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25.01.2022 Let’s chat about this mornings journalism and magazine post! I have a list of questions to answer and feel free to add yours below!

24.01.2022 It’s day ONE of my self proclaimed maternity leave! I’ve been channeling my inner Burilda Graduate Nova (below) and trying to rest this weary body that wants to do way more than it’s capable of with a 35 week old bambino incubating inside! Today, Leigh and I are headed on a ‘babymoon’ road trip! (Just what my hips need, huh! But gosh I’ve been looking forward to it!)... We didn’t end up booking a honeymoon after our wedding at the beginning of the year thinking ‘we’ll get stuck into retreats and clinics and that’ll be just as fun!’ And then BOOM- COVID smacked the world in the face! So, now is a great time to soak up the ‘husband and wife time’ before it’s ‘family time’ for the next 18 years... or until bub decides we aren’t cool to hang out with anymore!! Let me tell you where we are headed! First leg is to Forster where we are staying at a dog friendly bungalow (oh- cowboy is coming too!!!!!). Second leg is to up near Byron Bay to soak up the sun, seafood (Leigh will anyway!) and amazing company! And the final leg home is halfway between Tamworth and Armidale where we will stay at a wood shack on a farm and reeelllaaaxxx before heading home! The horses get a break too, all being spelled while our house sitters chill out on the farm! Everyone’s a winner! Leigh definitely isn’t on maternity leave however ... big fella couldn’t sit still for 5 minutes if you paid him! So he’s continuing on with all of his lessons and I love hearing about them and booking them in for you guys from home! So there’s a little update of where we will be taking you on our daily stories! Any ‘must do’ or ‘must go’ places at any of those locations- write them below!!

22.01.2022 BODY IMAGE and horses Who would have thought that the two would become synonymous for most of us... I always knew that the perceptions that we have of our bodies can have a correlation with how we view ourselves when we sit on our horses, but none more so than now! ... I mean... I’m about to have a bambino and those size 8 wrangler jeans are a thing of 6 months ago! It absolutely breaks my heart (it totally crushes it, if I’m honest) to hear your stories of feeling less than because you don’t sit on your horses with 6ft slim legs and pop up there at 50kgs wringing wet. Recently, I was told by a medical professional (very kindly I’ll add, and said with love and respect) that I’d put on far too much weight during this pregnancy and needed to really watch myself for the sake of my energy, health and comfort. (Damn you wagon wheels!!!) This is something I’ve wanted to chat about for weeks as it really rocked my confidence initially but I didn’t have the courage to until now. It’s also something I’m consciously working through to MOST IMPORTANTLY get my energy back that too much sugar and zero nutritional thought robbed me of... (all the things they don’t tell you at the bakery, funnily enough ) so I’m super healthy for bubba from the inside out! Empathy is a wonderful thing to exercise and I can truly lean into every story I’ve heard, to date, about feeling pretty crap within yourself aesthetically- often amplified when you ride your horse. I mean, who’s idea was it to make a pair of cream, tight fitting pants that give everyone a camel toe and leave little secrecy, as the preferred choice for horse riding?!?!? What were they thinking?!? Ive had to do a lot of reminding myself that ‘perfection’ is a total illusion that the big bosses at cosmo magazine flogged to fit in with fashion week... So here’s a gentle reminder this morning... You don’t need to look flawless in your sticky bums to nail a lead change. You wear those two extra support bras to hold your glorious jugs in as you wrangle your 500kg mammoth of a steed like a boss lady. You rock your shorter pins and pink mounting block that make you powerful as hell and that give beautiful strong, clear leg aids. You be proud of everything LIGHT about yourself. Your light seat, light hands, light mindset. You revel in the strength that you execute when you’re tiny in stature and still lug that saddle up like a warrior woman! And remember you’re not a god damn ornament. If you ever, ever doubt any of it- think about a little Alex cheerleader on your shoulder annoying the heck out of you with my teeny horsemanship pom poms! And know that the best weight you’ll ever lose is that of other people’s opinions.

