Here, Ashker explains how her experience as a five-star eventer helps with her upper-level Grand Prix dressage movements and vice versa. You can also watch a video of her demonstrating this concept below.

From Drop Jumps to Pirouettes and Piaffe

“In eventing, especially when coming down to the head of a lake or dropping into water, you have to create balance in your horse. You can see in the video as I prepare for my left half pirouette turn, I stay behind my horse so he can more easily lift his shoulders for the turn. And then I ride him out. We repeat it one more time. I take my time and am very patient as I continue to stay behind him to keep his shoulders lifted.

“In piaffe, it’s the same idea. You want your horse’s shoulders to lift, not his head. There’s a big difference. And in order for the horse’s shoulders to lift, his back and rear need to drop. You horse can’t do this if you’re ahead of him all the time.

“Here, I’m going to demonstrate my position. You should always be able to draw a straight line from your shoulder to your hip and down to your heel. It’s very similar to our takeoffs over some cross-country jumps because it requires us to naturally balance our horses. The jumps actually help us do this. In dressage, we obviously don’t have jumps, so we have to use our position and posture to achieve that balance.

“In the piaffe, it’s a very light aid with the hand. Then, my legs alternate to ask my horse to lift his front legs. There’s a very fine line here between throwing him out of balance with my position. I continue to stay behind his motion to allow his shoulders to lift, and I might allow him to travel just a bit to keep the steps the same.

“In summary, if you do both eventing and upper-level dressage, be proud of being an eventer. Improving your position on cross country will only make your position that much better in your dressage work, no matter your level, and it will be more supportive for your horse.”

About Laine Ashker

Five-star eventer and dressage professional Lainey Ashker has competed in numerous FEI competitions at the five-star level, including the Blenheim Palace International Horse Trials CC14* and the Defender Burghley Horse Trials CC15*. The horsewoman, who trains out of her Keystone Acres farm in Chesterfield, Virginia, also won the National Eventing Championship (Advanced Level) in 2013 aboard her long-time mount, Anthony Patch. More recently, she won her first CDI in May 2023 aboard her upper-level dressage horse, Zeppelin.

For more with Laine Ashker, click here.

This video is brought to you by Absorbine.

The exercise I’ll describe in this article will help you learn to do just that. Instead of using strong and sometimes conflicting aids to ride it, you’ll work on communicating with your horse using subtle aids and riding softly. You want to be more like your horse’s dance partner and less like his drill sergeant. This exercise will help you find moments where you can lead the dance and the moments where you can follow and let your horse do the job. This requires repetition: The more you practice subtle, guiding aids, the more in-tune you and your horse will become.

This exercise is also a great way for you to practice sticking to your plan on course. It’s your responsibility to set out with a plan and stay diligent, but it’s easy to allow circumstances (such as a distance you didn’t like, a break in canter rhythm, a rail down or a butterfly going by) to talk yourself out of your plan.

When you deviate from your plan, you’ll be more likely to throw away your canter quality, the track you walked and planned and your position—and when this happens, riders start to ride their horses like dirt bikes and forget they’re supposed to be working with their partner around the course. And that’s when things really start to spiral faster than a blender. This exercise is a good indicator of how you might deviate from your plan on course, so you can practice improving those areas.

Setup 

This exercise is easy to set up and can go in any size ring. It’s also scalable—you can make it very easy or more difficult without having to change the setup. I can do this exercise with my 3-year-olds who are just getting started, all the way to my grand prix jumpers and Advanced-level eventers.

Study the diagram. You’ll need two verticals, eight tennis balls or cones and two poles. Position two poles parallel to each other in the middle of the ring to create a lane, and put the verticals at opposite ends of the ring. Set the fences to a height that feels like a real jump for you and your horse but is a comfortable height. Place two sets of four tennis balls on a diagonal on the track between the verticals and lane of poles to create inside, middle and outside tennis-ball lanes for you and your horse to pass through while riding the exercise.

The distance between the tennis balls and verticals doesn’t matter, but try to challenge yourself. If you know you have a harder time with longer distances, set the two verticals further away from the center of the exercise. And if you have a harder time with shorter distances, set the two verticals closer to the center of the exercise. You can also easily change the distances—you could set it for about five strides one day, and 10 strides on another day. 

I like using tennis balls because once the horses go by them a couple of times, they kick sand on them and then tend to ignore them, so it becomes more of a rider exercise to create the inside, middle or outside track. You can use cones, but horses tend to steer around them on their own. Therefore, tennis balls will challenge you to steer more accurately.

The Exercise

I’m a huge believer that success breeds more success, so start by setting the verticals as ground poles, and warm up over the exercise at the trot. Trot over the first pole then through the middle tennis-ball lane, change direction in the lane of poles, then go through the next middle tennis-ball lane and over the second pole. 

Then, try it at the canter. When changing direction through the lane of poles in the middle, I like to start by doing a simple lead change in the lane before introducing a flying lead change. Try doing five steps of trot in the lane, then if that’s going well, three steps. And if your horse doesn’t have a flying lead change, just stick with the simple lead change.

Gradually increase the difficulty by making the poles crossrails, then a 2-foot vertical, then continue to slowly build the fences to a height that’s comfortable for you. You can also start mixing up which tennis-ball lane you’ll ride through. Make sure you do the exercise in both directions so you’re spending roughly the same amount of time on both leads.

Throughout the exercise, focus on keeping your canter consistent, while the track is the variable. In order to make it through the exercise successfully, use consistent guiding aids by aiming your eyes where you want your horse’s eyes to be, the buttons on your shirt where you want your horse’s withers to be pointing and your belt buckle where you want your horse’s hips to be going.

After you jump the first fence, you should be looking at the lane of tennis balls you want your horse to travel through. Then, use your eyes and body to guide your horse through the lane of poles, and again through the next turn and to the second tennis-ball lane and fence. 

As you ride through your turns, think about how simple you can make each one. A course is essentially a bunch of turns stacked on top of each other, so this exercise will prepare you for riding smooth courses both at home and at competitions.

If you’re practicing this exercise without a trainer, bring out a white board and predetermine which tracks you’re going to do and in which order to hold yourself to your plan. In the moment, it can be tempting to change your plan to what seems easier, but that won’t help you improve your riding.

Variations

This exercise can be adapted based on what you’re working on and what you want to improve and is one of my favorites to help riders practice doing the opposite of their natural instincts so they can progress.

Once you’ve ridden through the exercise a few times, here are some ways you can vary it:

• Mix-up which tennis-ball lanes you ride through. In addition to riding inside lane to inside lane, middle lane to middle lane and outside lane to outside lane, try riding any combination of lanes. For example, inside lane to outside lane, outside lane to inside lane, middle lane to outside lane, etc. There are lots of different combinations at your disposal. 
• Count … or don’t. If you count your strides all the time, try not to. And the opposite is true, if you never count your strides, count out loud as part of the exercise.
• Play with the canter. Strive to maintain one lead through the whole exercise. Or determine where you will make your lead change—whether it be before the middle lane of poles, right in the lane, after the lane or anywhere on the course. Or, make sure you trot exactly five steps between the lane of poles and then change your lead. 
• Add circles. If you or your horse rushes to the fence, add circles anywhere and everywhere throughout the course
• Try trot or walk steps. Mix in a certain number of trot or walk steps at different places on
  the course.
• Fix your position. Almost any position exercise you can do on the longe line, you can do through this exercise because it’s so controlled. If you tend to sit and drive or if you do the opposite and perch, use this as an awareness exercise and make sure you are touching the saddle between the tennis balls and middle lane of poles, then get out of the saddle through the middle lane of poles, and the touch the saddle again between the middle lane and tennis balls. If you tend to pull on one rein to steer, ride it one-handed. 

Subtract the Noise for Success

If you struggle while practicing this exercise, think about how you’re communicating with your horse. Riders sometimes try so hard to get it right, they end up crossing too many wires with their horses. Are you overusing your aids? Are you sending conflicting signals?

Try doing less. If you’re still struggling, try doing even less. See how little you can do in this exercise. I’ve never seen this exercise achieved with force. There’s no way to kick and pull through it—you have to guide your horse. If you have to walk the exercise to be able to do it in harmony with your horse, that’s OK. 

I hope this exercise helps you find ways to get on the same team with your horse. You should always be striving to simplify your relationship and build a better partnership with every exercise you do.

For More:

To watch training videos with John Michael Durr, click here and subscribe to EQUESTRIAN+. Use code JOHN15 for 15% off your first month’s subscription.

