Woodcrest Equestrian

18/05/2026

Lately, I’ve found myself increasingly concerned by the type of content some trainers are choosing to post online and, more importantly, the way criticism and community concern are being handled in response.

Social media has given everyone in the equestrian industry an incredible platform to educate, inspire, and influence others. With that influence also comes responsibility and accountability.

What continues to stand out is not just the negative reactions and comments appearing on certain posts, but the complete lack of reflection or accountability from the individuals posting them. Instead of taking a moment to consider why people may be concerned, many responses come across as dismissive, defensive, or incredibly naïve.

No trainer, rider, or professional is above learning. We all make mistakes, and constructive discussion should not automatically be treated as “hate” or negativity. Sometimes the public reaction is a sign that something genuinely needs to be reconsidered.

The equestrian community is evolving. People care more than ever about horse welfare, ethical training practices, sportsmanship, and professionalism. Ignoring concerns or mocking those who raise them does nothing to help the image of our industry moving forward.

Accountability is not weakness. Listening is not weakness. Being willing to reflect, learn, and improve is what creates respected horsemen and horsewomen.

At the end of the day, the content we post online shapes public perception of our sport and industry. We should all be striving to represent it with professionalism, integrity, and a willingness to do better when needed.

- Tarni -

11/05/2026

As riding instructors we spend a lot of time managing the gap between what new students expect riding to be and what it actually is. Most of that gap could be narrowed significantly with one honest conversation before the first lesson ever happens. So here is everything I wish every new student and every new riding family walked in already knowing...

1. Riding is harder than it looks
This is the one that surprises people most. Watching a good rider looks effortless but it is not effortless. It is years of muscle memory, feel, balance, and body awareness built through consistent work over a long time. Your first lessons will feel awkward and uncoordinated and that is completely normal. Every rider you have ever admired felt exactly the way you feel right now when they were starting out.

2. The horse is not a bicycle
It is a living animal with its own personality, its own opinions, and its own good days and bad days. It does not always do what you ask the first time and that is not always your fault but it is always your responsibility to figure out the communication. Learning to work with a horse rather than on top of one is one of the most valuable things riding teaches and it starts from the very first lesson.

3. Progress is not linear
Some weeks you will feel like you have jumped forward three levels. Other weeks you will feel like you have forgotten everything you learned last month. Both are completely normal parts of learning to ride. The students who improve consistently are not the ones who never have bad lessons but they are the ones who show up anyway and keep working through the frustrating ones.

4. One lesson a week is a start but not a program
A single lesson per week gives you exposure to riding. Two lessons per week builds skill significantly faster. The riders who progress quickest are the ones who ride consistently and frequently enough that their muscles and nervous system have time to develop real memory around what correct feels like. If budget allows for more than one lesson per week it is worth it.

5. Your position will feel wrong before it feels right
Correct position in the saddle feels deeply unnatural to most people at first. Heels down feels like you are pushing your foot through the floor. Sitting tall feels like you are leaning back. An independent hand feels like you are doing nothing. Trust the process and trust your instructor. The things that feel strange now become automatic eventually but only if you commit to doing them correctly rather than defaulting back to what feels comfortable.

6. The time around the lesson matters as much as the lesson itself
Grooming your horse before you ride. Learning to tack up correctly. Understanding how to read your horse's body language in the cross ties. This is not the boring part before the real lesson begins. This is horsemanship and it makes you a better rider than an hour in the saddle alone ever will.

7. Bad rides happen to every rider at every level
Including the ones you look up to most. A bad lesson does not mean you are not cut out for this, it just means you are learning something hard and doing it on the back of a living animal that is also having a day. Come back next week and it will be different.
Your instructor is on your side.

8. Every correction we give is in service of your progress and your safety
We are not pointing out what is wrong to make you feel bad but we are pointing out what needs to change so you can get where you want to go faster and more safely. The students who improve fastest are the ones who hear a correction as information rather than criticism and apply it without taking it personally.

9. Riding changes you in ways you will not expect
The patience it builds, the confidence that comes from communicating with an animal ten times your size and being understood. The resilience that develops from falling short of a goal and coming back for it anyway. The community you find at the barn. None of that shows up in the first lesson or even the tenth but it will show up at one point. For most riders it becomes one of the most significant things in their life and not just what they do on Tuesday afternoons but part of who they are.

