I’m a big believer in small beginnings. Layers of experience. One on top of the other. And before you know it, you’ve mastered something.

Like these two vaulters who are learning how to approach the equestrian vaulting horse in preparation for the mount. You can see they’re a little timid. This is the first time they’ve done this. Shakespear is awfully large. But as we moved from walk to trot to canter, the smiles got bigger and bigger on their faces. They became more exhilarated. That’s what happens when you’re sprouting wings.

You have to run out along the longe line, facing forward, with determination, towards the horse’s head, like you mean it. Commitment is what this is. And, as the horse passes to your right, which he inevitably will because his legs are a lot longer than yours and he has four of them, you raise your arms and all of a sudden the handles are miraculously there for you to grab onto. You run a few strides alongside of the Irish Draft and then punch your feet forward and let your hips swing up.

We stopped there.

I don’t have video of the cantering. All that cantering. Because in the absence of our experienced teenage vaulter who can demonstrate all of this to the newbies, they got me instead. And as I felt Shakespeare's long stride picking me up off of the ground, I was suddenly all smiles too.

I like the idea of passing down this knowledge from the mature to the young. Funny how you can be my age and not have the lithe body with all of that budding potential in it like these girls and still teach them how to play their strong physical (and spiritual) selves like instruments.

It reminds me of this framed poster of a painting by fabulous artist Michael Parkes that hangs in my daughter’s room. Leda’s Daughter. I think it speaks for itself.

Small beginnings.

Posted by Kimberly on January 21, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Here Jessie is working on her equestrian vaulting basic seat on Irish Draught horse Shakespeare. She twists to the left (to the inside of the circle) and to the right (to the outside of the circle). While remembering to keep her hip bones pointed forward. This is more difficult than it sounds.

Vaulting is definitely a thinking sport. Also a wonderful way to develop the rider's seat. Also a great way to boost confidence and inner strength.

Shakespeare is the ultimate vaulting horse. This handsome horse is used to gold-level vaulters, and when our newbie vaulters lean forward, falter, or lose their place, he gets concerned and slows down or stops. He really takes care of those kiddos in his charge.

So about my vaulting horse in training... My percheronX horse Toby lets me stand on his back on my knees, and he will tolerate the mill and all kinds of arm waving and other ridiculous stuff I make up during our training sessions. I think I could stand on his back all the way up, and he wouldn't mind. I just have to get an experienced longer out here to try it with. I can lay flat on his back with my feet draped off of his ample hindquarters. I can sit sideways and backwards, and drape my legs along the length of his neck, swing them back and forth, and he's OK with that. We can run alongside the big boy at a trot on the longe line, and he will tolerate it, with a bit of talking to. He's still trying to figure it all out, and expresses only a bit of concern, not resistance so far. I've done a bit of Roman Riding on him in my round pen. He has given me a few tiny bucks when he's nervous about something, but doesn't seem adverse to strange antics on his back.

And the PercheronX horse has a lovely round trot and canter, with lots of lift. I swear, I could stage a chorus line up there on that broad back of his. I think he's really going to be a vaulting horse.

I am hoping someday for the type of grace and confidence that Jessie's vaulting coach has. Marcy is a truly elegant horsewoman. She and Irish Draught Shakespeare are a fine match.

I'm hoping that eventually we'll be able to give this experience with horses to lots of kids. Maybe kids who have never had a chance to be around horses before, but who would love to. That's the cool thing about vaulting--its accessibility.

To give horses to kids. Now that's a big dream of mine. Toby fits in there somewhere. And gaining the skills to be able to reach the kids who could benefit from it is something I'm going to have to figure out.

Well, I'm working on it.

Posted by Kimberly on December 3, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (2)

Here's some very pretty equestrian vaulting. J. is glued to the horse's back. Sinking into it like molasses. Feeling the horse's back rising up beneath her.

I've misplaced J.'s vaulting shoes somewhere deep in the terror of my closets. But purple wool socks work out pretty well after all!

