Clover Leap Equestrian

01/21/2026

✨ Clover Leap Equestrian ✨
Now accepting a limited number of Hunter/Jumper training horses, lesson clients, and lease riders.
✔️ Full & partial training
✔️ Lessons for all stages
✔️ Daily turnout for every horse
✔️ Three+ feedings per day with individualized programs
✔️ Quality lease options available
Professional, horse-first program focused on correct flatwork, confidence, and long-term soundness.
📩 Message for details & availability

08/28/2025

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Achieving straightness with your horse is paramount. Not only does straightness contribute to clear rounds, but it also improves your horse’s overall health and wellbeing, creating evenness so that one side is not overcompensating for another.

When it comes to practicing straightness through the shoulder fore, consider these tips from Capt. Brian Cournane:

Consider a horse’s anatomy when considering straightness. When you’re thinking about straightness, it’s important to remember that horses are naturally crooked. Their hindquarters are much wider than their shoulders, and they carry their haunches to the inside. Practicing a shoulder fore makes a horse straight; think of it as about 10 percent of shoulder-in. By controlling the shoulder, you engage the horse’s inside hind leg, which encourages the horse to take more weight on their hindquarters and lighten their front end, which makes them much lighter in the hand, improving ride-ability.

The outside rein is the straightening rein. Inside leg and outside rein are the dominant aids in the shoulder fore. Use them to position the shoulders in front of the haunches. Engage the horse with your inside leg to outside rein, slightly open the inside hand, and turn your shoulders slightly to the inside. The horse’s shoulder should follow. This can be done in all gaits but should be mastered progressively, first at the walk. In the early stages of practicing shoulder fore, use the rail/your track to guide you and gauge progression of the movement.

Repetition is key. Through repetition and as a horse gets stronger, the quality of a horse’s moments will improve. I always think about working the horses on the flat like I’d approach going to the gym myself—making myself stronger so that whatever I’m training, I get better at. It’s the same with horses. Proper flatwork exercises really enhance the horse’s jumping muscles and ultimately make the horses better.

Straightness translates. I always want to keep my flatwork as similar to when my horses are jumping in the show ring. When a horse is used to going straight, they come to the jump more balanced, resulting in a better jump.

🔗 Read the full article and watch a helpful video at https://www.theplaidhorse.com/.../not-your-average-carry.../

08/27/2025

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When Marisa Metzger watched her horses warm up at the Platinum Performance USHJA 3’/3’3” Green Hunter Incentive Championship, friends kept stopping to ask the 34-year-old why she wasn’t in her show clothes.

08/17/2025

Brought to you by The Plaidcast The road to the top of the hunter/jumper world isn’t paved with ribbons. It’s laid with early mornings, sweat equity, and an unwavering work ethic. Few people understand this better than Don Stewart, a renowned trainer known for producing top equitation riders and...

08/08/2025

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💔 What No One Tells You About Life When You Stop Riding the Horse That Was Your Whole World 💔

One day, I was tacking up Banksy like it was just another weekend, another show, another training ride.

And then… I wasn’t.

It didn’t happen all at once. First, it was little things. A lameness we hoped would pass. Time off that turned into longer than expected. Vet visits. Adjustments. Hope, frustration, hope again. Then slowly, painfully, the realisation settled in — we might not go back to how things were.

No one really talks about what happens after.

When the saddle gathers dust in the tack room.
When you walk past the trailer and feel a little hollow.
When your body still aches in all the places it learned to move with his.
When you drive past the turning to the stables.
When you wonder if you’ve lost the version of yourself that existed only when you were flying over fences together.

Here’s what I’ve come to learn:

You grieve. You absolutely do.

You miss that powerful surge beneath you when he locked onto a jump.
You miss the way he felt untouchable in gallop but still listened like you shared a secret.
You miss the partnership that took years to build — not just the horse, but the teammate, the confidant, the reflection of your soul.

You feel lost. A bit like you’re on the outside of something you once lived and breathed.

But slowly — quietly — you find your way again.

You learn that you can still be part of his world, even if it looks different now.
You find joy in the slower moments — hand-grazing in the sun, the way he still meets you at the gate, the cheeky spark in his eyes.
You realise that your bond was never just about riding. It was about knowing him. Loving him. Showing up every damn day, rain or shine.

You were never “just a rider.”

You were his person. His safe place. His constant.

And that doesn’t end just because the saddle stays on the hook.

So here’s to those of us in the in-between — the ones adjusting, aching, reflecting.

Whether or not I ever sit on him again, Banksy made me who I am today.
And once you’ve loved a horse like that, you’re never not a rider.

Not really.

You’re one of us. Always. ❤️🐴