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In This Issue
Barn News & Updates
Dressage Training: Developing an Independent Seat with Marcus Fyffe Dressage
Dressage Training: Correcting Contact with Carl Hester
Horse Care Tip of the Month: Recognizing Pain in Stoic Horses
Recipe of the Month: Crispy Baked Chicken Wings
Paula's Pearls: "Ah Ha!" Moments in Riding
A Little Inspiration
Paula Recommends: Equiderma Neem & Aloe Natural Horse Spray
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| Paula, Harry and Maren are overloaded with ribbons! |
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Region 7 Arabian and Half Arabian Championship Show Held the Last Week of April.
Rider and owner Maren Cochran and trainer Paula Paglia had an amazing show with Harry! He is quite a promising horse as he's only four years old and has only been in training for four months!
Paula and Harry earned a score of 71.9 and were the show's Reserve Champion. Paula won all her classes in the pre-show, Harry was
Champion Half Arabian Jr. Horse with her in the sport horse section, and the pair won Reserve Champion Half Arabian Sport Horse Dressage Type.
Maren won Reserve Champion Half Arabian Dressage Type Sport Horse Under Saddle ATR and Champion Half Arabian AOTR. In the pre-show Harry was Champion Sport Horse In-Hand Half Arabian Geldings ATH. Maren beams, "Harry was a super star!"
You're Invited to Join Paula on a Horse-Buying Trip to Poland!
Are you looking for a new horse? Poland has always been a country focused on breeding great horses, first for war and now for sport. With its proximity next to Germany, Poland has access to some wonderful stallions to breed and has produced some talented horses and excellent riders. Right now the dollar is very strong when buying in Poland and the quality of horses is excellent. Wanda Wasowska, former Olympian and Paula's friend, visited Scottsdale in March and returned to Poland with a mission to find outstanding young horses and FEI horses at an affordable price. Both Paula and Wanda have an eye for good horses and this is an opportunity not to be missed! If you are in search of a new partner, contact Paula right away. You can plan to visit Poland with her, or entrust her to choose your horse for you.
A Taste of Andalucia at El Samaritano
Sandra Luebbe and the Royal Andalusian Riding School presented a beautiful event in May - "A Taste of Andalucia."
The show included performances by Andalusian stallions imported from Spain. The riders performing in the show were Ali Stephens, Paula Paglia, Miguel Undabarrena and Sandra Luebbe. Paula, Ali and Sandy all rode solo dressage freestyles and Sandy and Ali rode a pas de deux. Miguel performed a Garrocha dance with his horse and all four riders finished the show with a quadrille performance.
All of the performances were choreographed to Spanish music and played by live guitarist Chris Jacome. Accompanied by the stunning Flamenco dancer Lena Jacome, the evening was a big hit!
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Ali and Sandra ride the Pas de Deux on Samaritano and Fetiche
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Dressage Training
Developing an Independent Seat with Marcus Fyffe Dressage
Developing an independent seat in your riding career is vital and something that all riders should be constantly aware of and working to improve. Once you have mastered the art of sitting well, you cannot afford to stop working on evolving or refining your seat. As riders and trainers, we personally work on improving our seat every day.
It's not only about the appearance of your position. It's about the effectiveness of your seat. An independent seat is understanding the symmetry of your body and being able to adjust one aspect of it without influencing another. The key is hours and hours in the saddle. Practice really does make perfect as long as you have experienced eyes on the ground.
Developing your seat is really about having equal weight distribution and balance. Only when the rider has complete control of their body can they expect to influence the horse's body. The horse not only has to carry themselves, but the rider as well. It's only fair for the rider to take responsibility for the control of their own body.
Very often riders think their neutral position is central, but you may actually be sitting too far to one side, resulting in an asymmetrical position. Next time you are at the barn, try to sit in the middle of the fence rail with one leg hanging on both sides and balance without gripping anything. You are being held there by your equal balance. If you lean one way or another you will find that your hip, knee, or thigh has to pinch to hold yourself on. If you are squarely balanced left and right on the horse, you are allowed to let your legs hang more evenly, which opens your seat and allows you to follow the horse more.
