Dorato Performance Horses

09/07/2026

What a beautiful trip to Mane Gait Equestrian Center to support Ride with Pride! One line stood out from the day more than anything else: "the inside aids regulate emotions, the outside aids regulate physicality." - Patrick King Horsemanship & Dressage

I've never heard it described that way. Revolutionary.

Thanks to that explanation and developing an "egg yoke" feel with my inside leg and rein, Diana settled into some of the most supple trot transitions I've experienced post-Colic. Meanwhile, Rita and Maggie worked on developing a swinging, forward walk that allowed Maggie to slip into the trot. I should have grabbed a picture of Maggie settling into her favorite role - snuggling - as we chatted at the end of our session. We all know that's the only reason Maggie likes to go off site! 🤣 It was also a pleasure to watch a lesson focusing on how to cultivate softness and "up" in transitions.

Our lesson horses deserve a program where they are improving in brain, body, and spirit and we, the people, must be improving in order to give it to them.

Also a huge thank you to Mills Smith and Fager USA for finding a bit that Diana felt comfortable in! Her suppleness increased immensely!

09/06/2026

Daniel Coyle on master coaches: "they had an extraordinary sensitivity to the person they were teaching, customizing each message to each student's personality." (From "The Talent Code - Greatness Isn't Born It's Grown")

The skill of ADAPTATION is NECESSARY to be a GREAT COACH of both humans and horses.

09/05/2026

They handled the "can't pour from an empty cup" topic so well that I don't have to! I spent years sacrificing because I wanted people to have access to horses as respite from the world. I still want that. But, it came at a high price for me and my family. We need to talk sustainability from every side.

09/05/2026

"Criticisms are like homing pigeons. They always return home." - How to Win Friends and Influence People

We are a service industry. There are MANY different spectrums of how instructors interpret that from "I'm not your servant, I'm just providing you a service of riding instruction, you figure out the rest" to "don't lift a finger, the grooms do that for our clients." But, I think we are missing the deeper, more important meaning, the one I sometimes fall too deeply into - we are here to SERVE. We have the great privilege of positively impacting the lives of horses and people. It is crucial to remember the "power" we hold as keepers of the animals so few people have access to. Many will do nearly anything to be around horses. Do we look at that as an opportunity to serve people or to take advantage and get something for ourselves? (This leads into a larger conversation on sustainability, one cannot pour from an empty cup, but that is for another day.)

That spills over onto social media and how we talk about one another in person. There is SO much criticism. While I agree there is a mountain of change that needs to be made, we need to acknowledge the vehicle for change. Too long both people and horses have been abused in our industry. Are we going to fix it with more anger? As Dale Carnegie says in his book "How to Win Friends and Influence People", "let's realize that the person we are going to correct and condemn will probably justify themselves, and condemn us in return." We won't fix with condemnation, but by positive examples.

Lessons can be both horse centered and human centered, we don't have to sacrifice one for the other. BUT, we have to be able to TEACH well to do that! Do we understand different teaching styles, how to adapt to the individual, how to break concepts down into smaller parts? Do we understand how both horse and rider bodies move and how they positively and negatively affect one another? We need to improve the baseline of education needed for instructors to teach. Criticism won't change that, but offering opportunities to learn will.

No two professionals will agree on everything. But, we can listen to one another with an earnest heart to find the core values that we each hold and see how we can honor them, the horse, and the people we serve.

Positive horse and rider centered instruction is how we change the industry.

09/05/2026

💕💕💕 what perfect Welsh ponies we get to have in our lives.

There’s something magical about mornings with senior horses and young riders. ❤️🐴
Old souls teaching young hearts patience, trust, and kindness. One quiet ride at a time.

❤️

09/04/2026

Rosie supervised this rider's addition to our "1% Wins" board! We LOVE celebrating the small wins that add up to big progress and I can't wait to show everyone this "new" program once our education room revamp is done!

09/03/2026

YOU CAN TEACH FEEL!!

I was told in my young adult riding journey that you can't teach feel. I 100% disagree. Our industry sinply lags behind other sports in how to teach.

There are many ways to approach, but my favorite is groundwork. We talk about timing, how the reins support, the stick acting as leg aids, etc. The rider can play around with their energy, observation, communication without the demands of mounted coordination. The student then can see and feel the effect on the horse.

Here we are working straight to side pass to a tight left turn. Maggie struggles with dropping her right shoulder in left bend (something we have been rehabbing and teaching students about) so the sidepass without rider weight allowed her to open the right side and the tight turn to bring her right shoulder stretched around the left hind.

Not only can the rider develop feel, but when the horse understands the under saddle ask, the pattern has already been set and the horse more clear in the ask which, in turn, give the rider more chance to feel.

What groundwork exercises do you find helpful for horse and rider?

09/02/2026

It's like RAAAAINN on your *lesson* day.....

So grateful to my afternoon riders for being gracious as we navigate this year of thunderstorms. Always seems to be Wednesday and Thursday afternoons....

09/02/2026

I'm crooked, you're crooked. Your horse doesn't want crooked.

Here's a picture of me from yesterday. Look at how crooked I am! And this is after the last few weeks of working really hard in activating the "correct" muscles and deactivating the ones that need to chill.

I rode my horse yesterday and she was really wiggly, then, boom, told me when I found alignment. We seem to think that horses should just go straight, but simultaneously want a sensitive horse. Your sensitive horse is going to shift to what you are saying with your body. To ride, we should first be working on ourselves.

This is a never ending journey and we must avoid falling into perfectionism. But, equestrians, your responsibility and gift to your horse is to first work on you.