On Top Equestrian

Can't wait to catch up with everyone over the next two days at South Island Secondary Schools Equestrian tournament week!

This year I will be there wearing two hats; looking forward to being a Dressage ambassador again for Equestrian Sports NZ and also coaching for Rangi Ruru Equestrian.

Louise & I will be floating round to answer any questions around the Dressage arenas. Come and say hi 👋
ESNZ Community

Really looking forward too seeing everyone from round the South Island at the end of the month 🙌
I will be there for the two Dressage days - Monday & Tuesday.

Great opportunity for local riders 🐎

So super proud today of my Tinwald girls 💙, Lucy & Macy. Both winning their huge classes on their dressage scores at Roydvale ODE, where there was a lot of carnage in the jumping. Putting in the hard yards definitely pays off 🙌
Also the big kids yesterday had some amazing results too 👊🥳

Busy day up teaching a lovely bunch of Rangi Ruru Equestrian girls at Dunstan Horsefeeds NEC - Christchurch today. Great to see how much they all improved and persevered in such a horrible, freezing wind! 🥶

What’s the best thing about coming to school at Rangi Ruru- how about leaving the classroom to train all day with your pony and team mates, preparing for the SISS Equestrian Cup? That’s how 30 of our riders spent today, training and preparing for their next interschool competition. Well done all who took part and special thanks to our coaches, parents and caregivers who made this day happen 🫶

The Dressage NZ awards night was held recently up in Christchurch. It was a great evening to catch up with everyone and celebrate all the achievements throughout the year. It was especially good to recognise the stellar season of two of my super sponsored riders, Sandy Houston & Cindy Wiffen - so proud of you guys 🤩👏🙌
I also got the pleasure of presenting the Prestige Futures Award to Mikayla Wildermoth. We caught up the week before and fitted her and her lovely Advanced horse into the Prestige Brilliante dressage saddle, built on the gold-medal🏅winning tree technology of the AS-X tree. This revolutionary tree has the ability to move with the horse's back, giving huge freedom of movement for the horse and an amazing feel and feedback through your seat to the rider 👌
I was very humbled to win the Vivant Equi Volunteer of the Year award. Huge credit goes to the super team of friends around me at the Ashburton Dressage Group
💞

When we feel like we need to get stronger with our aids, it is usually worth asking whether the horse really needs more pressure or whether we need to be a little clearer, a little quieter, or a little better with our timing.

A well-timed aid does not have to be big. A consistent aid helps the horse feel secure. A precise aid gives the horse a fair chance to answer.

Horses are so generous when they understand what we are asking.