Posted by Kimberly on December 3, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (2)

This is part of the process of how vaulters learn to mount at canter. You run beside the horse, matching his stride. It takes a lot of tenacity, courage, strength, and breathe. Eventually, you'll grab the surcingle handles, punch forward with both feet, and allow the momentum of the horse's canter to swing you up onto his back.

The first assisted mount I did at canter, I was given a boost by a 60+ year old man, who'd been a vaulter since he was a child, and who had lost one of his arms to childhood cancer, although that didn't seem to slow him down one bit. While I didn't know him very well, I understood he'd spent a large part of his lifetime teaching special needs kids to vault. I wonder if he has any idea of the gift that he gave to me so many years ago, when he boosted me into the bright blue ether with his one good, strong arm until I landed safely astride the horse, grasping the surcingle handles, sitting the rhythm of the big gait?

I was kind of a special needs case who was pushing herself to get back out there, to not give up, to learn another way, although it was hidden so deep inside, I suspect that only the people who knew me very well understood that I'd been among the walking dead. It may sound silly, but being able to do this, to spring up onto the back of a horse at canter, was part of my resurrection back into life. The end of aimlessly roaming in error ...

Do we truly understand the impact of our lives upon others? Even if our paths cross for only couple of hours?

If you know what in yourself will die, though you have lived many years, why not look at yourself and see yourself risen now? ... Everyone finds a way, and there are many ways, to be released from this element and not to roam aimlessly in error, all with the end of recovering what one was at the beginning. The Treatise on Resurrection

Posted by Kimberly on November 9, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0)

I've been privileged to know this mother and daughter for several years. And now they are teaching my daughter and others the beautiful art of equestrian vaulting. This exquisite dance is what these extraordinary horsewomen are passing down to their equestrian "heirs". Like the stories our ancestors used to tell around the campfires, these are the things that will not be forgotten. These practitioners of this ancient equestrian art hand down their knowledge and their secrets like treasures.

These sunlit days are more precious than diamonds.

Sometimes on a Sunday afternoon--in the middle of the sand and sun and pinon--you catch a glimpse of sheer, absolute, beauty. So much, in the span of only a few seconds, that it almost makes your heart break.

Posted by Kimberly on November 4, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0)

How do you design a vaulting poster to advertise vaulting lessons that doesn't scare parents to death? Well, I guess I wouldn't include this photo. (Or the one on the front of our vaulting website.) Or, maybe I could just crop Shakespeare's long long legs off.

The Europeans get vaulting. A lot of them do this before they ever pick up the reins. It has an excellent safety record, in fact, it's the safest of all of the equestrian pursuits. My son and daughter have been on back-country rides (on a very safe and suitable pony with the proper equipment) in some very rough country since they were just five.

Think about the hunter jumper world and those little girls perched on top of those big horses hurtling over fences. Vaulting is much safer than either of those two horse activities.

Here in the U.S., most people just don't seem to understand ...

Posted by Kimberly on October 10, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0)

This is the kind of moment that always takes my breath away in equestrian vaulting. Here my daughter is vaulting with sixteen-year-old I. today at the demo we did at the big dressage barn open-house. This was during the warmup. I. is sitting astride Irish Draft Shakespeare's neck with her legs in the cossack straps and J. is standing immediately behind the surcingle.

Each time I see this move, the phrase the wind beneath my wings comes to mind, as one vaulter supports the other.

From a stand, I. supported J. into a modified arabesque.

It always stirs me--this moment in equestrian vaulting when one vaulter supports another in such a profound way. Right now, without I.'s support, my daughter J. simply couldn't do this. But with the kind of confidence and strength this supported exercise stimulates, she will soon be able to soar on her own. And then, she'll be helping the others.

Hmmmmmm.... That's a nice model for living ...

Posted by Kimberly on September 22, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0)

We're off to the NM State Fair today in Albuquerque. It's the Draft Horse Show. Hours and hours of draft horses. I am in heaven already at the thought of all those heavy horses and the order of fried bread with powdered sugar on top that I am planning on eating. State fair fried bread--the food of the gods.