About John Michael Durr

John Michael Durr has competed successfully in eventing, show jumping, dressage and hunters, developing horses to the upper levels and achieving top results. Mostly recently he switched his focus from eventing to show jumping, with successful grand prix results. He is the youngest person ever to achieve the highest level of certification through the USEA’s Eventing Coaches Program (Level 5) and is an FEI Eventing Level 2 and USEF Senior ‘S’ Course Designer. He also serves on USEA’s Licensed Officials Committee, Cross Country Safety Committee and Course Designer and Builder Committee. He is based at his Durr Eventing & Show Jumping in Tyron, North Carolina and Ocala, Florida.

Here’s why: Our national and international competition committees are continually raising the technical requirements of our sport, and our elite riders keep raising their proficiency. Part of their proficiency is based on the number of hours they spend daily in the saddle—most of which are sponsored. They are getting paid to practice. At the same time, the rising cost of riding and training makes it more and more difficult for you to develop your talents and perfect your skills.

Although it’s generally accepted that 10,000 hours of practice is necessary to reach elite levels of performance, the sad fact of the matter is that if you’re able to ride one horse a day, five days a week, it will take you a long time to log that 10,000 hours. Instead, you are going to spend a lot of your time hanging over the arena fence watching other riders while wishing you could be out there competing and improving.

That’s the bad news. The good news is that, as Yogi says, you can observe a lot just by watching … and thereby improve your riding. There’s a catch, however: You have to make sure that you’re observing and not just watching because there is a difference.

It Begins With Books

If it’s a given that you’ll have to develop the ability to learn by observation, then you must make sure that you’re watching the right things. Let me put it to you in a different way: If you want to develop your skills, you must learn to short-circuit the usual heuristic (learning by trial and error) process historically associated with learning to ride at an elite level.

There are several steps toward developing the ability to observe, to learn and to apply what you have learned. First, it will accelerate your learning process greatly if you have a sound understanding of the technical basis for modern riding. For example, what are the leg and rein aids? Where, when and how are they applied? Even though you may not yet be able to apply what you observe, you need to understand why certain things are happening.

You can find the answers to your questions by endless trial-and-error on your own, by taking extensive and expensive lessons or by reading books on the subject. While you cannot learn to ride solely by reading books about riding, you can certainly take advantage of the advice contained in good books.

Why not videos? Most of the videos I’ve seen are excellent, but most assume prior knowledge on the viewer’s part, which means you need to turn the pages in a book before you turn to videos as an aid to learning. Once you understand what is good and bad, video is an excellent learning tool. It enables you to watch the same exercise or competition again and again, using slow-motion and stop-action functions to analyze each step or stride of the horse and each action of the rider.

If the video is about a high-level show-jumping competition, and a horse has a knockdown or refusal, watch it again and again, trying to observe what happened to cause the mistake. When you watch videos of your own riding, avoid the temptation to concentrate on the winning performances; instead, watch your errors endlessly. The next time you ride, make sure you can prevent that mistake from happening.

Learning to Observe

One of the best things I ever learned from former U.S. show-jumping coach Bert de Némethy was to analyze what caused a mistake and to recognize when in a series of actions the mistake occurred. I was standing behind Bert one day, watching as usual, and a horse jumping a schooling course knocked down the front rail of a square oxer.

“So, Jimmy, where did the knockdown occur?” I immediately answered, “At the square oxer.” Bert replied, “No, it happened three fences before that, at the triple bar. The rider did not rebalance his horse after the big spread, and he was too much on his forehand to jump the oxer clean.”

At that moment, I understood that it was possible to observe far more than I had previously realized. My observational powers started to develop, and I no longer had to make a mistake in order to learn from it.

If you are one of those people who must learn everything yourself, all I can say is “good luck.” It is a positive attribute to learn from your mistakes, but you should not insist on making every mistake yourself because there are too many possibilities for error as we learn to ride. When you read a book, watch a video or observe a good rider, you are learning from someone who has already made innumerable mistakes. Profit from their experiences!

Before we get down to specifics, we need to discuss how to observe. When you first start to watch for the purpose of instruction rather than enjoyment, everything is a blur. The horse and rider have a knockdown or a refusal or a dressage movement goes badly wrong, and you are left to ask yourself, “What happened?” What happened is that you tried to see everything at once—and consequently ended up not seeing much of anything.

Instead, practice at first watching one particular part of the whole system. For example, concentrate on watching a horse’s left hock for several moments while you ignore the rest of the dressage test. Chances are that you will, for instance, notice a loss of regularity in the hind legs just before the horse comes above the bit.

Next, watch one front foot and try to determine how it and the opposite hind foot work together, and what happens when they are not harmonious. If you isolate various parts of the horse’s body and concentrate your observations on each aspect alone, you will eventually be able to “see” the whole body of the horse and understand how each part interacts to produce the performance you are watching.

Then, the next time you train your horse in dressage, you might feel the irregularity of his hind legs and know he is about to come above the bridle. This time, however, you will improve his engagement to keep him on the bit rather than pull on the reins in an attempt to “keep his head down.” You learned this valuable lesson without going through the hours of instruction that would have otherwise been necessary.

Education Through Observation

If you are unable to compete, go to an event as a spectator and sit on the rail of the warm-up arena. Devote 10 minutes to observing each horse’s eyes as he approaches an obstacle, ignoring the rest of the horse’s body. Try to feel what the horse sees and when he decides how he is going to meet the fence. Most horses make their decision long before the average rider “sees her stride,” which explains why coaches who insist that riders keep the rhythm in the final approach are successful. A horse traveling in rhythm is in balance, and balanced horses jump to the best of their abilities.

When does a horse jump well? Does he jump well when he is brought to the fence on the bit, just as in dressage? Or is he better when he has the plane of his face at roughly a 45-degree angle to the ground as he approaches? I think you can find the answer, but you have to observe carefully, not just watch.

When you watch cross-country, make sure to observe riders over both a combination and a single “fly” fence designed to be jumped at a high rate of speed. Again, concentrate on one thing at a time. Try to decide the correct place for the necessary speed change before the combination and the correct approach speed. At the fly fence, watch the riders’ actions in the approach. Do they sit down or do they sit back, and why? Which works better?

In all of these instances, make sure you imagine yourself in the saddle and mentally rehearse your actions based on your observations. I think this technique of observing explains in part why a skilled rider can get on a totally strange horse and immediately ride the horse better than his usual rider. The skilled rider has been watching—observing—hundreds of horses like the one she just got on, and she is mentally prepared to ride it.

We cannot spend all our time in the saddle, but we can observe carefully while grounded so as to be ready when the chance to ride presents itself.

For more with Jim Wofford, click here.

Beginning with her strategy for leaving the start box, Ashker offers advice on how she approaches each obstacle and combination on the course and provides tips on how she ensures her mare has enough gas to tackle the course with ease. She also notes which tactics worked and which jumps didn’t go so well and how she handles those situations in real time.

We’re sure you’ll have as much fun as we did galloping along with Ashker and Love Dance over Fair Hill’s intense cross-country track, including the infamous Maryland crab water jump, and we hope you gain some insights on how you can navigate similar obstacles on your next cross-country ride.

Ashker: Maintain Your Battery From the Start Box

“Going into this course, I was quite nervous for a number of reasons. My mare is a proper warmblood, so she doesn’t have a lot of blood, and this was by far the longest course she’s every done at about 10 minutes and the largest crowd she’s ever seen.

“Whether I’m doing Beginner Novice or the five-star level, I think of my horse as an iPhone battery from the moment I leave the start box. When I’m in the warm-up ring, the battery is charged to 100%. As I go through the course, there are going to be a few jumps that maybe aren’t so good and that brings our battery level down. So, my goal over each jump on cross country is to keep bringing that battery level back up, so that when I finish I’m back with 100%.

“On cross country, I enter the start box on a long rein to help keep my mare calm. Out of the box, my main goal is to set a good rhythm. When I was younger, I used to set the rhythm out too strong. Now, I think of starting like the slow tortoise and then finishing like the hare.

“The third jump on course is extremely technical with a max table to a narrow brush. After the table, I ride a straight line to the narrow. My mare got her eye on it at the last second, but she didn’t really know to look for it, so I was pleased as punch that she jumped that great.

“I jumped into the second combination on course—the sunken road—quite strongly and she got surprised by it. You can see that I fall forward. But that’s where my orange theory came into play. I was able to sit back and stick it and then kind of give myself a whack in the bum to make sure I’m staying behind my horse and not getting ahead of her on questions that are as difficult as that.

