It presents step by-step training programs and showing advice from recognized experts in hunters, jumpers, equitation, dressage, and eventing, along with money- and time-saving ideas on health care and stable management.
Olympian Steffen Peters has shared a few times that his favorite book is The Untethered Soul by Michael A. Singer. After hearing his most recent comments about it, I started to read it. Early in the book, the author talks about not closing off your energy, which happens, in part, when you block your heart. Explains Mr. Singer, “Do not let anything that happens in life be important enough that you’re willing to close your heart over it.” As so often happens in life, the book is resonating with me and where I am in my own journey. And interestingly, it also reminded me of some comments that riders and trainers in this issue made about love and horses. The first is our cover story with eventer Caroline Pamukcu (page…
Amanda Peer submitted Photo A, which I critiqued in the August 2017 issue of Dressage Today. At the time, she and her horse, Caliente, A were preparing to move up to Second Level. Since then, they have successfully competed through Second Level and Amanda has submitted a more recent photo in Dressage Today’s September 2018 issue to evaluate her progress. Studying the two pictures, I congratulate Amanda and Caliente on their development. Caliente appears to have grown! His neck and chest have developed and even though the angle does not allow full view of his back, the croup appears well muscled and round. The movement has changed, too. I can see that his hind legs move more purposefully—with less dust and more lift—and the shoulders are carried better. In my…
One of the greatest lessons I have learned is to let a sense of curiosity and wonder drive me forward. It’s that curiosity and wonder that causes us to become horsemen—the fascination in all things. We’re eager to learn infinitely more about the horse, the horse’s brain and psychology, and the horse’s connection to ourselves. Horses will tell you everything you need to know about yourself if you let them. Curiosity keeps us learning—because you can never know everything there is to know—and it keeps us in pursuit of more knowledge. I learned many lessons from Jimmy Wofford, and this one stands at the foundation of all I know and love about horses and understanding them. “Even white rats learn from repetition,” he would say in his good-natured way. It…
“At the end of the day, I love my horses, I love winning, and you can do both,” says Caroline Pamukcu. The 30-year-old American eventing star spent the majority of 2022 studying under Olympian Pippa Funnell in England. But Pamukcu brought back much more than training advice from Funnell. One of her biggest takeaways was an ability to embrace her emotional nature while maintaining her competitive attitude—to prioritize her love of horses while also striving for greatness in the sport. Pamukcu has proven that since her time overseas, by claiming individual gold at the 2023 Pan American Games aboard HSH Blake, a 9-year-old Irish Sport Horse gelding owned by Mollie Hoff and Sherrie Martin. But long before that, Pamukcu née Martin was recognized as a promising talent in U.S. Eventing.…
We have a favorite exercise that helps riders improve their skills to ride the correct track from jump to jump. The exercise is called the S-curve, and as the name suggests, it’s made up of three jumps that create an S-shaped pattern. As you work through the exercise, you’ll practice adjusting your track and pace in different ways to change the number of strides between fences. By changing the track and pace, your horse’s adjustability will improve, and the frequent lead changes over the jumps will require him to use both leads equally, which will help him be more ambidextrous and supple. Plus, it’s a good exercise to practice and be comfortable with if you compete because you’ll see variations in many handy hunter and equitation classes. This exercise is…
As a native German, U.S. Olympic silver medalist Sabine Schut-Kery was well versed in classical dressage principles before riding in Ingrid Klimke’s Masterclass in Southern California late last year. However, hearing the German Olympian convey her passion for those principles and for the horses and riders striving to embody them never gets old. “With everybody focusing so much today on the front legs and the neck being in the right place, I thought it was really a good reminder that the only way we get those parts correct is if the horse is ridden properly, with connection through the whole body and starting with the hind end,” Schut-Kery said. “If you don’t get the basics right, you get a horse that can do tricks but can’t do a half-halt.”—Ingrid Klimke…
