Alexandra Veleris - Third Coast Equestrian LLC

04/04/2026

Some riders plateau at 1.10m not because they lack talent—but because a few key pieces never fully come together. In showjumping, that height is often where the sport stops forgiving gaps.

Here’s what typically holds people there:

1. The basics aren’t as solid as they think
At 1.10, you can’t “get away with it” anymore. Inconsistent rhythm, weak straightness, or poor distance judgment start costing rails every round. Riders often chase bigger tracks instead of sharpening flatwork and fundamentals.

2. Riding reactively instead of proactively
Many riders at this level are still following the horse rather than riding the plan. They see a distance late, make last-second decisions, and rely on luck instead of creating the jump.

3. The wrong horse (or mismatch)
Not every horse has the scope, carefulness, or mindset to move up. And sometimes it’s not about the horse being “bad”—just not the right fit for that rider’s style or goals.

4. Comfort zone mentality
1.10 can feel safe and achievable, so riders stay there. Moving up means risking rails, time faults, and ego. A lot of people choose consistency over growth without realizing it.

5. Lack of correct coaching or feedback
Progress stalls when no one is truly pushing you or correcting the small details. The wrong voices—or too many voices—can also create confusion and inconsistency.

6. Mental ceiling
This is a big one. Riders often believe 1.10 is their limit. That belief shows up in hesitation, over-riding, or riding not to make a mistake instead of riding to succeed.

7. Inconsistent system
Training sporadically, changing methods, or not having a clear program makes it hard to build confidence and progression—for both horse and rider.

The truth?
Getting past 1.10 usually isn’t about doing something dramatic—it’s about doing the simple things exceptionally well, consistently, and under pressure.

The riders who move up:

Obsess over flatwork and rideability

Develop a clear system and stick to it

Put themselves (and their horses) in the right environments

Stay coachable and honest about their weaknesses

Get comfortable being uncomfortable

04/02/2026

Yes!!!

The horse and rider are a coupled system

A ridden horse is not moving under a rider like an independent machine carrying cargo. Horse and rider function as a linked, self-balancing system.

When the rider’s mass is not centered—whether due to pelvic rotation, uneven stirrup loading, trunk asymmetry, a collapsed hip, or a habitual weight bias—the horse must reorganize movement to keep the combined center of mass stable.

This is not a theoretical concept. Research has repeatedly demonstrated that rider asymmetry produces measurable changes in equine thoracolumbar motion, back loading patterns, and proxies for limb loading.

What the research shows

Induced rider asymmetry alters spinal motion

When asymmetry is deliberately introduced—most commonly by shortening one stirrup—horses show detectable changes in thoracolumbar and thoracolumbosacral kinematics. In simple terms, the horse’s back moves differently to accommodate altered rider posture and force distribution.

Rider asymmetry can change limb loading patterns

In these same induced-asymmetry studies, researchers report increased fetlock extension on the side opposite the shortened stirrup. Fetlock extension is widely used as a proxy for peak vertical force, suggesting that rider asymmetry can shift how load is distributed through the limbs.

Rider–horse asymmetries relate to asymmetric back loading

Large-scale studies using saddle pressure mats combined with motion capture show that functional asymmetries in the rider and/or horse are associated with uneven force distribution across the horse’s back.

Many riders are asymmetrical without realizing it

Even without intentional manipulation, studies measuring stirrup forces demonstrate that rider asymmetry is common and measurable. Subtle, habitual differences in how riders load each stirrup create consistent left–right differences in how force enters the horse–rider system.

How rider asymmetry commonly shows up in the horse

Trainers and riders often describe horses affected by rider asymmetry as:
• harder to bend in one direction
• heavier or stronger in one rein
• stepping shorter behind on one side
• drifting, falling in, or resisting straightness
• loading one forelimb or hind limb more
• showing uneven contact, rhythm, or consistency

Biomechanically, these signs are consistent with a horse reorganizing trunk control and limb forces to manage an off-center rider.

