Cadence Stables

09/25/2026

I bought Paul Belasik's "Long and Low" book which is a discussion on the concept of long and low, and does include stretching in Belasik's criticism. While it is interesting and certainly food for thought at the moment, but was more interesting was Belasik's criticism of "modern dressage" in that what we have been breeding for some time (according to Belasik, since WWI).

"In the case of the new sport of dressage (competition dressage), the movement of the horses began to be a premier factor in judging. A growing fascination with hypermobility, especially of the front end, became a craze, including the addition of harness horses into breeding programs to accentuate knee action. With the increasing flamboyance, fundamentals were overlooked and faults in disposition were forgiven. Movement became of utmost importance. Movement was more important than rider position, more important than proper ex*****on of required exercises. It was the number one factor in success in the competition ring aside from politics." He goes on to state that the breeding has also forgotten the ridability of these horses to the point where many may be "talented" but un-ridable or dangerous.

I find this quote extremely interesting as I have had ongoing discussions with a friend over the quality of current dressage horses. The movement has become impure, and almost lame in some instances. She had pointed out the harness horse influence particularly in the KWPN, and sure enough some bloodline research quickly showed how much (a lot) of harness horse influence. It is to the point that myself I now prefer watching the jumper lines more as at least their movement is still fairly correct. In some respects I saw this transition before when I was showing on the Arabian circuit and there was a change about mid-90's to park horse action in everything but "hunter pleasure" and more accurately the sport horse classes. Even my beloved show hack and costume classes became park classes as the Arabian circuit judges directed the rewards to flamboyant Saddlebred type moving horses instead of the correct versatile Arabian who should be able to show English pleasure in the morning and western mid-afternoon, then back to jumping or whatever the rider desired. Now I have little patience for the show bred Arabian, but clearly the dressage bred warmblood has been on a similar path for a long time as well.

01/17/2026

We had some Christmas fun again this year. Love these kids, they show up and work hard for me even when I have crazy ideas like "Let's do a Christmas quadrille and enter it into an online show" 😁.

01/04/2026

When I stopped micro managing I found partnership and a much much easier way of riding. Always always strive for better hands.

Micromanaging the head position of a horse is probably the most common riding mistake there is.

A horse is able to exist its entire life unridden, and it will do just fine putting its head wherever it wants to.

But now some rider climbs aboard with some agenda, and has hands holding reins which are attached to a bit which is in the horse’s mouth, and the rider is often possessed of an overwhelming urge to use those hands to “shape” the horse into some desired configuration.

The jaw of the horse is a hinge joint, and the poll of the horse is attached to the vertebrae of the neck, and either or both can be forced or manipulated into a position that matches what the rider wants, whether or not, usually not, that would be where the horse would carry its head if left alone.

This doesn’t mean that all horses should be ridden all the time on a loose rein with no contact, because the unridden horse is not the same as one being steered by a rider, but the training challenge has to do with HOW the rider creates a degree of control.

Gentle, feeling hands and arms or rough demanding hands and arms? Or, even worse, a reliance on sharper bits or leverage devices like draw reins?

The good trainers can, over time, create an “accepting” connection between hands and the general posture of the ridden horse, but it is both a slower and more meticulous process than most of us are educated enough to know how to do well.

That’s too hard a fact for many riders to accept. Hard hands, hard fact.

(photo---Klaus Balkenhol, knows the how.)

01/04/2026

01/01/2026

Meet Dave. When breeding to my dream Arabian stallion fell through I made this spur of the moment decision to breed to my neighbours young half German riding pony c**t. I knew it was going to be a decent competition prospect as Franklyn's older half brother Al Capony has been doing extremely well in the jumpers and has been a pleasure to work with. I did not expect THIS nice of a baby. Probably the best baby I have ever bred. Going to have a few more happy accidents with Franklyn. Will have to get photos of him soon as he is currently being started under saddle.

10/15/2025

Thought this was interesting.

09/01/2025

I feel like I am re-inventing the wheel on this, but we have long ago lost sight of shows that build the confidence of our young riders and young horse, and that are AFFORDABLE.

So looking for ideas/partners to help with this and potentially even create a new circuit. I am not looking for "in barn" shows where the local coach is the judge. Just too much bias so I am looking for "normal" judging if it fits within my other criteria.

Criteria:
1) non AEF or EC. I am not interested in supporting AEF, and they add far too much cost.

2) affordable is a must. I am thinking Maximum $20 per dressage class, $15 per jumper, and $10 per flat class.

3) open to a variety of ideas on classes. Dressage has been my passion, and the jumping is usually a hit, but also rail classes. Thinking hunter pleasure, equitation, dressage suitability, maybe hack classes like show hack or hunter hack. Possibly western if there is interest.

4) 1 or 2 day shows or at least a design where people can show 1 or both days.

5) minimal or no administration fees

6) minimal or no haul in fees.

7) would like to add fun classes. Gymkhana or egg and spoon, ba****ck, team of 3 hunters, delsy derby etc etc... lots of room here for ideas.

8) Target group are beginner riders, kids, young horses anyone who wants to have fun and is on a budget.

Venues have to be affordable, so local barns, maybe places like the millarville racetrack or the polo club. Anywhere we have safe footing a warm-up area and a show area. I know some of us are restricted by the MD of foothills, so this may require thinking outside the box.

I have an insurance company to talk to if we get this up and running. They are interested in more equine business and the person heading the department is extremely knowledgeable and will take care of us. I don't have cost right now, but it is in the cards if we get this running.

Anyway, this is my base set of ideas... Looking to expand and work on getting this going for next summer. Contact me if you are interested in joining.

Kelly