My name
is Sarah (I actually have a different legal name, but thanks to my immigrant
parents, no one in North America can really spell or pronounce it, so I go by
Sarah for simplification). I am in my late 20s, I live in rural southern Alberta,
Canada, and I ride dressage. I have ridden up to second level dressage but I’m
currently back working at training level with a new horse.
Alberta
is a fascinating place for equestrian interests. We have world class facilities
and competitions for almost every type of equine event, from show-jumping, to
polo, to rodeo, to dressage, to western pleasure. However, Alberta is a large
area and different types of riding have their own pockets of influence. I was
first introduced to dressage when I lived further North for school, but where I
live now is most assuredly not in a dressage pocket. In 100km radius of where I
ride, I only know of two other riders who focus on dressage, and neither is at
my barn. I used to haul out to get weekly lessons from one of them, a lady with
a great eye called KD, but she decided a few months ago that the meager income
from teaching me and a couple beginner riders wasn’t worth losing her amateur
status, and so she decided to stop teaching. I fully understand and respect her
decision, and we remain friends and show travel buddies, but it means I’m now
on my own for training.
Besides
dressage, I also enjoy trail riding, volunteering, travelling, dragonboating, and
relaxing at home with the SO and our two cats. I pay the bills with my
engineering job, which is a pretty standard 9-5 thing (though actually 7-4). I
regularly overuse parentheses (sorry).
In the
last year I’ve started following several blogs. I love hearing about new
training exercises and also learning about how horse-keeping varies across the
continent and even the world. I decided to add my voice to the conversation as
I continue working towards learning dressage, autonomously.
Autonomous:
au’ton’o’mous (adjective) self-sufficient – existing, reacting, or developing
as an independent, self-regulating organism
(note:
for this definition, I count the combination of me and my horse to be the
single organism)
Dressage:
dres’sage (noun) the training of a horse to carry out a series of precise
controlled movements in response to minimal signals from its rider
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