On Top Equestrian

10/11/2025

I have been increasingly frustrated by how limited I still am in doing saddle work but a few messages today from clients/friends really made me smile 🥹

I have however been madly coaching every day lately and riders' hard mahi is paying off. Great goal smashing up at the final of the Canterbury Dressage Spring Series yesterday. Proud to hear one of my riders was asked by a top level judge who they trained with as their work was so correct 🙌 Another had judges comment about their improvements and the training was on the right track.
This is what we strive for; horses that are using their bodies in the right way & in balance, horses that want to dance with us forming a happy harmonious partnership 👏 💞

Also at the grassroots 🌱, some super efforts at the Ashburton Pony Clubs combined Dressage and Jumping cups! I think it's a major win that I got a 10yo boy to want to come back to do dressage 👊 after reluctantly coming for a lesson last week for a boot camp session of how to navigate his way through a dressage test for the first time! I don't generally teach kids, however ones that are so polite and want to learn to be better are always welcome! And I was super impressed he could untack and sort his and his sister's ponies after the lesson! 🌟

08/11/2025

🤩 so humble. Even a beautiful rider on an amazing horse has feelings of not being good enough! Just the type of partnership we need at the top of our sport, showcasing how it should be done ✨️

05/11/2025

Absolutely love this. I believe, in both my own horses' training and in my coaching, that having a clear and fair system is so important. Understanding that it does all take time, consistency and hard work - especially if retraining old habits. My favourite word is patience ⏳️ Going fast just forms holes in the training, which always catches up with you later on! 🐴

This whole journey, riding, training, life, is really about getting just a little bit better every single day. That’s it. That’s the magic.

We have to stop chasing “perfect.” Perfect doesn’t exist, not in dressage, not in life. And that’s a good thing! Because the joy is in the becoming.

What does matter is believing in the process: Putting our energy into showing up, learning, growing, and doing just a little better today than we did yesterday. For ourselves. For our horses. For the people we love.

We get to choose how we show up, how we respond, how we grow. That’s real power, the quiet, steady kind that changes everything over time.

So, the question isn’t “Am I perfect yet?” It’s simply, “Am I a little better than I was yesterday?”

That’s the work. That’s the joy.

02/11/2025

Long day in the arena coaching up in Christchurch. I drive home feeling lucky to have such a fantastic bunch of riders to help; they inspire me to ride better myself 🤩 Also love getting all the message of successes across the weekend, not just winning ribbons but smashing individual goals 👊💪 slowly chipping away at improving the horses & making themselves better as riders! This is a sport of patience and consistency 👌

24/10/2025

Wishing all my clients & friends a good ride tomorrow at the Livamol FEI World Dressage Challenge 🌏 and a successful weekend at the Marlborough Premier League & the Bay of Plenty Premier League up north.
I will have FOMO staying at home feeling sorry for myself with my stupid wrist injury & doing lessons 😴

📸 flashback to a few different years I have done the WDC.

07/10/2025

Great start to the season for one of my lovely sponsored riders Cindy Wiffin 🩵

01/10/2025

Useless wrist update...unfortunately it isn’t great and am not really able to do much saddle work at all. I can do the odd one but not multiple fittings in a day.
Off for more scans at the end of next week and will hopefully have some answers and a plan for sorting it and recovery time.
So sorry for letting people down, especially down South, but I can guarantee that no one is more frustrated than me 😤😒
Will update as soon as have some plan of attack.

22/09/2025

Great morning down at the local Tinwald Pony Club giving the lovely girls some last minute boot camp in preparation for their dressage tests at Springston Trophy 🏆
Springston Trophy is such an awesome teams competition; I would encourage anyone to go that gets the opportunity.
Fun fact...I rode at 10 Springstons and each time it was always my birthday 🥳 So as a teenager I celebrated my birthday in all sorts of weird and wonderful towns round the South Island!

Best of luck to all my clients that are competing, have an awesome time & safe travels 🍀

09/09/2025

SOUTHLAND TRIP...

I haven't forgotten you all down South. It hasn't been a great month and now to top things off I am falling apart (more so than normal 😒)

I am currently having terrible pains in my wrist when I drive for more than half an hour and have to be very careful with carrying saddles, girthing up, flocking etc.

I hope I can get sorted to come down in October 🤞

Anyone traveling to Springston Trophy, you are most welcome to stop in on the way up or down. I am one minute off SH 1 on the South side of Ashburton at Winslow. Get in touch as soon as possible to book a day & time.

Fortunately, one of the only things that doesn't actually hurt is riding as my wrist is straight, so a small win after a crap run!