Horses generally want to move forward and the best way to drive them forward is to allow them to go. A lot of people believe that they are adding energy with their 'electric seat', but often they are actually just allowing the energy to move forward. The best forward driving aid is the seat that follows. It goes both ways too; riders can often stop the energy with their seat and this is a rider who has not yet learned how to have an independent seat. Here are some tips we use on ourselves, as well as our students to help develop an independent seat:
Step 1: Lunging
For our students, we love to lunge a rider safely on a suitable horse without stirrups. That is the best way for a rider to focus purely on their seat and balance, and not be distracted by steering or controlling the horse.
It's a similar concept to teaching a horse to piaffe in-hand without a rider prior to piaffing under saddle. You need to simplify the exercise. Lunging is such a great tool that we would like to see more people use and not feel like it is degrading to your riding talent.
Step 2. Ride without stirrups
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Dressage Training
Correcting Contact with Carl Hester
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| Hester Training Sarah Lockman and Dehavilland |
The West Coast Dressage Convention, presented by SH Productions, kicked off on Saturday with a full day of education from the headline clinician, Olympic gold medalist Carl Hester MBE. Hosted in the beautiful town of Del Mar, California, auditors were treated to six lessons highlighting training through the levels from 4-year-olds to Grand Prix.
"It is not dressage that is difficult, it is making it look easy that is difficult," Hester began. "Some horses are born with presence, while others you can train presence. Either way, dressage is about improving the paces.
"Dressage is training - you can't take it as an insult if your trainer keeps reminding you something like 'watch your left hand,'" Hester continued. "If you are not confident and do not take criticism well, you are going to have a hard time. You have to be open to learn. You have to have the patience to see it through."
Throughout the day, Hester harped on the importance of correct contact.
"To get a horse to Grand Prix, they have to learn to take the contact - you will not make it successfully to Grand Prix without proper contact," Hester explained. "The contact from the hand to the mouth is key from beginning to end. In fact, a horse who is behind the contact is more difficult to fix than a horse who is heavier in the hand. They have to learn to feel the bit and the rider's hand.
"A horse balances itself with its neck," he continued. "When you see a horse riding with a short neck, that means the balance is on the rider's hand and the horse is not in self-carriage. Everybody has to work on that in every level."
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click here for the rest of the article.
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Horse Care Tip of the Month
Recognizing Pain in Stoic Horses
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Becoming familiar with your horse's typical behavior will help you recognize changes in facial expression, body posture and activity levels that signal pain or discomfort.
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Judging the level of pain or discomfort a horse experiences can be a challenge for anybody. We have to rely on behavioral signs that differ among horses and change across situations. Responses to pain include active behavioral indicators (such as ear-pinning, flank-biting, and lameness), or suppression of behavior; stoic horses fall into this latter group. This lack of expression could indicate a higher tolerance, but suppressing signs of pain might also reflect an evolved survival strategy in prey animals, including horses, because it hides vulnerability in the presence of predators.
The horse can reveal pain, fear, irritation, and contentment through its body language. Some aspects of these emotional states are involuntary and impossible for even the most stoic horse to suppress.
- The Eyes A horse's eyes are a window to its emotions. When a horse experiences distress or pain, the pupils dilate or constrict, and the eye changes shape. A relaxed horse has a round, soft eye, but when in pain the eyelids might close and the orbital crest bones become exposed and prominent. The eye takes on yet a different shape when a horse experiences stress or fear-it becomes triangular, and wrinkles form above the eye; the greater the number and depth of wrinkles, the more stressed the horse is likely to be.
- Other Facial Indicators Horses experiencing pain might hold tension in the jaw and clench or grind their teeth. Tension above the mouth causes the upper lip to draw back, creating the appearance of a pronounced "chin." The horse's nostrils become rigid and dilated. The horse might also hold its ears stiffly to the side or back, giving the appearance that they are set widely apart.