“There were a lot of maxed-out tables with ditches under them on this course. My mare used to be bit spooky at ditches and wanted to pause. But we can’t be pausing over those big tables, I so give her reassuring leg and a big cluck to get over it. But as we do each one on the course, she gains more confidence.”

Ashker: Ramping Up the Difficulty With Water and the Coffin

“The first water jump is a table from water to water. When horses jump from water to water, they’re slower off the ground and slower to land. So, as a rider, it’s very important to stay behind your horse’s motion. You see that I stay back to encourage her to ride across.

“Next we have the gallop jumps. My goal is to ride these as smoothly and as rhythmically as possible, so she doesn’t have to work so hard to keep charging that phone battery up to 100%.

“Now, we’re approaching the most nerve-wracking combination in the coffin. You have a big jump coming in and then a big ditch going downhill, and then you have to pick the left or right side depending on your horse. I chose the left, so I really brought my mare back to an aggressive show-jumping speed, jumped in and then really pointed her for two strides out.

“We couldn’t celebrate too much, because then we have the double corner to corner. She’s pretty good on corners, but she’s also never seen this many people, so I really wanted to get her attention on it, especially because, as you can see, it’s kind of hidden under a tree. I hit the flag with my knee, but that was totally fine. I was really happy with her honesty and for looking down the flags. As event riders, we train our horses to look for the flags.

“The terrain is part of what makes Fair Hill so difficult, so even though we have this stretch here where I can regain my breath and mental focus, we’re going uphill. And because she’s not a full-blood horse, I want to slowly build her confidence and stamina, so I don’t push her uphill. I let her pick the pace that she needs to go up it.”

Ashker: Navigating the Infamous Crab and Final Combination

“Next we have the most exciting water jump with a max-height drop into the water to a related distance to two narrows. You’ll see how I rock my mare back so I can be powerful going to the very big and very narrow crabby crab coming in. I give a little stick on her shoulder and stay back and widen my hands for the narrow. And her stride is so big that with the three jumps afterward, it’s like clockwork.

“When I see the ears start to move with the horse, it indicates to me that maybe she’s getting a little tired. So, as a rider, you need to pay attention and rate that. This sport really teaches you to listen to your horse.

“On the final combination, you can tell she’s really listening to me. I’m talking to her and she’s very focused. But she doesn’t feel labored. I’m not having to kick her to go. Horses need energy to go, but they also need just as much energy to collect. You can see here how I brought her back and we had a really good shot in, but I underestimated how big her stride is. It was supposed to be a four stride, but I got there on three-and-half. So I gave her a good pat because she definitely saved us on that one. But that’s what eventing is all about—a partnership. That’s what makes this sport so great is that you know your horse inside and out.

“I was really proud of how she answered each one of the questions and finished on that 100% battery. The partnership and bond you experience on cross country is why I love eventing so much. I’ve had this mare going on five years now, and I do a lot of the grooming work myself and spend time with her day in and day out doing trot sets and gallop sets and the icing and aftercare. That really creates the bond and the partnership.

“No matter what level of eventing you ride at, both horse and rider must be extremely fit. So much goes into taking care of the horses—their nutrition, skin and coat health, their internal health. But taking care of my health and fitness is also extremely important, because that enables me to better help my horses.”

Ride With Ashker and Love Dance

From this awesome GoPro view, gallop along with Ashker and Love Dance as they navigate the challenging CCI3* cross-country track at Fair Hill last October.

About Laine Ashker

Five-star eventer and dressage professional Lainey Ashker has competed in numerous FEI competitions at the five-star level, including the Blenheim Palace International Horse Trials CC14* and the Defender Burghley Horse Trials CC15*. The horsewoman, who trains out of her Keystone Acres farm in Chesterfield, Virginia, also won the National Eventing Championship (Advanced Level) in 2013 aboard her long-time mount, Anthony Patch. More recently, she won her first CDI in May 2023 aboard her upper-level dressage horse, Zeppelin.

For more with Laine Ashker, click here.

This video is brought to you by Absorbine.

~ Elle K., North Carolina

A: First, if you haven’t done so already, ask your veterinarian to check your horse for any medical problems that might be causing his thinness and lack of energy. The latter may be contributing to your posting style, encouraging you to press your weight deeper into the back of the saddle in an effort to drive him forward. This is more characteristic of the balanced seat taught in dressage than the forward seat taught in hunters and jumpers. Both are correct for their own purposes.

Dressage riders maintain a more upright upper body by swinging their hips forward during the up phase of the rising trot. Hunt-seat riders incline their upper bodies slightly in front of the vertical at all times, maintaining two straight lines perpendicular to the ground: one from hip to heel and the other from ear to shoulder to knee to toe. If you focus on maintaining these two straight lines, your body will post automatically in the forward-seat style.

During the sitting phase, instead of contacting the saddle with three points (two seat bones and the imaginary extension of your tailbone) like a dressage rider, sink down through your thighs, settling lightly into the front of the saddle. Be careful not to roll onto your back pockets. This will round your spine and collapse your upper body. It will also throw your hips behind your heels, destroying your alignment.

When you contact the saddle, distribute roughly one-third of your body weight into your seat, one-third into the insides of your thighs and one-third into your heels. Putting more weight into the saddle may be tempting—especially when you’re trying to push a lazy horse forward—but this driving seat should only be used sparingly in the hunters and jumpers, for example when reacting to a spook. In fact, some horses shrink off the pace when ridden with a deep seat. You may find that your horse’s stride opens up after you lighten your seat.

Finding Your Ideal Posting Position

Practice at the halt first. Ask a ground person to hold your leg still while you slowly rise out of the saddle. Concentrate on stretching your Achilles tendon (the back of your ankle) downward while stretching your hamstring (the back of your thigh) upward. Then recreate the same feeling at the trot. Imagine your horse is the ocean and you’re a cork bobbing on the surface, always following the motion and never impeding it. Allow his impulsion to trampoline your body up out of the saddle, naturally unbending your knees, then let gravity bring you back down.

Ask your trainer or a friend to tell you when your position looks properly aligned while you’re posting to help you recognize that feeling. Have someone video you during lessons, standing next to your instructor so you can see what she sees and hear her comments on the video. Dismount several times during the ride to review the video.

Once you’ve identified the feel of the new position, own it! Retraining your neural pathways requires frequent, correct practice of repetitive motions. Take about 10 minutes during each ride to focus strictly on your posting. Then relax and move on to something else. Be careful not to overdo it and freeze your body into a stiff position.

Making position changes like this can take a long time, especially if you’ve been riding this way for years. It is harder for adults, whose neural pathways are already established, than for children, who are still developing their neural pathways. Adding a fitness program to your routine can help. Anything that improves your body awareness and strength will also enhance your riding skills.

Meanwhile, re-educate your horse to your leg aids by following them up with an immediate cluck and tap of the crop. The moment he moves forward, reward him with a “good boy” and scratch on the neck. With repetition, he’ll learn to respond promptly to a light squeeze.

Be patient with him as well as yourself. Instead of trying to pursue perfection—which inevitably leads to frustration—pursue excellence!

About Mary Babick

Hunter/jumper trainer Mary Babick began her riding career in dressage and eventing while growing up in Washington, D.C. She traveled to the United Kingdom in 1979 to earn her British Horse Society Assistant Instructor certificate. Since then, she has also become a USHJA certified instructor and has helped riders from the lead-line to grand-prix level achieve their goals, both as horsepeople and competitors. Her students have earned many top honors at zone, regional and national competitions. Mary and her team combine riding and stable-management skills in their comprehensive teaching program based at her Knightsbridge Farm in Middletown, New Jersey. Their successful students include Whitney Roper, Abby and Meg O’Mara, Tilden Brighton and Maria Schaub among many others.

This article originally appeared in the May 2015 issue of Practical Horseman.

Graves also stresses the importance of keeping your horse in front of your leg and said it’s essential that you time your aids correctly and that he promptly responds to your forward aids. Here, she breaks down the differences between contact and collection and explains how you can improve both and make them work together.

Contact Versus Connection, Part 1

“To create proper connection, you must start with good contact. I take a lot of time educating my horses on the contact. This is important to make sure your horse is as comfortable as possible in his mouth and learns how to properly accept the bit.”

“Your horse must also respect the contact. It’s like teaching a horse to pick up his foot. If I run my hand down the back of his leg, I expect him to pick up his foot. I have the same kind of training technique when thinking about the bit. I want the horse to know if I touch you like this, this is the reaction I would like you to give me.”

