A Life Together Albert wouldn’t jump. Now I don’t mean spook jump, or play jump, or jump for joy. I don’t even mean jump big scary walls, or loudly painted coops, or huge spreads with bottomless water pits beneath. I mean Albert wouldn’t jump … period. He saw no point in it. He was designed …
Category Archives: Horse Articles
Albert – Part two
The Introduction And now it is time for me to tell you a bit about the stately beast himself. When purchased, Albert was an approximately thirteen-year-old, 14.3 hand (everywhere), palomino, old-style quarter horse type gelding. John Gilroy had purchased him sight unseen from the description, ” … a big, dumb cutting horse who’ll cut right …
Albert – Part one
My Early Years He’s gone now – the all-consuming dream and obsession of my youth; the culmination of years of begging, scheming, and ecstatic toil; my first horse; my delicate little, green-broke, grey Arabian filly. Well all right, perhaps he wasn’t a filly, or grey, or even possessed of a single drop of Arabian blood, …
How Many Canters?
The canter is a three-beat, broken diagonal gait – outside hind, inside hind/outside fore, inside fore. We all know that. So what are all of those other faster-than-trot, slower-than-run variations we riders are subject to from time to time? Individual differences in equine carriage and conformation can account for a certain degree of variance in …
The Case of the Perpetual Beginner
I had a revelation the other day. Out of the clear blue it came to me … why I am so comfortable and (if immodestly stated) quite good at teaching beginning students how to ride. I relate easily to inexperienced riders. My equestrian status for the vast majority of my horse-obsessed lifetime has been that …
The Rites of Spring
In April each year comes the none-too-eagerly anticipated time when the horses and I are compelled to shed the fast-held remnants of winter’s relative inactivity and begin the slow, progressive trek back into summer’s energetic routine. In northern Minnesota, none but the hardiest and most determined (not to mention most masochistic) equestrian enthusiasts pursue their …
Fighting Those Infamous Fungi
Ringworm, girth itch, rain rot… what horse owners wouldn’t do to wipe these words from the equestrian vocabulary! Unfortunately, these determined fungi (or in the case of rainrot, a bacterium masquerading as a fungus) are not so easily eliminated. These relentless skin invaders have been a source of immense irritation to horses and owners alike …
Just Because He’s Geriatric
Albert had always been a glutton, consuming anything and everything in his path. Now he forced himself to nibble grain and valiantly chewed (and chewed and chewed) wads of hay, only to have them fall from his mouth in slimy cuds. Albert never had any particular problem with the heat before. Now he staggered around …
Riding and the Heavy Rider
Julie first came to me as a riding student at an early age. She was heavy even then, but she had a keen mind and an intense desire to learn to ride. She worked harder than any student I’ve ever had to acquire the skills necessary to become an admirable equestrian. She had to work harder. She …
Choosing the Right Riding Instructor
Choosing a riding instructor may be as simple as calling the one and only individual within a hundred mile radius who offers riding lessons. For most of the equestrian minded public, however, the choice is not nearly so limited, or so easy. Before beginning your search for the best possible instruction, it is both helpful …