- Body Posture Some horses react to annoying or aversive stimuli with learned defensive behaviors (avoidance, escape, and aggression), but a withdrawn body posture is more widely recognized as an indicator of pain. The withdrawn horse has a low head carriage, with the neck horizontal to the ground rather than rounded. It has a rigid stance and fixed gaze, head position, and ear position.
- Changes in Activity Level Expressive horses might become restless, irritable, anxious, or aggressive when they experience pain, but stoic horses, and those with chronic or severe pain, typically become less active and more isolated. They are often indifferent or slow to respond to events going on around them, have a loss of appetite, and show changes in sleep patterns-especially if laying down is impaired by the pain.
Horses with low emotional expressivity have experiences that are more intense than their body language reveals. Your horse is fortunate to have an owner who cares about how he is feeling, because it can be easy to miss or brush off the stoic horse's subtle signs of pain, discomfort, fear, or even happiness. Becoming familiar with your horse's typical behavior will help you recognize changes in facial expression, body posture, and activity levels that signal pain or discomfort.
Remember: Contact your veterinarian if your horse shows signs of severe or chronic pain that might be associated with an injury or illness requiring medical attention.
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Recipe of the Month
Crispy Baked Chicken Wings
You know that all the Dads in your life really want this Father's Day is to hunker down in front of the game with a cold beer and some chicken wings! Here's a great recipe for baked wings - no need to fire up the fryer or the grill! - Paula
Baking wings yields crisp skin without the mess and constant tending of frying. Divide the wings between our two sauces, or double one sauce recipe and use it on all 60 wings.
Ingredients
Buffalo sauce:
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 cup hot pepper sauce (such as Frank's)
Ginger-soy glaze:
1/4 cup honey
2 tablespoons soy sauce
3 large garlic cloves, crushed
1 2x1" piece of ginger, peeled, sliced
Wings:
5 pounds chicken wings, tips removed, drumettes and flats separated
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 tablespoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Directions
For Buffalo sauce:
Mix first 4 ingredients in a medium bowl; let stand for 5 minutes. Whisk in hot sauce; keep warm.
For Ginger-soy glaze:
Bring all ingredients and 1/4 cup water to a boil in a small saucepan, stirring to dissolve honey. Reduce heat to low; simmer, stirring occasionally, until reduced to 1/4 cup, 7-8 minutes. Strain into a medium bowl. Let sit for 15 minutes to thicken slightly.
For Wings:
Preheat oven to 400°F. Set a wire rack inside each of 2 large rimmed baking sheets. Place all ingredients in a large bowl; toss to coat. Divide wings between prepared racks and spread out in a single layer.
Bake wings until cooked through and skin is crispy, 45-50 minutes.
Line another rimmed baking sheet with foil; top with a wire rack. Add half of wings to ginger-soy glaze and toss to evenly coat. Place wings in a single layer on prepared rack and bake until glaze is glossy and lightly caramelized, 8-10 minutes.
Toss remaining half of wings in Buffalo sauce. Serve immediately (no need to bake).
Yields: About 60 wings
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Change the Way You Ride!
The Unisit Sit Strap System
Guaranteed to teach riders to sit in unison with their horses, this tool improves muscle memory and seat development, consequently enhancing the horse's performance.
Use of this system will bridge the gap between the description of a correct seat and actually feeling it by using a non-verbal, kinesthetic approach.
The Unisit will work for you whether you are a world-class trainer, judge and FEI competitor, an amateur, therapeutic riding instructor, young rider or aspiring upper level athlete.