“You must get your horse in front of your leg before you can address contact or collection. Commit to the tempo you think is best for your horse. When it comes to maintaining tempo, every horse has a different one he’d prefer and sometimes that’s a little slower and more behind the leg than we would like. That’s when you need to introduce the correction with your leg. He might not like the correction. But you need to call to his attention that you asked him nicely first and he didn’t listen. The correction, however, has to happen in a very short amount of time, so that your horse can relate it to his action or inaction.”

“Your horse has to learn to say there [in front of your leg] by himself. If you take your leg off and he slows again, he’s continuing to make the same mistake. That means one of two things about your correction was off. It either wasn’t strong enough or your timing was wrong. So if he keeps repeating the same mistake, ask yourself which one of those things you need to change.

Contact Versus Connection, Part 2

“With every horse you have to play with different aids until you find that sweet spot where your horse is properly reactive. It is for sure a challenge, but the first thing horses must learn is that respecting the leg is not optional and staying in front of the leg is not optional.

“Remember the correction itself doesn’t have to make your horse do the right thing. I don’t want the whip to be the thing that makes him canter. Instead, the whip serves to bring his attention to your leg. You might not always be able to ask so politely at first if he’s ignoring what you’re telling him. Our job is to sit in the saddle and when he makes a mistake to train him so the next time that mistake is not even a possibility.

“Even if he’s walking on the buckle, he should be walking like he walks in a free walk in the test. Those are the only walks he needs to have when he’s in the ring. And while you’re walking, think about establishing a kind of internal metronome.

“When we talk about connection, if your horse isn’t going forward the same every stride, I can almost guarantee that when you start to touch the bridle, you’re going to run into problems because he’s not thinking about going there.

“If the horse is not 100% honest and in front of the leg, we can’t start to have a conversation about the bridle being a boundary. Otherwise, he’s always going to choose the easy way out, which is to slow down and to push out behind. And not necessarily because of bad character. It would be a foolish for a horse to volunteer to do things the most difficult way, which is what we ask of them. So they’re just smart because they’re choosing the easier way out.”

Contact Versus Connection, Part 3

“When a horse starts to understand the boundary of the bridle, it really starts to change his athletic ability, because as he becomes more respectful of the hand and knows he can’t slow down, he will really start to use himself.

“If you maintain a bent elbow, you can always soften your hand forward like a hinge that can open and close. Also, if your horse pulls on you, having a bent elbow will help lock your center of gravity into your core. If your hands are flat, he’s likely to pull you forward out of the tack.

“You have to find the right moments in training to make changes in the bridle and your collection. Be aware of your horse’s level of sensitivity because that will also determine the level of any corrections you provide. Every horse is different and you have to understand each’s limits and when you need more or less on any given day.”

You can watch the full series on contact versus connection with Laura Graves here.

For More:

• Read more about collection and how to help your horse achieve it here.
• From short training tips to how-to videos and insider-access to private clinics and lessons, learn from top dressage experts on EQUESTRIAN+.

Five-star eventer, natural horsemanship advocate and performance coach Chelsea Canedy uses groundwork in every aspect of her training program and finds that quality work from the ground carries over to your under-saddle work.

In Part 2 of Canedy’s groundwork series from her video collection on EQUESTRIAN+, she demonstrates how to introduce your horse to lateral work and circle transitions from the ground and explains how these exercises translate into valuable training tools in all your work. She also shows you how to navigate groundwork with a horse who’s on the less-motivated side.

Groundwork to Move Your Horse Laterally

“Teaching your horse to move laterally in response to pressure from the ground is an extremely useful tool to prepare him for under-saddle work. Under saddle, we might call this exercise a leg yield to the wall. You’ll approach your horse from a 45-degree angle with his head pointing toward the wall so that he’s moving away from your pressure on the ground or what would be your outside leg under saddle. I prefer to use a wall for the exercise because it provides a boundary so that when you go to apply pressure with your hand or stick, your horse understands you don’t want him to go forward. You want him to go sideways.

“This exercise also helps loosen your horse up a bit and by getting him to use and cross his hind legs over, and it keeps him light in response to the pressure you’re adding to his side.

“To start, I move my horse toward the wall at a slight angle and when I start to apply pressure with my stick, I do it up in front of his eyes so he starts to notice that I’m going to be stopping the pressure to prevent forward movement. Then as he paws and attempts to do something different—which is totally logical on his part—I just wait until he moves away from the little bit of pressure I’m applying near his flank.

“In an ideal world, I would get one movement from the small amount of pressure I apply. This horse tries really hard and will do a lot of things with a little pressure. But I would really love to be able to apply a small amount of pressure at his flank to get him to take one small step to the side. He tends to overdo it a bit, which is fine. Some horses are just that way. With other horses you might have to increase the pressure to get a response.

“If your horse tries to barge ahead or misinterprets your stick cue, apply pressure from the halter to indicate you don’t want him to go forward. The moment he’s gotten something right, make sure your body posture is very calm and relaxed. You’ll see how my horse here licks and chews and relaxes his eyes and ears, and I give him a little rub so he doesn’t get worried or overly sensitive.

“In the long run, I’d like to keep my horse more at a 45-degree angle rather than having his hips swing around, but I’m still going to reward him for moving laterally in the way I’ve asked him. Even though he’s a little distracted by the door here, I love that simple, quiet movement of his hip, so I’ll reward him by just letting him be for a bit.”

Transitions On a Circle From the Ground

“I use circling from the ground as a tool to continue building the connection with my horse and not so much for exercise or getting excess energy out. When you start circle work, keep your horse relatively close to keep his attention focused on you. The farther away your horse is, the more likely you’ll lose his attention.

“I start by backing my horse away from me, so I can send him on a circle around me without him intruding into my space. On circle work, always start with the lightest pressure or signal you can use and only increase that pressure as necessary. For my horses, I use one cluck for walk, two clucks for trot and a kiss for canter.

“I don’t use a barrage of aids because that’s like constantly putting your leg on and getting no response. I want one aid and one response. If I don’t get a response from the aid I’ve chosen, I back it up with a stronger cue until I get my horse to try. Then, I immediately go back to the lightest aid I was hoping to utilize.

“During circle work, I want to be able to stop my horse in his tracks or draw him back into me, because I’m always trying to balance the drive of my horse with the draw of him to me. When I draw my horse toward me, I take a step back and look for him to follow me with eyes and ears until he wants to walk toward me. When I feel like he’s in the right space in relationship to me, I ask him to stop. If he doesn’t, I put a little pressure on him until he does.

“To practice downward transitions, I simply slow my body down and breathe out. This is also a great way to see if your horse is paying attention to your intention. He should read my body language to understand we’re slowing down and stopping.

“You can change directions on your circle work without making any major adjustments. Simply ask your horse to come toward you by getting a little bit in front of him. Then, I’ll use my hand to lead him in the new direction. It’s about bringing your horse in and then pushing him back out based on your body position and where you’re focusing your energy. This requires you to have confidence in your energy and pressure. You can’t come in with hesitancy like ‘I don’t know if this really going to work,’ because your horse will read that and doesn’t know if you’re really sure about what you’re asking and if he should respond.”

Navigating Groundwork With a Less-Motivated Horse

“Here, I’m demonstrating how to manage groundwork with a horse who’s less sensitive and maybe a little lazier than the gray horse I was working with earlier. This guy, by nature, is slightly less self-motivated. For this kind of horse, the stick and string is a really good tool. It’s different than a longe whip because it’s shorter and has less flexion, but it has a nice, long string attached to it, so it allows you to reach out touch your horses’ hind end if you need to.

“I ask Kenny to move out on a circle by leading with my hand and adding a little pressure behind where my leg would go. Nothing happened, so I’m going to add a little more pressure. Then, I get a livelier walk and am careful to keep my energy behind what I refer to as the drive line or where my leg would be on the horse. Pressure behind this line will send the horse forward, and anything in front of that line should slow the horse down.

“When your horse is doing a good job, keep your arm relaxed, the stick down and stay quiet with your body. If you want to increase his pace, add a leading motion with your hand and double cluck. There he didn’t go, so I reach out and give him a light touch with the stick. Here, I’m demonstrating it slowly so you can see, but in real time, I would lead with my hand, cluck and apply pressure quickly if he doesn’t follow through the first time. This way, the horse associates the touch with the stick and string with the aid I just gave.

“What you don’t want to do is start throwing a bunch of aids at your horse all at once, pulling on him or saying ‘whoa’ over and over again. Settle your energy until your horse thinks he should slow down and stop. Then, quietly send him back out with a double cluck and he reacted much quicker.”

For More:

• To watch these episodes and Chelsea Canedy’s full EQUESTRIAN+ video collection on groundwork, click here.
• Read Part 1 of Canedy’s groundwork series on how to improve your connection with your horse by building trust from the ground here.
• For her tips on introducing cross-country obstacles from the ground, click here.

