About

About Me

Life is a long story when you are over half a century old but I am going to try to make it brief! Like so many little girls I fell in love with horses at a very young age. Living in the New Forest in England I was surrounded by wild New Forest ponies and an abundance of equestrians. My parents, although not ‘horsey’ at all, were kind enough to indulge my passion and signed me up for riding lessons when I was 7, and Pony Club soon after that.
Rockafella was my first pony. We were together from my 12th birthday until he passed away when I was 29. He was quite something and I’d be here forever discussing our adventures together! Needless to say, he was an important part of my equestrian growth.

When I was 13 I started working weekends at a thoroughbred racing stables owned by the Muggeridges and by the time I was 14 they had enough faith in me (along with a letter of responsibility written by my father which included a sentence stating “if she can ride Rockafella I believe she can ride anything”) to allow me to accompany the jockeys on hacks. Having heard that thoroughbreds were crazy I have to say I was quietly terrified our first ride out but that soon passed and riding racehorses on the weekends became the highlight of my week.

For the next 15 years, life for me between schools and work was fitting in my horse, a few shows, training horses for others and informal coaching. Not long after Rockafella died I moved to Canada, spending the first 4 years without horses in my life. That all changed when I moved to Alberta.
Suddenly I went from no horses to 4 horses. Mostly rescues from the race track. Life after work now became about retraining horses, setting serious goals with competition, coaching students, and showing. By now I had an 8 year old daughter who had inherited my passion.

I rescued numerous horses, mostly thoroughbreds, and one Hanoverian who was working as a cattle horse at a feed lot! Some were broken down and put on what I call “death row” (waiting to go to slaughter). After proper care, I always got them sound and when retrained they went onto their forever homes with new careers.

That is all but one – Highfalutin’ Miss. It is likely at some point I will dedicate an article to this amazing mare so keep an eye out for that! ‘Missy’ was 5 when I got her from the track, she is currently 24 and still with me. She is the little mare the would, could, and did after I was told wouldn’t be anything but a brood mare.

In Alberta, I trained horses for a local hunter/jumper barn. I coached and was coached and went on to compete on the Calgary jumping circuit, including Spruce Meadows, always placing in the ribbons. I was on the Quarter Horse Battle of the Breeds team two years running as one of their show jumpers with a 17.2h QH.

I received a very large sponsorship from Lake Newell Resorts to compete Missy who in turn won a series winter championship from Rocky Mountain Show Jumping.

In 2014 I realised my lifelong dream when we bought an equestrian facility in Fredericton, New Brunswick. I became an Equine Canada Competition Coach, competed on the show jumping team for New Brunswick in 2015 and 2017. I carried on my passion for rescuing, retraining, and rehoming OTTB’s, some of whom have competed on Provincial teams in dressage, show jumping, and eventing.

And then there is Bon Baloubet, our 2013 CWB stallion. “Balou” is Missy’s son by Bon Balou. I have trained Balou from birth, starting him under saddle as a 3 year old, then starting him in hunter events at shows as a 4 year old and I was his only rider/trainer until April 2018 when my new coach, Massimiliano (Max) Cortis, took over his ride until October 2018. Balou was champion stallion at the 2018 Stallion Performance Test, amongst other things this included his training level and his rideability.

As far as coaching goes I have coached students who have competed at Rocky Mountain Show Jumping, Spruce Meadows, and students who have competed on the New Brunswick dressage and show jumping teams.

So why a blog? I think we blog when we have something to say. As a coach, I have learned so much about the words we use and how they do or don’t help a student. Also as a coach, we are assessed by our governing body on correctness of using certain terms and instructions. These are a great base and of course correct EXCEPT despite being correct they don’t always work when delivered. I know personally that there are instructions I have heard for decades. I understand the instruction, but suddenly a new coach will say something a different way and it is the missing piece of the jigsaw puzzle. It has often been the case that I had no idea the piece was missing until that point!

Earlier 2018 Max came on the scene and while he was coaching at a show, one coach turned to me and smugly said “he doesn’t teach anything we don’t teach” and to be honest that is true but he was delivering the same message in a different way that made things click. I can also say that somethings took a while to click. Riding is forever evolving. There is a basic language we as coaches all deliver. After that, we have to develop a hundred different ways to deliver the same language because different words or phrases work for one person and not another.
This blog will address ways to find the right words for each student when coaching.

The other reason for this blog is horse training. I suppose it is the same theory as finding the right words to help develop your students. With training a horse we have to find a common language based on trust. I say ‘common language’ because, in all honesty, it is not common to each horse! Of course, there is a set language in training a horse. We want every horse to learn to move off the leg, or accept the bit, not to drop the shoulder and fall in on the turn, or to have a supple jaw for example. The aids we teach are all the same to get the correct result. However, horses are not robots where we can put in the correct instruction and get the correct result. They have to trust, learn, believe, respond. Some have baggage, some have soft mouths, some don’t listen to our leg well, some need retraining from learning something for a specific sport.

We will address how to find the common language you and your horse can speak together and become one. This will be where my blog can help you as the trainer, the coach, or the student. I hope to deal with problems in both coaching, riding, and training horses in the hope that I can find some puzzle pieces that work for you developing as an equestrian.

I can’t wait to get started! Happy Horse Time Everyone!

Sarah