Equine Pavilion Show Stables

11/03/2025

These days, everybody seems to have grooms, but “R” judge and trainer Geoff Case thinks many riders are missing the quiet time spent simply doing for their horses. “Horsemanship doesn’t just happen in the saddle,” he said. “It’s everything you do around the horse that teaches you who they are.”

Case believes that the best riders, the ones who seem effortlessly in sync with their mounts, aren’t just great athletes. They’re great caretakers.

Case came up in a generation where riders did everything—groomed, bathed, wrapped, and tacked up their own horses. He still believes those habits are the foundation of success. “When you groom your horse, you start noticing things,” he said. “You feel the muscle tone. You feel if something’s tight. You learn their reactions.”

That kind of attention builds awareness and empathy, two things that can’t be taught in a lesson. “If you only ever show up to get on, you’re missing half the education,” he said. “It’s in the details. How they stand, how they breathe, how they look at you when you walk up with the halter.”

He encourages his students to spend as much time on the ground as they do in the saddle. “The more you do yourself, the more connected you are,” he said. “You start riding differently because you understand who’s under you.”

Case recalled working with Peter Wylde, who won the World Championship and an Olympic gold medal, but still did all his own care. “Peter was the perfect example,” Case said. “He could have had ten grooms if he wanted, but he still groomed, tacked, cooled out—everything. He knew every bump on those horses.”

That level of attention was about pride and partnership. “Peter didn’t separate the care from the riding,” Case said. “He knew they were part of the same thing.”

For Case, that mindset is what defines real horsemanship. “When you spend time doing the basics yourself, you stop thinking of the horse as a piece of equipment,” he said. “You start thinking of them as your teammate.”

📎 Continue reading this article at https://www.theplaidhorse.com/2025/11/03/why-doing-the-basics-yourself-builds-better-riders/
📸 © The Plaid Horse

10/24/2025

Ask Dr. Holly Helbig what she worries most about for the future of the sport, and her answer isn’t about judging systems, prize money, or even veterinary shortages. It’s about kids.

“We’ve done this to them,” she said during a recent Plaidcast In Person event. “We’ve tacked up for them, been their grooms, enabled them. They aren’t getting the hours it takes to build intuition around horses.”

That loss of hands-on time—the small, daily habits that teach empathy and awareness—has become one of Helbig’s biggest concerns. And as both a veterinarian and professional trainer, she’s seen how taking those opportunities away doesn’t just change young riders; it changes the horses too.

Helbig describes herself as a “horse-crazy girl, not from a horse family.” She didn’t grow up surrounded by resources, but she found a way to make it work. “My parents went through bankruptcy,” she said. “Being a kid, not coming from a ton of money, I had to be scrappy.”

That scrappiness, she believes, is part of what shaped her success. “I didn’t have the money to pay a braider or a bunch of grooms,” she said. “You just jump in and do what you have to do. At the end of the day, I wouldn’t trade it. My relationship with that horse was stronger because of all the time I spent with him.”

Today, she worries that many young riders aren’t getting those same opportunities. “I think we’ve created a generation that can ride beautifully,” she said, “but hasn’t had the chance to really know horses.”

In her own training program, Helbig made sure her students stayed involved in every aspect of horse care. “My kids tacked for themselves at the horse show,” she said. “We had grooms, but they tacked for themselves.”

When something medical came up, she used it as a teaching moment. “Whenever anything happened in the barn, I’d scoop all the kids up and say, ‘Come look at this. What is it? Look at this ultrasound. Let’s look at this x-ray together.’”

Those experiences, she said, taught her students to see horses as living, breathing partners—not just show animals. “They learned to pay attention, to notice things, and to ask questions. That’s what builds confidence.”

📎 Continue reading this article at https://www.theplaidhorse.com/2025/10/22/let-the-kids-tack-up-why-the-next-generation-needs-more-time-in-the-barn/
📸 Lauren Mauldin / The Plaid Horse

09/28/2025

Trainers. Grooms. Farriers. Veterinarians. Riders. Writers. Barn managers. Therapists. Many of us live in the space where passion meets pressure, and the result is often burnout that looks like devotion from the outside. The very people who are keeping this industry going are often barely surviving....

05/15/2024

People often say that their horses in stables ‘live like kings’, but in fact, none of them do, unless we are referring to a king in exile, and a locked room!

When people use this analogy they are usually referring to the supply of copious clean bedding, an aesthetically pleasing stable and performance enhancing nutrition.

It is important to re-think this statement from the horse’s perspective and recognise that to live like a horse in a stable would be to: live with friends they can see and touch, be able to forage for 13 hours a day, and to have the freedom to move and interact with at least some facets of their environment.

This is a teaser of our soon to be released Modern Horse Training Volume 2 ✨

10/12/2023

Longeing horses in a controlled way and avoiding overlongeing could be the most effective ways to protect their joints.

05/06/2023

Some time ago we were guests of the Philippaerts family in Oudsbergen. We had a chat with the pater...

05/06/2023

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03/22/2023

Couldn’t agree more.

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08/11/2022

Good horse care starts with good people and we have the best! Thank You Nacho and Serafin for making it all happen and taking care of our best friends. Between making their double stalls to trekking them all the way to the turnouts and then beautifying them all over again, we are so thankful for your extra hard work and long days. Big thank you and proud trainer moment to all our girls who don’t just ride. They clean stalls, hand walk, paint feet, clean tack, Ice legs, pack feet, pack trailers, do night check and everything in between without being asked because they are true horsewomen that can do it all.💕🦾

08/11/2022

We had an amazing three weeks in Colorado. All horses and riders exceeded expectations, taking home a lot of tricolors, blue ribbons and most importantly having fun while doing it! So proud of our new horses keeping up with the OGs! 🥇