Why rider symmetry matters

Performance: straightness is not just a horse issue

When rider loading differs left to right, the horse may stiffen portions of the trunk, redistribute weight, or alter stride mechanics to maintain balance and rhythm. These compensations can appear as training limitations when, in reality, part of the constraint originates from the rider’s symmetry and timing.

Soundness: repeated asymmetry concentrates stress

Horses compensate remarkably well—until they cannot. Habitual asymmetric loading may increase tissue stress in predictable regions over time, including the feet, fetlocks, sacroiliac region, thoracolumbar junction, and saddle area. Research shows that the system does, in fact, change loading strategies when the rider is asymmetric.

Saddle fit and back soreness

Asymmetric rider posture can increase pressure on one side of the saddle, subtly shift its position, and create the appearance of unilateral back soreness. For this reason, saddle evaluation and bodywork assessment are most effective when rider symmetry is considered alongside horse and tack.

Monitoring rider symmetry: practical strategies for self-assessment

Because horse and rider function as a coupled biomechanical system, rider asymmetry does not need to be dramatic to matter. Subtle differences in weight distribution, pelvic orientation, trunk rotation, or limb loading are enough to influence equine movement.

Riders can begin by increasing awareness:
• noticing which seat bone feels heavier
• observing stirrup pressure differences
• using mirrors or video for feedback
• paying attention to consistency between reins and directions
• routinely practicing rider position exercises both on and off the horse

These simple checks can provide valuable insight into how the rider may be influencing the horse.

Bringing it all together

Rider asymmetry is not a flaw—it is a normal human reality. Every rider brings a history of movement patterns, past injuries, and structural preferences into the saddle.

What matters is not perfection, but awareness. Small, consistent asymmetries can shape how a horse moves, loads, and responds over time. Left unaddressed, they may contribute to training challenges, uneven development, and increased physical strain.

These patterns can also amplify physical discomfort, making minor issues feel more significant and more difficult for the horse to manage.

You don’t have to figure this out alone

Because these influences are often subtle and difficult to feel from the saddle, outside perspective is essential.

Working with a knowledgeable trainer or instructor can help identify asymmetries you may not be aware of and guide you toward more balanced, effective riding. In combination with bodywork, saddle fit evaluation, and veterinary input when needed, this creates a more complete understanding of the horse–rider system.

The goal

The goal is not to create a perfectly symmetrical rider—it is to create a more balanced system.

When rider and horse are better aligned:
• movement becomes more efficient
• communication becomes clearer
• the horse moves with less compensation and less strain

Supporting not only performance, but long-term soundness and well-being.

https://koperequine.com/improve-your-riding-training-with-serpentine-exercises/

03/15/2026

The absolute number one most important thing you can do to remain safe around Horses, is to learn to read them.
This mare is just fresh. But she’s very fresh. It would have been absolutely dangerous if Julie had just climbed on her. By the time we were done with Grandma she was a whole different horse.
Sometimes horses start out fine, but little things happen during the course of the ride. The triggers stack and your horse that WAS fine isn’t anymore.
Do you recognize it?
Do you recognize it early?
Do you know what mounted exercises bring your horse back to emotional regulation?
Do you know when to dismount and tackle challenges from the ground?
Do you know how to work you horse from the ground in a way that takes your horse from fresh or disregulated to calm and steadfast?


03/11/2026

Most riders believe their horse is straight because they can ride down the rail without drifting. But straightness is not about staying between two fences. It’s about alignment through the body, from poll to hind foot. That alignment directly affects performance, confidence, and long-term soundness.

Carleton Brooks returns again and again to fundamentals. In discussing conformation, he reminds readers plainly: “Form is function, so a horse is going to hold up better if their body is more correct.” If the body is not aligned correctly, whether due to build or training, the function suffers. “The way their legs line up underneath their body is very important.”

Straightness means the hind feet follow the line of the front feet. The shoulders and hips stay aligned with the direction of travel. The horse pushes evenly into both reins. There is no drifting shoulder, no escaping haunch, no neck bent one way while the ribcage falls the other.

