Bascule Farm LLC

04/10/2022

Congratulations to Lilly & Fiona for cruising around a big Training at CDCTA to finish with just some xc time! Fiona looked like a pro out there! The Aiken winter experience really does bump up the skills before the spring events! #whatopposition #marepower #teambascule #mintedattraining #intheblood

03/29/2022

Baby nap time, still chilly enough for baby blankets! 📸: Bella DuPree

03/28/2022

We have 6 spots left for our Dressage Show on April 16th! Aviva Nebesky is our judge and always give constructive feedback with a smile! Sign up now for the last few spaces!

https://www.striderpro.com/a/M4FAKNU5wUuhb_kE6ZP6Jw

03/27/2022

Colette is selling some items, so contact her directly at the barn if you’re interested!

03/27/2022

We happily took a group to Loch Moy for their jumper schooling! Started off with Catherine and Bowie for 3 great Elementary rounds! Olivia and Arthur rode beautifully and stayed to support the crew! Julie and Ruleena got over their worry and cruised around for a couple super rounds. RS Bella got to take Princess Romy around BN and Nov and flex her jumping skills! She gave Colette and Rave a lead around the first course and Rave totally figured it all out! So fun to watch! Our Training level ladies Sophie/Stan, Maya/Ribbons and Sophie/Rhaps had super rounds showing all the hard work is paying off! Shout out to Elizabeth for helping us out again on the ground! This was a wonderful and perfectly timed schooling opportunity and we are so grateful to have this venue so close! Maya Kozauer Sophia Kozauer Bella DuPree Sophie Gary Julie Wight Colette Scivally

03/21/2022

So proud of our #teambascule today at MDHT! Lots of new skills being flexed and happy horses out competing! Congratulations to first timers Abby and T-bone, Olivia and Frankie (#FODS), Olivia and Arthur, and to Raves first outting with Colette! Maya/Ribbons, Sophie/Rhap (#FODS) and Sophie/Stan (#FODS) all rode beautifully as well! Hugs & thanks to videographers Susan K, Josh G & John! We had #supergroom Elizabeth on the ground helping keep the horses happy and riders on time. Love love love our Team Bascule!

03/16/2022

When Clients bring dinner to the staff, and they’re SO happy! Robert Natalie Flanders, Cassie Bailey, Bella DuPree Colette Scivally, Sophie Gary

03/16/2022

Huge congratulations to Nan Shumaker and her Superman Kozi on their win at Southern Pines last weekend! Another FODS for the win!

03/11/2022

When Floo Powder lands you in a muck tub at Bascule! Ava arrived this way and got a hug from #trainercarlie!

03/09/2022

Al and Fiona waking after a lunchtime nap! Clearly Fiona could go back to sleep!🤣

03/08/2022

We are super excited to announce Eventing trainer, Charlie Campbell is joining #teambascule full time this spring! He has almost a decade of experience riding & training with some of the top riders in our sport. He’s had a particular emphasis on training younger horses up the levels, so there’s a deep knowledge of effective, safe, positive training for all three phases.

We had a wonderful clinic last weekend, challenging him to teach all levels with super positive feedback from all the riders. It’s a great “fit” for our program and his! He will be here April 24-27 to teach before Rolex and back mid May. Outside riders are welcome. Just reach out by PM if interested.

03/01/2022

Please let us know if you’re interested in this! We will happily facilitate!!

02/28/2022

Bascule Farm Indoor Dressage Show

April Show is open for entries!

https://www.striderpro.com/a/M4FAKNU5wUuhb_kE6ZP6Jw

Come in out of the cold! Warm up & tests indoors! Positive judges are scheduled to give a little help post first ride (mini fix-a-test). Super long ribbons to 8th. Hard surface parking. If driving conditions are hazardous, call the barn phone for cancellation information (301-972-8943). PLEASE BE SU...

02/22/2022

Photos from The Horse Magazine's post

02/21/2022

#teambascule was well represented at our schooling Dressage show last weekend! Olivia on her brand new horse Arthur had a wonderful 65.75 in Intro C placing 3rd! RS Bella and her own Cassie, also placed 3rd, having just gotten her off the track in October. Lilly and Fiona had two lovely low 30’s tests at Training Level A, which is prepping for her move up! Mischa and Rex had a lovely ride in Training Level T1 for high 60’s to finish 3rd! Sydney and R’Aisson tromped everyone in First 3 with a 67.222 for first. Sandra and Scarlet nailed 72+ with Kendahl and Tex right behind her in the 70’s in Training Level Test 2. Amanda and Phoebe got a 66.538 at Training Level Test 1 good for 2nd! Caitlyn and Passport rode very consistent tests at Training Level Test 1 for fourth in a big class! Maya and Ribbons got a 33 and change, doing their first ever Prelim test! Kate and Al were close behind at her first Prelim test! Sophie and Rhap finished third in the harder Novice B! Lisa Vanjoske’s Doc with Sage in the irons finished first in Intro C with a strong 68! Morgan and Athena did their first show together and were awesome with mid 60’s scores! Lia and Lucy kicked butt and got a 72 in Intro A, finishing 3rd behind the high score horse/rider pair! Monika and Glitter did their first show together and had wonderful mid 60’s scores.
Congratulations to all the riders on a fabulous day!
Riders: send me pictures and I’ll add them to this post!