If you are a riding instructor share this with every new family who walks through your gate. If you are a new student or a parent of one - welcome. You picked something genuinely worth doing!

What do you wish someone had told you before your very first riding lesson?

29/04/2026

The newest police recruit on trial, half brother to Merlin. Such a sweet nature and so willing 🤍

29/04/2026

The Model I Didn’t Know I Was Following 🤨

One day, I got told off at a dressage competition for doing too much cantering in the warm-up.

Not wildly. Not dangerously. Just… cantering.

Another horse was getting unsettled. And to be fair, that’s a legitimate concern if your working assumption is that horses are highly strung emotional beings who may unravel at the mere suggestion of forward movement nearby.

So I stopped. Because I was a good citizen of the dressage world, where we manage risk, protect feelings, and quietly clap like enthusiastic applause might trigger an explosion. 💣

That same afternoon, I went to a rodeo and watched the warm-up.

And my brain short-circuited. 🤯

There were kids on ponies. People galloping. Horses weaving through each other at speed like it was entirely reasonable.

Music blaring. Flags flapping. Cattle moving. Dust everywhere.

No one looked concerned.

No one was hovering, micromanaging, or bracing for the moment a horse might become emotionally overwhelmed.

And the horses?

Fine.

Coping. Adjusting. Getting on with it. 😳

It was in complete contrast to what I had been taught to expect.

To them, this wasn’t chaos.

It was normal.

And that’s when it hit me.

I hadn’t just learned how to ride in the dressage world.

I had learned what to expect from a horse.

In one world, horses are sensitive, easily unsettled, and require careful management to prevent them from falling apart.

In another, horses are capable, adaptable, and expected to handle life, with support when needed.

Same species.

Wildly different assumptions. 🤓

And here’s the part that stings a little.

Those assumptions don’t just sit in your head like interesting thoughts.

They shape how you ride. How you handle situations. How quickly you intervene. What you tolerate.

If you expect your horse to fall apart, you behave like someone trying to stop that from happening. 😟

If you expect them to cope, you behave like someone prepared to help them do exactly that. 😃

And horses, being excellent students of pressure, timing, and consistency, tend to respond to the environment we create.

So I decided to test it.

I took one of my own horses. The one I had confidently labelled “sensitive” and “scared of the world.” A warmblood, of course, and therefore clearly a completely different species to those “bombproof” quarter horses… or so I thought.

He arrived at the rodeo grounds with eyes on stalks, scanning for imminent disaster. 😱

Within minutes of being ponied around by riders who treated him as though he would be fine…

he was. ☺️

That was a lightbulb moment. 💡

What I was witnessing was a different world view in action.

Your horse world isn’t reality.

It’s a set of shared beliefs about what horses are and what they can handle.

And if you never step outside of it, you don’t just follow it.

You reinforce it.

Sometimes the biggest shift you can make isn’t in your technique.

It’s in your expectation.

Because horses don’t rise to our hopes.

They respond to what we consistently show them is possible.

Collectable Advice 202/365. If you enjoyed this hit SHARE or SAVE. Please no copy and pasting thank you ❤

22/04/2026

Do you smile when you ride?

Not because everything is going perfectly.
Not because every distance shows up the way you planned, or your horse feels exactly how you imagined.

But because you choose to.

Because somewhere along the way, you realise this sport isn’t just about results. It’s about the journey you’re on, the lessons you’re learning, and the partnership you’re building every single day.

Smiling changes everything. It softens you, it relaxes your body, and it creates a mindset where you’re riding with your horse, not against them.

And when you really think about it… how lucky are we?

These incredible animals carry us, trust us, forgive our mistakes, and still try again for us the next day. They don’t care about the scoreboard, they just show up and give what they can.

So maybe smiling isn’t just about enjoying the moment…
maybe it’s about appreciating it 🫶

21/04/2026

Great to be back out jumping last Sunday at the Hattonvale Open Showjumping. Centurion did his first ever 80cm 🤎
📸 Thanks for the wonderful photos from his 70cm round Bonnie Jensen & AJ Frazer

21/04/2026

19/04/2026

A fun pairs lesson 🤎🖤

28/03/2026

Great morning @ Lockyer Jump Club Training Day - Laidley Showgrounds! ⭐️