Sometimes, the fastest way to change something in your horse is to focus on yourself. During a clinic I taught last year in Ireland, a rider entered the ring on an extremely tense horse. Head in the air, tight back, I’m sure you can picture it. As I watched this rider warm up, I could see she was doing her best to relax the horse with little success. I asked her to let go of thinking about her horse for a few minutes and focus on her breathing instead. Over the next three to five minutes, we watched the mare change. Her head lowered, her back softened, and her step got longer and more fluid.

What do you believe is more important in our work with horses: knowledge or curiosity? It’s easy to see why knowing the answer is desirable, but valuing knowledge over curiosity can create pressure, frustration, and low confidence. Not being able to use curiosity as a mental skill can cause us to wind up in never-ending cycles of frustration and perceived failure in our journey as equestrians.

The 21st Century Rider - Many Canadian riders are throwing their leg over horses well beyond the age when others are pursuing more sedentary activities. For example, about 19 percent of Alberta Equestrian Federation members were over the age of 56 from 2015 to 2018. In British Columbia, approximately 19 percent of active Horse Council BC members were over age 60 in 2018. Meanwhile, in Quebec last year, about 12 percent of Cheval Quebec members were age 60 and over. Nationally, approximately 22 percent of Equestrian Canada sport licence holders were older than 50 in 2018, and 10 percent were older than 60.

Canada is a massive country, with large distances between equine competitions and a relatively small number of upper-level equestrians. Hence, Canadian riders who want to be competitive at upper levels struggle to find enough higher-level competitions to advance their riding careers. Canada also has winter weather that precludes many riders from training outside for half the year. This can limit advancement and horse fitness. For example, three-day event riders can’t school cross-country jumps or get their gallop training in when fields are drifted with snow, nor can endurance riders do long rides on varied terrain.