Trendsetting Stables
53440 range road 214 T8E 2C1 Ardrossan, AB, Canada

The province of alberta is extending restrictions to January 21 at least. So our vacation will be a bit longer than expected...

Candy and Beans Pony power!!!! We had some quiet time to get the tickles out of the pony toes. It was even warm enough to use the outdoor arena.

Crafty people, here is a great use for those never ending feed bags!

Beautiful sunny day today... took a walk to the back and had a very animated chat with this guy...

Reminder that all students at Trendsetting Stables need to be members of the AEF. It is time to renew your membership! This can be done on-line through their website.

Merry Christmas, from our herd to yours...

If you give your child a pony, they will want to ride. You’ll buy them the best pony you can find, followed by a helmet, boots and all the other things pony. Y...ou look for a local barn to ride at where you start to socialize with the equestrian communityAnd then life as you know it, will end. Before you know it, they want to show so you find a circuit ..There will be no more lazy weekends watching tv. You will see more sunrises than you ever thought possible. Every spare minute of your time will be spent hauling campers, horse trailers and horses and enduring a crazy addiction to practice for the next show. Your house may be a mess, and your car will be dirty. All because you gave your child a pony. Your weekends will be spent freezing or burning to death on a fold up chair. And their weekends will be spent gaining confidence and friends, learning new skills and having fun and getting dirty!!!! You will be there the day he or she takes the first few steps of canter, the first taste of a jump, first ribbon, first championship. And they will make you SO proud. Other parents will congratulate you, but you feel weird saying thank you because it's not you on the pony, it’s your child. It's everything that they did, they achieved. And right before your eyes, your little boy/girl will be transformed from the baby who bounced around on their rocking horse into an exceptional young horse enthusiast on the hunt for the next pony finals or maybe even the Olympics! When you give your child a pony , you give them more than just something to ride. You give them a sport, a talent, hope and dreams. Friends, a new family, a place to learn about life, room to grow as a person where they can push their limits, and bravery, and courage, and memories. And they will have ALL of these things, simply because you gave your child a pony. Because you gave your child a pony, you too will develop new/lifelong friendships, developed solely from the same passion for the sport. You will have a equestrian family because you gave your child a pony. Then one day, many years from todaythey will be in their room and a certain trophy will catch their eye. And they will pick it up and realize instantly that when you gave your child a pony, you also gave them a childhood that they would never forget, at this point, you realize that everything you gave up along the way and sacrificed was totally worth it.. All because you gave your child a pony Copied from a friend. Powerful See more

We have adopted many animals through SCARS, if you can, they need help.

No-Stirrup November is here! Here are some pointers for riding without stirrups from West Point hunt-seat equitation coach Sherry Cashman: Safety always comes ...first so jump without stirrups only if you're experienced over fences and mounted on quiet, trustworthy horses. The key is to start very small and work your way up slowly. Begin with a single ground pole on either long side of the arena. First ride over the poles at the posting trot with your stirrups, then do it without. 1. You can also practice trotting over poles on a circle. When doing this at the trot feels good, progress to canter, first with your stirrups, then without. Most horses will simply step over the poles rather than jump them, so there’s no need to give a big rein release. Just stay soft in your arms, always following your horse’s mouth with your hands no matter what he does. Also remain in the tack, following his motion with your seat just as if you were riding a regular smooth, flowing canter without poles. Next, try a line of two poles, placed several strides apart. Ask a helper on the ground to adjust the poles to suit your horse’s natural stride length. 2. Eventually, build up to jumping small cavalletti and crossrails without stirrups. Ride over each jump in the same steady manner you would use if you had your stirrupsthe same pace and line in your approach, the same release in the air. As you come out of the turn to a small crossrail, drop your stirrups. 3. In the air over the crossrail, this rider is pinching with her knee instead of using her calf. This allows her leg to swing backward and causes her hips to move too far forward. To compensate, she’s tipping her head backward. Her shoulders still need to be more open and I’d like to see more release through her hands. All of these things will improve as she continues to strengthen her base of support. 4. If you feel comfortable over cavalletti and crossrails, try jumping small fences (at heights several inches lower than your usual show height). Over each jump, concentrate on keeping your butt underneath you and your legs wrapped around your horse’s barrel. Many riders find that their lower legs slip backward when they jump without stirrups. This, in turn, causes their upper bodies to tip forward. So try to hold your lower leg steady and in position. This is harder than it looks! You can see that the rider's lower leg has come loose and her knee angle has straightened. This has pushed her body too far out of the tack and made her lose some of the rein contact. (Having said that, I’d rather see a rider let her reins get loopy in the air over a fence than catch her horse in the mouth.) Next time, she’ll work on tightening her calf on her horse’s side and bending her knee so she can keep her body closer to the saddle. That will give her the stability necessary to maintain a more even rein contact. For more from Sherry, read her full story on strengthening your base of support >> https://practicalhorsemanmag.com/training/base-55097

The calm after the storm.... snow wreaks havoc with our day to day chores, but once it settles and the sun comes out, it sure is pretty...

The moment the guns fell silent at the end of the First World War. A recording from the Imperial War Museum depicts what the final moments of the Great War would have sounded like and the eerie quiet that followed as silence fell to be replaced by birdsong.

Red poppies to remember the people, purple poppies to remember the animals. Lest we forget...