlimited potential to affect positive change in the world...

But sometimes our good intentions lead us astray into negative interaction.

And however well-intentioned, negative interaction has never manifested the change we want to see.

We need to BE the change we wish to see in the world.

We need to SUPPORT the change we wish to see in the world.

We need to find our tribe!

We don’t have to shy away from differences in opinion, or challenging dialogue, but if our only interaction with someone on social media is distressing for us, and aversive for them, it may be time to unfollow.

We need to follow and share what we DO love!

We need to follow and share what DOES inspire us!

I’m giving you permission!
Unfollow that which doesn’t bring you joy.

This page is for my clients, to support them and their horses.
I love sharing with my followers, but y’all are just guests.
Act as such.

If we feel strongly about something, we can use our own social media platform to educate, and manifest change, and engage in meaningful conversations, but I don’t believe using someone else’s platform to ‘scroll and troll’ is the way forward.

I keep talking about these difficult things because I’m committed to being transparent and authentic, and to, as Warwick Schiller says, ‘embody vulnerability.’

And because I know I’m not the only one who struggles.

When it comes to a platform as open as social media, it’s uncharted territory for many of us to navigate what is best for everyone.

Keep riding the spiral path, and may your journey be a JOYFUL one.

12/14/2022

So true

Don’t wait til you have perfect technique and perfect confidence to believe you are capable of doing the craft you want. Start somewhere small and keep going-
Tenacity and determination always win over talent in the long run.
Skill can be acquired, but without tenacity it doesn’t mean much and won’t last long.