Whistling Ridge Equestrian

04/02/2026

March was a busy month for us! We took four horses to the VHC schooling horse trials (Glendale's Brooklyn pictured), five to jumper rounds at Gabby Dickerson Eventing, four to CDCTA’s Fix a test, and rounded out the month with two at Bull Run’s hunter pace. A huge thank you to our clients for all of the fun adventures, the horses for teaching us and making these outings so enjoyable, and to our staff for keeping the wheels turning smoothly! Everyone is feeling really grown up after a full month and we are looking forward to the spring.

📸 Swita Photography

04/01/2026

Spring is in the air and the season of opportunity is here.

Here is your friendly reminder to get out and enjoy your horse!

📸 Celestial Photography

03/31/2026

The only downfall that we have found to owning a Connemara is that they are easy, easy keepers!

We are extremely fortunate to have 16 different turnout options to meet the needs of every individual horse. We have 9 dry lots to help us manage our easy keepers, because in Virginia - particularly in the spring season - insulin resistance is a tremendous worry!

Glendale's Brooklyn sporting her spring season dry lot life... outfitted in her Rambo Protector Fly Sheet, Cashel Fly Mask, her Grand Prix Italian Bell Boots, and snacking with her favorite GG Equine HayPlay Hay Bag.

Only the best for the best!

Being a busy program with a great variety of horses, we put products to the test day in and day out. Interested in our favorite things that withstand the trials and tribulations? Visit our site here:

https://www.whistlingridgeequestrian.com/briesfavoritethings

03/30/2026

Brooklyn and Snail managed to come in 4th at their hunter pace over the weekend with Bull Run! It was such a fun pace and super exposure for the horses, we really enjoyed the terrain!

Hunter Pace Results UPDATED!!
Thank you to everyone who came out to our Spring Hunter Pace today and congratulations to our winners!

Hunter division:
1st Wannabe Pole Dancers, Jeff Beshear and Tiffany Seal
2nd The Highlanders, Mark and Vicky Mitchell
3rd Amy and Andy, Amy Grieves and Andrew Stahling
4th March Hill Mustangs, Abigail Walker, Lindsay Colvin, Fiona Tustin
5th The Walnuts, Deborah Wray, Robin Ellis, Joy Compton, IV Hendrix

Junior division:
1st Ware Fox Fabulous, Izzy Van Hoven and Delaney Garner
2nd The Birdie Bunch, Jessica White and Kate Van Valzah
3rd Ava, Sophie Laporte and Ava Seale
4th Signature Farms Juniors, Sophie Radford, Peyton Redford, Ella Radford, and Ellie Luck

Pleasure division (UPDATED):
1st (TIE) Amissville Duo, Sheri Ruane and Cathy Apicella
Sunday Peeps, Dawn Lee, Maggie Hendricks, and Sunny Smith-Carroll
3rd Tally Ho’s, Lindsey Reininger, Brooke Carr, Carole Boniface, and Dianne Pavlansky
4th Whistling Ridge, Brianna Richards and Jessica Lee
5th (TIE) Two Girls, All Good, Linda Newland and Teresa Stanley
Signature Farm Oldies, Erica Hundley, Chad Hundley, and Sarah Luck
6th Windswept Acres, Kelly Noga and Jordan Bradley
(There was a discrepancy in the Pleasure Division results initially. We apologize!)

Full results with times are posted on the website and ribbons will be mailed out this week. https://bullrunhuntclub.com/hunter-pace

Look for photos from Celestial Photography coming soon!

03/10/2026

Interested in what halters and lead ropes we use? Follow the link below to learn more about our long standing partnership with Bitterroot Saddle Co.

For day to day use we prefer 12 foot leads, but for working through cross country on the line we use 14 foot. Reach out to Julie to get yours today!

https://whistlingridgeequestrian.com/partners

03/09/2026

We took Bentley, Snail, Lucky, Binn and Brooklyn out for some cross country schooling on the line over the weekend at GDE. It’s such a fun way to get the horses confident and curious, especially for a first outing of the year! If you want to see the full training videos for each horse, hop on over to our YouTube channel.

** as a training note, we do not recommend using a full lunge line when doing cross country from the ground. The main reason being, if the horse happens to get loose there is a ton of rope that could get caught around an object or heaven forbid, another passing horse. A prerequisite to line work out on the cross country is making sure your horse can work on the rope in the arena, is confident and quiet lunging in both directions at the walk, trot, and canter. They can get really excited and proud of themselves out on cross country (and we don't want to discourage their spirit), so you want to be sure you have a foundation of understanding beforehand so that everyone can be safe. If you are not feeling confident, come on by for a ground work lesson to prepare in a safe and positive environment!

03/08/2026

A group of very different types..

Bentley, Brooklyn, Lucky and Binn through this weeks little jumping exercise. 🏋️‍♂️

An Appendix, Connemara x, APHA, and a Thoroughbred

03/07/2026

Bailey Hilton’s giant young thoroughbred, Binn, has come such a long way in just 60 days. After having a year off to grow a bit and settle physically, he has gone from rather rouge to workmanlike and is finally getting to work on some mobility. It can be such a slow process to physically loosen up these thoroughbreds and it’s so important to do it in a way that honors their mental and emotional development. It is worth taking the time to go slow.

