We have a small lake behind our house and my husband and I love sitting on the balcony looking out on the lake. On a beautiful summer evening, the lake is almost a complete mirror with a perfect reflection of the woods and the sky. Then a fish jumps up and creates a sequence of …
Do You Know How to Bake a Cake?
My mother was an amazing cook and a wonderful baker. Every Saturday she would make a braided yeast bread filled with nuts and cinnamon, and this “Hefezopf” was for breakfast on Sunday mornings. She had learned how to make this and many other delicious meals from her mother at a very early age. Her mother …
Learning – Knowing – Owning
Whenever we learn something new, we have to first understand what it is we are learning in our mind. After that, we have to be able to physically execute it. Basically, our mind has to teach our body how to do the task at hand. This starts very early in our childhood with learning simple …
Are You Paying Attention to the Small Stuff? – Part I
All of us have done puzzles. And for me, puzzles are the perfect analogy to the importance of paying attention to the smallest piece. The picture is not complete until all the pieces have been assembled correctly. Now imagine somebody giving you a puzzle, but they lost the cover, and you have no idea what …
Continue reading "Are You Paying Attention to the Small Stuff? – Part I"
Do You Have Enough Impulsion?
In order to perform a dressage test or jump over fences, you need to make sure that youcan create, maintain and manage impulsion. You need this impulsion in order to perform amultitude of functions necessary in any dressage test or to be able to negotiate technicaljumper courses with any height obstacles. Impulsion is the energy …
Authenticity-Congruency
As human beings we are not always authentic or congruent. We are very good about putting up a front, slapping a smile on our face, and saying everything is fine, even though, our body language, the intonation of our voice, and our eyes tell a totally different story. I have been married 28 years now, …
Do you use a single-rein stop?
The single-rein stop is one of the most useful rein aids we have. In our English world we also have a pulley rein which differs widely from the single-rein stop. Both rein aids are to control the horse’s forward movement and bring his legs back under control. I am a huge fan of the single-rein …
Are You Riding with Intention?
The older I get and the more I teach and coach and spend time with horses, the more I believe that our intention as well as our intuition plays a key role in communicating with our horses and human beings in life for that matter. It doesn’t start with your foot in the stirrup iron, …
What is in your toolbox?
Just like a plumber or carpenter, as riders we need a tool box to help us on the job. Do you have enough tools in your tool box? Do you know exactly what they do and can you find them blind? Any instructor’s job is to teach you the art of the trade, which includes …
Counterbend
The counter bend is a great exercise to help the horse become supple and through. Suppleness comes from lateral, throughness from longitudinal. By asking for the counter bend I make my horse more responsive to the inside leg. The biggest mistake made in this exercise is to use too much inside hand and try to …
Juliana Zunde 