If there is a sense of Olympic fever in your horse barn then you are not alone. At a recent dressage clinic Paul and I found plenty of excitement about the forthcoming stellar equestrian competition. It seemed as if everyone was trying just that bit harder to master their equestrian prowess. Paul Alvin-Smith schooling an ANCCE stallion Last year while in the United Kingdom enjoying various trips through the autumn and winter months, I had the opportunity to personally engage with some national contenders for the team. To say it was awe-inspiring is an understatement. I may be a wee bit spoiled! The advent of live-streaming TV means everyone can gain access to watch the particular discipline they favor in real time, and that has everyone that is a serious competitor and a lot of all-important grass roots amateur riders too, are on the edge of their seats enjoying the spectacle. If you operate a horse training facility then this year in particular is a great time to garner some ext
Once you take the leap of faith and move your horses from full-time livery service to keeping them in your own backyard it truly is, hard to go back. Not because the boarding barn owner wouldn't be happy to see you, but because once you've taken your horse care matters into your own hands you quickly learn the nuances of all aspects of horse care matters, and learn they are more important than you ever imagined. Early Days At WVH North Blessed with my husband being as avid a dressage personage as I am, the notion of keeping horses at home was never far from our minds when we moved from the U.K. to the U.S.A. way back when. With his vast experience training horses and my lesser experience with formal riding education but lots of 'hands-on' experience spent riding and working in foxhunting, elite showjumping and horse breeding yards in England, our combination of experience worked well. Gambol's Georgy Girl - one of our WVH DWB homebreds As you age toward mileston