Almost every horse is naturally crooked. That’s normal. What matters is whether we address it or allow it to become habitual compensation. When crookedness becomes a pattern, one hind leg works harder. One shoulder carries more weight. Over time, uneven loading affects muscle development, jump technique, and durability.

Brooks illustrates structural imbalance with a simple analogy: “If your table has one leg that’s not straight, it is not going to be sturdy.” The same principle applies under saddle. A body that is not aligned cannot remain sturdy under athletic demand.

📎 Continue reading this article at https://www.theplaidhorse.com/2026/03/10/straightness-is-not-just-a-line-why-crooked-horses-cant-jump-their-best/
📸 © Heather N. Photography

03/06/2026

“Horses regularly trained with ground work are more relaxed when ridden”

A recent study of dressage horses in Germany that looked at rein length and tension revealed a surprising finding: horses who were regularly trained in ground work/in-hand work had lower heart rates during ridden work than all of the other participating horses. This wasn’t what the researchers were investigating, but it was clear in the results. From this, the researchers concluded that, “Perhaps horses trained in ground work had more trust in their rider.”

So why would it be true that horses who regularly learn via ground work/in-hand work are more relaxed? There are a few possibilities.

1) Horses trained regularly with ground work are more relaxed because their trainers are more relaxed. It’s possible that humans who take the time to teach their horses from the ground are less goal oriented and more concerned with the process. They may be more relaxed in general and foster this same relaxation in their horses. As you are, so is your horse.

2) Horses trained regularly with ground work have trainers who are more educated about a horse’s balance.

Their horses learn to move in correct balance which allows them to be healthy and sound in their bodies and, therefore, more relaxed. Physical balance is emotional balance.

3) Horses trained regularly with ground work understand the trainer’s criteria better. They have mastered the response to an aid before the rider mounts and know the “right answer” already once under saddle. They don’t experience any conflict when the rider asks for a behavior because the neural pathway has already been installed. They are more relaxed about being ridden because it rarely has caused confusion for them.

For us highly visual humans I think that ground work is often a better way to begin exercises because we are much better at seeing our horse doing the right thing than feeling it from the saddle. Often, my feel in the saddle is enhanced by the fact that I have watched my horse perform an exercise over and over in our in-hand work. It feels how it looks. In-hand work is also a good way to teach our horses because our own bodies are often more in balance when we are walking beside our horses. With the ground under our feet we are able to be more relaxed if something goes wrong and less likely to be so busy wrapped up in our own balance that we give our horses conflicting or confusing aids. It’s a good place to figure things out. I am a huge fan of in-hand work.

I’m glad to learn research revealed ground work is good for horses. Horses with a low heart rate are relaxed and relaxed horses perform better and live longer. In this day and age of people starting horses under saddle in under an hour and increasing monetary rewards for the “young horse dressage program“, everything seems to be done in a hurry. The entire horse culture seems to privilege “getting up there and riding your horse”. But as one of my favorite writers and accomplished horsewoman, Teresa Tsimmu Martino writes, “In today’s horse culture there are clinics that brag about starting a c**t in a day, as if the quickness of it was the miracle. But old horse people know it takes years to create art. Horses as great masterpieces are not created in a day. An artist does not need to rush.” We need more scientific studies like this one to encourage us to slow down and take our time with our horses.

So why were the horses in the study more relaxed? Likely it was a combination of all three factors – a relaxed trainer, better overall balance and clear understanding of criteria.

These are things that matter to your horse, and yes, will allow him to trust you when you ride. Take some time to slow down and work from the ground, learn a bit more about equine balance and teach new things in-hand before asking for them under saddle. You can take your riding to a whole new level and help your horse become more healthy and relaxed in the process.” - by Jen of Spellbound Horses

03/06/2026

03/03/2026

👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

Sarah Segal recently produced a faultless performance in her first U.S. team appearance in over a decade. But rounds like those, she says, are just "small pieces of the bigger picture.”

