Reason #8,122 in favor of developing a horse-girl-only city where every property has a barn and there are indoor arenas instead of shopping centers (Aiken, hit me up for more genius tips) — can we all just agree that we need more excuses to wear our perfectly-crafted and expensive show ring attire?
Hear me out: business meetings? Show coats and breeches. Formal events in Horse-Girl City? Tails and whites. Supplements, poultice, and pony treats are available in the grocery store next to the pharmacy; splint boots and saddle pads are across from the kitchenware. You can break in your new field boots at work or going to dinner. Seriously, let’s get on this.
U.S. Weekend Action
Full Gallop Farm January H.T (Aiken, SC) [Website] [Entries] [Ride Times] [Scores] [Volunteer]
Rocking Horse Winter I H.T. (Altoona, FL) [Website] [Entries] [Ride Times] [Volunteer] [Scoring]
Links to Start Your Sunday:
Working with Young Horses: βDon’t Think About Itβ — Yeah, Right
Liz Halliday is cleaning up in the dressage rings at WEC
Speaking of WEC, there are even more changes coming to the World Equestrian Center in Ocala
A New Year’s Resolution: Put On the Breeches
Go figure: the more relaxed a horse is the better it is at learning new tasks, study finds
Sponsor Corner: This once orphaned Premarin foal found his family thanks to an Etalon Equine Genetics DNA test. Check out the full story of how one woman bought a Shire x TB off Craigslist only to discover years later that he was actually a well-bred Connemara.
Photo courtesy of Liz Hall.
Morning Viewing: Your horse is an athlete, just like you, which means their mental health is just as important as your own. In the above-linked Nottingham Trent University study on relaxed equine learning, lead researcher Louise Evans explains, “In their day-to-day lives, horses require behavioral flexibility, the ability to adapt to changing environments, such as different riders and handlers. However, we also need horses to have excellent cognitive control so that we can safely rely on them to give consistent responses to important commands such as ‘slow down’ or ‘stop.'”
Cognitive control and behavioral flexibility likely aren’t things we typically focus on in our weekly lessons, but in this video published by US Equestrian, Dr. Duncan Peters explains how social, nutritional, cognitive, and movement requirements can help us to more adequately maintain our horsesβ mental health.
