Training & Instruction for the Sport of Carriage Driving
It’s time to knock the dust off the carriages, and start shedding out those ponies! With that in mind, I’ll be hosting a “Spring Tuneup Camp” in East Bridgewater, MA April 13th – 16th. This will be a great way for people to kick-start the season. The camp will be a combination of discussions, private, […]
I’ve been on “official business” in South Carolina for the past four days, at the Windsor Trace CDE and Combined Test. Well, it was semi-official business. As a combined driving judge, I have to attend a judges’ clinic at least every three years to maintain my judging license with the ADS. So I got to […]
Repetition alone isn’t the key to learning. We’ve all stood somewhere near a ring with a riding instructor yelling “Heels down! Head up!” over and over again until their voice goes hoarse. If yelling those two commands didn’t work the first 16 times, why would they work the following 30 times?
I hope if you are among the many of us that have been getting bombarded with spring’s “in like a lion” weather, that you’ve been fairing well. All seems to be in good shape here, despite the snow blower breaking. Fortunately, that happened just as I was finishing, rather than when I was beginning. Hopefully, won’t […]
What constitutes “excessive use of the whip?” As carriage drivers, one of our most valuable communication aids is the whip. In fact, it’s so important that we are required to have the whip in hand anytime we are driving in a competition. Like any tool, it can be misused. The American Driving Society lists “excessive […]
Every spring horse owners around the world wonder and worry about what they should be doing with, and expecting from their horses when they return them to regular work. For some, the worry comes from fresh horses, that are full of a season’s worth of pent-up energy. Others are more concern about getting the horse […]
The debate over leather versus synthetic harness has carried on since the first synthetic harnesses hit the market. In the beginning, there was no question, a leather harness was the way to go. Synthetic harnesses have come a long way in the 30 years, making the decision less cut and dry. I know you’d love […]
Having a horse that doesn’t stand can be one of the most frustrating and confounding problems. It limits the activities you can comfortably participate in, it puts you and other people at risk, and can just generally take the fun out of being around your horse. There are reasons that your horse won’t stand that […]
Here’s a fun little video from yesterday that I did. It’s shaky, but it gets the point across. We all need a little distraction, and our horses are the best form of that! Of course, it’s just basically an ad for tonight’s class “Body Mechanics of the Horse”. This is a class that I’ve actually been […]
These days we’re hearing an awful lot about “fact checking”. People love to say stuff because it sounds good at the moment. How often do we see this within our own horse community? The fact of the matter is (pardon the play on words), sometimes something sounds really right when there just are not facts […]
From time to time I get notes of thanks and other feedback in response to Online Classes or Lesson Plans here on the site. It’s really gratifying to read about how useful these classes are for people in such real terms. As you can imagine, I put a huge amount of work into the classes. […]
Sometimes something is so obvious, you can overlook it until it hits you square between the eyes. This month for me, that kind of thing happened as I’ve been preparing for this week’s class on transitions. Sure, we all know transitions are important. But in working with horses and students to build exercises that can […]
I received an e-mail with a question about using a breast collar or a full collar for a Spider Phaeton. The answer isn’t always that straight forward. Here’s the question, and my reply. The Question: Andy, Hi there!! I’m a new driver and in training with my horse Red. We are planning on doing […]
Here’s a look at a dressage test posted by Al Senzamici for review. If you’d be interested in a similar review of your video, go ahead and post it to my page. I’m happy to provide similar analysis in exchange for the video file for later use in online classes. I can’t promise that […]