Dressage trainer and USEF “S” judge Melonie Kessler answers a reader question about the advantages of going sans saddle every once in awhile, and then we look at eight bareback exercises that your can incorporate into your riding. Plus, going bareback is tons of fun and a great way to change up your regular training routine.

How Bareback Can Improve Your Riding

Q: I watch kids at the barn ride their horses bareback, and they seem to have such secure seats. It makes me wonder if I should start incorporating some bareback rides here and there.

— Becky E., Vermont 

A: Bareback riding has many benefits for both horse and rider. Getting back to basics by developing your balance through effectively following the mechanics of your horse’s gait is invaluable to the discipline of dressage. The blending of two beings into one in order to perform smooth, harmonious exercises is only achieved when the rider has complete control of her own balanced body.

As in other sports, riders must rely on strong muscles and supple joints in order to support their balance, but with horseback riding, one must be constantly aware of the movement of the horse through the most elastic, supple seat and steady, supportive leg aids. This is what is referred to as “feel.”

Developing your feel through riding without a saddle is the easiest way to learn to comprehend the natural movement of each gait. The horse moves differently in the trot than in the walk and canter. Bareback riding can help you learn to catch the beat of the trot (a two-beat gait), which, for many riders initially, is their biggest challenge. If you are able to catch the beat of the trot, you have learned to use the right amount of isometric muscle tension.

An additional way to practice suppling your seat and coordinating your timing is to straddle a large yoga ball and bounce gently to emulate the motion of your horse in a steady, rhythmic trot. Work to keep the ball in motion with the rotation of your hips as you practice “sitting” the trot.

More Bareback Benefits

After successfully being able to sit the trot without bouncing, you can learn to influence your horse’s gait by understanding the principles of a closed seat and thighs to slow or stop your horse, and then to drive the horse forward by opening your hip angle and pushing him with your seat and back muscles. As in bareback riding, there is no saddle to buffer the aids, and you will learn to use smaller aids to achieve a greater response. Remember, this can be a difficult lesson to learn as your horse is a very sensitive creature and your legs without the additional layer of the saddle between your horse and your body might frighten the horse and create a nervous, tight back, resulting in negative tension and bad behavior.

When you are ready to work on the canter, remember it’s based on the same mechanics as the walk. This means that you swing your seat from back to front, and the bigger the swing, the bigger the stride. Bareback riding will open your hip angles and allow you to feel as if you are sitting “in” the horse as opposed to on top of him.

Bareback riding can be a lot of fun and it is a great workout for the hips and lower back. As you learn how to turn, start and stop your horse from your seat, the pieces of the puzzle will start to fall together soon and you will learn why the seat is the number-one aid.

I highly recommend that anyone interested in beginning to learn to ride bareback start on a school horse with experience in this style. If your own horse has not been ridden bareback before, you will want to have a helper steady him until he is comfortable with the feel of your legs and seat. After he accepts your weight without the saddle, he can be taught to understand your muscles’ meaning as they contract and relax, and his response time will become quicker.

Lessons from a qualified instructor with experience is also important as the safety of you and your horse is always most important. As with all sports, it looks easier than it is, so take it slowly and steadily, and enjoy the bonding you will have with your partner as you embark on developing and refining your aids.

Melonie Kessler is a USEF “S” dressage judge and a USDF bronze, silver and gold medalist. She is a graduate of Pleasant Hollow Farms Horse Career School in Coopersburg, Pennsylvania. A successful competitor and trainer through Grand Prix level, she trains out of Spirit Equestrian in Somis, California.

For Safety & Success Going Bareback

• Helmet: Always wear a certified helmet to reduce your chances of head injury.
• Enclosed area: It’s always safest to ride in an enclosed space while bareback. You might feel more comfortable starting in a round pen and then progressing to an enclosed arena.
• Suitable mount: If your horse tends to be hot-tempered, spooks easily or he’s otherwise unsuitable to ride bareback borrow a more suitable mount.
• Bareback pad: If your horse has pronounced withers, an uncomfortable back or you’d prefer a little added grip for security, start in a bareback pad.
• Start sans stirrups: In preparation for going bareback, practice riding at the walk, trot and canter without stirrups. You might have underestimated how dependent you are on your stirrups for balance.
• Grab mane: Get in the habit early on of grabbing your horse’s mane for balance or consider a neck strap. This will help keep you anchored until you develop a more secure seat.

Bareback Exercises to Get You Started

Bareback demands superb balance from both you and your horse. Your weight and any small shifts in your weight will feel different to him without the barrier of your saddle. When riding bareback, make sure to sit upright and directly in the center of your horse’s back. Maintain a slight bend in your knees and allow your legs to lengthen and drape naturally around your horse, making sure not to pinch with your knees.

The below exercises start off super easy and then get progressively more challenging, and for many, you can increase or decrease the level of difficulty depending on your balance, skill level and progress.

1. Toe-Touches

At a standstill, hold both your reins in your left hand; extend your right arm above your head, reach over your horse’s withers and touch the toe of your left boot. Hold the stretch for several seconds. (If you can’t touch your toes, go as far as you can until your balance and flexibility improve.) Now, reach up with your right arm again and stretch down to touch your right toe. Repeat with your left arm.

• Benefits: You’ll learn how to balance in the center your horse’s back while shifting your weight from side to side.
• Up the challenge: Practice at a walk.

2. Walk

Simply practice walking in straight lines to get a feel for your balance while your horse is in motion. Continue walking straight until you gain confidence.

• Benefits: You’ll learn how to balance and get in rhythm with your horse while he’s moving and you’ll start to understand how your movement affects his balance.
• Up the challenge: At the walk, incorporate wide turns, circles and half-circles to feel how your balance changes as your horse turns.

3. Airplane

At a standstill, extend both arms directly out from your sides and slowly twist your upper body from side to side. Now, place your reins in one hand and extend your free arm forward toward your horse’s ears; then, stretch the same arm back toward the top of his tail. Repeat with your other arm.

• Benefits: Twisting at the waist will help you balance while your upper body moves; the stretches will help you balance as your weight shifts forward and backward—and both will help stretch and relax your lower back, which will allow you more freely move with your horse.
• Up the challenge: Practice at a walk.

4. Paddle & Scissors

Tracking to the left, hold both reins in your inside hand and extend your right arm directly out from your side. Each time your horse’s outside (right) front leg comes forward, bring your arm up above your head. Reverse and practice to the right. Next, instead of extending your arm up when your horse’s outside leg steps forward, bring it directly across your body in front of your chest so the motion is back and forth instead of up and down.

Benefits: The arm movements while in motion will further test your balance.

5. Ground Pole Square

Use four ground poles to build a large square in the center of your arena, leaving around 6 feet between each pole. Walk a large circle around the entire square in both directions; then, practice smaller circles inside the square. Next, circle each pole. You can circle in the same direction at first; then, circle right around one pole, left around the next and so on.

• Benefits: You’ll learn to balance while guiding your horse around circles of varying sizes, and the specific tasks will help you and your horse stay focused while riding in a larger area.
• Up the challenge: Once you get comfortable at the trot bareback, you can also practice this exercise at the faster gait.

6. Trot

Once you’re confident at the walk and are ready for a new challenge, add some speed. To get a feel for the quicker pace, start by trotting a short, straight line, from point A to B (use cones or elements of your arena to mark points). As you feel more secure, trot from point A to C, and so on until you’re comfortable at the faster gait for longer periods of time.

• Benefits: You might feel a little unstable at first, but learning how to remain centered at the faster, bouncier gait will help solidify your bareback seat, preparing you for more challenging work.
• Up the challenge: Practice collecting and extending your trot and try posting to really give you inner thigh muscles a workout. Then, practice trotting wide turns and circles to get a feel for the faster gait as your horse turns.

7. Ground Pole Chute

Place two poles parallel to each other about 6 or 7 feet apart and walk through the middle of the “chute” using your legs to keep your horse straight. After several passes, have a helper gradually move the poles closer together so that each time you have to navigate a narrower space.

• Benefits: This will show whether you’re sitting in the true center of your horse’s back. He’s going to have a difficult time remaining straight if you’re leaning to one side or the other. If you lean left, for example, it will be easier for him to “escape” your weight by moving to the right; as a result, he might hit or step over the pole to your right.
• Up the challenge: You can also do this exercise at a trot or canter.

