Gates Equestrian

11/08/2025

Clean your tack, groom your horse, and shine your boots. Every day. If you can control nothing else, you can control your turn out. There is no excuse to not do the minimum effort.

www.EquestrianCoach.com

11/07/2025

Rule Change Reminder for December 1, 2025: Soundness: Trotting a circle at the end of a round to demonstrate soundness is now required for Equitation, Adult Amateur, Low Adult Amateur, Children’s Hunter, Low Children's Hunter, Low Children’s Hunter Pony, and USHJA Hunter Sections.

Judges may ask you to return to the ring to trot a circle if you forget or if they don't see enough of your trot!

11/05/2025

11/04/2025

Good job team! I’m so proud of you that you guys know how to groom get your horse ready wrap them after a hard day of showing… True Horsemen very proud of you!

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

10/30/2025

I had a fun-filled fall day, complete with body clipping, shoeing, and, best of all, teaching!

10/27/2025

https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1JBvnJL2Ci/?mibextid=wwXIfr

10/26/2025

Riders… check it out!

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10/22/2025

𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐃𝐨𝐧’𝐭 𝐁𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐝 𝐚 𝐇𝐨𝐫𝐬𝐞 𝐎𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐅𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐬

Polework is the most undervalued training tool we have and it shows. Everyone says they want a sound, confident, long lasting horse. But then you see ponies Grade A at seven years old, and you can’t help but wonder, how much jumping did that take? How many schooling rounds? How many miles on joints that aren’t even fully developed until they’re eight?

𝐒𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐜𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 “𝐭𝐚𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐭.” 𝐈 𝐜𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐢𝐭 𝐮𝐧𝐬𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐡𝐨𝐫𝐬𝐞𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐩.

At six and seven, horses should still be learning how to use their body, not hammering around 1.20m tracks twice a weekend. By rights, their job at that age should be rhythm, straightness, balance not chasing points.

And this is where people roll their eyes, because the truth isn’t glamorous, polework is where the real training happens. Not when you’re on top of a fence. Before you ever get there.

A horse that can’t regulate its stride over poles won’t suddenly fix it over a jump. A horse that can’t stay straight on the ground won’t stay straight in the air. If your polework is weak, your jumping is a lie. You’re skipping steps. And skipping steps comes with a bill later usually in the form of lameness or fear.

We don’t have a jumping problem. We have a patience problem. Everyone wants the result, nobody wants to put in the miles. Polework doesn’t “look impressive” on a sales video. It doesn’t get likes online. But you know who did polework religiously? The horses that were still winning in their late teens, the ones who stayed sound long after their peers were “retired due to injury.”

You put a young horse through poles like the set up shown below, and you will learn very quickly if they drift, if they rush, if they lengthen one stride and shorten the next, if they think their way through questions, or panic through them. That’s education.

𝐓𝐡𝐚𝐭’𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐰𝐡𝐨𝐥𝐞 𝐩𝐨𝐢𝐧𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐛𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐨𝐧 𝐚 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐠 𝐡𝐨𝐫𝐬𝐞, 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐨𝐟𝐟 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐚𝐥𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐲 𝐝𝐨, 𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐞𝐚𝐜𝐡 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐦 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐝𝐨𝐧’𝐭 𝐲𝐞𝐭 𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰.

It’s not talent that makes a future horse. It’s time. Time spent in walk over poles. Time spent in trot learning rhythm. Time spent building the brain before asking for the jump. Anyone can point a brave horse at a fence. A horseman builds one from the ground up.

And let’s be honest, this industry has stopped prioritising the horse. It’s not about producing athletes anymore; it’s about producing price tags. Horses are being fast tracked up the levels not because they’re ready, but because someone wants to sell them before the weaknesses start to show. We talk about welfare, but then applaud speed of production. The answer isn’t more jumping. It’s more polework.