30/08/2025

Sunday morning reading, this is great. I definitely see lots of confused horses; ones that just don't understand what the rider is wanting and the horses often then get frustrated & are then blamed for being naughty. Being clear and consistent is key 🤟

WHEN ARE WE GOING TO STOP SAYING OUR HORSES ARE JUST BEING ‘NAUGHTY’?

Now I know it’s the yard humour, naughty horse, he’s just doing it to p*e me off, he’s just trying to get me off today because he doesn’t like me……etc etc etc
He’s sooooo ‘naughty’

But this simply isn’t true.

There’s no such thing as a ‘naughty’ horse because naughtiness is a human trait because we have an intellectual brain and can understand a rule then purposefully break that rule should we want to.

So firstly a horse doesn’t understand your rules or you haven’t set any - they have no idea actually what you are asking.

They don’t have a human intellectual brain like we do

Horses don’t preplan- they are reactionary, they can work in the moment - I’m scared, what’s that? or I’m in pain for example.

So let’s change the word ‘naughty’ to what’s really going on - let’s use a better word.

Here’s some examples:

* Young, yes a horse may just be young, he doesn’t understand life yet in the human world, he’s trying to figure things out and asking lots of questions and maybe not getting the answers

* Confused- oh yes we see lots of confused horses that again have no idea what you want, what they are supposed to be doing and how they are supposed to react to situations because you haven’t actually said, clearly and every single day what they should do in a situation

* Untrained - that brings me to this word - How many untrained horses do we see and hear of, lots and lots sadly, so again horses need to be trained as a trained horse is a happy horse!

Imagine not helping your kids out in life, not educating them, not ensuring they do their lessons and homework and not doing your best by them to become the best they can be in life going forwards.
We wouldn’t not help them out, we wouldn’t not explain things to them and not spend your time as a parent doing this - we educate our children to become informed, rounded adults who hopefully under the world and how to behave and go in to be happy and successful.
Our horses need the same - when we buy a horse we take a contract out with that horse that you will train them, teach them, educate them and answer all their questions so they can become a well rounded, happy and confident horse then we can sit back proud of that achievement
You have to train your horses,

* Pain- there’s another word, it’s not naughtiness but instead something hurts, this could be saddle fit pain, back pain, teeth pain, foot pain, internal pain like ulcers, colic, kissing spine, they could have been stung by a wasp.
Many examples of pain, but your horses can’t just say ouch as easily as we can and explain what hurts so they aren’t been naughty- something hurts.

*Excitement - horses are allowed to be excited sometimes, it’s normal.
Some horses are more excitable types than others.
We have an excitable type horse here, he’s been this way for 11 years now, we love him dearly and actually like this type of horse as he’s so much fun but if we didn’t we have 2 options - Don’t choose to ride or buy this type of horse if you don’t like it or change yourself to like an excitable fizzy type of horse. Easy!

But you can’t spend 11 years hoping your horse will change to a slower plod type and missing 11 years with your horse and not enjoying it.

So here’s some examples of what’s really going on, but p*eing you off, trying to get you off for a laugh, not loading up when you are late for a show, bucking into canter, bolting when they are scared, rearing, breaking into next doors field because there’s more grass, treading on your foot, not standing at the mounting block, you get the picture, isn’t naughtiness and personal.

It’s a horse saying tell me what I’m supposed to do, what’s that, what do you want me do, something hurts, I’m feeling good today, I don’t like the horse trailer, you haven’t told me to stand like you actually mean it and repeated that everyday.
You get the idea

Enjoy the journey of training our horses and helping them out and make sure your answer their questions!

26/08/2025

I managed to see the whole team today and a good bunch of the horses from Beaumont Station Sport Horses for their pre-season checks.

I did try to take Abby stunning mare home, I thought she would have made a nice twin to Saffy 😅🤷‍♀️
It's so nice to support such a hard working, lovely family who care so much for their horses' wellbeing.

Great to see some happier horses and riders today at the Interschools after the day 1 jitters yesterday. Best of luck for the rest of the week, it's back to business for me tomorrow at home with lessons etc. 🍀

25/08/2025

Day 1 done and dusted at South Island Secondary Schools tournament week. So awesome to catch up with people from all over the South Island ✨️
Bonus to see my lovely sponsored riders from Beaumont Station Sport Horses giving Dressage a crack on their show jumpers. Snapped 📸 here with Jessica H**e & her young Beaumont Ivan.

Basic flatwork skills are so important no matter what discipline you compete in. Would be so good to see more emphasis put into dressage training for young riders - there were quite a few pretty dodgy looking attempts today. Good flatwork has such a huge influence on being able to jump well!