02/21/2022

Super fun and successful schooling with senior #teambascule at Loch Moy! Nan/Kozi have sights back on T level after a long hiatus; Kate/Al are ready for their Aiken debut at T; Sophie/Rhap pushed their comfort zone and are way ready for their Nov debut next month; Maya/Ribbons found a connection that works and even cleared some M (still making it look like a Hunter Round #rotwingbaby #thoseknees). Dick took Olivia/Frankie out and a managed to squeeze in a T fence making it look easy; Cant’t decide who had more fun, Abby or T-Bone! T-Bone is such a versatile and talented beast! Congrats to all!

02/19/2022

Kingfisher keeping its head rock steady

I see this and think “this is how still you want to keep your hands”😂.

02/18/2022

Before I Knew It line dance

Many of you may not know, but our Barn Manager, Cassie Bailey is also a Choreographer! Here is the link to her new line-dance that’s going viral!

Line dance lessons promised at the next barn party!

https://youtu.be/lXNDXicte_k

Music: Before I Knew It by Mason RamseyChoreographer: Cassie Bailey32 count beginner dance*For Instructional and Demonstration purposes only*

02/13/2022

Great schooling with @sophiegeventing @lillyyeventing @cs._.equestrian to prep for the first event of the season! Rave had some sleepy eyes jumping out of the water! Who needs to see!

02/07/2022

Timeline photos

The Horse First is a podcast that changes the paradigm of thinking in terms of diagnosing and treating performance issues in sport horses. It's our mission to provide new hope to the lives of horses and their owners with cutting-edge and critical scientific research to discover new treatment options. Listen, learn, and subscribe! #equinecare 🙌

https://declue-equine.com/podcast/

02/06/2022

16 Things Your 16 Year Old Should Be Able to do by Themselves - The Plaid Horse Magazine

Helpful skills for ALL ages! Let us help you fill in the gaps in your education! Unmounted lessons with #trainereliza can get you on your way to #realhorsemanship!

BY PIPER KLEMM Sixteen is an important age for any teenager. Beyond “Sweet Sixteen,” the milestone means driving for most of America’s youth… the first real step into independence and adulthood.  But in the equestrian industry, sixteen is practically an adult. Most are riding horses then, a...

01/31/2022

As we all know, after 5+ years #trainerAndy has found her calling outside the horse world, and we are so excited for her and her new adventure! With her departure, we are interviewing for a talented instructor to join our team.

Eventing Trainer/Instructor position open. Great opportunity for an upbeat, positive, safety conscious Eventer that loves to teach! Full Time position open at a upscale busy dressage and eventing oriented program. We are looking for someone who can teach intermediate level (Novice to Prelim+) riders, build an event team and have a blast out coaching and competing. We have an outstanding instruction team that can help you succeed as you develop students and their horses. Coaching/competing at Events will become the norm. USEA certified preferred but will sponsor the certification process to someone qualified. Typical day is teaching and doing training rides (with your own groom). Weekends are light enough that you can take students xc schooling and competing and/or compete yourself on yours or client horses. You set your own day/s off. Great Salary, housing possible. Poolesville, MD

01/19/2022

Author's note: this is not my best piece of writing. It's a bit of a mess and a muddle. I'm giving it to you anyway, because it came from a place of deep emotion and I think there may be something, somewhere, in the muddle, which is important. Important to me, anyway.

Here it is:

I see quite a lot of horse videos. They pop up on my timeline because the algorithm elves have worked out that I’m interested in horses, and some of them start playing when I have not even chosen them.

One of those happened this morning. It was clearly supposed to be funny and adorable. The thousands of people who commented on it thought it was funny and adorable. I stared in deep melancholy because I don’t think watching ponies bucking and pulling and shaking their heads is funny at all.

The commenters, however, had many other words. The whole sight wasn’t just hilarious and heart-warming, but the pony was ‘naughty’ and ‘stroppy’ and ‘cantankerous’ and ‘cheeky’ and ‘the work of the devil’ and ‘silly’ and a ‘sh****ad’ and a ‘monster’.

I don’t normally write this stuff. I want to stay with the positive. I want to tell you of the red mare and the Place of Peace and how Florence is growing in confidence and poise. I want the stories to be filled with hope and love.

