Hidden Creek Equestrian Center, LLC

21/08/2025

'RIDING CANNOT BE MADE SAFE'

These are not my words, but these mirror my thoughts.

CREDIT TO ERNEST DILLON FBHS

I haven’t posted anything for a good long time. The reason for that is simply that my life has taken quite a few unexpected changes over the last couple of months. consequently, I have been trying to re-organise.

One of the issues I wanted to talk about in this post is the ever changing horse world in which we live and the way that people want to learn………or not!

Years ago when I first entered the wonderful world of Equestrianism the people around me, including myself were hungry for knowledge, we wanted to learn as much as we could from people who had had many years of experience before us. If we couldn’t take a lesson because we couldn’t afford it we watched and we listened and we asked questions. These great horsemen and women were always prepared and willing to share their knowledge.
It was an amazing time and the amount of fantastic insights there were to try and absorb was mind blowing.
I constantly hear the expression ‘old school’, this is supposed to represent the way teachers impart their knowledge.
I am told that I am old school. I take this as a compliment but all too often it is directed as an insult.
It implies that in some way I am pushing people further than they want to be pushed, which is in fact not true.
What I try to do first and foremost is to share my knowledge and experience, then work together with the client and their individual horse, recognise their needs and observe their improvement.
Unfortunately the consequence of this is quite often that client will move away, it’s possible that I’m not asking them, in their opinion, enough from their horse, in other words not jumping big enough fences before they are ready, or spending too much time on the basics before they jump at all.
I also hear strange new expressions like cheerleaders and feather smoothers, apparently this is what people want these days. Not to learn but to be told how amazing they are and how wonderful their horse is going and never criticising or correcting anything that is not working or incorrect.
The favourite lesson I hear being given so often is the “positioning the horses head lesson “.
Very self-defeating and harmful to the Horses well-being.

The troubling side of this is that horses are exactly the same as they were 1000 years ago. They are reactive animals and they do react very quickly, if a rider is not prepared for this reaction then disaster can prevail.
Riding cannot be made safe. The only way we could make it less risky is to learn to do it correctly and as I have been quoting for years correct is correct because it works.
Of course people can get away with things. Some people are luckier than others in that they get away with incorrect riding for longer but inevitably something is going to go wrong. Riders then instead of reflecting inwardly look for, because of the blame and entitlement culture in which we live, somebody else to take the blame.
Sadly it is very often the poor horse or the poor coach.
What happens then?
The coach is sacked because somebody else will be out there ready tell this rider what they want to hear, or to ride the horse from the ground. Or the horse is sold because it has developed an amazing number of human traits. Anthropomorphism is rife in the horse world.
Riding is not an easy sport to learn, arguably I think it’s the most difficult sport to learn simply because we are dealing with another sentient being, unless we try to understand how the horse works bio-mechanically, and how the horse’s brain works we will never ride well.
Sadly, I don’t think that this attitude is going to change any time soon. I think it’s going to get worse and people with great knowledge and a gift for imparting that knowledge will get less busy and less important because those people are trying to improve their riders not just make them smile and talk to them about their misfortunes or listen to how wonderful they are.

Well I don’t think that pleased everybody who has read it but I think the horse world needs to wake up and reflect more on what we can do correctly to improve the horses life, not to be selfish and try to just improve our life by finding ways of riding that is not involved in hard work, self sacrifice, determination, courage, and dedication.
Try to find how we can improve and what we can change when the horse is telling us it is not happy.
They are horses, not people in fur coats
I hope that has struck a nerve in some places because it was intended to.

On closing “If you do it right, it’s hard to get it wrong”.

Kindest regards,

Ernest Dillon FBHS

13/08/2025

Too much smoke and heat to proceed with lessons right now. If you are scheduled for lessons please check your messages for possible cancelations over the next few days. As always we appreciate your efforts to reschedule, and will be as flexible as possible to accommodate your availability.

God bless and protect all the firefighters and other emergency services, and volunteers, fighting all the fires in Colorado and other Western States.

Photo is looking west from my patio, usually Pikes Peak is clearly visible, as you can see in our Profile photo 😢

03/08/2025

29/07/2025

I did NOT write this. However, I support it 100%. Stop fantasizing about the 'perfect horse'.

Learn to Love the Horse You Have

Social media has a sneaky way of selling us a fantasy. We see stunning horses moving like dancers, riding bridleless across golden fields, performance horses doing perfect maneuvers seemingly never taking one wrong step…and without even realizing it, we start chasing that image.

