Hill Crest Farm LLC

06/01/2026

I would like to personally Congratulate Teri on earning her first second-level score toward her Bronze Medal! I am so proud of you and excited to celebrate this milestone with you.

Your hard work, dedication, and passion for riding has truly paid off. I've seen the time, effort, and commitment you put into developing your skills, and it's wonderful to see that recognized. This achievement is a reflection of your perseverance and the high standards you set for yourself.

Thank you for being apart of Hill Crest Farm not only as an instructor but as my friend ! Teri you brought a breath of fresh air to me and this farm by sharing your knowledge, encouragement, and love of riding with others.

Congratulations again! I look forward to watching you reach many more milestones on your journey to your Bronze Medal.

05/31/2026

Getting ready for the show. Wish Teri and Matrix good luck!!!

05/31/2026

💗 Sporthorse

05/31/2026

05/30/2026

🐴 Lesson Horse Spotlight 🐴

Over the coming weeks, we’ll be introducing each of our amazing lesson horses. Get to know the personalities, talents, and special qualities that make them such valuable members of our team!

05/29/2026

Petey and I are taking a mid afternoon break.

05/29/2026

Another beautiful afternoon!

05/28/2026

We spend a lot of time talking about what instructors owe their students such as good lessons, safe horses, clear communication, and a program worth paying for. All of that is true but the relationship runs both ways and there are a handful of things every riding instructor has every right to expect from the people they teach - regardless of age, level, or how long they have been in the program. Here is what that actually looks like...

1. Respect the schedule
Your lesson time starts when it starts. Not when you finish tacking up. Not when you finally find a parking spot. Not ten minutes after you were supposed to be mounted because you got caught in traffic. An instructor who has back to back lessons cannot absorb your late arrival without it cascading into every lesson that follows. Be ready and be on time. If life genuinely gets in the way, communicate early and not at the moment the lesson was supposed to begin. Last minute cancellations and no shows are in the same category. Your instructor may have pulled a horse from turnout, set up the arena, and reorganized their entire morning around your lesson. Treat their time the way you expect them to treat yours.

2. Pay on time, every time
Riding lessons are expensive and nobody knows that better than the instructor who spent years and significant money developing the skills they are now passing on to you. While riding might be a hobby or a luxury for you, it is a business for your instructor. They have the same bills, the same living expenses, and the same need for a reliable paycheck that every working professional has. Pay your invoice on time without being chased. It is a basic professional courtesy and it matters more than most students realize.

3. Respect the expertise
There is no shortcut to becoming a good riding instructor. It takes years of riding, training, teaching, continuing education, and a level of dedicated investment that most people outside the industry never fully appreciate. When you walk into a lesson, bring an open mind and leave your preconceived ideas at the gate. The student who arrives already convinced they know how it should be done makes the instructor's job significantly harder and their own progress significantly slower. Trust the process and the person who built it. You hired them for a reason.

4. Show up mentally not just physically
Riding is not soccer or swimming. It is a complex physical education that happens on the back of a living animal and it requires your full attention every single minute of the lesson. Your instructor is prepared to give you their best teaching so come prepared to receive it. Leave the work stress, the family drama, and the distracted scrolling in the car. The horse needs you present and so does your instructor. Frankly so do you because a distracted rider in an arena is a safety issue not just a teaching one.

5. Bring your best effort
Not perfection, not natural talent, but effort and a positive attitude. A genuine willingness to try the thing that feels uncomfortable and work through the thing that is not clicking yet. Riding is one of the most extraordinary privileges available to anyone who has access to it and it deserves to be treated that way. Your instructor is bringing their best to every lesson so bring yours in return.

None of these are unreasonable expectations. They are the basic professional courtesies that make the instructor student relationship work for both people in it. A student who shows up on time, pays promptly, respects the expertise, stays present, and gives genuine effort is a student every instructor wants in their program for years.

Be that student and your riding will reflect it.

05/28/2026

Checking the diagonal by looking down is one of those habits that starts as a reasonable beginner strategy and becomes a deeply ingrained problem that follows riders for years if nobody addresses it properly. The head drops, the balance shifts, the horse falls out of rhythm while the rider hunts for visual confirmation of something their body should eventually be able to feel without any visual input at all. The ultimate goal is not a rider who checks their diagonal correctly but a rider who does not need to check at all. Here is how to get there...

1. First make sure they understand what they are actually feeling for

A lot of riders check their diagonal without fully understanding what the diagonal is or why it matters. Before you work on feel, make sure the concept is solid. At the rising trot, the rider should be rising with the outside shoulder of the horse coming forward which means their seat is in the saddle when the outside hind and inside fore hit the ground together. That is the correct diagonal and it matters because posting with the correct diagonal helps the horse balance through corners and turns and distributes the rider's weight more effectively. A student who understands why it matters has more reason to develop the feel for it than one who is just following a rule.

2. Teach them what correct feels like before you ask them to identify it

Put your student on the correct diagonal and tell them that is what correct feels like right now. Ask them to close their eyes and feel it for thirty seconds, on a lunge if need be. You can do this both at the posting and sitting trot. Do it several times in both directions. The feel becomes more recognizable every time they practice distinguishing it.

3. Use the rising rhythm to develop feel.

Ask your student to slow their posting down slightly and feel the moment their seat contacts the saddle. Which shoulder is coming forward when they sit? Is it the inside or the outside? Start with the question before you start with the answer. A rider who is actively asking themselves that question every few strides is developing feel while a rider who is looking down every few strides is developing nothing except a habit that will limit their balance and their horse's way of going indefinitely.

4. Verbal shoulder exercise

Stand at the rail and call out outside as the horse moves past, matching your call to the outside shoulder coming forward at that moment. After a few laps, ask your student to call it back to you from the saddle before looking down. It forces them to feel and identify rather than look and confirm. When they get it right consistently without looking the feel is developing. When they consistently get it wrong in one direction you have found their weaker side.

5. Teach them to correct without looking

Once a student can feel the diagonal, the next step is teaching them to correct it without breaking rhythm or looking down. Sitting for two beats instead of one changes the diagonal cleanly without disrupting the trot. A rider who can feel the wrong diagonal and correct it smoothly with a bounce while keeping their eyes up and their rhythm consistent has genuinely mastered the skill. That is the standard worth working toward.

6. Make it a non event

One of the reasons diagonal checking persists is that instructors make a big deal of it, calling it out every time it is wrong and drilling it repeatedly in a way that makes the student anxious about it. A rider who is anxious about their diagonal looks down more not less. Correct it matter of factly, give them the feel exercise, and move on. The less drama attached to it the faster it resolves.

7. Rider still not getting it? Try the knee tap

Tap the student's outside knee with a dressage whip every time the horse's outside shoulder comes forward. This will require you to jog alongside the horse and rider but the external physical cue bypasses the visual hunting and gives the body something concrete to feel for. After several laps remove the tap and ask the student to remember the feeling it was marking. Works particularly well for tactile learners who struggle with purely verbal or visual instruction.

The correct diagonal is not something your student will feel on their first try or their tenth. It is a feel that develops gradually through repeated attention to sensation rather than visual confirmation. Build that attention deliberately and the looking down takes care of itself because they no longer need the visual when the feel is reliable.

How do you teach your students to feel their diagonal rather than check it visually?

05/28/2026

Sometimes when you are busy managing a barn your horses and riding get put on the back burner. So it was a breath of fresh air to have Cheryl back in Pa. It was motivation for me to get back on a horse…and Doni it was. It’s been a long tome since I sat on him.