But sometimes, something will push me over the top.

It’s not this particular pony. The humans in the case appear to be utterly lovely. They are of the traditional ride through it school in which I grew up. (I am itching to leave a comment about Warwick Schiller and the transformative nature of groundwork and how horses are always, always telling you something, but I don’t want to be the party pooper, because every single other person is having such a good time.)

What I find incredibly upsetting is the words used by the hundreds and hundreds of commenters, all in a spirit of tremendous joshing and jolliness, as if it is properly amusing to accuse small ponies of satanic intention.

Imagine you had to live or work with a human whom you described as stroppy and cantankerous and a sh****ad and a monster and the work of the devil. How would you feel about that person? How would you act towards that person? Would you stop for a single second to wonder what happened to that person, to make them this way?

I’m going to say something which should not be controversial, but which is.

I don’t think any pony is naughty.

There. I’ve said it. I shall now be sent to BHS Coventry and accused of A. Never having met a pony, and B. Having no sense of humour.

I admit that Florence does have a little streak of the mischievous in her, and I think many horses have that - you definitely get the spirited ones and the antic ones and the ones with strong opinions - but I would never, not if you tied me to a tree and threatened me with slugs, say that a single thing Flo did was naughty.

And that’s not because I am a po-faced pedant, but because that statement would not be true. And I love truth.

Horses and ponies are not naughty. When they do the things that their humans would rather they didn’t do, this is either because the human has unwittingly taught them to do those things, or because the horse is desperately trying to communicate that her needs are not being met.

The red mare reared so wildly in the early days that I’m not sure how I’m still in one piece. She wasn’t being naughty, or stroppy, or nappy, or devilish. She was trying to tell me that I was not the person she required. I didn’t know how to listen, in those days, so I kicked on. She then added the operatic head-shaking to her repertoire, so that I thought she had a brain disease.

Now, she teaches small children to ride. If I had fallen back on cheap adjectives, that would never have happened.

This is what bothers me. It’s not just that there are unhappy or confused or misunderstood horses and ponies out there, with increasing amounts of complicated tack - it’s that people seem to think this is perfectly fine. It is the subject of insults and comedy videos. Ha, ha, ha, ha, you little s**t.

How can a pony or a horse ever, in a million years, be a little s**t? They don’t have the prefrontal cortex to do the plotting and planning required of s**ts. It would be like saying that a penguin is doing physics. It makes no sense whatsoever.

It’s also totally non-useful. If you understand that horses are prey animals and flight animals and that everything in them is geared to survival and that bad things can happen if they get stuck in the sympathetic nervous system, then you’ve got a hundred lovely options in front of you.

You can find the root of the problem, and fix it. You may have to change yourself, which is hopeful and liberating. You have the satisfaction of watching your horse grow in confidence and ease.

If you throw labels around, you just get cross and sad and so does your horse.

I heard someone say the other day that a good way of going through life is to think that everything is your fault. I bridled a little at this. It sounded very gloomy and nihilistic and inaccurate to me. Obviously, if your house falls down in the night because it was constructed by drunken builders, that is not your fault. That person, I thought, sniffily, is talking nonsense.

But then I listened a little more and I caught the scent of something interesting. The idea is to wean yourself off the habit of blame - it was the fates or the government or my s**tty childhood. It wasn’t me; it was those people over there.

To say ‘it’s my fault’ is not a form of self-loathing, but a retrieval of power. If you blame other people and other things, especially those beyond your control, then you have no agency at all. You are a straw in the wind. It’s a horrible way to live.

I have long said that everything which goes wrong with my horses, without exception, is my fault. That is truly liberating, because it means I can fix the mistake. I don’t lash myself for the fault, because I am human and I make errors. I have flaws. There are many things I would like to get better at.

But I do, very firmly, make sure I know where responsibility lies. It is never with the mares. The bad thing did not happen because they are difficult or devilish, it happened because I got something wrong. The lovely thing about that is that I can go back and get something right.

I didn’t think about applying this fault theory to my human life, but I may give it a go. I’m going to adapt it a bit, because I think it might need a tweak, but I like the feel of it. Responsibility is a lovely, grown-up word, and I need to be a grown-up just now, because I’ve got some admin to do, and I am almost tipping into the mistake of blaming bureaucrats for my own lack of organisational skills. (Why the hell do they need TWO forms of photographic ID?)

I don’t know how I got from a bucking pony to applying for a new passport, but I felt so sad after that video that I need to ramble and roam. I feel calmer and better now. I shall go down to the red mare and listen to her and feel her peace steal into me.

I probably should not publish this, because it is a tremendous muddle, but I don’t think I’ve had this rant before and I am curious to know what your feelings are. I love your perspective always, and I need it now.