Of course, it is raining. Torrential, cold, silver stuff that happens at the high altitudes. You see it walking towards you from miles away among the rolling hills and the mesas as it strays down off of the Pecos mountains and then all of a sudden you are in the middle of a deluge. The horses are not very pleased, to say the least. The heeler dogs are muddy, wet messes but they are in my kitchen chewing on their rawhide bones as I write this because I'm, well ... a big softie. Nothing that can't be mopped up.

Continue reading "Off to the State Fair" »

Posted by Kimberly on September 21, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Here Lila Jane (my daughter wanted to name her Lila, and I wanted to name her Jane) is working on the vaulting barrel in the back yard. She's got this stand move down pretty well, I think. However, if she continues to insist on doing it backwards--which makes it no longer a compulsory move, but a freestyle--then she's going to need to scootch her bob tail closer to the handles. (And please don't send me any nasty emails about what a meanie I am for chopping off my dogs tails and then making a stew out of them or something. I didn't. They came to me that way. Sans tails. I don't agree with it. But it's pretty common here in New Mexico. [And I just made up the stew part ...]) Got to give her credit for trying a backwards stand, though. It's particularly courageous when your tail has been "lobbed off by someone so &%#!ing stupid, I mean, someone who should never even own a dog blah blah blah". (A little taste of how some charming people communicate with you on the blogosphere.) There's that whole balance issue, etc. Standing facing the tail-end of the horse is tough to accomplish on a moving horse, even at a walk.

I need to talk to her about this head-first dismount thing, though...

It's amazing what you can do with a tractor and a front-end loader and a little time by yourself. Just moved this big heavy barrel from the garage to the backyard. I'm going to be demonstrating vaulting for a group of dressage riders next week at my coach's new barn. Apparently they are all around my age. So I have to practice. Quite a lot. And then a little more. J. asked me to move it outside anyway for her. How I have gotten talked into this, I'm not quite sure. I will not be wearing a unitard.

I am wondering what the potential is for total heeler havoc with this big interesting blue thing in the back yard. As you can see, they are already trying it out. I expect there will be fights over who gets to sit on it. Thankfully, it's too heavy for them to carry around as they frolic, which is what the tenacious heeler sisters really like to do when they get a hold of something interesting. Frolic. Loads of it. Life is one big heeler frolic.

Now I'm just thinking out loud here ... but ... is this a potential circus act? Ladies and gentlemen, I give you The Vaulting Heelers. Can I quit my day job now???

(Oops. shouldn't have mentioned the word c-i-r-c-u-s. The self-righteous, animal rights wacko nut jobs who know absolutely nothing about me will be after me now about how teaching pets to do tricks is The Root of All Evil and blah blah blah ... and then that's generally when I respond--Well, what have you done? How many dogs, cats, and horses have you rescued and either taken superb care of for the remainder of their natural lives or found good homes for???

And the answer is more often than not resounding silence. Or you go look at their profiles on MySpace, which are sometimes plastered with photos of whales and cute dolphins, and learn that the only pet they've ever had is a goldfish, not even a gerbil. They'd probably run in terror if my horses came cantering up to them in the pasture, just because they wanted to say hello and were hoping that they might have something good to eat in their pocket--because, after all, you know, these self-appointed guardians have had so much first-hand experience with heelers, and horses, and whales.)

Probably not.

Posted by Kimberly on September 17, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0)

This is what we will be doing again come October. If there's anyone in the Santa Fe area who'd like to join us, send me an email. You can check out Free Spirit Vaulters as well, and contact information is on that site. Equestrian vaulting is a tremendous way to develop the rider's seat.