22.01.2022 How many times have you finished a ride and said to yourself ‘Well that was a fail’... Usually while you’re brushing the dirt off your pants or sucking back tears of frustration. I know I have. ... I know Leigh has. I know lots of professional trainers that have. (I can tell you right now, Maverick *pictured* has encouraged Leigh to upskill and think deeper and focus- more than any other animal on the planet) But because good old Facebook is a shining beacon of mismatched realities, buckles and ‘I just want to thank the committee of...’ as someone holds a trophy- we can be very falsely lured into a vortex of thinking that... well... quite frankly... we suck some days! And in that moment, I’ll be honest- it really does feel that way. Horses are hard, tribe! People who do this every single day to put food on the table for their families and showcase their honed skills on the big stage- guess what... They’re still calling a higher level trainer for guidance. They’re still getting lessons and going to clinics. They’re still falling off (just maybe they aren’t posting on a social platform every time their ass bites the dust) At one stage in your life, you didn’t know how to use a knife and fork. At one stage you didn’t know how to navigate the roads. (Leigh aka Mark Skafe will tell you I’m still a work in process in that element of life ) At one stage, you couldn’t spell your own damn name. And now you can. Now it’s seamless. Why? Because you didn’t give up. But imagine if you threw in the towel on the whole ‘spelling’ thing or driving thing, or eating thing... Now that’s just a hungry, on foot, hope you never have to sign a document world you’d live in... The opposite of success is not failure. We confuse that a lot as a society. We learn to eat by dropping food We learn to run by falling. We only succeed because we’ve failed. Because we bloody gave something a red hot crack and hopefully figured out a better way in the end. You’re simply figuring things out as you go. We all are. I (Alex ) have some pretty cool 2021 horsey challenges I’ve set myself after bub is here. Do you guys? Tell me about them! Do you want to tackle them together?

22.01.2022 Your Saturday morning run for coffee could include a newsagents stop to pick up HOOFBEATS magazine today!!! It’s bloody surreal to see our faces and names in print. But here we are!! The feature article in HOOFBEATS with a super real look into the confidence aspect of coming back to riding after having a fall. ... *for any new tribe members I had a really serious fall last year that resulted in arm paralysis, gnarly surgery and a huge knock to my confidence* in a shell... In the magazine, there is a section that I’d like to share with you! The entire article had a real focus on me and my experience with finding my way back to mental calm when being around our horses... And the journalist took one line from my answers and singled it out in the article- Lemme share! ‘It’s all well and good to chat about this stuff but what we really need is a practical component to help us along!’ And so Leigh was asked what was the FIRST thing he would suggest a nervous rider should consider when it comes to the practical training element...and I thought it could be valuable to some tribe members! This was his answer in the magazine. Flexing your way to confidence: Teaching your horse to flex is an empowering aspect of gaining confidence! We guide everyone to mount and dismount with their horses head flexed. This comes in super handy for a few reasons! As you mount and regain your composure now that you’re officially ‘committed’ and on board you can flex your horses head left and right. This allows your horse to check in and switch his brain on the second you’re on board and it also promotes that little voice in your head to say to you ‘you’re in control- he’s listening to you!’. Do this until you feel confident to move off. You’ll also be reinforcing to your horse ‘when we mount we don’t go anywhere straight away’ Building that confidence in YOU further. Finally, that flex can easily turn into a one rein stop or your ‘oh no button’ as I’ll often call it, should you ever feel out of control and want to stop. You can then turn this into keeping your horses mind busy when you’re out and about by finding trees to circle and logs to walk over or backing up to a point then walking forward (and secretly occupying your own mind too as you’re focusing on something other than your nerves!)’ If you’ve picked up a copy of HOOFBEATS at your local newsagent and have read the article, let us know what you think!! And if you’d like to order it/ read it online just click the link below! http://www.hoofbeats.com.au/ If you have any questions about coming back To confidence after a fall, about confidence with horses in general or about my accident- ask below and I’ll spend my day today (amid trying to bounce my baby out on an exercise ball and waddling to the loo) candidly chatting with you guys about it all!

22.01.2022 It’s getting to that time of year- BUYING NEW HORSES! The grass is green, the sun is out and daylight savings is upon us... And what we see a lot of on forums currently are the ‘what to ask lists’. ...Continue reading

