I have always been grateful to have horses in my life. My horses and the horses at the barn were my friends when I struggled throughout my school years, they were my buddies and never broke up with me when I got dumped by high school boyfriends or had a relationship drama. When my world got complicated with college, graduate school and becoming an adult, horses were simple and brought me back to my center.

Horses taught me most of the lessons I learned about life and for that I am grateful. They taught me nothing comes without work and that you have to have discipline and focus. They taught me about being a gracious winner and even more important, about being a gracious loser.

I am grateful for my relationships with horses because they center me. Horses can let me know when I am too much into my head, thinking or worrying too much. But when I am happy about other things in my life, they feel happy for me as well. It is true, we can project our feelings onto horses, but the truth is that they project onto us. It is that projection, for me, the horse’s sense of centered, simple calmness that I treasure and am grateful for in this fast paced, crazy world.

Gratitude is a feeling of thankfulness and appreciation. People who have the feeling of gratitude are more positive, happier and more healthy. It’s hard to be grateful when there are challenges in our lives, but I have learned through being aware and in the moment, in the NOW, that finding one thing to be grateful for can change your attitude and how you are seeing a situation. Dr. Wayne W. Dyer says, “When we change the way we look at things, the things we look at change.”

Being a part of a horse community in this fast paced world is a very special opportunity. It offers a slice of nature, and allows us to step back from our busy electronic lives and reconnect by touching animals, or objects such as horse’s coats and wooden stall doors. Staying connected to ourselves, to our loved ones, to nature and to animals is very important to everyone’s continued mental and physical quality of life.

I am grateful this holiday season for the opportunity to be around horses and to find a place where I can reconnect.

Kristi Seymour
General Manager
Bergen Equestrian Center

Living in North Central Florida (after spending 18 years in West Palm Beach) I noticed that there still is a discipline bias when it comes to different riding styles. So many visitors to The Oaks of Lake City are hesitant to come, ride or sign up for lessons because their child has ridden western, for example, they are afraid that the staff will be prejudice against them and will not teach them enthusiastically. They drive up to The Oaks and see our beautiful 11 acre cross country course and think that if they are not English riders or jumping riders they will not ‘fit in’. Frequently, I will hear potential students or home site buyers describe their riding experience as ‘not that type or riding’, or ‘we just ride western’.

To me, the basic goal of riding a horse is pretty simple…keep one leg on each side of the beast and keep him moving forward and stopping and turning left and right on command. When I got my first horse, she didn’t come with a saddle and my parents told me that I would get one eventually. That didn’t stop me from climbing onto the back of that Quarter Horse bareback (using a fence or rain barrel) with a halter and exploring every arena, every trail that I could find through the woods of Marietta, Georgia.

When I did get to ride in a saddle I really didn’t notice what kind it was, and I didn’t think to ask. Some were flat, some had deep seats, some had a funny thing sticking up in the front (a horn). They all had stirrups and they were all held on by a girth. I learned the parts of the tack lingo later, much later after finally getting a riding lesson.

Now, I am not going to get into the history and science of each discipline (don’t get me started as this is one of my favorite subjects) but I will try and share with you my experiences of riding each discipline (or seat) and let you come to your own conclusions.

Western riding is done in a saddle that has a horn and lots of straps. The idea being that the western rider can strap useful things to the saddle for working with cows (like a riata and hobbles) or carry a bedroll or a water canteen. The western rider usually wears jeans that are tighter and long enough to cover their western boots. Baggy or slouchy jeans are not usually comfortable when riding in this saddle. Riding this seat the rider learns the walk, jog, and lope (which in English is called a walk, trot and canter). Western saddles are also used on gaited horses like Missouri Fox trotters as well.

Hunt Seat riding is done in an English saddle that has flaps that the rider’s knee rests on. The rider’s leg is bent unlike in the western saddle for the purpose of getting higher out of the saddle when jumping over an obstacle. This rider learns the walk, trot, canter and hand gallop (which in western is called the walk, jog, lope, and gallop). The hunt seat rider will wear riding pants and boots that go up to the knee (or boots and half-chaps).

Dressage seat riding is also done in an English saddle that usually has a longer, straighter flap so that the rider’s leg hangs longer underneath the rider (resembling the western rider’s leg position). The rider usually wears tall boots and snug fitting riding pants so that the pants are not bunching up around the rider’s legs. The dressage rider learns walk, trot canter and collected and extended versions of these gaits.

Saddle seat riding is also done in an English saddle that is called a cutback and is relatively flat compared to all the other saddles. This seat is used on horses that have a high stepping or elevated trot. The horses used for learning this seat are usually Saddle breds, Arabians, Morgan horses and gaited horses. These riders usually wear slightly flared long pants (or jodphurs) that cover short boots (jodhpur boots) and have an elastic band that goes down under the riders boots to keep the pant leg of the rider down.

