R & J Farm and Stable

03/22/2024

The WALK - mother of all gaits

Most riders spend little time at the walk outside of "cooling out" or "warming up".

Not realizing it is the gait that BIRTHS everything you do, and REVEALS everything you may need.

"The FEI rule book once stated that it was at the pace of the walk that imperfections of dressage are most evident"

Every issue can be felt and seen through the magnifying lens of the walk.

"François de Lubersac, a master from the legendary School of Versailles in the 18th century, recognized that in dressage training, the first gait in which to train is always the walk.

Remarkably, de Lubersac, trained his horses only at the walk, and when he decided that they were ready, his horses were able to do everything at all gaits."

The walk is an anchoring gate. To teach and refine the horses balance, collectabilty, lightness, refinement, propreoception, suppleness, relaxation, lateral gymnastics, and understanding of aids... just to name a few.

There is no better gait to school these concepts then the walk. Testing things up the ladder of movement; trot and canter, and then anchoring back to the walk to fix, progress, or prepare.

The walk is the gait you "polish the stone" of all these qualities, more than any other gait.

It is the gait you come back to again and again, where the root of it all lives.

And remember, as with any gait, there is more than "just ONE walk".

Tempo, balance, stride, and frame can change in so many ways within any single gait that it lends itself to many "changes of gait within a gait", based on what that horse needs at any given moment.

In my opinion, a classical rider can easily spend an entire ride at the walk, and the higher up they ride, the more time they may spend at the walk...polishing the stone.

Mindful footfalls live in the walk.

What is your walk telling you?

03/22/2024

02/05/2024

“I don’t want much, I just want to groom once in a while and go for an easy trail ride here and there”-

This is a statement folks often make, which makes perfect sense from a human point of view. It doesn’t require much time, effort or skill gaining, and the expectation appears low- for the horse to just stand quietly, or happily trod along down the trail.

From a riders perspective, grooming requires relaxing and enjoying brushing their horse. Trail riding usually involves relaxing and leaving the horse mostly alone to enjoy the outdoors and company.

From a horses point of view, however, this is not so easy a task. To ”just be brushed,” the horse has to have enough confidence to leave the herd, the skills to lead well to the barn, the ability to stand tied quietly for a length of time in isolation away from friends, to stay focused enough to stand despite the distractions and movement around them in the barn.
That’s a lot!

To “just trail ride,” the horse has to have the afore mentioned skills, plus load in a trailer, ride in the trailer and unload (those are all separate skills), leave friends quietly and ride calmly past all kinds of input and stimulus- they have to know what rider input to tune into (legs and reins), and which to shut out (rustling around to get a granola bar out of saddle bags, yammering to friends). They have to manage terrain with balance, leave or join other horses, or ride past other people, dogs, bikes, etc. They often have little guidance from a rider who’s expectations and attention to the horse is low (who is relaxing and enjoying company or scenery, not giving attentive communications to the horse).

That’s a TALL order for a horse, and quite a drastic difference in expectation between horse and rider in terms of education, attention and workload.

Think from the horses point of view. Don’t skimp on the education, the awareness, and don’t leave your horse to their own devices for “simple tasks.” A horse is a horse, and not a human- and they see our world very differently. It’s on us to prepare and guide them.

01/31/2024

Rick and I are so excited!!

We are excited to welcome back Jessica Hayes as our Western Dressage Clinician for this year's Indiana Equine Roundup!

Jessica's focus is on Dressage and Ranch Riding and we know you'll learn a lot from this nationally recognized clinician!

If you would like to participate in one (or more) of Jessica's Clinics at the Roundup, please email Danisa Lewis at [email protected].

01/21/2024

A little long but I ask you to read all the way.
We have truly seen it all over the years at our farm!! We have pulled frozen calves, we have had the tractor stuck in the pond trying to break the ice, every injury to man and beast possible but this was a 1st!!

He is ok… God was good and he was only in water to his belly. His hind legs are cut and swollen but vitals are all good and he is eating and drinking. So he will be ok!!

Now, all I had to do was walk out on the ice, put his halter on and say “step up” may 2 or 3 times. We teach everything on our farm on obstacles and that is the word to walk forward, step on the bridges and pedestals, and even used to load. He jumped up out of the ice, which was already refreezing around him and we walked back to the barn. And start the long process of getting warm, dry and bandaged. But he will be ok!

I beg all horse owners to teach their horse to “step up” on to things on command. That simple instruction took this from a disaster to caring for an injured horse that will be ok.

07/26/2023

Bunker and obstacles!! He’s a rock star!!

07/26/2023

Super excited for 2023 Makeover Hopeful Bunker Hill Road and Elsie to compete this year!!

07/22/2023

So excited to be at Antebellum Farm for the combined test today! 2022 Makeover Graduate Super strike and Autumn Seymour warming up for their 1st dressage test of the day!! 2021 Makeover Graduate Workin It and 2023 Makeover Hopeful Cowboy Diplomacy show later this afternoon!!

Thank you for keeping us moving our best!!

07/09/2023

Last Sunday we did an outing with 3 Makeover graduates and 1 Hopeful Cowboy Diplomacy! They were all wonderful! Thank you Joyce Brinsfield and Ballyhigh Show stables for a fun show for the 1st outing!!

07/04/2023

Great read!!

Lameness can be the result of imbalanced feet, a chronically irritated ligament that isn’t addressed until it’s a bigger deal, or even stiffness.