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...

Hubbie and I have been out and about giving clinics as usual. We just returned from our last tour which was in England and Scotland, which naturally included staying in a castle. It was awesome and fun but also very tiring. I think we've just about recovered! It was grand to work with fellow Brits again and their wonderful horses We traversed more then 1600 miles in our gallant rental vehicle. The roads were sometimes single lane and difficult to navigate, especially across fells and around lakes in the Lake District.  Our trip took us from a clinic in Buckinghamshire up to Lincolnshire, then onto Scotland just South of Edinburgh. We crossed over to the West coast of Scotland to Aye, before heading South to the beautiful Lake District for another clinic and then on to Shropshire for a day or two. Then it was back down South to Buckinghamshire before we headed back home from Heathrow.  The horses and riders we saw were a broad mix of talent, from those starting out...

Over the years Paul and I have enjoyed giving many clinics and the abilities of horse and rider that we train varies greatly. While we are generally sought after for clinics in the U.S.A, primarily in the North East, South Carolina and in Florida, we tremendously enjoy giving clinics abroad despite the difficulties of the language barrier. As many of you know we work with FEI coach Greta Kemmer in Switzerland from time to time. Thankfully Greta helps us out with the joys of trying to speak German by providing some translation on our behalf. This has made our FEI4ontheFloor clinics, held in Bedford, NY and Lausanne , Switzerland, a great deal of fun. She translates for us in Switzerland and we translate for her in the U.S.A..We have been hosted at two elite yards in Germany over the past several years, and for those occasions a professional translator has been provided. This however has not worked so well. The translator was not familiar with horses at all! So when we used 'termin...