Adamo Equestrian

06/09/2025

05/30/2025

You know you don't have to lunge your horse in circles, right?

I don't know who needs to see this, but plenty of folks do- at least going by the amount of "lunging is really bad for horses" comments I've seen recently.

If you run your horse in circles for 20 minutes because it's too bat s**t for you to get on every time you want to ride it, then that's not lunging; that's just a good way to trash your horses suspensories and keep your vet and farrier on speed dial🤷‍♀️

So if not circles, what CAN you do on the lunge? Hot take, but you can use the long sides of the arena too! That's right, you can lunge in straight lines! How? By moving. Your. Feet🚶‍♀️ By walking from A to C and back again. Horse too fast? Even hotter take: run with him! Horse is descended from Secretariat and you can't keep up? Buy a longer rope so you don't need to run so far. Boiling molten mercury take? Teach him to slow down or stop altogether! Can't do that? Then you have work to do and something new to learn.

Forget the tweedy Pam's and Susans at Pony Club who told you your feet MUST stay still with your lunge line and whip creating a triangle that cannot be broken. If your arena is the standard 40 x 20m, you have ample space to help your horse stretch and straighten; you don't need to limit yourself to the 17 meters your lunge line allows and cling to the letter C like it's the last lifeboat off the Titanic. You can do circles of course, but they don't all need to be the same size, speed or in the same half of the arena. Use your imagination and, heaven forbid, your own legs!

Here's working student Vesna lunging Titus. We lunge all our horses at least once a week as a way of schooling them without a rider. For our rehab cases, it's a powerful tool in getting them to use their bodies correctly and build strength and familiarity with the arena before we begin riding them.

05/28/2025

I have just returned home from a lovely trip to the International Open Day for the Ecole de Legerete, to pay homage to Philippe Karl and High Noon in their last public performance. Philippe’s retirement, alongside the immense losses earlier this year of Bettina Drummond and Charles de Kunffy, prompted me to wonder about who the next masters will be. Who will carry the torch of Classical Excellence? Who will share the shining truth of Masters past? Who will inspire the next generation to do the same?

Often in life, we realize no one is coming to the rescue; we must chart our own course. Now, more than ever, the onus falls on us to demonstrate our own ethics in our horsemanship practice, and bravely for the public eye. Philippe in his speech to his teachers assembled in the audience, urged us to the fore: now is our time. It is not enough just to make cogent arguments: but into the fray. Show the work, to the best of our ability. If we are lucky, one day a student of ours will rise to the occasion, following the beauty that harmony and balance create, and perpetuate in turn.

While there are very few who we might consider Masters among us, there are many unwilling to compromise on the ethics of training which respects and honors the horse. As we take up the mantle, we lift the torch, and simultaneously the burden from the generation before. And the most beautiful thing happens: the truth has a way of rippling out, sparking curiosity and growth in ways we cannot even imagine.

A few years ago I sold a horse to a young girl, it was a big step up for her. He had many good qualities, but could be as anxious as he was talented and kind. She saw in him her hopes and dreams, and as she got to know him, he guided her training and together they forged a path of kindness, mutual trust and respect. Other young people at her barn took notice. They began to ask questions, to follow the training she was doing. One by one they took off their nosebands. Somewhere far away, young girls who I have never met, are practicing more ethical training, changing their own lives and the lives of their horses, all because some years back I began learning about and practicing Legerete. How many others might have shifted in their paths in ways we cannot imagine? And if this has happened from my work, imagine the reach someone like Philippe Karl has had - across continents, across time.

This is how change happens. Not only from inspiring demonstrations of mastery, as we saw from Philippe Karl and High Noon in their farewell performance this past weekend, but also from the ripples of many imperfect messengers, doing the best they can in their small corners of the world. Uncompromising in their ethics and standards, but contagious in their empathy and generosity. Imagine the combined effect, not just of the one bolt of lightening that is true mastery, but of a million far flung floating sparks, waiting to ignite.

05/24/2025

I want to take a moment to recognize this little girl. Avalon might possibly be the most dedicated little horseman I've met. There is hardly a day she is not at the barn. She is here every single day taking care of not only her own lease pony, but also the lesson ponies, her instructors' ponies, and any other ponies that need her. She is currently diligently rehabbing her lease pony, Bell, which as any horseman knows is a rough and tedious job. She meticulously monitors the rehab program prescribed by the vet and myself and has not missed a single day. When she's not riding she is hand walking, grooming, bathing, icing, braiding blanketing, wrapping and cuddling. If any trainers have been thinking "where have the true barn rats gone?" well, Avalon is here to give you hope! And of course I must thank and recognize her ever supportive barn mom Renee Duffin, who is out here with her daughter everyday supporting her kid and my business like no one I have ever met! Thank you both so much for everything you do!

05/01/2025

Missing the forest for the trees

We are very good at rationalizing and finding ways to cheat personal responsibility. And our brains are so slick at it, that often without someone else pointing it out, we wouldn’t even notice

A student of mine at a clinic a few years back was having some trouble bridling her mare. She mentioned all the horses calming signals, was considering going bitless, and talked about incorporating different methods to motivate her.

I asked to watch her bridle, and the problem was immediate evident- her management of the horse’s head and gear were not smooth, and the horse’s face was being grabbed, mouth being bumped, and ears being crushed. I showed her how to smooth out those things bothering her horse, and her resistance completely melted. The mare was more than happy to accept the bridle if we were moving smoothly and politely around her face.

My student took the bridle back, immediately went back to grabbing and pulling her head in, and the mare stuck her head back up.

“I don’t think she likes this bridle,” she repeated. “I’m going to go bitless and see if that doesn’t help.”

This is not to criticize this student - she legitimately wanted her mare to be happy, or critique bitless bridles - some work just fine.

But it’s so easy to jump around to new methods, quicker and more definite motivation on the horse’s end, and say the horse doesn’t “like” something as a way out to learning control of our own selves.

It’s essential to stay open minded. But if we cant develop self awareness and skill, we often get trapped on the hamster wheel of new methods to solve problems we create through lack of understanding- when lack of feel appears, we often seek different methods to solve a problem.

Does the horse not “like” it, or do we need better finesse at it? A good teacher can help you figure out the difference. Sometimes a little elbow grease and staying power is the best solution.

04/24/2025

04/12/2025

Six AM lessons with Shannon and Spezi are actually so lovely 🖤