Doug Payne, You're About to Ride in the Olympics!

07/21/21 • 19 min

In this Bonus episode, host Caroline Culbertson catches up with with US Eventing team rider, Doug Payne, as he is on his way to Tokyo for the Olympic Games with his horse, Vandiver.

In this Bonus episode, host Caroline Culbertson catches up with with US Eventing team rider, Doug Payne, as he is on his way to Tokyo for the Olympic Games with his horse, Vandiver.

Previous Episode

Luciana Diniz on Keeping the Joy in Your Riding

Riding and training horses is a long game. You can work on it for a lifetime and still won’t know it all. This is one of the best things about the sport, but it also means that - just like a long marriage - we have to work at keeping our minds right and continue to find the joy.

This can be even more profound when you’re a top athlete in the sport and are often faced with major disappointment, heartbreak, loss, and tough decisions that come with advancing up the leaderboard, buying and selling horses, etc.

Luciana Diniz has managed to keep the joy alive in her own riding by making her connection to her horses a pillar of her training. Only a few weeks out from the Tokyo Olympic games where she’ll represent Portugal, host Caroline Culbertson and Luciana talk all about why this mindset matters and how it gives her an added edge.

They also discuss:

How we balance our priorities around advancing in our sport with our innate desire to connect with the horse - and why those two things can sometimes feel like they’re at odds
Simple practices that make Luciana more bulletproof in her own riding
How ego can interfere and Luciana’s own personal work around this
How to bring joy into our riding even when daily care and training is a grind, and when things go wrong
Luciana’s advice to riders everywhere

Next Episode

What’s Your Horse Trying to Tell You About His Bit? (Pt. 1)

Is it just us, or can finding the right bit for your horse feel like a shot in the dark?

Sure, we have a general understanding of how certain bits work, and maybe you know a little about your horse’s mouth. But for most riders, the knowledge stops there. And that’s because historically, we haven’t HAD much information about bit and bridle fitting and function the same way we now have info about saddle fit, for example.

FEI rider/trainer and certified bitting specialist, Stephanie Brown-Beamer, and host Caroline Culbertson get into the weeds of bit and bridle fit and function in this two-part episode. They discuss:

How horses tell us the bit they have isn’t working
What happens when the noseband is too tight to compensate for a bit they don’t like
Debunking the idea that “thicker is milder and thinner is harsher”
How the tongue’s function affects the horse’s entire self carriage, head to tail.