About Us

About Me

I am in my late 20s, I live in Alberta, Canada, and I ride dressage. I have ridden up to second level dressage but I’m currently back working at training level with my new horse Kachina.

Kachina and I between tests at our first show

I started riding at the age of 8. I went through Pony Club and 4-H and many different disciplines, before discovering dressage around 2008. 14 years of my riding life were spent with the same horse, the late, great, Ellie. 

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. I regularly overuse parentheses (sorry).

Kitties!

In the last year I’ve started following several blogs, especially when I found myself with no regular access to any riding instructors.. 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

I love comments on any of my posts so please feel free to let me know what you thought!

About Kachina

Kachina is a 2002 grade pinto mare. I bought her in August 2014 after losing my long-time heart horse to colic a few months before.

First ride

Kachina got a late start in life and wasn't started under saddle until she was 8 years old. She was then used as a pasture ornament and occasional trail horse by her previous owner. When I bought her she had never worn English tack, rarely been inside a barn or indoor arena, and couldn't canter on anything smaller than a 40m circle.

Majestic Dressage Beast Right Here

Despite Kachina's unknown breeding and lack of formal training, she has fantastic movement and is very responsive. She might not be the typical dressage prospect but I look forward to seeing how far we can go. Right now we're firmly working on the lower levels of the training pyramid.

Boing!

Kachina is also a stellar trail horse. She will go over water, ditches etc without hesitation and go the exact same speed away from or towards home. While I love dressage, we also like to leave the ring and hit the open fields by ourselves or with friends. 

Open spaces not an issue

Checking out the herd of antelope out to the right (too far away for cell phone camera to capture)