Posts

There are a few items I never leave at home on competition day: my riding hat, gloves, safety vest, grooming kit, paperwork, and a spare set of stirrup…

Our first two-day event with Archie had been circled on the calendar for months. I had competed in individual dressage tests, show jumping rounds, and one-day…

Ditches have always been one of the more thoughtful questions on an eventing course. They may look small from the ground, but a horse sees a dark change in the…

Finding the right saddle for eventing has been one of the most practical parts of bringing Archie along. A saddle has to support three very different jobs:…

Walking a cross-country course is one of the most useful parts of an eventing day, but it is also one of the easiest places to forget that you are sharing…

Eventing has a way of expanding to fill every available hour. There is always another schooling session to plan, a dressage test to learn, a jump that needs…

After a cross-country round, Archie usually tells me exactly how he feels. Sometimes he walks back to the lorry swinging his head and looking pleased with…

Introducing a new fence to Archie is less about testing how high he can jump and more about giving him a clear, confident lesson. A brightly painted filler,…

Few moments are more unsettling for an event rider than noticing an uneven step just days before a show. You may have spent weeks schooling dressage movements,…

A dressage test sheet can look intimidating when it first lands in your hands. There are letters around the arena, abbreviations beside each movement, marks…