“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit” – Will Durant, based on the teachings of Aristotle.
A poster with this quote hangs in my tack room, so it is something I see regularly when I get ready for the day, and while I take refuge between horses or coaching sessions. The quest for excellence is a defining characteristic of all sport, and in dressage it is even definitive.
[Read more…] about Turning Excellence into a HabitI’m holding a demo at Cranleigh RDA on April 6th, 2 – 4.30pm where I’ll be bringing a number of horses to work. I’ll be showing the German training scales and how they can be applied to benefit horses of all sorts of different breeds, ages, disciplines and levels. I will ride a few horses and some of my clients will also ride so the audience can see how different horse and rider combinations can work. The aim is for everyone attending to leave with something to take away and work on themselves.
[Read more…] about Riding Demonstration to Raise Funds for Cranleigh RDASarah Sjoholm-Patience gave a dressage demonstration at the Epsom Riding for the Disabled Group on Saturday 10th November, which raised over £1,000 for the charity. Demonstrating dressage training with a young horse through to advanced medium, the event attracted over 60 spectators. The charity provides disabled people with the opportunity to ride and benefit both their health and wellbeing.
I have wrapped up my last Simulator Clinic of 2017, held on the Racewood Advanced Dressage Simulator at Wildwoods. If you are looking for a great way to improve your riding in the New Year, check out my Calendar page for my 2018 dates.
Miles and I headed to Hartpury for day one of the British Dressage Convention, with a distinctly German theme. The presenters, Michael Klimke and Ulf Möller, worked with a number of horses and riders, always with the consistent theme of relaxation and having the horse stepping through and actively from behind.
Very inspiring!
Today I took one of my young horses over to Quob Stabes to do a young horse training demo during their Strictly Come Dressage evening. The night seemed to be a great success, with over 200 tickets sold, a good experience for my ride, and lots of awareness for a great charity.
Very much enjoyed attending Central Dressage’s Training Forum with Stephen Clarke with a group of clients. As usual, Stephen provided great insight into the work in front of him, and achieved super improvements in all the combinations with small corrections.
In a repeat of last year’s very successful demo, the TTT hosted Stephen Clarke and Migue Ralao to present dressage from both a trainer’s and a judge’s point of view and I was very fortunate to ride for them. On the first day I brought Sam O’Dwyer’s very talented mare Keystone Duchessa, who can be very tricky in the connection, and struggled with tension, which both Stephen and Miguel helped me to work on. The second day I took Sally Brookman’s lovely mare Amora for our first outing together, she did brilliantly, and we had a great ride for Miguel.
This year Peter Storr, Sandy Phillips and Isobel Wessels provided an interesting presentation of judging at various levels, highlighting the difference in what the judges see from different positions (accuracy and centrelines at C, straightness from H and engagement of the hind end from B) as well as working through some of the issues shown in the test to demonstrate the same combinations executing the movements better.
Vidauban CDI: (Feb 29-Mar 4, 2012)
Had a fantastic time in the sunshine at the Vidauban CDI in southern France competing Desiderata (Blondie) in our first International Grand Prix. Though the first test had several (very) big hiccups, we managed to redeem ourselves in the second with a cleaner test. Find out more about our journey on Blondie’s Facebook page. A big thank you to husband Miles Patience and Blondie’s owner Becky Whitcombe for their company and help on the trip.
