Blackthorn Farm Equestrian

Well two of my home breds , out and about with their owners. Doing exceptionally well. Pictus Nightingale becoming an endurance horse with her first 34km and passing and achieving a stunning first time of 3hrs 30. Shez has worked exceptionally hard to get here and they are a credit to each other. Secondly Pictus Bombshell went to her first in hand show , initially pulled in second and then moved upto first. Mannerley and beautiful conformation were the words dog the day. Dawn has worked exceptionally hard to get there and deserves her good win. Congratulations to you both and thank you for looking after the Pictus team so well. 💝💝💝

We had a little training session at Byley International with Evie and Egg. How much are they coming on ! 🤩🤩Evie Fryer has worked very hard and is very dedicated. wonderful partnership 🙌👏

Even though you explain it , this is a great view of it 🤩

Learning to ride isn't a straight line. It never was.

If you've ever felt like you were getting worse just when you thought you were getting better, this one is for you.

Learning any complex skill - and riding is one of the most complex there is - doesn't follow a smooth upward path. It feels more like a rollercoaster. And understanding why that is changes everything about how you experience the process.

When you start learning something new, it's hard. Your brain and body are working flat out just to process what's being asked of them. Gradually, with repetition and time, it starts to click. Things that felt impossible begin to feel possible. You find your trajectory and progress feels real.

And then you plateau.

This is not a problem. This is the point.

That plateau is where the skill embeds itself properly. Where what you've learned stops being something you have to think about and starts becoming something you just do. Staying in that place for a while - consolidating before moving on - is not stagnation. It's the foundation for everything that comes next. Think of each point of consolidation as a gatekeeper - building a buffer around your progress so that if you have a wobble further down the line, you won't go all the way back to the beginning. You'll only ever regress to your last point of embedding.

This is also why rushing that process works against you. Ask too much too soon and the nervous system doesn't just struggle - it pulls back. The comfort zone shrinks rather than grows. And what felt like a shortcut becomes a much longer road.
Then we ask something new of you. And for a while, it feels like you've gone backwards.

You haven't.

Nobody learns a new skill without getting it wrong first. That's not a detour from the process - it is the process. You're gathering information. Working out what works and what doesn't. Your brain is doing exactly what it's supposed to do, it just doesn't feel that way from the inside.

This is why we don't rush progression. Not because we don't believe in you. Because we understand what learning actually looks like - and we'd rather you embed something properly than move on before you're ready and spend twice as long unpicking it later.

The rollercoaster isn't a sign something is wrong. It's a sign something is happening.

First day of half term 😍😍😍 Brooke loves doing Daisy May