High Standards Stables

06/22/2026

Lots of good ones coming in today!

https://www.instagram.com/p/DZ0bARxG8sB/?igsh=MXhuZmgyd2Y2Y3QxdQ==

06/22/2026

We asked equine professionals, “What is one thing you wish clients understood?” Their answers are important for riders of all ages to read and understand.

“That “just one thing ” I do for you that takes me 5 minutes? Yeah, that actually adds an hour to my day. And if I don’t charge for doing the “little” extra things, then I can’t get to the big things”

“How hard it is to go 24/7 365 days of the year. And the money/time/mental facilities it takes to run the farm…”

“The tremendous amount of responsibility we carry on our shoulders. For the client, as well as the horse.”

“That horses aren’t vehicles that anyone can drive. You can’t just buy a 3’6″ horse and do the 3’6″ any more than you can just buy a grand prix horse and do the grand prix.”

“Organizing turnout is way harder than you expect. Who goes where, for how long, with a buddy or not. It is way more thoughtful than just putting a horse in a field.”

“The most expensive ponies are the old ones stepping down. If you want a deal, ask for a green or quirky one.”

“Just because I’m available to the horse 24/7 doesn’t mean I need to be available to the humans 24/7! Clients understand that we drop everything for the horses at all hours, and they expect the same for them which is really unfair. Clients who respect boundaries and our ability to have free time or a day off are worth their weight in gold.”

“There is no guarantee that your horse will stay sound.”

Next time you head to the barn or chat with your trainer, try keeping these things in mind. While questions are always welcome, the timing and the way that you ask them can be key. Remember, your trainer wants you and your horse to succeed, so there is almost always a reason for everything they do!

06/08/2026

Another good one!!

The most common mistake in rider development is not moving too slowly. It is moving forward before the current level is genuinely ready to support the next one. It usually happens with the best intentions - an enthusiastic student, a willing horse, an instructor who wants to keep the energy high or a pushy parent. A canter that was introduced before the trot was balanced is a canter built on an unstable base. A jump that came before the flatwork was solid is a jump that is going to reveal that gap every single time something goes slightly wrong. Foundations matter more than most students and some instructors give them credit for. Here is why...

1. Rushing creates problems that take longer to fix than building it right would have taken.

A rider who skips the foundational work does not just plateau earlier, they also develop habits and compensations that become increasingly difficult to unravel the longer they are reinforced. The chair seat that developed because the rider started cantering before their balance was ready. The death grip on the reins that formed because the rider was jumping before they had an independent seat. The horse that became dull, tight, or resistant because it was asked to carry an unbalanced rider through movements it was not yet ready for either. These are not minor inconveniences. They are structural problems built into the riding that require going back to properly address. Remember that it is easier to build a new habit than it is to fix an old one!

2. The horse pays the price when foundations are skipped.

A rider who is not ready for a skill does not just struggle with it themselves but they also communicate that struggle directly to the horse through unclear aids, unbalanced weight, and inconsistent contact. A horse carrying a rider who is not yet ready for the canter does not understand why the balance and communication that worked at the trot has suddenly changed. Over time a horse that is consistently asked to work with a rider above their foundation level becomes confused tense and eventually resistant. Not because the horse has a problem but because nobody set either of them up to succeed.

3. Going back to fix the foundation is not a step backward.

This is the one most students and parents struggle with most. Once a rider has experienced the canter or the jump or the lateral movement going back to walk and trot basics feels like regression. It is not - it is the most direct route forward available. A rider who genuinely masters the fundamentals at each level has something to fall back on when the next level gets hard, a foundation of competence and confidence that holds up under pressure rather than crumbling the moment something goes wrong. Every skill in riding is built on top of something else. Balance before rhythm. Rhythm before contact. Contact before collection. Each layer depends completely on the layer beneath it being solid. Rush the lower layers and every layer above them is unstable. Build them properly and each new skill has something real to stand on.

4. As instructors our job is to create the steps, not just the destination.

The students who get to the exciting milestones and actually stay there are the ones whose instructors built enough small achievable steps between where they started and where they were going that there were no gaps when they arrived. Not just getting them to the canter but also building the balance, the independent seat, the correct leg position, and the feel for the horse's rhythm that makes the canter safe and successful when it comes. Every step forward should feel like a natural extension of the step before it and not a giant leap into something the body and the horse are not yet prepared for.

Good riders are not made by how quickly they reach the milestones, they are made by how solidly they built everything that got them there. Take the time to build the foundation and the milestones will come.