The different disciplines throw in a few new moves that one may have never thought of like spinning, pirouettes , changing canter leads when going a new direction (or not), trotting in place and moving the horse sideways.

All seats are fun to learn given that the horse the student is learning on is a patient and kind teacher (called a school horse or schoolmaster). All kids and adults that are horse crazy should be given the chance to learn each of these different seats. This will give the rider a well rounded education and an even broader love for the different types of horses that exist. The passion born skills for riding evolve out of timing balance and feel. Riding takes very little talent but a lot of hard work (and a lot of practice) to be good at it.

Any good barn manager or horseback riding instructor (and the workers in a training/boarding barn) should also have an appreciation and working knowledge for the different seats used to ride different styles and breeds of horses. Some barns or training centers specialize in one seat or type of riding, while other’s embrace all disciplines of riding. A true lover of horses should also be open to learning all disciplines and should appreciate every breed of horse.

Shelley Van den Neste
General Manager and Riding Director
The Oaks Equestrian Center - an O'Connor Signature Facility

I recently had the opportunity to host Walter Zettl and his wife, Heide, at my home, while he was being hosted by The Oaks of Lake Cityfor the first annual Walter Zettl clinic on October 18-20, 2008. This was our first clinic at The O'Connor Signature at The Oaks Equestrian Center, since we had just had our Grand Opening the weekend before.

I took the opportunity to interview Walter during those evenings to get his thoughts on this equestrian facility.

Shelley Van den Neste: What is your overall impression of The Oaks?

Walter Zettl: It is spectacular!

What is your impression of the riders participating in the clinic?

All of the riders tried very hard to get their horses in harmony with themselves. They all tried to get the horse obedient without any force, and they were all nicely dressed with polished boots and clean horses.

When I was 16, I was grooming horses in the barn (every day) - eight horses, from basic level horses to Grand Prix in dressage and jumping. I had to clean each horse, saddle, bridle and pads, so that at any time, I could go to the show. I also cleaned the box stalls and aisles, so that I was always ready for inspections that came without warning. Sometimes, another trainer would come behind us and put a piece of straw into the horse's tail, which had been carefully combed out, and if the trainer came into the arena and saw this, the rider would get the night-shift. So, every one of the workers tried to have the cleanest horses so they didn't have to take the night shift.

You were never late. If you were punctual, then you were 15 minutes late already.

Does the Oaks facility lend itself to teaching a top clinic?

 Absolutely! It is a well-thought-out facility; the footing is super and springy without being too deep, very horse-friendly. One has the ability to train horses in both cross-country and pleasure riding. For every type of riding, the facility is super: for dressage, three-day eventing, or pleasure riding, and there are many wonderful trails.

Was there a professional approach to the clinic by the staff, the administration and the facility?

They were professional and very helpful to me; the spectators and everyone else could feel at home. Everything was very clean, including the barn, the viewing lounge, the office and the wash rooms. You can see how well the facility is managed in the smallest details.

Would you like to return to give another clinic?

For every clinician coming to this place, it would be an honor and a pleasure. Yes, absolutely... Let's pick a date when we are through!

What would you change if you could?

I would add circle points to the dressage arena (or markers to show the take-off and the landing at each letter). I would also like to see in this wonderful place "the prayer of the horse" on the barn's wall - everyone should be able to see and read it.

During the clinic, I took the following notes from Walter during 16 hours of auditing:

1. Be playful with the horse. For example, when we first started cantering, we would take the short side and ask two one-tempis to do something on the short side, since nothing ever happens there. We cantered a large serpentine over the rails of the dressage arena, and then we asked for a flying change on the shallow serpentine over the long rail to get the hind leg more suspension (or the suspension gets a little higher). All these playful elements help keep the horses sharp.
   
   He made the students take up the reins *carefully*, and then sometimes asked them to do canter or half-step trot right away; the point of this being that when the reins are taken up, the hind leg should be engaged enough to do anything out of the walk (like turn on the haunches, canter, rein back, take half-steps in trot - anything!
   
2. Always read his book (especially know the exercises) before riding with him.
   
3. One of the directions that Walter repeated over and over is that the riders' leg aids should be invisible, so the rider must find out how little she has to do to make the leg aid effective, and always turn the toes in because a lot of riders have their heels on the horse, putting the spur more on than off.
   
4. Make hundreds of transitions during the lesson, such as: walk-trot-walk, walk-halt-walk, walk-canter-walk, canter-halt (only two or three steps), walk-halt-rein back, and rein back-half-step forward. This will help the rider to always think about getting the hind leg active in between.
   
5. Be sure that when the horse is stopped, he stays long and quiet while the rider does nothing.
   
6. Ride up in heaven - not down below earth. A Chinese proverb reads, "Rider and horse should always strive to get in harmony." Learning is like rowing against the current; when you stop rowing, you go backwards.

Shelley Van den Neste
GM and Riding Director
O'Connor Signature at The Oaks Equestrian Center, Lake City, Florida