22.01.2022 When was the last time you channeled your inner 13 year old girl? Seriously! I see photos like the one below of graduate ‘Chuck’ having the best time in the dam with 13 year old Olivia on board and it struck me... ... At some point along the way we lose that inner kid and everything becomes peppered with ‘oh I’d better not’. or ‘I’m too old for that’ I think that inner voice started to whisper to me at about 23 years old and ever since then the peppering is a little too peppery for me! (Of course, I currently have the excuse of a small child inhabiting my body but soon... I’ll be right back on the horse- as they say!) As summer is just around the corner, I want you to have a think about what you could do to find her again, that girl who jumped on bareback and headed to the dam in shorts and boots and giggled as the horse rolled. (Leaving behind the ‘I could have been squished and died!’ Thought process for a minute... you can always pick it back up- trust me, it’ll be waiting!) I remember when Leigh and I first met we used to take our horses Hustler and Tex down to the dam at Leighs parents farm (fun fact: we lived in a shed house for 4 years on their property while we searched for and built on Burilda Park) and walk in with them. We’d watch them splash around and laugh our bums off- much like I’d imagine enjoying watching your kids playing! But that isn’t something we do anymore. Maybe we should. Maybe you should. Heck, we all should! We fork out THOUSANDS of dollars for these amazing creatures to be a part of our lives and yet sometimes we accidentally forget to enjoy them! Whoopsy-daisy! Here’s my list of what I’d like to do (while baby sleeps this summer!)... Walk the horses down to the dam and let them have a splash Bareback SOMEWHERE (the post baby body might not love me but I’ll give it a crack!!) Go for a half day (ok maybe two hour if I’m being realistic )trail ride, just me and ol’ ball and chain. So tell me, what is your summer ‘inner youth’ list?

20.01.2022 I remember when we first bought Linc home. We purchased him at a big horse sale as a ‘horse we didn’t particularly need but bought in someone else’s name so that they could compete at the next years competition’ (a bunch of rules in there but that was the gist!!). We had him in work and I remember seeing Leigh cantering him up the paddock and yelling out to me ‘this horse has some ticker on him!’ As Linc fanged around the paddock with little regulation of his own speed... but a willingness to try and do the right thing. At the time, he was a 3 year old freshly started registered stock horse and he was still growing into himself (and my gosh, didnt he do just that!). Since that ride, he got pushed to the back burner for a year. Then another year. Then another year. Until he became an expensive paddock ornament that lived in the spelling paddock with the broodmares with a big ‘we’ll get to you soon’ sign plastered over his head! One day, we got a message from the person we had bought him in the name of- and he simply sent a photo of Linc... but he wasn’t in OUR paddocks or yards??? Ummmmm.... what? He had gotten out onto the major log truck riddled highway and made his way a number of kms onto another property, over several cattle grids and into the yards of some farmers marking calves. He didn’t have a mark on him. He’s like a carp, can’t kill him. The stock and station agent with the cows just so happened to be the same bloke that we bought Linc in the name of! Of ALL properties he could find his way to, on that day! And so we went to pick the big guy up. Since day one, Linc was a fairly stand-off-ish gelding and this ordeal made him even more wary for a further year. We brought him home and decided that he would be the PERFECT candidate to document for our 2021 professional coaching series (a pro edited/filmed series to take over from our online Facebook coaching page- which you can still join us on!). Just shoot me a message He is much like many horses that our tribe buys, bring into work and has to start from scratch with! So lets do it together!! He’s now 6 years old- has become (through no credit to us) strangely very curious and friendly and hasnt been ridden now in 3 years. What an ideal soul to showcase HOW you can CAN go about watering the grass that’s withering in your yard (feelin’ me?). Oh, and he’ll be for sale as one of our limited 2021 steeds at the end of his graduate program Who’s keen to see this series!!?