Our coach is excellent--a retired ballerina and a classical dressage rider. My daughter is chomping at the bit to begin again. (My son isn't going to, despite my best attempts and stories about how the knights probably vaulted as did the cavalry. Which is OK.) J.'s still young enough to not mind if I vault with her. I suppose she's also thinking that I'll be her longer and horse handler once we get Toby up and running as a vaulting horse, so she's kind of stuck with me anyway in this sport. I never really intended to do this. I started taking the kids to practice, and pretty soon I was longing the vaulting horse for equestrian vaulting practices (A pretty good experience in and of itself. Th longer must to keep the vaulting horse cantering beautifully, consistently, rhymically around the circle while kids are standing on her back, Doing handstands, etc.), and then before you know it -- I'm vaulting.

I've been riding my other steed--my bicycle, that is--every day at lunch this summer to try and stay in some modicum of shape. I don't know if I will mount at a canter ever again because my left knee is still messed up from slipping on the shale on the Cave Creek trail in the Pecos last summer. I don't seem to have a lot of spring in my knees these days, the stuff required to vault yourself up onto that horse's back at canter, and need to work on it. That means lots of ballet jumps, whatever those are officially called, I'm no ballerina. I am definitely going to give equestrian vaulting a go this fall.

Woo. Hoo.

Posted by Kimberly on September 13, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Ah. Cossack Riding.

You gotta love it.

With the weather so nasty outside and another winter storm supposedly upon us and being a horsewoman of modest means with no indoor riding arena on the place and a regular day job, I find that I do a lot of my horseback riding in my head this time of year. That is, as I'm lugging hay, toting water, cleaning stalls, cleaning dust from nostrils and eyes, trying to detangle manes and tails, checking hooves, keeping an eye on the fence, breaking the ice on the water tank if the heater goes south on me yet once again, I'm really cossack riding in my imagination.

The word stir-crazy comes to mind. Whatever gets you through the long winter days, I guess.

Posted by Kimberly on December 28, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Working on the rider's seat at equestrian vaulting practice this weekend. The idea here is to open and release the hips and zip up the abdomen from the very inner core. This starts from the pelvic floor through the abdominal muscles and finally to the sternum, which is knit together.

In this exercise, the instructor is asking my daughter to sit like a rag doll astride Irish draft Shakespeare, letting everything go and flop around as the horse trots on the circle, and then to wake up the body, putting the ideal body position together piece by piece. This helps to teach the difference between a correct and incorrect position.

Hearing it is complicated enough. Actually doing it is even more so. Riding is definitely thinking sport.

Posted by Kimberly on December 20, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Here's 10 year old J. practicing the flag, one of the compulsory exercises in equestrian vaulting. The key in this exercise is to keep the hip down, while raising the leg. When performed correctly, the hip should be down, knee down, top of the foot facing down, pointing and lifting through the middle toe of the raised foot. The left leg should be resting solidly on the horse, with the top of the foot firmly on the horse, pushing down for stability. The body should be in a "box" position, with the elbows in.

In this exercise, the instructor is asking her to perform the flag both correctly and incorrectly. J. performs the flag incorrectly by turning the leg out, arcing the back, and lifting the foot with the top of the foot facing out.

This helps the body to learn what both the correct and incorrect positions feel like.

Posted by Kimberly on December 20, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0)

J. at her vaulting lesson. Here she's practicing her basic seat.

Marcy asked her to get herself organized up on Irish Draft Shakespeare's back, and then requested that she sing. It took a few moments for her to remember a song and then to work up the nerve to do it, but she began with a barely audible Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and by the end of the session was belting it out as Shakespeare trotted around and around the twenty-meter circle. Funny how the louder she sang, the more she unhinged her hips, the less tense she was, held the abdomen lightly, breathed in her upper body, and sat. She was glued to the pad.

Pretty cool.

Posted by Kimberly on December 4, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Here I am getting into the guts of the classical dressage seat.

I sat it well for sixteen strides.

My 10-year-old camera girl bugged out on me. Poor kiddo was freezing, even in all those layers and wool socks with the little ballet shoes, and sought refuge in the heated restroom of the fancy hunter/jumper barn where we practice during my turns on board Shakespeare. But even during the brief period of this vid, I learned so much.

