Tag: EDITOR PICKS
Trainer Tuesday: What’s a rule in your barn that helps you maintain boundaries to...
Welcome to Trainer Tuesday! Each week we ask trainers a question and gather their answers for you. These trainers have a range of experience, backgrounds, and focus points of their programs, so the answers...
Riding the Digital Wave: The Platform That Bridges Horses and Technology
By MARLEY LIEN-GONZALEZ
After years away from the saddle, navigating the fast-paced world of big-city tech jobs, Madison Ruddy Sanders returned to her lifelong passion for horses. She grew up in the hunter/jumper world, starting...
Horse Fever: One Lifelong Horse Lover’s Reawakening
By BECKY HOPKINS
We were in the middle of a global pandemic when it began again. While others were catching COVID-19, I came down with something just as potent—Horse Fever. A long-dormant, incurable condition I...
Vaccinate, Disinfect, Repeat: What Horse Owners Need to Know About Biosecurity in 2025
Brought to you by The Plaidcast
At today’s largest horse shows, thousands of animals from around the country share barns, rings, and wash racks. As The Plaid Horse publisher Piper Klemm noted during a recent...
Trainer Tuesday: How do you confidently approach a jump from a short turn with...
Welcome to Trainer Tuesday! Each week we ask trainers a question and gather their answers for you. These trainers have a range of experience, backgrounds, and focus points of their programs, so the answers...
Trainer Tuesday: How do you ask for shape and connection through the bridle from...
Welcome to Trainer Tuesday! Each week we ask trainers a question and gather their answers for you. These trainers have a range of experience, backgrounds, and focus points of their programs, so the answers...
Trust Fall
By PIPER KLEMM, Ph.D.
If I were doing a team building exercise with USEF and we did the Trust Fall Exercise, what would happen to me? The answer is, they would tell me they...
Trainer Tuesday: What’s the biggest mistake you’ve seen riders make as they transition from...
Welcome to Trainer Tuesday! Each week we ask trainers a question and gather their answers for you. These trainers have a range of experience, backgrounds, and focus points of their programs, so the answers...
Trainer Tuesday: When would you describe a horse as “careful” over the jumps, and...
Welcome to Trainer Tuesday! Each week we ask trainers a question and gather their answers for you. These trainers have a range of experience, backgrounds, and focus points of their programs, so the answers...
Building Community Through Structure: How a Facility Handbook Transformed Our Program
By BECCA CAULFIELD
When I think about our programs, the first thing that comes to mind is our community. Our barn is not simply a riding school, boarding facility, or training center. It is...
Trainer Tuesday: How can you help a rider who equates speed with stride length...
Welcome to Trainer Tuesday! Each week we ask trainers a question and gather their answers for you. These trainers have a range of experience, backgrounds, and focus points of their programs, so the answers...
What Riding Green Ponies Taught Young Rider Harlow Bottarini
Brought to you by The Plaidcast
For many young equestrians, the road to success is paved with steady, well-schooled ponies. But for 13-year-old Harlow Bottarini, growth came through a very different path: green ponies that...
Trainer Tuesday: How would you help a rider who struggles with measuring and riding...
Welcome to Trainer Tuesday! Each week we ask trainers a question and gather their answers for you. These trainers have a range of experience, backgrounds, and focus points of their programs, so the answers...
Horse Games Are Unrealistic—But Sometimes I Wish They Weren’t
By Lauren Mauldin
I’m not proud, but I’ve gotten obsessed with a horse video game recently. This happens to me every few years—usually during the tail end of a Texas summer when you can’t comfortably...
I Quit the Career I Chose to Pay for Horses
By Lauren Mauldin
When you’re a kid, everyone asks what you want to be when you grow up. But you’ll never hear a kid answer, “B2B Tech Marketing Expert.”
I knew as early as I could...
10 Ways USEF Can Prove They’re Serious About Change
By Piper Klemm
I’ve never believed in complaining without offering solutions. Beyond my long-standing call to rewrite the rulebook in one consistent voice, there are small, practical steps USEF can take right now to begin...
Let’s Make it Easy to Follow the Rules
By Piper Klemm
On Tuesday, I went to the USEF/USHJA Town Hall Meeting during Pony Finals at the Kentucky Horse Park, which occurred while USEF Pony Finals was actively showing. While all the top brass...
Trainer Tuesday: In your program, do horses show in the same bit that they...
Welcome to Trainer Tuesday! Each week we ask trainers a question and gather their answers for you. These trainers have a range of experience, backgrounds, and focus points of their programs, so the answers...
EquiSol: Jackie Jolie Harnesses Light For Improving Health and Performance
By MARLEY LIEN-GONZALEZ
With her patented design, Jackie Jolie is thoughtfully crafting products for the ultimate care and comfort of horses, dogs, and more. Using innovative light technology, her business EquiSol has the ambitious goal...
Are You Curious About Barefoot?
By ANNIKA KORTLANG
You may have noticed over the past several years that an increasing number of horses at the pinnacle of the showjumping sport are competing barefoot. This includes highly successful horses such as...
Wyatt’s Gift
By JULIE MADDOCK
Life is tough.
And some days are worse than others. You know the ones I’m talking about—those mornings when you’d rather stay buried under the covers because you know it’s going to be...