When people ask me what riding style or discipline I teach and train, my initial answer is always the same.  I teach, train and ride horses, specifically *this* horse, and the style of equipment I choose to use is influenced first by the needs of the horse and human partners, and only then by the human/horse games they wish to play. 

Regardless of the shape of the saddle, discipline details are the icing on the cake of horse/human partnership.
All breeds and types of horses can be ridden in every style that humanity has ever invented.  The nuances vary from breed to breed, region to region, but I firmly believe that every horse has the potential to perform any of the people games to a competent degree allowed by their health and conformation.

I am also a firm believer that if a person has a certain horse sport or riding style that is their main goal, they are best served to look for a horse that can joyously and easily perform to the level of the rider's goals.  It is when the human partner attempts to force a horse to work outside of its joy that conflict and "divorces" take place.

If it is a specific breed or type of horse that most draws a person to the equine world, they have a responsibility to work within the strengths and tendencies of those horses.  They must mold their expectations to the way that each breed best performs the human games.

The blessed soul that experiences true love with one horse and one horse only has the deepest of responsibilities.  This human partner must change their expectations to suit the traits of their new soul mate.  Here true love is bitter-sweet, for it is within these partnerships that we see the highest rate of "divorce" and the most strife and sorrow, for both partners. 

When we say that love is blind, it is no less true when the partners are horse and human.  In the horses that we love, it is easy to see them through rose colored glasses.  We often see their potentials as even higher than they really are, and we believe that if our bond is strong enough, all things are possible.

Without a clear and accurate picture of our mount, we, our horses, and most often both are doomed to frustration at the least, and a beak down of body, mind and trust at the worst.  

Least I feel tempted to start preaching from a soapbox, I will share with you the story of one of the greatest loves in my life.  His name was Tairak.

At age 12, only 4 years into my equine adventure, I was honored to receive the proverbial gift horse.  Tairak was an 18 year old Arabian/Pony cross with a long list of novice owners, classic PTSD, undiagnosed vision issues, and a tendency towards the dramatic in all things. 

Tairak had enough physical ability to do many things, but at the infancy of my horse relationship mastery, I was hard pressed to find them.  So with a single mother with no extra income to contribute and a series of punishing working student positions, I went to every trainer I could find.  Each time I was full of hope and bright dreams of Equitation Over Fences and Show Jumping stardom. 

And every trainer, without exception, did their best to hammer the only horse I could afford into the partner that could make my dreams come true.  We all failed. 

It is my deepest and most lasting sorrow that Tairak died at the age of 29, never knowing the peace and joy that a horse can know with true partnership and in joyous work that becomes the highest form of play.

Would that I could turn back the hands of time and meet Tairak again, with all that I understand now, and change those last 11 years of his life.  Instead I go forward, and in his memory, I do my best to help every horse and person that I may.

Therapeutic Riding is a popular term used to describe a range of different therapies which, with the help of specially trained horses, bring aid to children and adults with a wide variety of physical, mental and emotional disabilities.

Hippotherapy

Therapeutic Horseback Riding 

Competative Horsemanship for Riders with Disabilites

Equine Assisted Psychotherapy