Metro West Riding Academy

03/28/2026

https://www.theplaidhorse.com/2026/03/26/rethinking-what-success-looks-like-in-the-hunter-ring-for-adult-amateurs/?fbclid=IwY2xjawQ03cJleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETFueEowYkMzTHlpb0tYNnF1c3J0YwZhcHBfaWQQMjIyMDM5MTc4ODIwMDg5MgABHtyO0WE0cDDghJ7Gk0rs18Em78KYs5XwdkZ8CkhzzZkFoybtRSgfE39M7UDn_aem_7h4zELyt2TvmrxNtU4QTRg

Brought to you by The Plaidcast For many riders, success in the hunter ring has long been associated with a specific image: the big, glamorous horse, the polished turnout, the presence in the ring. That picture still exists, but more riders are starting to make different choices about what works for...

03/09/2026

American show jumping has never lacked talent. What it has consistently lacked is access.

At the highest levels of the sport, the financial barrier to entry is no longer subtle. Developing a horse to Grand Prix, competing internationally, and sustaining a pipeline toward team selection requires resources that are simply out of reach for most athletes, no matter how gifted they are.

“That is not sustainable for 99.98% of the people that wanna ride horses,” Lenore Brown says.

Brown serves on the board of Road to the Top, a nonprofit founded to identify and support talented young athletes who have the skill, but not the financial backing, to progress toward international representation. Because if the United States wants to remain dominant in global equestrian sport, it must invest in its pipeline.

For previous generations, the pathway to the top looked different. Brown notes that Laura Kraut and Katie Prudent “came up at a time where you could still ride off the track and then make it on a team and be somebody.”

That path has narrowed.

The cost of high-performance horses, training, and travel has escalated beyond what most families can sustain. Yet the issue is not a total absence of resources. “There’s enough money in our sport to go around,” Brown says.

The challenge is distribution—ensuring that funding reaches athletes with genuine potential, not just those with existing financial support. “It doesn’t just have to be for the people that have money,” Brown says of how opportunity is often structured in the sport.

Road to the Top was created to intervene in that imbalance.

📎 Continue reading this article at https://www.theplaidhorse.com/2026/03/05/talent-isnt-the-problem-access-is-inside-road-to-the-top/
📸 © Isabel J. Kurek Photo

03/06/2026

Linda ia an alumni

Post by Emerson:
The Morven Park experiment--- Why did it fail?
Right around 60 years or so ago, several leading USA horse people, recognizing that there was not any sort of standardized instruction in North America, started what they hoped would become a national riding academy at a place called Morven Park in Virginia.
At first, from what I can remember, it seemed popular, but then it gradually fizzled out and vanished.
I remember people blaming its failure on American riders’ unwillingness to be told what to do and how to do it, and a sort on national distrust of regulation, and lack of agreement on who was accepted as expert enough to lead it.
I know that now, from time to time, there will be discussions about how much poor instruction is floating around, and how “someone ought to do something about it.”
But those with long memories can remember that concept was tried, and although it was well funded, at least at first, it couldn’t gain enough traction.
Who remembers? Thoughts?

03/06/2026

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1CXL1WHwBN/

When we look at many current photos of riders in the air over jumps, it becomes apparent to those WHO KNOW THE DIFFERENCE that many of these riders were not taught the correct basics.

And most of these current riders don’t know what those basics are, and if they don’t know them, it’s no wonder they don’t possess them.

Here’s a photo, probably from at least 50 years ago, of Mike Plumb, the ONLY USA rider to have been inducted into the US Olympic Hall of Fame. He won the big equitation finals. He won medal after medal in international eventing. He catch rode to second place in the Maryland Hunt Cup.

Study his mastery of the basics. His eyes are up, his hands are soft, his hips are back, his legs are directly beneath him, his heels are down. He is completely in harmony with the motion of his horse, and here’s the thing---

Most modern riders can’t do all of this because they have not been correctly taught HOW.

This is an instructor failing more than it is a rider failing. Do the instructors know how? Maybe the failing began with the instruction of the instructors?

This missing link in USA riding CAN be repaired and regained, but is there enough interest?

Thoughts?

02/17/2026

02/13/2026

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1BstyfLaZ6/

Breaking News: The Horse Has Voted. It Does Not Care About Your Moral Label.🤯

Apparently the horse world is now a spaghetti western.

On one side, the Gentle and Kind.🫶
On the other, The Villains. Twirling moustaches. Plotting cruelty before breakfast.🤠

It is a great story.

It is also nonsense.🙄

Most horse people are gentle and kind. Especially women. Socially conditioned to care. Biologically wired for it. Many of you apologise to inanimate objects when you bump into them .😆

But horses do not sort humans into moral categories.

They sort us into predictable or unpredictable. Clear or confusing. Secure or unsafe. Non-threatening or threatening.

That is it.

You can be deeply kind and profoundly confusing.😕
You can mean well and still create insecurity.😕
The horse will not think, “She means well.”
The horse will think, “I do not understand this person and I feel threatened.”

Here is the real spectrum of "gentle and kind people"...

At one end - Gentle, kind people without skill hesitate, second guess, apply pressure accidentally, release it too late, panic, then feel guilty. Conflict grows.

At the other end - Gentle, kind people with skill are clear, timely, and deliberate. The horse feels secure because the communication makes sense.

Same kindness. Different competence.😎

Horses do not prefer “gentle people.”
They prefer skilled ones.

Gentleness without skill is not ethical. It is good intentions colliding with reality.💥

Ethics is not a label. It shows up in ex*****on and outcomes. Being ethical is an argument, not a statement of fact based on some ideological belief.

So ask yourself one honest question.
Has your quest to be gentle and kind resulted in your horse being calm, willing and confident to handle and ride? Or are you struggling?🤔

If you are struggling, you are probably not unkind but you are likely under-skilled.

And if the path you tried kept you stuck, maybe you do not need more gentleness.

Maybe you need a better teacher (we are out there!).

Hit save. Share wisely. No moral capes required.

Collectable Advice 157/365. Please no copy and pasting, hit the share button instead.

02/08/2026

https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/26578033861798846/

01/13/2026

https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1AMTS2xEkf/

12/28/2025

https://www.facebook.com/share/r/16gyYwdmww/

11/30/2025