Suncoast Equine Services, Diana Bregman

08/11/2024

04/14/2022

04/14/2022

Here are eight of our favorite quotes ICP instructors from day one of the ICP Symposium:

“I would be interested to see how many people here study teaching. Not what to teach, but how to teach. Nothing to do with horses. I think it is really, really important to make sure that we are all studying the human psychology side of the equation and how people learn. How that changes in different age groups. How you express something and how you put that forward.” - David O’Connor at the opening session of the symposium.
“The slower you go, the faster you get there. Jack Le Goff used to say it to me all the time as he was holding me back. That has been a huge mantra of mine with horses and with people.” - David O’Connor on riders moving up.
“It takes a long time for the aid to go from your brain to the leg to the horse to the horse’s brain. It takes longer than 2 seconds, you have to prepare ahead of time.” - Mary D’Arcy while teaching a dressage lesson.
“Dressage is not about minimizing, it’s about maximizing. We don’t slow them down, we actually drive the hind end into that downward transition.” - Rebecca Brown regarding downward transitions.
“You’re always in a lesson from the moment you get on your horse from the moment you get off your horse.” - Jim Graham at the end of his lesson when he asked his student to walk for the final time.
“You make the frame by continuing what you ride forward. If you don’t go forward enough you have nothing to contain at the end. Going forward doesn’t just happen by osmosis overnight. Forward is always your friend, not the enemy.” - Robin Walker while asking a student to move more forward at all gaits.
“Take an aid away, until you actually need it. Then you add an aid.” - Karen O’Connor while instructing a student on proper leg position while jumping to prevent accidentally bumping the horse with the spur.
“When I teach, I really don’t want the rider looking to me for every bit of advice. I would like for the horse and the rider to think for themselves.” - Will Coleman during his color commentary following the first set of over fences demonstrations.

07/14/2021

02/16/2020

The secret to a comfortable and confident ride

02/12/2020

Teaching piaffe is not an end in itself… quite the contrary, in fact.

Introducing the horse to the piaffe is fantastic for developing a better balance, carriage, and way of going that will help to develop many other movements and improve his gaits. Working first without the rider on his back is a way that we can help the horse learn to shift his weight and engage the proper muscles without the hindrance of the rider’s weight adding more complexity to the idea. This idea can be introduced at practically any working age and stands independent of what “level” the horse is currently schooling at.

With this thought in mind, we could say that we don’t school “piaffe for the sake of piaffe,” but we school it for the gymnastic benefit that it brings to the horse.

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