Recently I was joking around with our assistant about how kids who want to ride horses will ride anything. Their attraction to animals and the fascination with riding just can’t be held back. I recalled that as a little kid who didn’t have a horse or a dog, I taught my friend’s husky-mix dog how to lunge in their front yard. I’m not sure I even really knew what lunging was, only that I had read about it in horse books and the dog had a long enough line to make it work. The dog was high energy and honestly, she seemed to like it! Around the same time, one of my mom’s friends had two little gray donkeys who were her pack animals when she went camping in the mountains. They were not broke to ride, when I saw them I begged to have their halters and some grain and went out to catch them. They were not thrilled and tried to avoid me, but I did sit on them every time we visited my mom’s friend.  The donkeys didn’t steer or go anywhere I wanted, but daydreaming on their warm backs while they grazed was one step closer to my dream of riding.

I’m solidly in midlife now, and my life has been built on horseback. At a certain point, I decided that dressage is the most interesting and rewarding thing I can do with horses. I love living on our farm with the horses right outside the kitchen window, and the barn a very short walk away.  I feel like I live in the herd, so familiar are each horse’s habits and personality. Dedicating myself to horse care and wanting to spend time with horses has always felt very natural to me, but as I think any serious artist or athlete can tell you, honing a craft and developing real physical and mental skills demands more than simple talent or predisposition.  I’ve worked hard to earn my bronze, silver, and gold medals and freestyle bars from the United States Dressage Federation. I have trained my own Grand Prix horses and every year I start young horses under saddle.  Still I feel drawn to be better, to do better.  The magnetism of dressage is the connection with the horse through subtlety, dynamic power, and sophisticated performances. With every new horse comes the excitement of unknown potential, and it is my dream to be as skilled as possible so that I am not the limiting factor.

If only it were as simple as just “practice more, and do better!” Just practicing isn’t any guarantee of progress. That’s why sports and performance psychologists have coined the term “deliberate practice,” to describe a particular kind of focus and intention. It’s the opposite of mindlessly going through the motions. Dr. Micheal Gervais says there are only three things that we can train: our body, our craft, and our mind. He says “only,” but that seems like quite a lot to me – especially when your craft includes managing another being with a mind of its own!

A great dressage trainer once wrote, “There are only as many masters in one generation as there were masterful students in the previous one.” This has for better or worse, been stuck in my mind for years. I wonder, what does it take to be a masterful student? Since there isn’t exactly a finish line or graduation day for a masterful student, I can only ask myself how best to try.

I expect that this column will range far and wide through inward and outward practices, plus I’ll share insights into our training, competition, and daily life here at Lost Hollow Farm. I invite you to come with me each week, to see where the horses take us!

P.S. It’s January, which is fitting to being something new, although years ago I had a blog that became the book, “Dressage Sabbatical,” published thanks to the efforts of equestrian writer and editor, Kip Mistral. “Dressage Sabbatical” is a year of weekly blogs written my first year on this farm as a working student. I have a few copies of the book available for purchase and it is available for Kindle on Amazon. Send an email on our contact page for more information!