How do you handle the conversation with a student or parent who wants to move faster than the foundation supports?

06/08/2026

I’ve shared this one before, but I still love it!

More on the German phrase that says “riding is only learned by sweeping.”

I remember an example of this one night, about 40 years ago, when I was spending a month at Walter Christensen’s dressage training stable, Stal Tasdorf, in Tasdorf, Germany. (photo of Walter teaching)

Walter’s main barn had a cobblestone type of floor, hard to keep clean because of all the indentations, and in various corners were funny little Hansel and Gretel type brooms, straight handles with what looked like a bunch of twigs wired to one end.

Everyone had left, all the working students, all the riders, and here was the master, then coach of the Swedish Olympic dressage team, vigorously giving the aisle one last cleanup before turning out the lights.

In the great scheme of things, why would it matter one iota whether the aisle was immaculate? Early next morning, when all the horses were being fed, hay and straw would get spilled all around, and who was going to see that floor in the middle of the night?

But that’s not the point, is it? And for those who do see the point, they probably would have been at one end of the broom. And for those who can’t grasp why it mattered to Walter, they’d have left it as it was.

To what extent can pride in a way of doing things be taught? Because that’s what’s at play here, I think.

And pride in one detail spills over into pride about other details, until it creates a mindset, a way of being. Or not---And in that way, sweeping teaches riding, tenuous as the connection might seem.

06/01/2026

It’s happened, Lauren Mauldin writes. Maybe at the office during a work lunch. Maybe a family reunion with a distant cousin. One of the peripheral people in your life who only knows one fact about you (she rides horses!) has asked a dreaded question: how much do horses cost anyway?

I hate this question. It’s not because I’m secretive about money. I like having straightforward conversations about finances because I think it takes away some of the mystery and power around financial stability. But with horses? That’s totally different. How do I even begin to answer this question?

I want to answer everything. They cost everything. Your time, your heart, and definitely all your disposable income. It doesn’t even matter how much extra money you have, they cost all of it (and then some). They cost in ways you don’t care about, like an extra $20 bag of treats from the tack store because you’re running low on bestest ponykins favorite horse muffins. They cost in ways that break you, like when you’re finally about to finish rehab and your horse reinjures the same ligament you’ve been nursing back to health for the last 8 months.

But the sales manager you’re sitting next to at this conference didn’t ask how much horses cost so you could sob into your coffee about lost savings and lost dreams, so you get back to the original question.

“Well, there are different kinds of horses…” I start to say. I want to simply explain that there are show horses and pet horses, and pleasure horses, and all of them have different costs associated with them, but then I realize I don’t even know what a safe pleasure horse costs these days. Early in my riding career, you could find a decent safe horse for $3,000 in the local newspaper back in 2000, but now my social media feed is flooded with grade horses selling at Amish auctions for $35,000 and kind semi-retired trail horses for “Private Inquiries Only.”

I decide to stick to what I know, and speak on the hunter/jumper show world. Which might be a mistake, but I start out with a metaphor, I think they’ll understand—“While there’s a big range, my horse costs as much as a crossover SUV… not a fancy one or—”

They’ve cut me off, flabbergasted that a horse can cost as much as a car and that I have paid as much as a car for my single horsepower, very slow 0 to 60mph, not even hybrid, horse.

📎 Continue reading this article at https://www.theplaidhorse.com/2025/06/01/awkward-conversations-with-non-horse-people-how-much-do-horses-cost/
📸 © The Plaid Horse

05/26/2026

05/13/2026

“Overcooking” youngsters often happens accidentally.

Not because people are malicious, intentionally trying to do too much, or for too long, but because they underestimate how mentally taxing even small things can be for young horses. (Especially standing around)

We have to remember that even when a young horse is big or mature looking, their brain still only has so much capacity.

I see this a lot at shows in particular. People get a young horse out extremely early, spend a long time waiting around, and by the time the horse actually goes in the ring… they’re losing the plot.

Why?

Because their brain is like an oversaturated sponge. At first, information absorbs. But… eventually the sponge reaches capacity, and instead of soaking anything else in, the water just starts pouring out.

That’s often the moment where people feel like the horse is suddenly “misbehaving,” getting tense, distracted, reactive, or unable to settle.

Usually you also do not see these horses recover in the moment, because the answer often is not more work.

It’s rest, because they’re mentally fried.

Part of producing good young horses is learning to recognize whether the horse needs more education… or whether they need a juice box and a nap.

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