19.01.2022 Hi tribe! Apparently it is my Mummy who usually writes the posts here but today I wanna take over and say hi My name is Patrick Douglas Cragg, but you can call me ‘Paddy’. ... I was born on Friday the 13th of November at 4.16am. I am a good sized boy, my Daddy keeps telling me, I weighed 8 pounds 1. My Mummy cooked me very good and I came one day after my due date... see, good things come to those who wait! A storm was brewing when my Daddy (his name is Leigh and he is the reason I have beautiful Italian olive skin and super dark hair, I think) stopped working his horses and received a message. My Mummy (her name is Alex. She is the reason I have the cutest Hungarian eyes and strong limbs- did you guys know she won year 5 cross country?!) started to feel pains in her tummy. Her tummy was squishing me! And when my Daddy came home she was in the bath and counting the time between the squishy things! She stayed at home counting for five hours until she was in a lot of pain. I’d never seen my home before but I could hear that it was 40 minutes from the hospital and so my Mummy and Daddy headed on a dirt road when it got dark and were very excited. The storm started pelting down (I’ll use some big words from here, I’m a very well versed baby!) and my Daddy could hardly see the road as my Mummy breathed really heavily through the big squishes. When they got to the hospital, my Mummy was taken to this room to wait for a bit but the squishes were too big and so she went to a special room. I was a little bit scared for a minute because my arms position made it hard for me to come out and a senior doctor gave my Mummy limited time to get me out before she did something called ‘intervening’. My Daddy talked to Mummy the whole time and told her how proud he was of her and how much he loved her and that gave her tummy a magical power to push me out! The first face that I saw was my Daddy’s, because he delivered me and put me on my Mummy’s chest so I could have something to eat. How good is milky?! The next day, my parents took me home and my Daddy introduced me to these big animals called Duck and Maverick and then I met this cute little dog called Cowboy who is very protective over me. I like it here. I think I’ll stick around. My Mummy is doing super good and kisses me constantly, sometimes she doesn’t even put me down to sleep and just smooches me over and over again! If anyone needs me, I’ll either be watching lawn tips with my Daddy or organising the next venture of Burilda Park with Mummy... ‘Paddy’s Performance Ponies’ Until then ...it’s nice to meet you all FINALLY!

18.01.2022 Burilda Park is going to be in a MAGAZINE!! Lemme explain!! So, I like to write It’s cathartic to me, always has been. ... In my life before Burilda Park, I worked as a journalist for magazines and became very accustomed to interviewing personalities. But this last month, I was on the other end of the questions from a journalist! I’ve waited until NOW to share this because the magazine wasn’t due to come out just yet but we are nearing a new month and I can finally share some insight! Mine and Leighs story of my riding accident, paralysis and journey back to normality and confidence is the feature article in ‘HorseVibes Magazine’. It was nerve wracking to say the least. I am so used to having my questions in front of me, my recording device at the ready and waiting until the clock ticks over to make the call to the guest. But it was ME! I was bricking it if I’m honest! Not only was I chatting with a stranger about one of the most personal and life altering ordeals of my life so far (oh gosh, my looming birth makes that ‘so far’ very appropriate- eeeek!!) but I knew that it wasn’t going to be me telling the story in print. (Ok, fun fact- when it comes to anything creative I like to have full control so this was a test!!) In the article, we chat about what happened, what I missed, the aftermath, the paralysis and then hear from Leigh a little. I’m going to do a LIVE today at 12.30pm chatting about some of the cool people I interviewed when I was professionally writing. There’s some pretty fun names in there that I haven’t shared with you all yet! oh, I’ll also tell you a little about the novel I wrote! If you have questions about ANY of the above, write them below and I’ll answer them in the LIVE See you then!!

18.01.2022 We all have the ONE horse that shifts something in us. Leigh and I were putting the horses away this week (ok, he was putting them away and I was waddling along behind as best as I could) and we got chatting about the different versions of ourselves that we’ve leant into over the years. (Ok again, I was probably yabbering a little more than him as he dreamed of irrigation systems and lawn maintenance- but hey, some of our chat filtered through I’m sure!) ...Continue reading

18.01.2022 Holy moly, tribe! How STUNNING is graduate owner Kodie on her surprise wedding day (well, she knew about it obviously but it was a Halloween themed wedding!!!). And guess what?! ... She included her four legged family that comprises not one but TWO Burilda Graduates! Finn & Oakland I think Kodie has snavelled up two of the most pretty Standardbreds we have ever put a B brand on. (just quietly ) And thank goodness- I mean, they’re models!! A massive congratulations to Kodie and her dream man Jake on their amazingly radiant day! Seriously, I’m in total awe of this bride! Photography by: La Bella Vita, Shannon Smith Did you guys have your horses in your wedding photos? Show us below!!!!