He is going to develop into a very nice thoroughbred and we look forward to watching his owner progress with him!

03/05/2026

Horses are so cool! Lagniappe is a 17 year old homebred Connemara gelding of Deb Norman’s. He has been very spooky (spin/bolt/leap/drop out from under you) and under confident, so while winter has been wintering, and Deb is healing from an injury, we decided to get him brushing up on his knowledge. He had never even been in an indoor, let along leaving the farm he was raised on to go away to boot camp 😱

I will always be amazed by how easily horses will let go of what they know and willingly learn something new. We’ve been working on creating more mobility for the old fella so that we can improve balance in his hind limbs. With more balance, the less chance of the outside world being scary and the more emotionally stable he will feel. We’re looking forward to the weather shifting this week so we can test his new skills outside!

I am so proud of him and all of his try. Horses make it easy to fall in love with them over and over again.

03/03/2026

A short snippet of Lucky working on some haunches mobility to help develop more suppleness in his pelvis, back and ribcage. I enjoy working on this along the indoor wall. It’s fun to see how much changes in a short time for the horses.

Every horse is built differently and it’s important that you take that into consideration as you work to develop them. I ride such a large variety of horses that it makes it really fun to experiment with different movements on different body types. These thicker quarter horses that have big muscles that lack natural flexibility, (sort of like the opposite feeling of riding the warmbloods), can stay tight and short through the entire croup, so much so that they won’t even track up. Mobilizing the haunches in a different way has really opened new doors for them and created a lot more flexibility and reach through the pelvic swing, some of them gaining inches of step.

I have enjoyed using the indoor wall and mirrors to build this slowly, but you can do it along a fence line too. You can also build it in from the ground with even more degree of angle. The wall really helps naturally keep the shoulders more vertical, where as out in the open sometimes it is easy to fall through the shoulder rather than isolate the haunches more. I am in no way a dressage person, but think more counter shoulder-in as you work this. You can experiment with the angle as it feels like each horse has its own sweet spot, and over time through flexibility and strength, you can increase the angle.

For me, I do not want to set the horse’s head or neck into a man made position. I prefer each of them to find their own spot that suits their own balance and over time allow it to develop based on their conformation. Simply utilizing the head and neck as a data point to help tell you how the balance is developing from the haunches. I am searching for the horses head to be up, goal of poll the highest point, and I’d prefer an open throat latch, especially on green horses. But keeping in mind that each horse is going to be different and look for where to be themselves, where they start may not be where they will end up, so be patient. This horse always wanted to dump his head low to the ground and working this way has helped allow him to find a little more balance and lift his neck again. He doesn’t offer a ton of lateral mobility at the jaw, so I do not force it on him or expect him to make fast changes in that part of his body. Rather, over time through focusing on his pelvis and hind limbs instead, he is gradually softening his jaw line. I simply help him stay vertical when he wants to drop an ear and the rest of the mobility is up to him to release and find. Each day he gains a bit more confidence in his haunches and that helps him find more of his own stability in the head and neck. You cannot use force to create softness, so instead focus on building strength in different parts of the body (like the haunches), and that can allow the horse to relax and soften in areas where they may be tense, guarded or blocked (the jaw). Horses live on four legs, the answer is rarely at the location of the problem.

I enjoy working on this up one side of the arena, and testing a straight line to a leg yield back to the wall down the other side. Give it a try (a bunch at the walk to start with) and let us know after a few days how it is going! Be patient and remember if its new to your horse, it takes a lot of effort so look for just a step or two to start with and release out of it.

03/02/2026

Cameron and Bentley getting a little practice in to continue to prepare for some spring competitions!

Bentley lost his right eye back in September and has adjusted to one-eyed life incredibly well. After a brutal winter for riding, we are focusing on rebuilding strength, adjustability and balance while allowing him to continue to adapt without his right eye.

02/27/2026

Over the weekend little Lil had her first off property adventure! It was her second ride in a snaffle, her second ride outside of the round pen and first time riding with another horse and rider.

Starting horses is all the same and always different. The boxes needing checked are the same, but getting it accomplished can look different for each horse. For Lil, we reallllllyyy took our time on the basics and on preparation. Making sure that she understood the activity, felt confident and safe, and felt let down enough to think and explore. She is a very smart gal and athletically bred, with these types I always find if I can keep things the same just long enough for their curiosity to get piqued, then they start hunting ideas quickly. Curiosity can fuel and motivate a horse to all sorts of things. Once that begins, then it’s time to move on to fun things and say “hmm I wonder if we could do this, or what about that.” Slow is fast on some of these kids and it’s been a real pleasure to work with her.

My goals were simple for our outing. Be able to step on without warm up, move forward, sort of steer but not really care much about where we go. But in reality, it was huge, because prior to the day before, she had never been steered anywhere. She had a big day and took it all impressively well. She hauled like a champ, stood on the trailer all afternoon like a happy adult, had a great big ride and then stood around with me on her while I taught a lesson. Colts are funny because it feels like you’re doing nothing for so long and then all the sudden it feels like you’re doing so much all at once. Young horses learn at such a cool speed it is really enjoyable to be with them.

The next goals are refinement of straight, most of which will be done in a walk, and continuing to learn how to find balance carrying a rider. We’ll still hit forward so she knows she can, but the real “education” and specifics will be learned in the walk.