“I enjoy the consistent daily work to make my horses fitter, sounder, happier, and better at show jumping," she says. "I also work on improving my own skills, and then turning those improvements into better results in the ring. I think I’m better at that process than I was before, and I can still get even better in the future, and that’s what really motivates me.”

Read more at the link below.

📸 Martin Dokoupil

02/27/2026

Big welcome to and her lovely mare, Hera! In the KWPN - NA 2025 Keuring tour, she was reserve National Champion Hunter mare, and Winner of the 4 YO Global Equine Sires cup. She was also the 2021 KWPN NA Virtual Futurity Winner as a foal! Sired by Checkmate and her dam, Z. Empress who competed in sport to 1.45M with Nick Dello Joio, and her dam, Aerial, competed to 1.60M with Jill Henselwood. And she has the BEST brain!!! So excited for what’s to come with these two lovely ladies!!

Photo by Chelsea Spear Photography

02/22/2026

Walk down the schooling ring at any major horse show and you’ll hear the language of results. Clear rounds. Tricolor photos. Qualifying points. Rankings. Finals. In a sport built around judges, ribbons, and scores, it’s easy to believe excellence is something you can hang on a stall door.

But what if it isn’t?

On a recent episode of The Plaidcast, author and performance coach Brad Stulberg joined Tonya Johnston and challenged a common assumption about success. Excellence, he argues, is not primarily a result. It’s a feeling.

When Stulberg describes excellence, he starts with resonance. “If you are watching just a phenomenal horse and rider just do their thing,” he explains, “you don’t think that it’s excellent… you feel it deep in your heart and in your bones.”

The same is true whether you’re watching Steph Curry shoot, standing in front of a Rothko painting, or witnessing a master chef at work. The technical components are there, but what moves you is the coherence and skill. The sense that everything is exactly as it should be.

The horse industry understands this instinctively. Hunters, in particular, are judged on feel as much as form. Equitation prizes polish and harmony. Even in show jumping, where rails and time are objective, the rounds that stay with us are the ones where horse and rider seem fully connected, riding as one organism rather than two separate beings negotiating fences.

Stulberg suggests that the most powerful moments in sport are the ones where sport becomes art. There is “really no separation between the two,” he says.

Riders know this feeling well. It’s the round where the distances appear without force. The warm-up where your horse’s back feels loose and elastic beneath you. The moment mid-course when time slows just enough for you to breathe and trust.

These moments rarely come from obsessing over outcome. In fact, chasing a result often makes them less likely. The more tightly a rider tries to force a particular performance, I just want to repeat that exact round, the more tension creeps in.

📎 Continue reading this article at https://www.theplaidhorse.com/2026/02/18/excellence-is-a-feeling-what-riders-get-wrong-about-success/
📸 © Lauren Mauldin

02/06/2026

"Every rider that pulls the head down of a horse has absolutely no idea how a horse functions, no matter who it is! I repeat NO MATTER WHO IT IS!!!" ~ Albert Voorn

Most riders say they want a calm horse.

But then they ride like this:

Rush the warm-up.
Pull on the reins.
Nag with the leg.
Get frustrated when the horse doesn’t respond.
Add gadgets when it gets worse.

You don’t 𝘨𝘦𝘵 calm.

You 𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗶𝗻 calm.

Calm comes from:
• Clear preparation
• Balanced riding
• Consistent expectations
• Allowing time
• Repeating boring basics
• Knowing when to stop

Not from stronger bits.
Not from louder legs.
Not from striking a horse when it hesitates.

A tense rider creates a tense horse.
A rushed rider creates a rushed horse.
A confused rider creates a confused horse.

Then we blame the horse.

Here’s the uncomfortable truth:

If your horse can’t stay relaxed in walk and trot, he won’t be relaxed over fences.
If your horse can’t hold rhythm over poles, he won’t hold it to jumps.
If your horse can’t rebalance on the flat, he can’t rebalance in front of a fence.

Jumping doesn’t fix flat problems.

Jumping exposes them.

Prepare first.
Slow down.
Reward the smallest try.
Build understanding before height.

Your horse is always telling you what he needs.

Are you listening?

02/05/2026