17.01.2022 Selecting a suitable horse to buy is bloody hard enough... But I have something for you to lick and chew over... We have to consider heaps of the ‘normal’ things when we go to buy that unicorn. ...Continue reading

17.01.2022 Something that I have grappled with in that transition between rogue teenage horse riding Alex and adult horse enthusiast Alex (aka Safety Sue ) is navigating the feelings on the bridge between the two. I know that you feel me. This is probably the most discussed topic I have ever chatted about. ... So hey, why not chat a little more! I was recently on a ‘new mums forum’ (I am a frequent ‘read it all but never comment’ lurker on forums!!) and a question was posed about accepting postpartum bodies. I’ll share the response one amazingly insightful woman responded with. I really felt like the answer was exactly what needs to be on a plaque on that transition bridge i mentioned earlier. This woman replied- ‘Maybe it’s not about finding the old you. Maybe it’s about getting to know the new one.’ I read this and immediately went BOOM- I’m taking this back to the tribe! So often we beat the heck out of ourselves for not being the rider we used to be, for not being the horsewoman that our younger selves were... And we stay stagnant in that place of always looking backwards at who we were and what we did or used to do with ease. I know I’ve certainly sent myself over the coals about it before. I was watching some family videos this month and 14 year old Alex was fanging around on her half-broke 20 year old gelding that couldn’t canter a straight line to save his little life and I had this massive smile on my face! In that moment, I was so envious of her! And yet... if she only knew what adult Alex’s life would pan out like, she would think I was so silly for being any shade of green at the kid with her chaps on backwards! That cheeky bridge of transition can often distort perspective and strip the reality from us that screams ‘BOTH VERSIONS OF US NEED THE OTHER TO GROW AND EXIST!’ And so when I read the comment back to this new mum on the forum, at the same time as I lean into the new version of myself as a mother, I can’t help but reflect on the importance of it. So I’ll pose the question in all of its rhetoric humbleness to YOU... Maybe it’s not about finding the ‘old you’ in the saddle. Maybe it’s simply about getting to knew the ‘new you’. What does the ‘new you’ have that the old you would have loved!? Featuring below Sparkplug and Texas

16.01.2022 Baby fever has sprung with spring, tribe! I got a message off my Mum on Tuesday bursting with excitement telling me that Hollywood’s baby had arrived! We took Hollywood from Burilda Park to my Mum and Dads farm about a fortnight ago because Dad wanted to be a part of her second year of motherhood! ... *and he’s promised never again to cut her forelock off because ‘she was using it to get flies out for her eyes and it was annoying her’* DAD THAT WAS ITS ONLY JOB IN LIFE... (Plus Dad likes to ‘tame the little foals by giving them 100 pats a day’) And so we brought her back to have the run of their 10 acres and stable to relax in as she became a mother for the second time. Last time, she gave birth to the beautiful ‘Bollywood’ and we knew that she would throw another exquisite type but what we didn’t expect was that bub would look EXACTLY like dad! (And I think it would take you half a second to guess who Dad is- DUCKY!) This little filly is a spitting image of her father and I think I’ll have to pry her away from Leighs hands and remind him of the workload of horses we have, as he’s already said ‘Maybe we will just keep her...’ I sent him looks with daggers! ‘But Poss, she looks like Ducky!’ Heart of jelly, I tell ya! With so many horses lined up at Burilda Park- we are out of names and need your HELP! What do you guys think would suit this little stunner? Dad introduced her as ‘Dollywood’

15.01.2022 We have our final Duck foal of the year! Another little dude! This colt out of of our gorgeous mare ‘Molly’ (who used to be my sisters pony club horse in another life!) came on a morning that was a tornado! ...Continue reading

12.01.2022 It’s been girl, after girl, after girl... Fillies have ruled the Burilda Park mob every single breeding season but this year... This year has been DIFFERENT!!!!... Duck has a SON!!!! hours old in this snap! With so many horses roaming the hills of Burilda Park, we never seem to have enough names and when I leave the naming of horses to Leigh- I get something that rhymes with Duck... Chuck... he even calls Paddy ‘Buck’... And when I leave the naming to Dad- I get something that rhymes with ‘Hollywood’. (Yep! We went with ‘Dollywood’ for the first foal of the season!) Men!! If only Paddy could talk and help a girl out!! Actaully, if i think if I let him name the colt now, he would undoubtedly name him ‘milky’ after his favourite thing ever! I digress! So, this is where I need my tribe to come in. You guys always have the best and most creative names. I’ll give you a little background (I know how you like to be well informed before you write your suggestions in!). Big papa is Playrey Duck himself. This was the second last mare that Duck got in foal before he went to the rainbow land of unicorns for a minute and woke up a couple stone lighter and without the urge to run through a fence like a randy bull when the wind drifted past a pretty lady ... Also because, well you know, Paddy needs a pony club horse! (Dad of the year there!!) Anyway! Little mama is a mare called ‘Accidental Spin’ who is the most stunning little 14hh quarter horse pocket rocket of a mare. She’s built like the neighbourhood staffy that roams the street convincing every homeowner nobody feeds her wombat looking physique. (We all had one of those growing up, right?) She is the same mare that we thought wasn’t in foal at all last season and she just progressively got bigger until we thought ‘no way... could this be Ducks first baby?!?’ And low and behold.. it was! So there we have it! Accidental Spin and Playrey Duck. This is where you come in... Names for the little dude! Hit me!