In this segment, we are working on relaxing the hips, letting them hinge. In this order--engaging the kegel muscles, the abs (holding them in a relaxed way), and the ribcage (zipping it up, wrapping it). Becoming consistent in my position. Confirming it in my body. Imprinting it memory-wise in my muscles so that the correct position is a place to go back to. During the trot, you feel it. You feel it. You get away from it. You go back to it. How do you do that? By putting all of the building blocks back into place.

Later our vaulting instructor Marcy had me sing while sitting the trot after I felt I was in the right position. I sang the first thing I could remember--Out of my Dreams from the Broadway musical Oklahoma. We didn't catch that because of the poor freezing camergirl. But I did manage to catch her practice session. (See it next.) It was incredible how my seat improved while singing. And how J.'s improved as well.

We both became, for a flicker of a moment, one with the horse.

Posted by Kimberly on December 3, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0)

This is definitely a thinking sport.

My 10-year-old daughter J.'s equestrian vaulting lesson. She's working on her basic seat. Feeling the seatbones and the "triangle". Opening her hip flexors. Not too much forward. Not too much back. Lengthening the spine. Pointing the toes. Engaging the abs. Strengthening the leg on the horse. Being still while the horse starts and stops.

She did leg passes to the inside and outside of the circle. The position of the head is up and over the shoulders. Like there's a round ball beneath the chin.

Working on how to come up to the knees on the horse. Using the arms and the abdomen and the swing of the legs while visualizing where the knees will be on the horse's back.

There are so many things to think of!

Posted by Kimberly on December 3, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Found this post-it on the refrigerator this week. My 10-year-old daughter took it to heart when my equestrian vaulting coach gave me the homework assignment of 50 little jumps over the barrel every night this week in order to get me back into shape so I can mount again.

Let's see ... Wednesday is a "yes". Thursday is a "no". Tonight a definite "yes".

J. tells me she's going to give this to our equestrian vaulting instructor this Saturday. Kind of a "report" on ol' mom, I suppose. The downside of doing an equestrian sport with your kid? Well, it made me practice a bunch!

Posted by Kimberly on December 1, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Bakarne over at Isadora (that's her horse's name) is a horsewoman after my own heart! From her training journal—

I think that on Wed, assuming it isn't storming, I am going to tack her up and then longe her the same way I did today and then just hop on for a brief walk around the arena. I want to try some of the tai'chi from my book, like feeling where my weight is distributed in the saddle and trying to move it to the center of my pelvis.

I love this type of methodical and thoughtful physical practice when I'm riding. My daughter's Andalusian (when she's not lame as she is right now) will carry me in lovely circles around and around the round pen without me holding the reins and I practice my basic vaulting seat. Thinking nice tai'chi types of thoughts.

We learned a great exercise at vaulting practice last weekend for making this type of connection through the pelvis and the core. I'll get out the video camera sometime this week and show it to you.

Posted by Kimberly on November 28, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0)

As I've been saying, I'm returning once again to vaulting, and that's going to take a lot of work. Why am I doing this I ask myself? Well, first of all, I love it. There's nothing else that really gets to me the way this beautiful sport does. And the brief brilliant moments when I experience truly dancing with the horse are the most incredible highs. Second of all, I have to get back into shape. Having just turned 45, I feel that I'm at a bit of a crossroads here. That it's either do or die. Well, that's what my vaulting instructor—a woman who's spent a lot of her life practicing fitness, horsemanship and ballet—tells me, anyway, and I know she's right. I'm not speaking of literal death here, but the kind of death that people like myself experience when they are not truly alive and in their bodies, moving about. I need to remember the lesson I learned when I broke my back and was trussed up in a back brace for a year—you know, the one about not taking my healthy body for granted and being grateful that I can move.

My vaulting instructor, who is not one to mince words, told me that I'm an athlete—funny, I've never been called that before, but guess it makes sense as a description for a woman who has spent 4 years leaping on and off of a horse—and to lose all of that athleticism would be a shame. She also told me that if I quit again, she's going to be really mad at me!

Something to think about as I'm doing little jumps over the vaulting barrel for what sees like the 600th time this week. It is possible that this is some kind of mid-life crisis. Well, I can think of worse ones. And, whatever it is, I'm not going quietly into the night!

