Hidden Stables of Dover

Please share with your horsey friends!

We are pleased to share that Lena Smith and Finn earned High Point for their Intro level tests and Lillian Short and Chief earned High Point Level and High Point Rider for their Training Level tests!

Scores for the August IEO are posted and we are very proud of the hard work represented by our riders and their special ponies.

Being an exceptional student extends far beyond the riding portion of lessons.

Ally demonstrated what it looks like to do an exceptional job at sweeping up her grooming area after her ride today.

Our horses are high and dry, despite tons of rain, thanks to our carefully managed paddocks and barns.

Chief and Maddi had their first Hunter show outing of the summer, Willow and Shirlene had their very first outing off property and Charlie took his first nap of the week. A good experience for all!

Day 4 of “Stagecoach Station Camp” was hot but the campers were in good spirits and really dug into the afternoon puppet building activity.

Day 1 of “Stagecoach Station Camp” was chock full of riding, roping and laughter.

A small stab in the heart is what you feel when you put up the day’s riding list and you see riders sinking heavily in their shoulders when reading which horse they are assigned for the lesson. A small stab in the heart for that horse that for an hour will carry around a rider who has already decided that he does not like his horse. A small stab in the heart for the horse that did not choose the rider himself but still does his best, lesson after lesson.

Riding is a privilege and something you have chosen to do. If you chose to ride at a riding school, your instructor assumes that you actually want to learn how to ride. The instructor’s highest wish is that you get good at it.

Often there is a plan and a thought as to why you are assigned to that exact horse. Before you mount up next time, ask yourself “what can this horse teach me today?” All horses have something to give, a feeling or a new tool in the box.

The art is actually in being able to get a lazy horse to move forward, to get an uncertain horse to gain confidence, a naughty horse to focus or a tense horse to be released. It takes work. If you think a horse is boring, it’s more likely that you don’t ride the horse as well as you think! It’s not easy to be confronted with your own shortcomings, but it is in that very situation that you get the chance to truly grow as a rider.

The excuse that “it’s not my kind of horse” is actually a really bad excuse. A good rider can ride any kind of horse. A good rider has trained many hours on different types of horses to become a good rider. A good rider can find and manage the gold nuggets in every horse.

If we absolutely want to ride, it is our duty to strive to do it as best as possible, even if it’s only for fun. We owe it to every horse that carries us upon it’s back.

Copied and shared with love for all of our horses, ponies and riders 🐎❤🐎

Ottb days of Summer 🙂

Finn and Sarah had a successful outing at today’s Halcyon Summer Series, bringing home champion in their division, in good company.

“Stagecoach Station Camp” helper schedule

Monday July 29 @ 8am - Camp Helper Meeting

Tuesday @ 8am - Lesson
Sarah
Shirlene
Maddi
Lilli

Wednesday @ 8am - Lesson
Rowan (Jr. Helper)
Skylar
Joelle
Lilli

Thursday @ 8am - Helper Ride
Sarah
Maddi
Lilli

Friday @ 8am - Helper Ride
Rowan (Jr. Helper)
Skylar
Joelle
Sarah
Lilli

Good boy Chief :)

We would like to introduce Peanut. She will be on trial with us for the next few weeks to see if she might be a good fit for our program.

As with all new horses, she is currently being kept in quarantine to ensure the Bio safety of our other horses.

Students may not touch Peanut until she is out of quarantine. No excpetions.

For those that will be caring for Peanut there will be disinfecting spray at the quarantine area. Shoes must be thoroughly sprayed and hands must be washed each time you come out of the quarantine area.

Anyone who knows May knows that she loves to learn tricks!

She got to show off some of them during last week’s “Saddle Club Camp”.

Day 3 of “Saddle Club Camp” was still warm but campers had lots of fun painting jumps and organizing and cleaning a few tack lockers.

Day 1 of “Saddle Club Camp” was the best kind of success.

Early morning rides to beat the heat.

Each camper displayed admirable willingness to work hard as well as serve each other with a kind and helpful spirit.

The Kindness Counts board is filling up fast!

Saddle Club Camp Helper Schedule

Monday @ 8am
Lease rides: Lilli and Lena
Helper rides: Joelle, Maddi and Skylar

Tuesday @ 8am
Helper Unmounted Showmanship Skills lesson

Wednesday @ 8am
Helper rides: Sarah, Lena, Lilli

Thursday @ 8am
Lesson: Lena, Joelle, Skylar

Friday @ 8am
Lesson: Sarah, Lilli, Maddi, Shirlene

Our riders braved the summer temps and put in great rides at the July IEO dressage show.

Rylan and Dolly made their debut in the big sandbox for their second leadline show and Lena did her very first tests on Finn after just a few practice rides since leveling up with a new pony!

Great rides ladies!

“It takes X number of falls to become a good rider.”
This is a saying that simply means if you ride a LOT of hours, it’s inevitable that you ARE GOING TO FALL eventually. And if you want to be a great rider, you have to spend a lot of hours riding. 

This certainly doesn’t mean you should be falling often.

What’s often??? Well, there are some world class eventers that seem to fall four times a year or more, but they are riding 6 hours a day and doing treacherous stuff, and often on young horses. That’s one fall per 500+ hours of saddle time.
If you ride four hours a month, you would have to ride for 10 years before you logged 500 hours in the saddle.

So you don’t brag to me about how you’ve never fallen off in 10 years, because all I hear is “I ride once a week, have never started Young Horse, and rarely ever ride on terrain fhat is less than perfect.”

 but if you tell me, you fell off four times in the past year I’m not going to automatically assume that you ride six horses a day and start cults for a living.

Falling off does not prove that you’re a good rider, but falling off does prove that you’re getting on.

If you are spending a lot of hours in the saddle, and you’re constantly doing weird things with your horses, and you fall off sometimes, that’s just to be expected. Sometimes you fall off because something spooked your horse or because no matter how much you prepare a young horse the first time they canter with a human on their back it just feels weird. And sometimes it’s because we get a little complacent- because that’s gonna happen when you’re spending all day on a horse.

But if every time your horse spooks you fall off, or if you only ride once or twice a week and have fallen off more than once doing the same thing in a few months time span, then it’s probably because you are severely missing some basics that you need in order to be safe.

Just hurling yourself off a horse obviously isn’t going to turn you into a great rider. That’s not what the phrase above means.

But if you absolutely ‘cannot afford to fall off’, just know that if you ride often enough, it’s gonna happen eventually. I’m not the type to tell you to not do it- but at that point, you’re going to need to micromanage everything and need the help of a great instructor to do so. Wear your safety vest and stay inside the arena on the most gentle horse money can buy, and we will do our best to make it work.

But you’re obviously not going to start young horses or take up three day eventing!!! 
And we probably won’t risk silly stuff like trail riding with the dog crashing through the woods and then riding right into the barn