Can you believe it is May already!!!!! I am constantly astounded how fast life goes by. It seems every year gets quicker and I feel myself wishing I had a pause button on a remote for life!!! :)
I trust everything is going well for you in your riding and you are kicking goals and achieving the results you want!!!!
We have been going through quite a lot of changes here since the start of 2016 and it only feels now that I can take a breath and perhaps relax a little and see where we are at.
Ever since I was a little girl I have loved horses and I used to draw pictures of my horses and horse property that I was going to have when I was older. Fast forward 30 years and I still can't quite believe the dream is now reality.
The International Institute of Dressage is now the new home for myself, my horses and my two other businesses - Ebony Park and Your Riding Success. Our mission at the International Institute of Dressage is to Inspire, Educate and Support dressage riders all over the world in progressing and achieving their dressage goals. Our goals are to bring international coaches over from Europe to inspire, educate and support our Australian riders achieve Olympic selection and ultimately Olympic gold medals. We also offer education packages to all levels of dressage riders with a progress guarantee so riders can finally track and measure their goals and achievement. Finally we are super excited to be offering exclusive, top level agistment/livery for select owners where we care for your horse like royalty with daily grooming, feeding, stabling, use of all facilities and even your own groom to saddle/unsaddle your horse so you get to the do the fun part of actually riding your horse!
The other news is I am so excited to get even more clarity on my personal riding goals and vision. As you know I have devoted the last ten years of my life riding dressage friesians and being the first person in Australia to ride a Friesian at Grand Prix level dressage - which I achieved. I got a little distracted and thought I should be riding warmbloods to achieve my ultimate dream which is to win an Olympic Gold medal in dressage. Now I have realised I don't need to compromise. I LOVE friesians.
Yes, I love all horses and I LOVE my adventure with Gretchen my German warmblood mare and I also have some new young warmbloods that will come out and compete in the next year or so - but my heart and soul belong to black Friesian stallions and they always will. So - thanks to my gorgeous contacts in Holland that I am very grateful for - I have found a very talented and very forward, exciting young Friesian stallion. He has just turned four and needs a lot of time to mature - mentally more than physically as he is very excited about other horses and new things, but in time I believe in him and believe he will be simply fantastic.
This means I currently have three super if not very different horses on my dressage team.
Dynamite Hit (Gretchen) who is ready to go out Novice and Elementary after Winter.
Ebony Park Monte Carlo (Milo) who is a Friesian x Thoroughbred who will come out Medium after winter.
Ebony Park Olympia (Ollie) who is the new Friesian stallion and will come out Preliminary and Novice after winter.
This year we will be starting 6 more horses for ourselves and clients so we will be quite busy!!!!
This winter is also the first time we will have an indoor to ride in, which is so unbelievably exciting!! I have been riding 20 years so thats 20 winter's. 20 rainy, muddy, dark, cold, wet winters :) So believe me I know what it is like when daylight savings ends and you have your riding goals... but you finish work and the last thing you want to do is get all wet and ride, or when you are warm in bed in the morning and everything is great the last thing you feel like doing is to get up and do it. So with this in mind I have recorded a Monday Motivation video dealing with exactly this!
Monday Motivation is a video/TV show I do on YouTube every Monday that is designed to motivate, inspire and activate you for the week ahead. This week is all about doing what has to be done whether you feel like it or not, and I trust it will help you take action in these winter months approaching so you can come out after winter and achieve the success you want in the arena :)