8. Serpentine

A basic serpentine, this pattern involves walking a series of connected S’s back and forth across the width of your arena. Pick up a walk along the fence line at either end of the arena; if you’re tracking to the right, slightly bend your horse to the right as you approach the end of the arena and then execute a smooth half turn so you’re now walking in the opposite direction. Straighten your horse back up; this time, as you approach fence, bend your horse to the left in preparation for a half turn to the left. Continue until you reach the end of the arena.

• Benefits: Even though it’s crucial that you remain centered on your horse while bareback, this exercise will teach you how to sit slightly to the outside of his back in order fluidly stay with his motion as you execute smooth, balanced turns. It will also sharpen your rein and leg aids, because it forces you to focus on setting your horse up for a new turning point with each loop of the serpentine.
• Up the challenge: Once you master this at the walk—and well after you’re confident trotting bareback—you can do this exercise at the faster gait. At the trot, make your turns wider at first and then challenge yourself by making them tighter

Over time, as you gain confidence and solidify your bareback position and balance, you can progress to canter work and even going over poles or small jumps. However, if you’re still new to going sans saddle, it’s always best to ride bareback under the supervision or your trainer or another professional. Above all, have fun!

For More:

• To check out several bareback riding demonstrations and training exercises, watch this video series on EQUESTRIAN+.
• Learn more about the biomechanics of riding bareback here.

And unless you’re very lucky, it is almost impossible to reach the top of this sport without sacrifice. Grueling preparation, blood, sweat, tears, inevitable loss and unwavering perseverance are the name of the eventing game.

From redemption and lifelong dreams reimagined to young up-and-coming eventers packed with potential, every athlete has her own unique reason for seeking five-star status. We talked to the six first-time five-star riders at the 2025 Defender Kentucky Three-Day Event to learn about the special bonds they share with their equine athletes and their personal journeys in pursuing elite eventing status.

Arden Wildasin (USA)

• Age: 32
• Eventing partner: 18-year-old Irish Sport Horse gelding Sunday Times (“Mumbles”)
• Homebase: Aiken, South Carolina
• FEI Starts: 168
• FEI Wins: 5
• Fun fact: She never wears a watch on cross country and instead relies on feel to measure her time.

Even behind her sunglasses, Arden Wildasin was beaming after she and Sunday Times—her eventing partner of 10 years—completed their first CCI5*-L at this year’s Defender Kentucky Three-Day Event. When she discovered Mumbles through a sale in Ireland as an 8-year-old, Wildasin was impressed by his confident nature on cross country and took a chance on the gray gelding. Their partnership has been a decade in the making, but the now five-star eventer noted that growing together from the ground up allowed the pair to develop a solid and trusting foundation.

“It’s been a lifelong journey I’ve been working toward. I truly didn’t know if I was going to be a five-star rider or not. I knew we had a lot of homework to do together to prepare, but he is one unbelievable horse, especially at 18,” she said. “This weekend was such a win for us. We just kept checking all the boxes, so no matter what happened in the end, I felt like we accomplished an incredible goal. I’m so thankful for Mumbles. He will always be in my barn.”

Leading up to Kentucky, Wildasin was keenly focused on ramping up Mumbles’ fitness and over time his strength and endurance have improved for all three phases. “He’s kind of like my younger brother and definitely has his quirks,” she laughed. “And even though he’s gotten stronger, I still have to be very sensitive with him. I can’t micro-manage him, but I can’t just say, ‘Go at your free will.’ So, we’ve found a fine balance.”

Wildasin says dressage has always been the most challenging phase for the gelding, but the pair executed one of their best-ever tests at Kentucky this year, and even though they ran into a few mistakes and learning opportunities on cross country, she was thrilled that they completed Derek di Grazia’s tough five-star track. She also noted that Mumbles naturally has a more collected stride, which sometimes presents challenges in show jumping.

“With his tighter stride, he kind of pings around the arena instead of having that nice, more flowing 12-foot canter stride. So we felt a little out of control in the jumping, but it was a good learning experience because I have to get used to that longer length of stride for the bigger jumps,” she said. “But he just kept on jumping and was like, ‘Sure, Mom, I got this.’ So I told him to just keep on believing in himself, and I would follow his lead.”

Over the course of her long journey making it to the five-star level, Wildasin has learned to seek out every learning opportunity and to simply view mistakes as the stepping stones to success. And for fellow eventers who are striving to work their way up through the levels, she advises embracing your doubts and frustrations.

“Those moments actually allow you to grow. They sharpen your weaker areas—and you’d be surprised that those weaker areas can sometimes become your strengths,” she said. “And be vocal so everything’s not just bottled up in your head. There’s a real community out there available to help and bounce ideas off of. There’s not just one cookie cutter way of doing things for every horse. It takes a collective approach, and knowledge is the most unbelievable key you can have.”

Cassie Sanger (USA)

• Age: 20
• Eventing partner: 12-year-old Dutch Warmblood (KWPN) gelding Redfield Fyre (“Yogi”)
• Homebase: Ocala, Florida
• FEI Starts: 50
• FEI Wins: 3
• Fun fact: Sanger was the youngest competitor in this year’s Kentucky CCI5*-L and started her partnership with Yogi when she was only 15.

Young up-and-coming eventer Cassie Sanger, who remained calm and collected over the grueling event, at last emerged emotional after completing her first CCI5*-L with Redfield Fyre following show jumping at this year’s Defender Kentucky Three-Day Event.

“I feel like I’ve learned so much this week about myself, my horse and the sport in general. It takes so much to get here and is always such a work in progress, but to be here among the best riders in the world is just unbelievable,” she said. “I was watching Michael Jung schooling in the dressage warm-up and you can learn so much just from watching him and the other top riders. I tried to soak up all the experience I could.”

Sanger and Yogi have been partners for five years now, after she purchased the gelding from Caroline Pamukcu when she was only 15. The pair started their eventing career at the Novice level and worked their way up through the ranks. “We’ve really grown up together. He’s like a sibling to me and has been an incredible partner,” she said. “I always believed he could be my five-star horse. He’s been amazing since I’ve had him, and it’s been a wonderful journey together to get here. And it’s unbelievable to be here with a horse I know so well inside and out.”

Having the mental and emotional tenacity to produce a horse from the ground up at such a young age has undoubtedly proven the scope of Sanger’s talent and potential. After this first experience, she notes this is the way she wants to continue producing her future eventing horses. “I’ve loved getting to know Yogi through every single level and new experience,” she said. “I think that’s really key to building such a strong partnership.”

Going into Kentucky, Sanger decided to only do one prep run with Yogi because he’s naturally a cross-country machine and she laughs that he can be a tricky ride and is quite emotional. “You have to keep him happy. After advancing to the four-star level last year, I’ve focused on finding a training and fitness routine that works best for him,” Sanger, who works with notable eventing coach Leslie Law, noted. “I typically do shorter rides twice a day because he doesn’t have a lot of gas in the tank to drill the flatwork too much. So, I ask for about 15 minutes of his time, and we’re good on that.”

Sanger, who’s currently a full-time student studying journalism at the University of Richmond in Richmond, Virginia, is also a recent recipient of the Wilton Fair Fund grant and will be heading overseas to England where she’ll be based with top British eventer Rosalind “Ros” Canter. “There are a lot of moving parts right now,” she laughed. “I’m just trying to take it one step at a time.”

In offering advice to others looking to make their way up through the levels, Sanger noted the importance of having a solid support team and coaches that you trust. “You need people who are going to be there to pick you up when you’re down and who will support you through thick and thin,” she said. “It doesn’t matter if you have the best horse. We never thought Yogi would be here and he’s here now. Just never give up and never doubt.”

Mary Bess Davis (USA)

• Age: 46
• Eventing partner: 11-year-old AES gelding Imperio Magic (“McColl”)
• Homebase: Mansfield, Georgia
• FEI Starts: 39
• Fun facts: Davis started her equestrian career in vaulting competition and returned to the eventing Advanced level in 2022 after taking a 10-year hiatus from the sport.

Mary Bess Davis knew Imperio Magic had five-star potential when the gelding was only 7 with barely a year of competition experience under his belt after the pair won the 2021 Young Horse National Championship at the U.S. Equestrian Federation CCI3*-L Eventing National Championships at Fair Hill, Maryland.

“On that first track at Fair Hill, my plan was to pull up if he felt overwhelmed at any time because this was his start and it was a hard track,” Davis remembered. “But he went out there and tagged it. I knew he something really special when we finished that day. It was so hard, but he loved it and it seemed easy for him.”

During their four-star debut at Stable View in Aiken, South Carolina, in the fall of 2022, the pair finished in fourth and took second at their second four-star a month later at The Event at TerraNova in Myakka City, Florida. After their rapid-fire success, Davis began to realize her long-held dream of competing in the CCI5*-L at the Kentucky Three-Day Event just might come to fruition.

