Tuesday August 25, 2026

Hanz had his most adventurous ride to date, and I think we found him to be the most forward he’s ever been in a long time. The same routine takes place every time I pull up to the barn, but to my surprise, there were actually a good amount of people at the barn on this Tuesday morning. I said hello to everyone I could and got Hanz ready for his ride. He was comfortably waiting in his stall and staring out the window. Sometimes I like to stare out of the window with the horse to try to figure out what they are looking at (this is why people think horse people are crazy, haha. We have a strange sense of fun). As we headed out for the ride, Hanz was in a good mood and moving forward off the seat. As we descended the driveway, I continued to work hard on Hanz’s straightness and throughness in his stride. “Step under, lift the shoulders, step under, lift the shoulders,” I kept thinking as we worked our way down the path. There was someone mowing the neighbor’s yard, and we got fairly close to the riding lawnmower, yet he didn’t seem to care about our ride. This happens all the time. Luckily, Hanz was decently behaved but tried to freeze and turn, spooking a bit. I kept him moving forward and focused on the job. A forward horse is always a safe horse! This is where things got interesting. As we made our way back to the grass trail, I could feel Hanz really starting to rebalance himself. He started going under and forward with his hind legs and lifting in his shoulders! “Perfect!” I thought as we carried on up the slope of the trail. His pace quickened and became very powerful. I honestly started to get a little nervous. I worked on my breathing and maintained calm thoughts. Hanz was having a good old time. I’m not worried to say that sometimes I get nervous, even when people always tell me how cool and calm I seem to be. I know I don’t feel that way 100% of the time. I kept Hanz very straight and working from behind. Hanz spooked at something in the woods, and I tried to stay as calm as possible. We continued on our walk. Then, as we approached the fork in the trail, I decided to work on some circles to help Hanz cool down. We worked on shallow serpentines and circles in the woods/trail. I communicated with him using my seat and guided the energy forward and upward. Forward and upward. Hanz was definitely a new horse today. He was more powerful, confident, and frankly a little surprised, as I was, with this new sensitivity. I kept my breathing steady to help me stay calm and relaxed for Hanz so that he wouldn’t lose his mind. We have to be confident for our horses, but to me, that means accepting and realizing that it’s okay to just be human. To me true confidence isn’t about being a stone wall, but about building clear self awareness. A calm heart and mind keeps a calm horse, but self-awareness helps me bring him back down to earth. The things horses teach us are unreal, honestly! The circles were going great, and we made our way back home. Hanz was more forward going back, as he usually is, and we worked hard on halt-walk-halt transitions on the trail. I forgot to mention I tossed the dressage whip on the trail, and Hanz became slightly more calm, but still very forward. As I got home, I tried to trot a little bit in the ring, but Hanz was already tired, as I noticed that he stopped carrying himself in a good, tall posture and was dipping his head, something we are trying to avoid, as my trainer doesn’t want him to make bad habits for jumping. I called the ride there, as Hanz was getting tired, and led him back to the wash stall. I was so happy with my ride today and thrilled with how Hanz was getting more forward under saddle.