11.01.2022 All I wanted was a bowl of ice cream... I’ve heard so many mums say that ‘your day can be going totally haywire and then you see your baby smile and everything disappears’. Let me tell you about my version of that... ... Leigh had gone to Canberra yesterday to pick up a tipper truck (we have a thing where we name cars and machinery after the person we buy them from, so from this point on the tipper will be respectfully known as ‘Phil’). And it was the first full day that I’d had with Paddy alone since he was born (all 12 days of his life). Leigh has been doing the morning shift and I do the night shift and the day shift so neither of us burn out too much. So yesterday, I did ALL THREE shifts (someone call my boss and then I need a pay rise, would ya!). And my little milky boy conveniently decided to begin a growth spurt (how rude are babies!) and just wanted all of his mumma and her milky all gosh darn day! JUST as I got him to doze off to sleep, I hear a massive CRASH on the bedroom window... And then Cowboy begins to furiously bark. An old rosella had flown right into the window and was sitting on the verandah idle as Cowboy alerted me. Paddy woke up. Screaming! I started dreaming again about that bowl of ice cream. I ran out and got Cowboy inside and grabbed a towel to pick this bird up and I put it in a dark box (my online shopping addiction came in handy for once- need a box? Come to my house!!). I tended to the milk monster after putting Cowboy back outside and settled him once again. 15 minutes later I hear a huge commotion from the living room and race out to see a frazzled rosella flying around the house. Paddy starts crying again. Cowboy starts barking. I’m running around with a towel trying to catch this red menace again! Once I’d caught him (and told Paddy what a hero I was ‘see, mummy can get the naughty pains from your belly to come out with her magic back rub AND she can rescue wildlife!’) I took him out the front and set him free, watching him fly across the paddocks and back up into the trees. I couldn’t wait for Leigh to come home and cuddle bubba and let me eat my ice cream! He came home not long after with Phil the tipper (honking the horn like he was coming back from a mission- mate!!! WE HAVE A NEWBORN!!) and came inside to hear about my eventful day... ‘Poss, how long has the freezer door been open for?’ As he air dropped me the photos we had taken of Paddy riding Duck at 12 days old, I simply scooped the creamy slop that used be ice cream into my mouth and smiled. And I truly just forgot about everything stressful The exhaustion, the screaming, the bird in the house... And one little boys face sitting on a big gentle horse made the ice cream the second thing to melt that day. Have you had this with your kids, one smile, one photo- changes everything!!

10.01.2022 Happy Sunday, tribe! Hi I have no long post this morning but watching Leigh work these three is keeping my mind occupied as I patiently wait for the baby to arrive.... any minute now I’m telling myself! Who else is out riding their horses on this glorious day?

10.01.2022 Welcome to a little sneak peek of our BURILDA PARK ONLINE COACHING!! Firstly, MEET SPARKPLUG!! We have added a graduate ‘Sparky’ to the program recently and I asked Leigh if he could make a video with the special guy and chat about what the heck it is we do over on our online coaching page! ... What I’ll do for those who can’t watch the video right away is make a list of just SOME of the topics we have filmed on the page, so far! WHAT YOU CAN WATCH: Hard to float horses Horses that jig on the trail Teaching lead changes Backing up Spooking horses Bolting horses Starting a horse under saddle from ride ONE to the point of sale Leighs 5 main fundamental ground leadership exercises Horses that pull back Hard to wash horses Regulating your horses speed at all three gaits Testing a new horse out- how leigh goes about seeing what he’s working with As well as a whole bunch of tips and tricks to keep nerves in check and stay as safe as we can be! HOW IT WORKS: It’s simple! You shoot me (Alex ) a message and let me know you want to join us and I add you into the group! IS THIS SUPER EXPENSIVE? Not at all. A cheeky one off $65 membership fee will give you full access to hours upon hours of videos that we add to every week! CAN I ASK LEIGH QUESTIONS? You absolutely can! Often, he will reply in text or he will make a video addressing the query on an appropriate horse. WHEN DOES THIS COACHING END? At present, Christmas Day will pull up the coaching page and you’ll have the opportunity to join us on our professional page that will be a monthly subscription and is currently being filmed! Now is a fab time to see if the Burilda Park coaching and training techniques resonate with you and your horse BEFORE the pro series is live! We’d love to see you join us over there sooner rather than later to squeeze every day that you can out of the content before the coaching page closes on December 25th 2020. Invest in yourselves, tribe. Write that message to me today and let’s get confident together!

