Elevate Sport Horses

Happy Father’s Day to the dads behind the horse-girl dreams. Thank you for being our biggest fans, chauffeurs, sponsors, photographers and cheerleaders. ❤️🐴

Wow, what an amazing weekend we had with Marina Parris Woodhead of Hidden Oaks Horses for our Dressage and flatwork clinic at Elevate! We had riders from Intro Level all the way to FEI, as well as jumper students and members of our Lesson Academy, all come together to participate.

Here are just a few takeaways from the weekend:

• Ride the rhythm
• Start leg yield with a partial turn, then ride diagonal to letter as “magnet,” slowly add in aids
• Don’t overthink—RIDE from feel!
• You can’t ride from correction to correction. Ride from half halt to half halt and give space for peace ☮
• Build exercises up in steps
• Use your “airplane arm” to help steer the withers
• Begin transitions by lifting the horse’s core
• You control the horse from the withers—keep hands even and steady
• The first pattern, canter circle, etc. of the day doesn’t have to be PERFECT. Let it be what it is, figure out where your horse is, and go from there
• Be fluid through hips and inner thighs

A huge thank you to Marina for meeting each rider where they were at, keeping things fun and teaching us all something new. We are so grateful for your wisdom and can’t wait for next time! 📝

This 🙌

Let’s Talk About Trainer Rides.

There’s something I’ve been thinking about a lot lately, and it feels like an important conversation: Trainer rides.

Somewhere along the way, I feel like trainer rides have started to feel optional, like a luxury, or something only needed when things go really wrong. But I believe they are one of the most important parts of keeping horses happy, confident, and reliable in their jobs.

Especially the good ones! The steady school horses. The saintly kids horses. The show horses packing their riders around week after week. Those horses don’t stay that way by accident. They stay that way because someone with experience is checking in with them from the saddle.

Horses are athletes, but they’re also thinkers and feelers. Over time they develop habits, compensations, and questions, just like riders do. A horse gets a little crooked or starts dulling to the leg. They lose confidence in a certain question or quietly start carrying more than their fair share. These things can show up as the ride feeling harder, less smooth, less fun… until suddenly both horse and rider are frustrated. Or they start to voice their frustration and they get labelled as having “bad behavior”.

That’s where a trainer ride isn’t a luxury, it’s part of the care. A professional ride helps to clarify the aids, rebuild confidence on the flat and over fences, and supports them physically and mentally in the job we ask them to do. Then that carries over into the owner’s ride. And the rider gets to build their relationship on a solid, supported foundation instead of constantly trying to fix things themselves.

It’s also about fairness.

Our horses work hard. They try, they tolerate mistakes, they take care of their riders. It’s only fair that we give them rides where the aids are clear, the balance is correct, and they get help doing the job well. Those rides keep them happier in their work and help prevent the slow mental burnout we sometimes see in over-generous horses.
That’s not taking something away from the rider, it’s supporting the partnership.

When horse, rider, and trainer all play their roles, the whole system works better. Horses stay more reliable. Riders progress with less frustration. And the relationship between them gets stronger, not more strained.

At the end of the day, trainer rides aren’t about control. They’re about responsibility.



Photo Credit: Wild Griffin Photography