Category Archives: Willow Tree

Stamina isn’t just for horses

Yesterday morning started out with icy roads and overturned cars. Fortunately I wasn’t among them, but I came close to it. My destination was a seminar on horse and rider biomechanics, presented by my trainer Karin Bielefeld. In spite of … Continue reading

Posted in dressage, horses, riding clinic, Willow Tree | Tagged , , , | 11 Comments

First EmyLou, now just Lou

A couple of posts back I showed you EmyLou. I can now reveal–since the gift”er” can’t seem to wait until Christmas to hand over presents to her gift”ees”–the first painting in my previous post A Pair of Puzzles.  This painting … Continue reading

Posted in Aquabord, art, horse portrait, horses, light, new horse portrait, painting techniques, watercolor, Willow Tree | Tagged , , , , , , , | 8 Comments

2018 Quadrille is here

This performance almost didn’t happen. On Saturday one of the horses slipped her stifle right before we went in the ring. Our Wonder Woman barn manager manipulated everything back in place and thankfully on Sunday the mare was ready to … Continue reading

Posted in horses, quadrille, Willow Tree | Tagged , , , | 7 Comments

Foolproof braids

We’re in costume for our Hawaii 5-0 music themed quadrille at last weekend’s horse show. Charm has enough mane for two horses plus part of a pony, so it’s been a challenge to find a faster yet indestructible method for … Continue reading

Posted in horses, quadrille, Willow Tree | Tagged , , , | 7 Comments

From Secret Agent to Pink Panther

A little notice: this embed from Facebook starts playing with sound muted. At this point I can’t change that, so you will have to turn on the sound by clicking on the little “speaker” icon in the lower right hand … Continue reading

Posted in dressage, horses, pas de deux, Willow Tree | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments

The long-awaited…2017 Rockin’ Riders Quadrille video

No, I wasn’t lazy. Even though this performance was in early July (after our rather dismal performance in June) and I promised video of it “soon”, I didn’t get the complete set of two video camera angles until a couple … Continue reading

Posted in dressage, horses, quadrille, Willow Tree | Tagged , , , | 9 Comments

A Saturday date with Charm

This past Saturday I took temporary leave of my senses and rode Charm in the first of Karin Bielefeld’s two annual spring dressage clinics at Willow Tree. These events are valuable because they give you practice riding with an audience … Continue reading

Posted in dressage, horses, riding clinic, Willow Tree | Tagged , , | 9 Comments

Chardon Valley results, and then some

  I can thank Charm for all of the above. We won in the musical freestyle quadrille class and Training Level test 3, then flamed out fifth out of five in the First Level test 2. Interesting side note–our losing … Continue reading

Posted in Chardon Valley, dressage, horses, quadrille, Willow Tree | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments

Slowly but surely

Charm and I are the tortoise, not the hare–but we are getting there all the same. Here we are at this past weekend’s annual 2-day dressage show at Willow Tree. And here’s our collection of weekend swag. We did quadrille … Continue reading

Posted in dressage, horses, quadrille, Willow Tree | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments

A little walk (and jump) through the woods

Breezy and I took a little trip to the woods with Wendy and Rain. This was not our usual walk through the woods… Here’s what Breezy and I usually do: Tanya, another trainer at Willow Tree, went to an enormous … Continue reading

Posted in horses, trail riding, Willow Tree | Tagged , | 4 Comments