10.01.2022 Horses & Crossroads.... Should I buy a new horse? What program or method should I be following? What discipline lights me up the most? ...Continue reading

09.01.2022 Love is NOT enough! (Damn, why do I feel so awful saying that, but I do feel that chatting about this subject could potentially save our confidence, injury and even a life). When we take our new horses home, we just wanna love the bums off them! ... Heck, I know I do! But could this sometimes be to the detriment of our confidence one day? I want to pose this to you- could you be loving your horse to the point that you’re unintentionally untraining him? When it comes to prey animals, they are evolutionarily predisposed to notice EVERYTHING! A step forward, a step back, a pause, a noise, a release of pressure, pressure itself. They see it even before we do it. So as a service to our safety, it’s our responsibility as owners, riders and partners to continually educate ourselves about these incredible creatures. I know! We want to squish them up some days and smooch all over those soft muzzles but loving on them all the time just isn’t enough. In fact, treating them like a Maltese Terrier could have some pretty awful consequences if the love isn’t met with boundaries and communication. This is a HUGE focus within our online coaching program and gosh it’s an amazing feeling when riders who previously didn’t have great conversations with their horses begin to learn the intricacies of themselves and HOW their movements impact their 500kg puppy dogs! I used to be someone who let every horse I laid eyes on into my space the moment I met them. I’d sook all over them and fail to notice them pushing my feet around and being downright rude. ‘You want another scratch don’t you cheeky monkey!’ BUT One day, I was leading a horse that I’d loved on a little too much and they got a fright and bowled me onto my bum. From that moment forward I had to RESET a boundary that I had unknowingly set. These days, no soul comes into my space without proving that they’re safe to be there. And I don’t march into their space intrusively either. It’s been a game changer! The love- for me, comes after they’re respectful, safe and totally aware of me. What is a boundary you’ve set with your horse?

08.01.2022 You’re not worthy of a well bred horse. No sir-ee! Not you! You ‘just want to’ paddock bash or ride for pleasure. Surely you don’t NEED all of that breeding. ...Continue reading

07.01.2022 Yesterday, it was little mans first time patting the horses! And this video was way too cute not to share! (even through the squeaks of bubba protesting to being thrust into horse life not even a week out of the tummy!) So, I’ll backtrack for a second! On the way home from our overnight stay in hospital (tribe, you should have seen the size of the reclining chair bed thing Leigh had to squeeze onto!) we couldn’t help ourselves but to drive and show Paddy the horses ...before we took him into the house and settled in! I think Duck was disappointed when we brought him a small child instead of his bio mare cubes (his guilty pleasure) but it was a really momentous thing for us to do! And then yesterday, I needed to get out of the house and after Leigh and I had taken Paddy out to lunch (Paddy’s shout) I decided that because Leigh still had a few horses tied up to work in the afternoon, that Paddy and I would go with him! I mean... five days old is a good time to go to work isn’t it? he’s gotta earn his keep for all of this milk he’s been free loading off me! I sat outside the arena on my little camp chair in the shade and could hear the hoofbeats of horses in the sand behind me Leigh called out every now and then as he cantered past ‘My son ok out there, Poss?’. Motherhood and fatherhood ... it’s everything they say and more! It’s a very tiering, draining process the first week of bringing a tiny little dependent home, it’s also an overflow of love and emotion and crying at watching Netflix series with anything innocent on it, tied in with finding pockets of strength and energy you never knew you had... peppered with the notion of lapping up every second of this time because never again will our baby be this little. And my gosh I have never been so in love with with my little family as we figure it all out together!