𝗕𝗲𝗰𝗮𝘂𝘀𝗲 𝗽𝗼𝗹𝗲𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸 𝗶𝘀𝗻’𝘁 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗶𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝘁’𝘀 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗼𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂’𝗿𝗲 𝗶𝗻 𝗶𝘁 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗵𝗼𝗿𝘀𝗲, 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗺𝗼𝗻𝗲𝘆.

Photo credit: RFS

10/18/2025

Yes!!!!

The hunter ring is known for its grace and polish, but veteran trainer Don Stewart believes it’s time to raise the bar—literally and figuratively. With decades of experience training top junior and amateur riders, Stewart has seen firsthand how course design impacts not just ribbons but the overall quality of riding in the division.

“I’m a big believer in harder courses,” Stewart said. “I think courses should be harder for the hunters. I think the judging would be easier.”

It’s a compelling idea: that more complex courses would lead to more objective judging. By asking riders to show track, pace, and ex*****on over turns and striding, stronger courses may create clearer separations in quality and fewer subjective ties.

In Stewart’s view, many hunter courses are too basic to properly assess a round. When every rider completes a smooth, rhythmic trip over simple lines, it becomes difficult to reward one over another.

“You go in and you do your job, and three horses are the same,” he explained. “And there’s really no way to separate them, because nobody took a risk.”

This leads to overly subjective judging and potentially discouraging results. For riders who are capable of showing brilliance, there’s often little incentive to take chances. “The ones that really want to go in there and go somewhere and get it done and ride, they don’t have a lot of opportunity,” Stewart said.

He doesn’t blame the judges, but rather the format. “If there’s more asked, you can see more,” he noted. “It’s like equitation. There’s a lot to look at.”

Equitation riders often face technical tracks that demand precision, balance, and decision-making. Stewart believes the hunter ring would benefit from a similar evolution. Not just to test riders, but to reveal quality more clearly to spectators and judges alike.

He explained, “In the equitation, if the judge says, ‘Go forward and turn inside and land and trot,’ you’re going to get a little difference in what happens in the ring.”

That difference, he argues, makes the judging easier and the sport more educational. Riders get instant feedback on their decisions, and the judge’s job becomes more about analyzing riding, not just beauty.

“We need to see more of that in the hunter ring,” Stewart said. “Courses that ask for something, that let the riders show who they are.”

For Stewart, the idea of harder hunter courses isn’t about making the sport more elite or inaccessible. It’s about education.

“The whole point of showing is learning,” he said. “And when everything’s a straight line with no turns and no options, what are they learning?”

He believes giving riders more complex tasks in the ring better prepares them for the future—whether that’s stepping up to equitation finals, trying the jumper ring, or simply becoming a better, more well-rounded rider.

“It doesn’t have to be trappy,” he clarified. “It just has to make them think a little bit.”

Stewart acknowledges that not every rider or horse is ready for high-level complexity. But he sees plenty of opportunity for incremental changes that raise the standard.

“You don’t need to throw in a rollback to a hand gallop and a trot fence all at once,” he said. “But you can do something. One bending line. A forward five to a quiet six. Something that gives you a chance to see a ride.”

He believes the hunter ring has become too focused on perfection instead of progress. “I’m not saying every round needs to be fireworks,” Stewart said. “But let’s give the riders a chance to show some fire.”

Ultimately, Stewart believes course designers hold the key to changing the hunter ring for the better. “It’s in their hands,” he said. “If they build a good course, the rest will follow.”

He’s optimistic that small shifts can make a big impact. “I think if we start asking more, the sport will get better,” Stewart said. “It’ll make the riders better. It’ll make the judging better. And it’ll make the watching better, too.”

For Stewart, it’s not just about ribbons or reputation. It’s about the future of hunter sport. And he’s not shy about where he stands.

“If we want better riding, we need better questions,” he said. “It’s as simple as that.”

📎 Save & share this article at https://www.theplaidhorse.com/2025/10/15/rethinking-the-hunter-ring-why-we-need-harder-courses/
📸 © Erin Gilmore Photography

10/17/2025