Dressage Foundation Lindgren Grant Training Trip

Fortunately, Sunday brought absolutely beautiful weather. I did a light ride early in the morning to let Hans settle, and then set about getting him cleaned up and braided. He felt much more settled right from the start, which made me hopeful. Jeremy had me focus on getting him loose, so we used a lot…

After a week of beautiful weather, a storm system moved in Saturday morning. I decided to try to ride, as Hans really needs the experience in the ring, and so far the footing was holding up despite the rain. He was sharp but eventually settled in pretty well in the larger warmup ring despite the…

Friday morning, I did a light ride on Hans early in the morning. He was on his toes but really listening, so I was excited for my lesson later. My barn owner, Lucy Tidd, was also at this show, so I helped braid and wrangle her young horse (who did great in her first show…

Thursday morning I moved Hans over to the show grounds at Tryon International Equestrian Center. This can be a little stressful–Hans has not shown a lot and can get insecure in new places, which means a LOT of screaming! Fortunately, he kept the screaming mostly in check, for which my ear drums were grateful. Hans…

Today was another ride in the double, and we started off with working on Hansi’s “show trot”. He has a lot of get up and go, but this can sometimes tip into getting flat and running as he doesn’t always honestly push to the bit. So we worked on bringing him back into a few…

Today we did a lesson in the outdoor in the double. I ride Hans mostly in the snaffle, usual it’s a ratio of three days in the snaffle and two in the double per week. After my usual warm-up, we started with some work in the trot, using transitions within the trot to add expression.…

We worked in the snaffle again today, continuing with working some leg yield in the trot. We played a bit with going back and forth from head to the wall leg yield to haunches-in, which helped get him better on the outside rein while bending. Then we took that into some haunches-in and haunches-out on…

JJ got back from FL on Friday, so we did my first lesson on Saturday morning. Hans had Friday off, so this was a basic work session in the snaffle. I spend a lot of time focusing on coaching Hans to more honesty in the connection in the right rein. He’s a very light horse,…

Hi, everyone! This is a blog I’ll be keeping to chronicle my training trip to JJ Tate’s that is made possible by a grant I received from The Dressage Foundation. I’ll be heading to JJ’s April 14th, training at her farm through the 21st and then heading over to Tryon International Equestrian Center for a…