Many of you who read Regarding Horses regularly joined this little community of passionate horse people during the 2008 Olympics. We had some of the best online coverage and discussion of the equestrian events right here on this one-woman blog. I wrote articles for months ahead of time and watched every single minute of the jumping, dressage, and eventing through the live online streaming so I could bring daily results and commentary.
Now I have the chance to do the same for the World Equestrian Games – but this time from …

I recently had the very distinct pleasure of meeting Templeton Thompson and attending a fantastic acoustic concert at the Thoroughbred Theater with her and her husband Sam Gay. If you (like I unfortunately wasn’t) aren’t familiar with Templeton and her music, you NEED to read on, listen, and get to know this wonderful horsewoman and country music artist.
Templeton is a country singer and songwriter. Besides writing and performing her own music, she has also written and sung back-up vocals for country greats like Reba McIntyre, Jo Dee Messina, and Little …

One sure-fire way for a horse to ditch most riders is to buck … and buck … and buck. Most times, if they keep at it, they’ll get you off. And any horse is perfectly capable of throwing a bucking fit if he has the right stimulus … if he wants to get out of work, he doesn’t like what you are asking him to do, he gets spooked, or he’s experiencing discomfort.
As a rider, you need to know how to ride through a horse bucking in order to get …

It’s no secret in the equestrian world that riders of different disciplines tend to not get along. We all think our own way of riding is the best, which automatically makes all others the worst. Western pleasure riders think us hunter jumpers and dressage queens are royally stuck up, and we think that western pleasure is too easy and boring. I could go on – and I’m sure you could add to – about all the different perceptions we have of each other.
What we tend to overlook is that we …

My horse and I have had a very successful week in our training, largely due to some wonderful tips I’ve gleaned from dressage trainer Jane Savoie’s blog. Specifically, I’ve been working on getting Ace to go on the bit and to round through his back and neck.
Like many riders, I didn’t have a good concept of true roundness and collection for a large part of my riding career. I would use my hands to crank my horse’s nose in. I got a nice round frame, but didn’t have a horse …

Last week I had the distinct pleasure of visiting a friend at the Standardbred horse racing farm where she and her husband work. He is the head trainer while she works as a groom as well as with training the young horses. They currently have 36 young trotters in training to harness race.
Of course, I’m always happy to be around horses of any kind, and as such have managed to glean a bit of knowledge about all kinds of disciplines. But this was my first experience with the harness racing …

Two plus years ago when I started this blog, there was really only a small handful of active equestrian bloggers. Quite a few others started around the same time I did – and like Mrs Mom from OhHorseFeathers and OnTheBit – have become great friends. And our little corner of the world has since exploded with horsey writers of all backgrounds, locations, disciplines, philosophies, and personalities. No matter what we write about, though, we are all bonded together by our love of horses.
This week has been a particularly poignant one …