From the onset of his still young eventing career, Davis says McColl seemed to have a sixth sense for understanding the sport and despite how difficult it is to get a horse to this level, she’s grateful for the lessons he’s taught her and the broader education she’s gained along the way.

“I’ve always wanted to do five-star, but I’d been disappointed so many times before, I’d just never set my sights on it,” she said. “I didn’t even know if would be possible, but I wanted to try. And when I got McColl, I was just relaxed about it and thought what’s going to be will be. In hindsight, it’s incredible how things all fell into place.”

After falling off a young horse and breaking her back in 2008 followed by both her advanced horses suffering significant injuries, Davis took a 10-year break from the sport to start a family and noted how challenging her five-star journey has been. “You have to be so tough and resilient to get to this level,” she said. “And you simply have to embrace the journey, with all of its ups and downs.”

To keep McColl happy and his training routine well-rounded, his groom Courtney Lucas takes the gelding for a hack a couple times a week. Davis said dressage is definitely the more challenging phase for him, but after devoting many training hours to improving his flatwork, their dressage scores have steadily improved.

“For dressage, we really focus on relaxation and trying to get him stronger,” she said. “But most importantly, we try to just enjoy each other. He’s quite quirky, but he’s a huge pet, and we all adore him. And he really loves Courtney.”

After completing their first CCI5*-L track at Kentucky this year, Davis continues to be awed by McColl’s talent and future potential as a five-star powerhouse. “I was smiling the whole way around, because he was just so on top of it,” she said. “He was just radar-focused and was listening and trying so hard out there for me.”

Shannon Lilley (USA)

• Age: 46
• Eventing partner: 11-year-old Selle Français gelding Eindhoven Garette (“Garrett”)
• Homebase: West Chester, Pennsylvania
• FEI Starts: 76
• FEI Wins: 3
• Fun fact: Garrett is also known as “Gare Bear” around the barn due to his Care-Bear resemblance.

Shannon Lilley’s longtime goal of competing in the CCI5*-L at Kentucky has been in the making for more than a decade. And—at least for now—the fact that she and Eindhoven Garette completed this year’s five-star competition still seems surreal. “I can’t believe it’s not a dream anymore,” she said. “It’s even weird to say out loud.”

The upper-level eventer woke up one morning in February 2012—not long after she’d helped win a team gold at the 2011 Pan American Games—without any feeling from the waist down. Doctors at the hospital informed Lilley that the L5 disc in her lower back had ruptured crushing the nerves toward the base of her spinal column and emergency surgery was crucial. Since she was only 32 at the time, the surgeon opted to forgo fusing her vertebrae with hopes that scar tissue would stabilize her spine without sacrificing range of motion.

This major speed bump in her career created a lot of uncertainty for Lilley, and she admits that her Kentucky aspirations seemed all but hopeless at this life juncture. Her surgeon didn’t believe she would ride again—a thought Lilley couldn’t fully grasp at the time—so her immediate focus shifted toward quality of life and recovery.

After months of physical therapy and working with a functional strength coach, she slowly regained more nerve function, which was key to helping her rebuild and retrain her muscles. “I do this sport because I love the horses so much,” Lilley said. “And I didn’t want my life without them, so I just kept on going.”

In true horsewoman fashion, Lilley was horseback again seven months after surgery, but continued to struggle with her balance and overwhelming nausea in the saddle. With time, however, she regained strength and mobility, and these issues resolved.

As she worked to rebuild her eventing career, she found the perfect confidence-boosting partner in Greenfort Carnival, who helped Lilley return to the Advanced level while they competed together from 2016 through 2020. “It took a long time, but he was horse who helped me prove to myself that I could do it again,” she said.

Lilley met her future five-star mount Eindhoven Garette in 2020 after relocating her business to the East Coast from California. With more consistent training and maturity, the gelding’s potential started to blossom and prior to Kentucky, the pair successfully completed two CCI4*-L events at Morven Park in Virginia and at Bromont in Quebec, Canada.

“He has so much heart. I’ve never had a horse who tries harder. He loves his work. And as long as I ask the right questions, he always answers,” she said. “And he’s such fantastic jumper and always knows where his feet are.”

Lilley also noted that it was additionally special to make her five-star debut at Kentucky. “Everyone dreams of riding at the Kentucky Horse Park as kids,” she laughed. “Kentucky is our home five-star, and it was incredible to be able to ride here.”

Brooke Burchianti (USA)

• Age: 26
• Eventing partner: 12-year-old KWPN gelding Cooley Space Grey (“Astro”)
• Homebase: Washington, Pennsylvania
• FEI Starts: 25
• Fun fact: Burchianti’s first eventing partner was a 28-year-old Welsh pony named Roxy, who helped the budding 8-year-old eventer navigate her first unrecognized starter event.

Even after Brooke Burchianti and Cooley Space Grey finished show jumping at Kentucky, she admitted that it hadn’t sunk in yet that she can now call herself a five-star rider. “It’s incredible. And I’m just so happy for Astro,” she said. “He’s such a special boy and deserves this just as much as I do for sure and probably more. I’m so proud of him.”

While you wouldn’t know it from her cool demeanor when she and Astro are tearing up the cross-country track, Burchianti suffers from crippling pre-competition nerves. And tackling her first five-star at the Kentucky Horse Park only amplified her normal anxiety. A few days before heading to Lexington, Burchianti wandered out to Astro’s pasture to clear her head and focus on the task at hand.

“I was looking up at the sky and thought I could just really use a sign that everything was going to be OK,” she remembered. “I looked down and this four-leaf clover was right in there in front of me.”

Like many eventers, Burchianti maintains her fair share of superstitions before any big competition. So she scooped up the lucky charm and kept it with her throughout the event, even displaying it on her medical arm band during cross country. “I know it’s silly and people think it doesn’t do anything,” she laughed. “But for me, it seems to help my mental stability and keep me focused.”

Burchianti—who grew up riding with her mom, three-star event rider Karen Burchianti—found Astro in Ireland as a 6-year-old and noted that he wasn’t the easiest horse to produce to the five-star level. In the beginning, he was spooky and an overall difficult ride, but there was something about him that told her to keep on going. The key to their partnership turned out to be developing trust over time. “You can’t convince or bully him into doing anything,” she said. “And once I earned his trust, I felt like things really began to click for us.”

She said Astro far exceeded her expectations over the grueling Kentucky cross-country five-star track. “Anywhere he needed to be clever, he was,” she said. “It was a long, hard course, but he tried so hard and gave it his all.”

To get Astro in peak physical condition going into Kentucky, Burchianti utilized the hills surrounding her homebase in western Pennsylvania. “We did a lot hill work including trot sets and gallops uphill. That really helped get him fit for this level of competition,” she said. “And I think it helped, especially on cross country. He was a little tired, but he still had plenty of gas in the tank.”

For show-jumping preparation, Burchianti incorporates work with placement poles before fences and practices going for longer distances to encourage Astro to keep his stride more open. “That really paid off in the jumping because he was so forward in covering the distances,” she said. “But he’s always been a very gifted jumper and is extremely careful.”

In offering advice to fellow eventers who suffer from pre-competition jitters, she suggests focusing on one thing at a time in that single moment, starting in the warm-up ring. “Even when I was insanely nervous getting ready in the tack room, I just took it one step at a time. I put on my vest. Then, I put on my helmet and kept telling myself I could do all these easy, little tasks,” Burchianti said. “Then, on cross country, I just focused on the first fence. Once we got that done, I was like, ‘OK, let’s keep on going from here and see what happens.’ If you look at it terms of just checking one little box at a time, it makes the big picture not so overwhelming.”

Lucienne Bellissimo (GBR)

• Age: 41
• Eventing partner: 12-year-old Holsteiner gelding Dyri
• Homebase: South Carolina and Florida
• FEI Starts: 170
• FEI Wins: 6
• Fun fact: Her Kentucky CCI5*-L debut has been 20 years in the making after two near career-ending injuries.

Lucienne Bellissimo admitted that she experienced an overwhelming moment when she and her team were packing up the trailer to head to Lexington just a few weeks ago. An avalanche of “what ifs” flooded her focus—from fears that she and Dyri might be off their game any given day of the grueling competition that spanned over four days to self-doubts and worrying that her gelding might cut himself in the trailer en route to their five-star debut. But her vast experience and the inevitable wisdom she’s gained over the past two decades she’s been working toward this goal prevailed.