Posted by Kimberly on November 28, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Oh my gosh. You must. You must check out this Flickr photostream by cenz. What magic and evocative images are wrought!

Following up on my previous and very wise post Our Kids and Our Horses.

Me: Hey, C.! Do you want to come vaulting with us this morning?

C.: Nope.

Me: You know I bet you can talk Marcy into a big old whoop-de-doo canter on her gigantic Irish Draft horse for a few times around that circle!

C.: Nope.

Me: Boy, you should see that Shakespeare, C. That Irish Draft horse looks just like something King Arthur would have ridden himself.

C.: (Silence.)

Me: Did you know that vaulting is one of the types of riding the medieval knights used to prepare for warfare? This is the kind of riding those ancient warriors did. I'm talking real macho man stuff here, C. In fact, I'll bet it would be helpful for ... uhm ... jousting.

C.: (Smirking now, because he knows I'm pedaling as fast as I can.) Not interested, Mom.

Posted by Kimberly on November 28, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0)

What kind of equestrian activity can you do when it's too cold and too dark outside to ride?

After my terrible mounts at equestrian vaulting practice the other day, my vaulting instructor told me my homework is 50 jumps over the vaulting barrel every night.

The problem with my mount right now is that 1) I can't seem to get off of the ground right now; and 2) I'm turning into the horse, which is completely incorrect form, and if you're not careful you'll find yourself underneath the horse.

Posted by Kimberly on November 27, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0)

The title sums it up, really.

I choose to think of this as my hard-headed example of the indefatigable nature of the human spirit in the face of overwhelming odds. ;-)

I have serious conditioning to do.

Posted by Kimberly on November 26, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0)

In order to get here, you have to do this first.

Competitive vaulting was brought to the United States by Elizabeth Searle from Germany in the late 1960s. (With over 100,000 vaulters, vaulting is considered a prerequisite for riding in Germany, and over 50 percent of German riders holding competitive licenses were vaulters in their early years.) She attended a vaulting display at the Olympic Games of 1956 in Stockholm on a visit from America and realized immediately that the United States Pony Club would benefit by the inclusion of vaulting in its program in terms of safety, opportunity, preparation for riding, and fun. When she took over the running of a riding school with a high accident rate, she insisted on all pupils gaining a proficiency certificate in vaulting before being allowed to join a riding class. The accident rate dropped dramatically.

Posted by Kimberly on November 26, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0)

My 10-year-old daughter J. vaulting on the handsome Irish Draft Horse Shakespeare this afternoon. Here, she's working on her seat at a trot.

Want to learn more about vaulting or schedule a lesson? We're in the greater Santa Fe, New Mexico area.

Posted by Kimberly on November 25, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0)

OK. It's 8:30 PM, and I'm going to bed after downing a couple of Ibuprofens and taking a steaming hot bath. (Hey, are my heating pads ready yet?!) Lights out early after a couple of hours of equestrian vaulting practice for me today. (We did a good hour of pilates and dance conditioning exercises on the mat before this.)

It's sobering to realize that I've lost most of my conditioning from when I was vaulting regularly.

So, I'll begin again.

Today I remembered how much I love the thoughtful tranquility of this sport. It's mind and body. We learned a couple of very cool stretches this morning that I hope to share later this week. Also we had a new vaulter who joined us today who is about my age. I think she's a dancer and a woman who has had limited experience with horses. You should have seen her. She did awesome!

I know you can't really get the full effect of his full splendiferousness (is that word?) here, but our coach's Irish Draft Shakespeare is simply to die for.

Posted by Kimberly on November 11, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Vaulting starts again this Saturday at 10AM. I whined to my vaulting coach the other day that I'm 20 pounds too heavy and out of shape. She told me, "Well, don't worry, we'll beat that off of you in no time!"

I'm really looking forward to it. No. Really. My long-term goal is to coach kids in this sport, so I have to do it (at least the basics) to teach it.

