Classical Dressage Art in Motion

  While travel for clinics is always on the table, the Fall season is a particular favorite of mine for getting out and about and helping out. And we include ourselves in that equation of clinc time, often continuing work on our own education here and abroad at this time of year. Before winter training season begins at our Willowview Hill Farm.   Despite the hurricane season being upon us, the Fall weather (particularly in New England) and Europe is beautiful for working horses outside. The pesky flies and bugs have 99% disappeared with the first frosts, and the air is crisp and clean and hopefully remains clear of wild fire smoke.  But aside from the wonders of the falling leaf season and orange- colored cratered valleys, this time of year makes great sense horse wise to get the training progressed and establish new protocols for winter work.      One of the best things about giving clinics at any time of year is the variety of students and horses that arr...

Working horses long hours The reality of living year around in the North-East USA is that snow and cold weather are coming to visit. This year has been particularly difficult for working the horses in our care, as the temperatures have been wickedly cold and snow has been on the ground for many days since November 15th - before winter season was even supposed to begin.  This coyote in our side field, is also perplexed by winter. On the hunt for something to eat...   For folks that are setting up a horse facility, the indoor arena is not something to overlook when mapping out needed structures. It will earn its keep (given you maintain it well and properly utilize it). We have conducted many lessons, training sessions, and clinics under its roof, among other things. As equestrian professionals that offer dressage training services 365 days of the year, hubbie and I are well-used to schooling horses all day and sometimes into the evening hours if necessary.  The very first ...

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...

It is sad to see folks like British rider Lottie Frye with her Everdale competing at Amsterdam CDI receiving some significantly bad press and attack over her training style, and Cesar Parra, another Olympian this time representing Columbia who works in the U.S.A, subject to the same. Lottie Frye went from hero to zero in short order, the horse showcasing some telling signs that the training methods employed on the equine, who I'm sure is nonetheless much loved by Frye, are perhaps not the kindest. And from a classical dressage exhibit standpoint, certainly not correct and true. But the judges certainly rewarded it, placing her 1st. We all love our horses, but our actions speak louder than words   The reality is that whether the alleged activities of applying screws to horse's mouths such as mentioned in the FEI suspension of Parra, or the inevitable topic of rollkür training techniques are back, it seems that elite riders are still being rewarded for the results of those meth...

For the past few decades hubbie and I have been out and about sharing our equestrian knowledge and in particular dressage training, as the 'Brit Grand Prix Duo' and our work has taken us far and wide.  It has been very rewarding, thought at times quite exhausting! As we kick in to 2023, we are thrilled to announce we are already fully booked for the limited 'book' we are offering to hosts for our clinics.   The post Covid reality that like everyone else caused us to pause and consider how we were spending our time and what direction we wanted to take our lives. We have to acknowledge that we are not getting any younger and that while we enjoy our travels giving clinics, it takes up much time and travel as everyone knows is a more intense experienced and more difficult to accomplish than ever.  So, now I've taken you around the block explaining the change, am also pleased to share that another 'result' of this cut back on travel for clinic giving has also res...

Our 1st warmblood purchase, Oldenburg premier colt, Fenix, Furiano/Aktuell/Weltmeister.   Everything in life comes full circle and in horse breeding it is apparently no different. As dressage competitors/clinicians we began our horse owning experiences with two geldings, a Morgan and a Standardbred. The former was trained to do anything but stay grounded with four legs on the floor is seemed. Meanwhile the 16 year old Standardbred had spent his previous six years as a successful Grand Prix horse before we bought him. Only trouble was, the Grand Prix experience was in the showjumping arena not the dressage one. Of course since those early years in 1981 and forward from that time there were many breeds of horses that found their way into our yard, initially mostly male gender.  But then of course the horse breeding bug began. And after several OTTBs, Quarterhorses, an Appendix Quarterhorse, an Arabian and Welsh pony for the kids, we branched out into more mare ownership and stal...

Changes are coming and we don't mean the flying change or tempi variety. Paul and ANCCE stallion Celesto IV.   Your Grand Prix dressage duo, hubbie Paul and myself, are in the process of pivoting our dressage services here at Willowview Hill Farm, based in Stamford, NY. From January 2023, we will only be offering a limited number of general dressage clinics offsite and we will no longer offer our pick up a dressage lesson programs at client's barns. Instead, we are choosing to pivot our dressage services to focus our energies on our own private horses and training here at home. As many of you know we are currently under contract for a film production and a book deal is already underway for, " Road Map To Making The Grand Prix Dressage Horse." We will continue to offer dressage training for clients here at WVH for a limited number of horses.   We are also currently on a serious hunt to buy two top quality PRE/ANCCE or Lusitano young horses. At this point in time we are...

The importance of symmetry in the mounted rider is not one to be overlooked as it can do much damage to the horse. I cannot count on one hand the number of times that this question has come up in our clinics and how often we have had to address it. Often my husband will work diligently to explain and to help the rider address the issue of their asymmetry but also fairly often the rider and/or their significant others, whether that be family members, support team or trainer, will be annoyed at the time we spend on the topic. Renowned author Susan Harris does a grand job of explaining the issue.  As the great masters such as Alois Podasky advised all those eons ago, the matter of how the rider sits upon the horse should be as though the rider is draped across the horse's back with balance being critical. The rider should not hold themselves in a crooked position, or indeed any position with gripping thighs and legs as the results of such activities show in the illustration above. Ma...