Tabla de contenidos para Summer 2021 en Practical Horseman

1 Overall: This is a nice photo of the horse and rider being together. Leg: This rider is standing on her toes in the stirrup in the air, and she’s pinching with her knee. These two faults usually go together because if you don’t have support for your body in your heel and stirrup iron, where it should be, you have it in your knee. These faults have caused her lower leg to slide back, and she looks like she is squeezing him with her leg in the air. I don’t think she means to do this because she probably doesn’t need to at a vertical. Seat/Upper body: Her hip angle is closed the correct amount, and her seat is out of the saddle enough to allow her horse to…

They call it “The Best Weekend All Year,” but for me it was Groundhog Day … déjà vu all over again. Like most so-called eventing experts, I had been predicting an American rider would finally break a 12-year victory drought at this spring’s Land Rover Kentucky Three-Day Event. I should have listened, though, when course designer Derek di Grazia mentioned to me before the competition that Ballaghmor Class, ridden by England’s Oliver Townend, was the class of the field … because Ollie won his third Land Rover Kentucky Three-Day Event in a row. The current top-ranking rider in the international standings, Ollie won with as fine a mixture of grit and skill as I have seen in a while. I say grit because he started at the very end of…

COVID-19. A postponed Olympics. Show cancellations. Lockdowns. The Equine Herpes Virus outbreak. These alarming elements have combined for more than a year, resulting in a problematic preamble to the rescheduled 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Despite issues with controlling the virus in Japan, where several hundred thousand people petitioned in May to cancel the Games, it seems likely the Olympics, scheduled for July 23–August 8, will go on this summer—barring another calamity of biblical proportions. That means riders, team staffers, officials and organizers have had to find an unprecedented way forward. It hasn’t been easy. “This is the most challenging Games I’ve ever been involved in,” said Will Connell, the U.S. Equestrian Federation’s director of sport. “From the performance side, it’s trying to ensure the right competition schedule for the buildup. The…

Moving up from the low and medium amateur-owner jumpers, where her last mare maxed out, Caroline Annarella, who is the demo rider in this article’s photos, dreamed of riding in the high amateurs and small grands prix. She never thought that was a reachable goal until September 2019, when she bought the 12-year-old Zangersheide Cisca VH Lindenhof Z, who had been jumping at 1.45 meters in Europe. “The horse being overqualified gives Caroline the chance to learn how to do this at a little bit more of an advanced level,” says Max. “A horse of this caliber demands a different type of ride. A little more exigent, a little more complicated. When that becomes the task, that’s when you start growing as a rider.” Caroline noted the exercises she demonstrated…

No question about it. You want to do your best to maintain your horse’s health and well-being. So, it’s likely you’ve considered adding a supplement to his diet. The array of options is vast with offerings formulated to address all sorts of conditions, from aching joints and brittle hooves to a lackluster coat and uncooperative behavior. But all those choices can pose a dilemma for anyone surveying the market, searching for just the right product to help a horse. It’s possible, though, to streamline your efforts and build confidence in your selection process. Here’s how to become a discerning consumer. Pinpoint What’s Lacking Start by taking a good hard look at your horse to identify the specific health or behavior issue you want to address. That’s the advice of Kenneth…

Last summer, we were driving to Johnson City, Kansas, to pick up a new horse trailer. The small town is about 50 miles east of Blue Rose Ranch, our horse rescue and adoption facility in southeastern Colorado. A few miles outside of Johnson City, we passed three horses wandering loose on the side of the road. They were in poor shape and one was emaciated. We drove directly to the sheriff’s office to report the lost horses and let the officers know we could pick them up and take care of them until the owner was found. Ten minutes later, while we were getting our trailer, a sheriff’s deputy called and requested we do just that. With minimal difficulty, we loaded the three horses and headed back to Blue Rose…

Standing in line at the grocery store one day, Army veteran Adam Halloran was so filled with rage that he bit down on his lip hard enough to draw blood. “I didn’t like how a customer was speaking to the cashier,” he explains. “But you can’t just fight someone in the grocery line.” Making the transition back to civilian life was difficult, and Halloran often found that everyday situations filled him with anger. “I swore an oath to protect people,” he says, “but I couldn’t do anything about it. I was just angry, all the time. And I found poor ways to cope.” That was years ago. These days, the man who once relentlessly tested himself in risky situations now enjoys tranquil pastimes: gardening, playing with his cat, doing pottery…

Spalding’s newest product is Bye Bye Insects. This is a principally Essential Oil based Fly Repellent that, for the first time, is comparable to the performance of Pyrethroid synthetic chemical products. The Ounce of Prevention Worth Pounds of Cure Fly Predators stop flies before they emerge and reproduce, so you’re not continuing to battle each subsequent and very prolific generation. They’re the easy-to-use natural alternative to spraying gallons of pesticides, only to have the flies keep coming back. And flies will keep coming back because sprays (even ours), traps and bait only affect the adult fly stage, ignoring the other 85% yet to emerge. By comparison, Fly Predators stop those future flies, really fixing your fly problem. There’s no downside as Fly Predators do not bother people or animals. Quick and…

I have found that confidence plays a large role when it comes to riding. For a long time, I didn’t have this, and it inhibited my riding (and myself in general) in many ways I was unaware of. That was until four years ago when I got the opportunity to ride in a symposium with Axel Steiner and learn the value of having confidence in yourself, your horse and your riding. At the time, I was taking a semester off from college, had left my family home for the first time and left my long-time dressage trainer to start working full time for a new one in the Sedalia, Colorado, area. It was a spring of big changes for me but changes I was looking forward to embracing. I took…

Imagine you’re going to ride him through a narrow tunnel and need to form both sides of his body to fit through safely. Think of sending his energy through the corridor with your legs, weight, sitting bones and hands on either side. This will allow you to put his body in whatever shape you want—long and low, shorter and rounder, flexed and bent, etc. Karen Adams is a USEF “R” dressage judge, instructor and coach in Keedysville, Maryland. She was the head instructor at Linda Zang’s Idlewilde Farm and competed through the Prix St. Georges level. Her horse Aleutian was the 1980 USEF Zone III Fourth Level Horse of the Year.…