We have two other grown women who will be starting with us along with some new kiddos. I will have to sleep in an exhausted lump all Saturday afternoon to recuperate while the youngsters will no doubt skip off to soccer practice or a hockey match or something. If I can find someone who's willing to work the video camera while it's my turn on the horse, I'll post it.

Wish me luck. I've been stretching, walking at lunch time, and doing pilates in the evenings. I'm going to work on some mounts on my vaulting barrel this evening in my garage and Friday night along with the compulsories. I suspect this is going to be be a painful return.

I figure I have at least 10 more good years in me for actually doing this sport at my low level. (Maybe longer?) I can't wait! And this winter we have a lovely indoor arena in which to practice.

Posted by Kimberly on November 9, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Check out yausser's photostream over at Flickr!

But you really know he loves you when he agrees to climb on board of your 17-hand percheron, who's tacked up in only a vaulting surcingle, and lets you longe him on the very big black horse around and around a 20M circle at a walk.

Once you are reasonably certain that there is no buck or buggers left in Percheron, you begin asking cowboy spouse for favors. "OK. Now can you raise your arms up over your head?"

He furrows his eyebrows together and looks at you like you are crazy.

"No, really. This is important."

"I do better with stirrups," complains husband, looking straight out between horse's fuzzy ears, raising his arms over his head. Up and down. Up and down. Forward. Backward. To the left. And right. For good measure. He's been to a few vaulting competitions over the years.

Percheron marches forward, unfazed.

Continue reading "You know he loves you" »

Posted by Kimberly on November 2, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0)

The combined "A" team of F.A.C.E and Mt. Eden (F.A.M.E.) performs their world-qualifying routine at the American Vaulting Association Region II Woodside Spring Fest at Spring Down Equestrian Center in Portola Valley, CA on June 4, 2006.

Equestrian vaulting. The most beautiful sport. Period.

Update: Learn more at the American Vaulting Association

Posted by Kimberly on October 29, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Improving the riders' tone and feel for the correct position is an essential part of the first two years' training at the Spanish Riding School, Vienna. (check out Classical Dressage)

Riding on the longe line teaches balance and the correct seat. It also inspires confidence, especially in the beginning rider. This is a very safe approach to teaching children. (And way fun.) It's excellent for the rider whose been overhorsed in the past (many kids fit into this category) and have had a bad experience. Riding on the longe provides a safe environment in which to help heal the fearful rider.

You need a solid horse (temperament, temperament, temperament), a good longer, an arena with soft footing (mine is pretty poor), a simple vaulting surcingle (you can use a saddle too), and a longe whip. (We weren't using a cavesson, bridle, and side reins here, since we're just starting with this horse and this was kind of an impromptu check-it-out session.)

This is quarterhorse Piñon's first experience on the longe since we've had her! I think she had been longed before, but I suspect in mindless circles just cantering around and around to blow off extra energy. Prior to putting the kids on her, it didn't take long to get her calmed down and help her to realize that she didn't have to go fast and that I wasn't going to chase her down with the whip. She is so gentle and agreeable, and settled pretty quickly into the idea that she can indeed just walk on the longe and it's OK. (In fact, it's very good.) I had her fairly relaxed with good control of her gaits and speed with just a halter and longe line.

Posted by Kimberly on October 26, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0)

I love the gentle demeanor of the drafts.

There's something soothing about being in the quiet company of one of these big boys. Here Toby and I are working on our circle, some lateral longing, and on halting straight on the circle, with Toby not turning in towards me.

Sometimes the Percheron reminds me of one of those big, strapping cowboys you see two-stepping around the sawdust dance floor with a petite partner scooped up in his arms. And sometimes, of the freight train with a couple of behemoth engines that roars by the ranch at 11:00 AM.

