Cross-country is the phase of eventing that makes me feel most alive and most exposed at the same time. The course asks for commitment, accuracy, fitness, and…
Posts
Why I Walk the Cross-Country Course with a Mentor
Prepping for a Three-Day Event on a Budget
A three-day event can look expensive before the horse even leaves home. Entry fees, stabling, transport, coaching, feed, protective equipment, and overnight…
Three Books That Changed How I Ride And Compete
I have always been drawn to books that make riding feel both more practical and more mysterious. Eventing asks for a strange combination of precision, courage,…
Lessons From A Horse Who Hates Puddles
There are few things more humbling in eventing than discovering that a small patch of water has become the most important feature on the entire cross-country…
How I Stay Steady With a Spooky Show-Jumping Horse
A spooky horse can make show jumping feel like two separate sports. There is the course I walked, with its distances, turns, and related lines, and then there…
The Reality of Training While Holding Down a Full-Time Job
There is a particular kind of arithmetic involved in being an amateur event rider with a full-time job. The day begins before the sun is properly up, the horse…
The Quiet Joy of Starting the Day at the Barn
Before the phone begins to buzz, before traffic fills the roads, and before the day has decided what it wants from me, I am usually at the barn. The light is…
The Mental Shift Between Dressage And Show Jumping
Eventing asks a rider to change mental gears several times in a single day. The horse is still the same partner, the arena may be familiar, and the goals are…
What my grooming routine says about my mindset
Before a horse trial, I can learn a surprising amount about my state of mind from the way I groom. The brush in my hand may look like an ordinary piece of…
My favorite cross-country fence: the brush box
There are fences that demand instant respect, fences that look impressive in photographs, and fences that become memorable because of what they ask from a…