Pinnacle Equestrian

Just got back from a week at the RMSJ June Classic II. Rolled up to the show barns in the pouring rain….and while we did see some sunshine during the competition, the thunderstorms in those foothills are unreal! The week was full of learning and ended with many successful rounds!
Tori - 7th & 2nd in the 1.0m
Lori - Reserve Champion .75m Jr/Am, 6th in the .75m Mini-prix
Scylla was a rockstar (as usual)….started out the week with 4th in the 1.25m speed, followed by 5th & 3rd in the 1.30m, and 6th in our first Grand Prix!
Thanks to my team- Tori, Lori, & Tracy! - for all their help!! 🥰

Playing a little catch up today…
Went to Varenna a week ago for the first training days of the season. This gives our riders a great opportunity to get out to a show environment without the stress of competition. It was a very valuable experience for everyone! Thanks to the whole Varenna crew for putting on these awesome events! ❤️😁

There are a lot of people in the industry today talking about what’s wrong, Parker Worthington writes. The judges are inconsistent. The courses are uninspired. The clients have no feel. The young trainers don’t know anything. The sport is not what it used to be. The whole enterprise, frankly, is in decline.

And the strange thing, and the thing worth examining, is that these are often people who have been in the sport for decades. People who have seen extraordinary things and ridden extraordinary horses and built real careers out of something they once loved with an uncomplicated, hungry passion. Somewhere along the way, that passion curdled. The curiosity dried up. And what moved in to fill the space was a very specific brand of negativity that masquerades as wisdom but is, in reality, something much simpler.

It is the outlook of someone who has stopped learning.

This is not a criticism dressed up as an observation. It is an invitation, because the antidote is not positivity, not the type that is forced, performative, relentlessly upbeat positivity that papers over real problems and pretends everything is fine. The antidote is something more durable and more interesting than that. It is curiosity. Active, genuine, slightly restless curiosity about what else there is to know, what else there is to try, and what the person next to you, especially if they are younger and newer and less certain of everything, might be able to teach you.

The people in this sport who age most gracefully (not in years, but in spirit) are almost universally the ones who never stopped asking questions. The trainer who at sixty is still auditing clinics not because they need the basics explained but because they want to see how someone else approaches a problem. The horsewoman who has won everything worth winning but will still sit ringside and watch a junior eq class with genuine attention, not to critique but to observe. The professional who makes a point of spending real time with the young riders and grooms and working students in their orbit, not to dispense wisdom from on high but to actually listen to what they are experiencing and seeing and feeling.

These people are not naive. They know the sport has problems. They know the economics are hard, and the judging is imperfect, and the pressure on young people is sometimes excessive, and the horses don’t always get the deal they deserve. But they hold all of that alongside something else completely. Alongside genuine enthusiasm for what is working, what is improving, who is emerging, what is possible. They are net contributors to the energy of whatever room they walk into, and everyone in that room can feel it.

📎 Continue reading this article at https://www.theplaidhorse.com/2026/06/15/curiosity-is-the-antidote-to-cynicism/
📸 © Heather N. Photography

Very well said! I constantly strive to have a better position so I can be in the best balance possible. So I can stay with the horse and help them do their best. So I can be safe and help keep them safe.
It takes a team of people that help me better my position - from a healthcare team - doctors, physiotherapist, acupuncturist, chiropractor, massage therapist. To physically working with a trainer, and all the clinicians and my coach!

Same thing goes for visiting friends, especially at shows.

We asked top trainers, what are your expectations for parents of your students who choose to stay and watch a lesson or the warm up at a horse show?

Here are their answers:

“My expectations would include parents finding the balance between providing emotional support and not interfering with the learning process and the educational environment the trainer is creating.” -Rob Van Jacobs

“I love when parents are supportive and a huge part of their kids’ lives! Saying that, they also need to respect that they pay me to be their kids’ trainer! They should watch and not be on top of me or their kid. Water is for before and after the lesson, and discussions and questions are the same!” –Dana Hart-Callanan

“My expectations are for them to have an encouraging word and a sip of water for their kid during breaks. If they are capable of helping jump crew and/or manure clean up, extra bonus points! Sideline coaching, negative remarks about anyone’s performance, or poor sportsmanship are a major no-no. Parents are there to be support crew. As a coach, setting a good example and having clear expectations for parents creates a positive culture in your program that helps everyone thrive in a positive educational environment.” -Allyson Hartenburg

📎 Save & share this article at https://www.theplaidhorse.com/2025/05/20/trainer-tuesday-what-are-your-expectations-for-parents-who-choose-to-stay-with-their-children-and-watch-a-lesson-or-while-warming-up-at-a-horse-show/

Great training last weekend at Carousel Ridge with Christine Illnicki. Finally we were able to get outside!! Bring on show season. 👏🏻😁

“Together we rise up!”
Reminds me of how our team strives to support each other! ❤️

Horse shows are not known for their gentleness. They are loud with comparison. Who moved up. Who moved down. Who got the catch ride. Who won the hack. Who was called back first. Who wasn’t.

Reputations travel quickly, and it’s easy to see competitors as threats. Scarcity can feel real. There is only one tricolor. Only one blue ribbon. But author and performance coach Brad Stulberg offers a different lens that may fundamentally shift how riders experience competition.

“The word compete,” he explains, “comes from the Latin roots co, which means with or together, and then petere, which means to aspire or to rise up.” In its truest form, he says, compete means “to rise up together.”

Riders often assume that in order to perform well, they must detach from the people around them. Stay focused. Avoid eye contact. Block out the competition. But Stulberg argues that competition, when understood properly, is not about isolation. It’s about elevation.

“The whole point of competition,” he says, “is to rise up together to get the best out of yourself.”

Wanting to win is not the problem, but ego can be.

Stulberg makes a critical distinction: “Do you want to win? Absolutely. Is it okay to want to win and have intensity around that? Yes. But if you sacrifice the joy of the sport for that… then you’ve lost.”

That sacrifice can happen quietly. Riders stop appreciating beautiful rounds because they didn’t ride them. They start measuring their own worth against someone else’s ribbon count. They allow another rider’s success to diminish their own effort. And in doing so, they misunderstand what competition is offering them.

📎 Continue reading this article at https://www.theplaidhorse.com/2026/04/16/rethinking-rivalry-in-the-show-ring/
📸 © Olivia Danielle Photography