05.01.2022 Happy Birthday Maverick! Yesterday, Maverick aka ‘Maveralis’, ‘Metallic Death Wish’ or ‘Love Of Leighs Day’ turned THREE!! I vividly remember when Leigh showed me a photo of him as a yearling and zoomed in on every limb of him. ...Continue reading

05.01.2022 FRUSTRATION in and out of the saddle is HUGE in daily riding and living! That cheeky chestnut is one that creeps up on me all the time. Most recently, lemme tell you a story, and the simplicity of ONE thing that ONE person said to me blew my mind. ... So, I’ve been studying throughout this pregnancy and was halfway through a book. (Perhaps my ‘book’ is your ‘riding lesson’- stay with me!) I was really understanding the first 9 chapters. Like REALLY understanding them. I had all of this confidence within the subject and was motoring on through. Then, I hit a chapter on numbers. My brain doesn’t love numbers. I’ll give you an example- we were at the Landmark Classic a few years ago and Leigh said ‘Check out at number 327!’ And I was shocked that she had shown interest in a plain brown stock horse... Then I realised id been looking at number 723, and the one he liked was a rich chestnut quarter horse stallion. Whoops! Long story short, I struggle with numbers a lot, always have! In that chapter of the book, I sat on one paragraph for a good 20 minutes and each minute that passed I grew more frustrated with myself as I tried to figure it out. Ever done that with your horse? Be honest!! You just don’t get it and get harsh on him or yourself or both, because everything else wasn’t as challenging and you feel silly for not being able to JUST GET IT! I was chatting with a mentor of mine about this mental block (and tribe, if you don’t have a few mentors in your life- now is as good a time as any to source one or five if you like moving forward with anything!). She said to me (and read this with depth...) ‘Wow! That’s amazing!’ Ummmm... come again very intelligent lady? I thought... ‘No seriously, Alex. That’s so cool that you care enough about something to sit with it long enough to get frustrated’ That’s the part where my head exploded. How bloody simple! She explained to me that it would be easy to close the book. Easy to get off the horse. Easy to give up. Easy to take the saddle off. Easy to admit defeat. But to sit with frustration is the opposite of all that. It’s the girl at the desk saying ‘I’m lost but I’m trying’. It’s the girl in the arena saying ‘This is tricky, but I will show up again tomorrow’...

04.01.2022 Common stigmas we hear a lot- Arabs are crazy, you’ll die if you get on one Thoroughbreds bolt, never put a child on one Stay away from mares... Chestnut horses are always hot Never buy a young horse unless you’re extremely experienced Wowzas do these sentences get thrown around (Arab and thoroughbred owners will be feelin’ me right about now!). Perhaps we could replace the stigma of breed and age and colour and gender with saying ‘A well trained horse with a dedicated owner will make the adventure amazing!’ Simple! So often we are sent videos of horses for sale (as we aren’t selling any of our graduates until next year and love seeing what you guys are looking at!) and many queries come in ‘he’s only 4 and even though I’ll ride him every day I don’t know if he’s too young for me, what do you guys think?’ And to this... it’s a stock standard checklist that we suggest you ask yourself. 1). Can you walk, trot and canter confidently? 2). Will you continue on in creating Or maintaining this horse into the one you’d like? 3). Are you following a program that can support you if you run into a hiccup? If it’s a big fat YES to all three then WHY THE HECK NOT? Over the years, we have had too many horses to count come through the gates and these have been of all breeds, ages, colours, genders and education levels... You wanna know what we’ve had the most enjoyment out of and success with? The young ones. The ones without 7 homes. The ones who haven’t had 3 different trainers try things with them in various ways. The ones who aren’t confused by different hands. The ones that only know good. I used to think ‘I need the old gelding who’s been there done that if I’m going to be safe’ and now my mind immediately associates older horses with ‘the unknown’. Funny that! Usually we’d associate the young ones with the ‘unknown’ but when there’s a decade or more of people handling the older horses and history’s that I may never know- I find peace in knowing that anything that the young horse knows- has been popped into its brain while I’ve been in the picture. Of course, you get those amazing golden oldies (often through word of mouth, Sometimes not even for open sale and not necessarily in for sale ads) but you may have your head in the haystack with a metal detector searching for that needle for a hot minute! This is just some food for thought before you discount a diligently trained younger steed. Providing you’ve paid your dues, learned and continue to learn what you need to to become a horse owner and are a capable rider, there’s a whole bunch of beauty on the other side of Beryl at riding club telling you ‘You cant handle anything under 34!’