Videos

Dona, Danish Warmblood
11 year old 4th level mare I rode just this once while in Denmark. As you can see she's a lovely horse and she is for sale. Let me know if you'd like more info.

Reina del Sol training video

In this video of the 5 year-old Friesian/TB Reina del Sol, you can see some variety of throughness. She starts out a bit hollow, especially in the sitting work, then in the stretching and canter work comes more up in her back, correct in her neck and more through. I have found she needs a fairly quick tempo at least some of the time to refresh her and convince her to stay engaged. The trot work in the beginning is a bit slow for her. She occasionally loses her outside shoulder (I should have done more with outside leg and rein at times). However, in her stretching she almost always snorts and blows, excellent signs of a horse that is doing the right things. They make those noises when they are using their own core muscles. Like I make grunting noises when I am using my core muscles! Before filming this I did several trot/canter/trot transitions and they help tremendously. So do the leg yields. I am asking her to push the boundaries of her knowledge and abilities a bit in this video. She's new to the counter canter, canter half pass, and the walk changes. You can see I reward her for good efforts by doing something else, and I only add a little harder work before break.  Some say I don't have my head screwed on straight, but honest, in this video, it's just my helmet!! It makes me look like I tilt my head!

 

Cedrick training video

 Cedrick is a fun horse to ride. He knows lots of stuff and isn't overly complicated. I would like the shoulder-ins on the center line to show more bend and some of the changes to have more jump. I like his halt and rein-back, though his head slips a fraction behind the vertical. Cedrick can do 1/2 pirouettes, but is not quite strong enough for full ones. Thus, I just asked for working pirouettes -- well, sort of two halfs in a row, to take a little pressure off him. 

Training video of Royal Blue

Here I am in my old Passier dressage saddle, in the jumping field! Oh well, the Passier is very versatile and allows one to use the leg in any position! It also gives you absolutely no support, so you have to learn how to ride. This was just a quick diversion for Royal Blue and we thought we'd video him. In both the dressage and jumping you can see nice relaxation. His jumping form is excellent and his manner is how I expect all my jumpers to go. I believe the basics of dressage must prevail in all work. Sorry I haven't got my heels down, bad ankles prevent it, so I stick to low fences these days! Royal Blue now lives in Virginia.