When I am tacking Toby up with bridle, cavesson, surcingle, side reins, and he stands patiently (he's not tied here), even putting his head down for me so I can wrangle with and adjust and re-adjust that heavy-duty, nearly-Medieval, Mad-Max-Thunderdome-ish cavesson (I forgot I'd used it earlier on my daughter's Andalusian), I'm afforded a fleeting glance of what it might have been like to work with a team of drafts on a farm at the turn of the century. (Although I'm sure putting on a harness is much more complicated.) I read somewhere recently that the death of a working draft horse on a farm was reason for a child to stay out of school for a family day of mourning. That's how close these horses and humans were.

I understand.

Posted by Kimberly on October 23, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0)

My passion for the circus didn't ignite until four or five years ago. I'm still surprised by it.

I started vaulting, and met a young woman who'd performed for several years as a vaulter in Ringling Brothers. At the time, she was doing fire-twirling/juggling/dancing. For fun. A woman at my children's school was a trick rider in her twenties. Our vaulting club had a clinic with a member of the Cirque de Soleil-inspired equestrian extravaganza Cavalia. The married propietors of our local western saddlery met and fell in love at Disney World in Paris doing stunt riding. (She's a red-headed Parisian. He's a cowboy and a bronc rider.) My kids have attended circus camp at Wise Fool NM for two summers in a row, and one of the highlights of the season for me is getting to paint the faces of the little circus performers at their end-of-camp show or volunteering to spot kids during a stilts-walking lesson. I endeavor to teach my big Percheron Toby circus tricks. (If nothing else, one of these days, you will be able to catch our act in my rusting round pen.) I would love to join Wise Fool's women's circus one of these days (They travel to the little, tiny, out-of-the way villages in rural New Mexico and perform for children), although I don't know if they have room for a mountain-sized Percheron!

Anyway, you've got to read this marvelous poem by Paintbrushpoet. It's about ... you guessed it ... a woman ... and the circus. Actually, I think I may have actually seen the woman about whom she writes. Right here in Santa Fe.

I am always in awe of someone who can speak volumes and paint such a larger-than-life picture in a few artfully chosen words. Read it all.

Posted by Kimberly on October 22, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Check out John's beautiful photos over at Flickr.

I arrive for my longing lesson. The Hungarian is "one of the best", my vaulting coach tells me, as I follow her to the arena. "You're going to learn a lot from him—"

I nod enthusiastically.

Then she stops, mid-thought, elegant in her tall gleaming boots, her German breeches and polo shirt, and presses a manicured finger to her cheek. "Only thing is..."

My eyes are drawn to the arena, where the copper-colored draft horse is already trotting in circles around the sylphlike septugenarian in khaki pants, boots, and a white pressed shirt unbuttoned rakishly at his throat.

"Just don't talk to him."

Continue reading "The Hungarian" »

Posted by Kimberly on October 4, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0)

For Marcy.

She asks the tall, lanky teenage boy if he has ever cantered on horseback before.

He stares back at her from behind the slightly bewildered gaze he wears most of the time.

“In Germany,” she tells him crisply, "and we will be doing only European-style vaulting here,” she reminds the rest of the group before returning her attention to the boy to see if he’s listening, “there are only two vaulting gaits―walk and canter.”

From astride the big draft horse, out on the circumference of the roughly twenty-meter circle, hands lackadaisically grasping the vaulting surcingle handles, Joseph’s dark eyes are hooded with heavy lids, rimmed with coal-colored eyelashes. His shining black braid swings to a lazy halt as the mare squares up and stops beneath him from a walk. His voice is barely audible as he shakes his head slowly from side to side, like he’s just been bombed out of bed after twelve hours of dead-to-the world, teenaged-boy sleep, and finally answers with a dull-edged, “No.”

Continue reading "The Sorceress" »

Posted by Kimberly on July 15, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Our bodies are amazing. Check out the exquisite photos of the female form posted by Juliana at Charisophia—Bart Weston (U.S.) 1979 and Aram Alban - Female Nude (France). These images prompted me to tell the following story.

And Bwong's photographs of these young, vibrant top-tier vaulters (a few of my favorites pics shown here) capture the sheer and thrilling beauty of the sport of equestrian vaulting.

The order of things in equestrian vaulting is alw