The idea of the perfect horse.

That horse you’re head over heels for?

He might crib in the stall. He might fence-walk until his hooks get sore. He might be explosive under saddle at the start of every session, when the camera isn’t rolling yet.

You just don’t see it, because social media tends to not show the messy, mundane, or frustrating moments. It only shows the fantasy. Because it’s appealing and it sells.

The sadest part about all of this, when all you see in your social media feed is “perfection”, your own horse starts to feel not enough.

You focus on his quirks. His fears. His setbacks. His flaws and his weaknesses. You start seeing him as a list of negative traits and not enough’s instead of the partner he’s becoming and all the heart and try he’s giving you.

“Comparison is the thief of joy”
- Theodore Roosevelt

It robs you of the joy you could be feeling with the horse that you have right in front of you.

Every horse has strengths and struggles. Every one of them. Even the ones who look flawless online.

Instead of chasing a dream horse that doesn’t exist, start appreciating the horse that you have. All of him. The good, the bad and ugly.

He doesn’t need to be perfect, because perfect was never the point.

Expecting a horse to be flawless, unreactive, obedient and high performing with no problems, hurdles or hiccups 24/7 is an unrealistic standard no living being can meet.

And yet, that’s the silent pressure we put on our horses, thanks to carefully edited posts and photos, curated videos, and a constant stream of highlight reels only who don’t show the whole picture. Your horse will always have days where everything goes smooth and others where he’s struggling.

Just like you.

Loving the horse you have means meeting him where he is at, not where the internet tells you he should be or where other horses seem to be.

By withholding and not allowing for that type of love, due to the constant comparison and focusing on the negative only, you’ll end up sabotaging the both of you.

The Horse Center

18/07/2025

Alexa and Fabio looking AMAZING this morning! 😍

15/07/2025

We appreciate our clients ❤️

05/07/2025

Opted to start with some slow and steady groundwork today, and then a new experience for this young horsewoman; riding ba****ck with just a halter to guide and control Poppy.

❤️❤️❤️

05/07/2025

Some horses are (very) unsettled due to a night of fireworks. If you are planning to work with, or ride your horse today, you may need to lower your expectations!

If your horses are not injured in any way, you are one of the lucky ones. To my equestrian friends who have injured horses this morning, my heart goes out to you.

I have no problem with people having fun, enjoying holidays, and celebrating. My hatred of fireworks began when I was a teenager in the UK and I saw a horse so badly injured due to fireworks that it had to be shot. There was no Vet available to humanely euthanize the horse, so the owner had to take care of destroying it themselves, the only way they could. Life with horses can be brutal.

Fireworks and animals are seldom a good match 😕

03/07/2025

"You forgot your Horsemanship."

I say that a lot.

We all learn skills with practice; haltering, grooming, leading, tacking up, mounting, riding, etc.

But in our haste to move on, spend less time on basics, learn more, get mounted faster, we can be guilty of forgetting the Horsemanship part of all the little, seemingly less important aspects of our interactions with horses. All of us. We're busy with our phones, racing the clock, watching who's driving by, and a dozen other distractions, so we forget our Horsemanship.

How is the horse today? How are they reacting? How are they responding to our approach, our touch, our grooming tools, to bridling and saddling? How are they with mounting, tightening the girth? Everything?!?

Is there any way we can do better for the horse, perhaps do something differently, ultimately do less, in order to achieve a more relaxed, trusting, willing partnership, with our horses?

I believe there is. But we have to slow down, and observe, take a breath, in order to learn. Stop checking mental boxes on the list of things we do before we get to ride, for instance. And start checking mental boxes on how your Horsemanship can be the priority, in everything you do, instead of your haste to get mounted, or achieve some goal.

I won't hesitate to let you know, if you forget your Horsemanship while working with one of our lesson horses - it's my job to do so in order for you to get better, and so our horses receive the respect, care and consideration they deserve. I may not be well liked in that particular moment, and yes, I do sometimes see those 'looks'......but I don't care too much about that anymore.

Horses like and respect me 😁. And the more you practice Horsemanship, the more they will like and respect you, too.

22/02/2025

“From horses, we may learn not only about the horse itself but also about animals in general, indeed about ourselves and about life as a whole.” – George Ga***rd Simpson.