“It’s really emotional because it’s taken me 20 years to get here,” she said. “You have to be happy and grateful every time you get to an event, but coming to the Kentucky five-star and being here with these top riders who have so much combined experience and the amazing atmosphere and overflowing positive energy—you never know when you might get a second chance at that.”

Bellissimo and Dyri, who was imported from Germany as an 8-year-old, partnered after Germany’s Dirk Schrade brought the gelding up through the two-star level. She says he’s incredibly athletic but can also be spooky and mentally fragile and would sometimes just shut down on cross country.

“It’s taken time, but he’s such a nice horse to work with. He has really natural elastic paces and just a beautiful way of going about him,” she noted.  “And he’s just gotten better and better in all the phases. It’s on me to keep producing him well. And it has to be about patience with him. I try to be very aware of that. He’s the kind of horse you cannot rush.”

Like so many riders who make it the five-star level, Bellissimo has endured her own laundry list of hardships and setbacks. She was wheelchair-bound for year after sustaining a riding accident in 2013 that shattered her foot and ankle and forced her to sell a number of horses. In 2018, a car accident in England left her with 28 broken bones and punctures in both lungs. While the recovery was long and brutal, Bellissimo wasn’t accustomed to taking the easy road. She’s learned how to withstand the ups and downs by focusing on how much joy horses and the sport bring her.

Especially in the sport of eventing, injuries tend to be a matter of when not if, but Bellissimo advises her fellow eventers to trust in their steadfast dreams in times of doubt. “Set your heart on your goals and be ambitious about it every day. Continue looking at your personal roadmap—not anyone else’s—and never let doctors, trainers or anyone else say you can’t get there in sport, business or life in general,” she said. “If you want it bad enough, you’ll find a way to get there.”

Bellissimo, who unfortunately retired on cross country after several refusals, noted that this year’s run at Kentucky wasn’t about chasing the win. It was about making it a positive and educational experience for both she and Dyri. “Getting to a five star was everything I’ve wanted in this sport,” she said. “So this weekend wasn’t about putting on the pressure. I see this as just the beginning hopefully, and I’m happy that Dyri is fit and confident and happy.”

For more of our coverage on this year’s Defender Kentucky Three-Day Event, click here.

Thanks to Kent Nutrition Group and Blue Seal for our coverage of the 2025 Defender Kentucky Three-Day Event. It includes lead-up events, rider interviews, competition reports, horse spotlights, photos, videos and more.

Additionally, the stretch circle can be a really useful tool to teach horses how to use their backs. And for horses who carry a lot of tension, it will help them learn to relax and breathe, which is very important for our equine athletes.

In her new video series on EQUESTRIAN+, top eventer and CCI5* 2025 Defender Kentucky Three-Day Event contender Sharon White explains why the stretchy circle is a crucial component of your eventing horse’s dressage training and how to teach him how to stretch forward into the bit at the walk, trot and canter, as well as on a three-loop serpentine.

Even—or especially—if dressage isn’t your horse’s strongest phase, you can work on making small improvements to the movements you expect to see in your level’s test. And because stretchy circles have a coefficient of two, it’s something you really want to own. Otherwise, you’re just throwing points away.

Introducing the Stretchy Circle

“If you’re worried your horse can’t do a stretchy circle, just imagine him gracefully putting his head down to eat grass. Don’t make it overly complicated. Your inside aids are your stretching aids. If you need to encourage your horse to stretch more use a little more inside leg and inside rein. You’re not pulling your horse with the inside rein; you’re just using it to guide the bit and show him how to stretch.

“Maintain your balance and keep encouraging your horse to take the contact all the way down to allow for the full use of the reins. You want your horse at the end of the reins, so use your hips to keep pushing him out and down.

“The only way you can learn to do this is by doing it. There’s no right or wrong way. It’s just practice. The worst that could happen is your horse loses his balance by either going slower or going faster. Your job is to continue to look at your own balance and alignment. A lot of times if you do this, it will fix those things in your horse.

“Throughout this exercise, practice letting your horse’s head down for the stretch and then picking him back up again in more collection. As you pick up your reins, focus on maintaining the rhythm and your own balance and work your inside leg to outside rein. This is the basis of the stretch circle because it puts your horse in proper alignment and balance so he can lift and use his back.

“Flexion of the poll and jaw is also an important part of the stretch circle. But flexion isn’t backward. It’s like putting the key in your car and turning it away from you. It’s pushing forward and turning on the circle so you can maintain flexion in your horse’s jaw. If your horse is tight in his poll or neck, it’s going to be hard for him to supple and stretch down. So always focus on working your horse’s poll joint forward and into the bit.

“In addition to stretching at the walk and trot, you also want to stretch at the canter. But before you ask for a canter stretch, establish push at the canter. Then, when you ask for the stretch, be relaxed about it, think about sitting on your horse’s outside hind leg and just allowing him to stretch. It’s such a beautiful thing be able to canter and have nothing change and let go of the reins and just trust it.”

Intention, Not Perfection

“When working the stretch circle at a trot or canter it’s important to pick your reins back up before asking him to walk because that’s what you have to do in almost every test. So every time you do a stretch, pick your reins up and then transition downward to the walk. This way, when you have to do it in competition and you’re a little nervous or stressed, it’s not a big deal because you’ve done it so many times. This is true of any dressage movement.

“In many ways, I disagree with perfect practice makes for perfection. Yes, eventually. But if you’re so worried it’s not going to be perfect from the start, you’re never going to get there. So, for all you perfectionists out there, don’t worry if it’s not perfect. Just do it. Don’t be afraid to get it wrong until you get it right. That’s how you get better in riding.

“Intention is big thing when communicating with your horse. Horses are almost telepathic creatures, so if you have good intention about what you want your horse to do that will go a long way.

“Another bonus of teaching your horse how to stretch properly is that it encourages carrying power in their shoulders. That throughness allows your horse to pick up his back and really use his topline to carry his own power.”

Stretchy Circle for Self-Carriage, Rhythm and Balance

“Dressage tests are designed to flow, so the stretch circle will be included where it makes sense after you’ve walked, trotted and cantered. In the Advanced five-star level, the stretch circle is often at the end of the test. This is to show that your horse is relaxed and can maintain self-carriage while stretching forward and down without losing his balance or rhythm.

“In order to properly stretch, you and your horse need to be breathing slow and steady. Use it to your advantage and teach your horse that there’s going to be a release of pressure so he can take a breath and stretch. Always practice breathing through this exercise at home to ensure your horse stays relaxed and doesn’t carry any tension when you get to the competition.

“Be aware of your and your horse’s weaknesses. Some horses are naturally stronger or straighter; others are less so. You need to know your horse so you can help him succeed. So much of dressage is about planning ahead and knowing your horse.

“Use your body language and position to control your horse. If he speeds up when you go on your stretchy circle, use your posture by sitting up more, engaging your core and think about maintaining the rhythm in your own body.”

“With the stretchy circle and any movement, rhythm is the foundation of the dressage Training Scale, so that should always be your first priority in the dressage ring. Even if your horse is uptight or holds a little more tension in the show ring, simply focus on maintaining the rhythm to the best of your ability. To help facilitate this, you must maintain your own balance perfectly. If you lose your balance, maintaining the rhythm is going to be that much harder.

For More:

• To watch Sharon White’s full video series on how to master the stretchy circle, click here.
• You can find more EQUESTRIAN+ videos with White here.
• Can’t get enough of eventing? We’re counting down to our favorite event of the year—2025 Defender Kentucky Three-Day Event. We’ll be kicking off our live coverage of this year’s KY3DE on Wednesday, April 23, with the CCI5* Jog, before the main event starts on April 24 and continues through April 27.⁣ Click here for more of our coverage of this year’s event.

About Sharon White

Sharon White is an international CCI5* three-day eventing rider, trainer and Level 4 U.S. Eventing Association ECP Certified Instructor based at Last Frontier Farm in Summit Point, West Virginia. White’s career includes over 10 starts at the Kentucky Three-Day Event with five different horses.

She has also traveled overseas to contest CCI5* events at Lühmuhlen (France) and Les Etoiles de Pau (France) as well as CCI4* events at Boekelo (Netherlands) and Hartpury (United Kingdom). She most recently earned a team silver medal at the 2023 Pan American Games with Claus 63.

White will be competing in the CCI5* at the 2025 Defender Kentucky Three-Day Event aboard Claus 63.

Thanks to Kent Nutrition Group and Blue Seal for our coverage of the 2025 Defender Kentucky Three-Day Event. It includes lead-up events, rider interviews, competition reports, horse spotlights, photos, videos and more.