December Resources

It's that time again! Here's a few of the things I read or watched that stuck out to me this month.


- Dressage For Jumpers With Laura Graves. Clinic recap with link to USEF Network video of the clinic.

- Auditing Christine Traurig from A Enter Spooking. Another excellent clinic recap with great notes and lots of things I want to try.

- Clinic Adventures from Journey With A Dancing Horse. I love Teresa's lesson and clinic recaps because I feel like we often are working on similar things, plus she has a knack for honing in on the important take homes we can all use.

-Mat Brown: A Case for Not Focusing on Your Goals Part 2 and Part 3. Part 2 focuses on tools to help students learn positively, Part 3 is about the horses. Kind of fun that the tools for teaching both are very similar :)

-Charlotte Dujardin Atlanta Clinic Recaps. Excellent recap, and lots of great basics, exercises and take homes I'm sure we all know but maybe need reminding to practice and be consistent about.

- Mark Todd autobiography. I know this one gets good reviews, but I have to say I came out of this one thinking he seems like a perfectly nice guy, but not at all what I expected...like with the George Morris ('Unrelenting') book, I found it hard to relate to their overwhelming desire to be the best, and all the things they sacrifice to get there. At times, this one made me really dislike the sport of eventing (and racing) and made me very sad for his family. It's a good autobiography, but maybe I was looking for more about his life with horses and less about his accomplishments? I'm not sure why but this one made me a little uneasy.

- Stable Lass. A cool peek into the UK racing scene, from an insider perspective. It's fun without being overly silly, and it's always inspiring to read about people who love their jobs as much as Gemma does. The jobs of the horses in this book are so similar to those in the Mark Todd one, yet I enjoyed this book so much more because the horses' characters are front and centre, along with the day to day details of their lives. So, if that's your thing, I'd recommend this book.

-All Over The Place. No horses, but a really good (and funny) read, and I keep recommending it to people. I really identified with her confidence and depression insights.

-Conquering Performance Anxiety - The Plaid Horse. Because yeah, that lesson happened.

-Comet in Summer. Actually a re-read, because I have so much time on the ferry without internet or data that my kindle book account is rapidly depleted. I loved this book the first time around, and I loved it again. It's YA, but don't let that put you off, there is some fantastically funny and witty banter throughout the book and also it's a great book for reminding us why we love horses and riding and for being grateful for what we have.

Coming Up: The 2019 USEF Robert Dover Clinic starts Jan 3rd. Link here.