Selena is in Vermont giving a clinic this weekend. We have great group of friends there and Selena gives regular clinics throughout the year. It’s a lovely place to go and not too far from here. It’s difficult to find weekends that do not already

I have done my piece filled with emotion due to the recent tragic death and now you will find my non-emotional response. This is not a new response for me, by the way. I have been quietly lobbying away now for years at this, but perhaps now is as goo

  Life goes on here at Balsam Hall, one thing when you work with horses, there are no days when you can slack. It doesn’t really matter if you are feeling great or not, the show must go on. Horses need fed, loved, turned out, groomed and mucke

Not many people today have the luxury of time to learn to ride as well as the Native Americans did – with or without saddles. Many people still need to use a saddle to even stay on a horse, so you can’t really compare the two. Nothing would m

I tried to think what I was going to say but in the end I have sat down at my computer without a thought to work from and I am typing from the heart. I was all set Saturday with the blog written when the unbelievable news was released that Philippa H

For those of you that do not know, the eventing community lost one of our own on the weekend. Ms. Philippa Humphreys. She was riding in the Jersey Fresh CCI ***, a great rider on a great horse. Leslie and I watched her through a few jumps and can onl

I have given up trying to think of anything to tell you about Mondays except that we do as little as possible. Selena rode Woody since that doesn’t count as work, one horse had to gallop and another had to be ridden because it wasn’t ridden on Su

After having discussed the points on this topic made by Barbara Ann King in the last blog, I now take my prerogative as author of this blog to elaborate on the concept of treed saddles and what are essentially ‘bareback pads’ – the appellation

Well this weekend was very full of Badminton Horse Trials. We were excited to watch the North American contingent. The Apprentice just didn’t seem to have his head in the game from the start of cross country. Buck did everything he could to energiz

So yesterday was my birthday.  Who the heck wants to go on having birthdays after you are fifty.  I mean if you reach half a century, you should just be considered ‘on your second half’ and let it go at that.  It was a lovely day and t