From Valerie McCloskey - USDF Bronze and Silver Medalist schooling Grand Prix, CHA Master Instructor and ACI, and USDF L Graduate with Distinction:
"I have been using the Unisit strap in my lesson program for over seven years. The Unisit is a most valuable tool to help riders achieve the correct "feel" of moving with their horse yet remaining quiet and subtle in their aides. I have found though that one of the biggest benefits is to really help the rider execute the half halt, which is something that eludes many riders. The horses love the Unisit as now their rider is moving with their movement and following and not sitting against them. The horses almost always become softer, lift their backs and come to the bit. The Unisit is a staple in my program and my students, even advanced ones, ask to use it on a regular basis."
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Paula's Pearls
"Ah ha!" Moments in Riding
The horses I ride are often "hot" ones and the key is to encourage them to stay in a slower, relaxed rhythm. Allowing them to move forward too quickly often creates unnecessary tension.
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Paula Recommends
Equiderma Neem & Aloe Natural Horse Spray
"Warm weather is just around the corner....unfortunately so are biting Insects.
Be ready with Equiderma Neem Horse Spray-
"It's like having a liquid fly sheet on your horse."
Great for both horse and rider, we formulate with
only a
ll natural essential oils: Concentrated Organic Neem Tea, Neem Oil, Aloe Gel, Cedarwood Oil, Lemongrass Oil, Lemon Peel Oil, Tea Tree Oil, Citronella Oil, Eucalyptus Oil & Lavandin Grosso.
Deet, Pyrethrin and Permethrin free"
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About Paula Paglia
Paula Paglia, owner and head trainer of Paula Paglia Dressage in North Scottsdale, Arizona began her professional training career in 1979. Paula is a USDF Bronze, Silver and Gold Medalist and has been named ADA Rider of the Year numerous times through 2014. Paula has been an integral part of the training and success of her clients. She is credited with creating numerous winning horse and rider combinations through the FEI levels. She has developed Regional Winners and sent many students to the National Junior Young Riders Championships, the North American Young Riders Championships and the National Dressage Seat Equitation Finals.
Formerly the head trainer at Dynamite Dressage, and the head trainer at Los Cedros, she is thrilled to now offer her own niche to her clients: a full educational program based on dressage, developing amateurs, young riders and other professionals to their fullest potential. As owner of Paula Paglia Dressage, she has taken the best of training practices used throughout her career to offer a specialized experience for her clients. She considers her facility to be "heaven for horses." Owning her own facility allows her to cater to every horse's special needs.
Paula has trained with some of the most successful trainers and riders in the world, including Debbie McDonald, Leslie Reid, Christine Traurig, and Conrad Schumacher.
In 1992, Paula began importing warmbloods from Holland, Poland and Germany. Presently, Paula conducts personalized buying trips abroad for her clients, as she has extensive experience selecting and starting young horses and developing them up the levels.
Philosophy
The Paula Paglia Dressage philosophy is to develop a partnership between horse and rider. The well-being of the horse is the primary consideration. Paula evaluates each horse and rider individually and will design a program appropriate to their ability, yet focused on the long-term goals of upper-level classical dressage. Each horse and rider is developed at their own pace, allowing each team to be mentally and physically strong at each level of competition.
Paula believes that a successful training regimen is a logical, step-by-step process that utilized the horse's natural intelligence, his loyalty, his goodwill, and his honesty. A sensible, kind and structured training program will produce a horse with a strong muscle structure and a sharp working mind. Both are necessary to compete at the national and international levels of dressage.
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Paula Paglia Dressage Services
Services
- Boarding/Training
- Lessons
- Showing
- Purchase/Sale
- Clinics
- International Equine Procurement
Amenities
- Regulation arena with premium footing
- Over-sized stalls, cleaned multiple times daily with premium shavings
- Fly misting system and cooling misting system
- Three all-weather turnouts
- Medical, shaded turnout
- Premium hay feed 5x a day
- Personalized grain/supplement feedings 2-3x a day
- Automatic waterers/outside tubs and interior buckets cleaned daily
- Hot water wash racks
- Locked tack rooms
- Laundry rooms
- Blanketing/final night check
- Caveletti course
- Access to Equine Corridor trails
- Regularly scheduled on-site clinics
- Trailering to shows available
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