Crystanby Classical & Working Equitation in Highland Valley | Equestrian centre

Crystanby Classical & Working Equitation

Locality: Highland Valley

Phone: +61 432 821 348

Address: 20 Scrubby Hill Rd 5255 Highland Valley, SA, Australia

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• Sport & recreation
• Horse trainer
• Equestrian centre
• Horse riding centre

24.01.2022 Watch this space! Hoping to announce some exciting news soon for all interested in Working Equitation.

20.01.2022 Hey Crystanby students, how many times have I told you this? Article from Brett Parbery Shoulder control is the secret sauce in dressage, especially in lateral work!... All horses (and probably all people!) naturally travel crookedly. It’s up to us as riders to train straightness, which is essential before you can effectively train lateral work. Quite often riders won’t realise that their horse is crooked, as it just feels normal and comfortable. It’s time (yet again!) to boost your level of awareness about what’s going on in your horse’s body and your own. Working on straightness is so much about shoulder control! It’s very common to see horses with shoulders bulging out one way or the other. Achieving and maintaining shoulder control is a fundamental pillar of dressage, however, it is also one of the most elusive concepts! Here’s how I train shoulder control: Firstly, gaining and maintaining shoulder control requires clarity of aids, meaning you and your horse must have a commonly understood language. You can’t suddenly give a new set of aids and expect the horse to know what you’re asking right away. So take it one day at a time and reward small efforts. To practice training shoulder control from your hands, put both hands in front of you now just like you’re riding. Now move both hands in unison to the left that’s asking the horse to move shoulders left. Now move both hands in unison to the right that’s asking the horse to move shoulders ride. You can practice this in the saddle by riding square/diamond shapes in the arena, shifting the shoulders around. When you layer these aids with, say, a flexion aid with the inside rein, and a little bend from the inside leg, you can see how movements like shoulder-in are perhaps not as complicated as you think! And for the advanced riders, practising this fundamental shoulder control in your canter pirouettes (experiment with less shoulders, more shoulders think shoulders around the hind rather than pushing the hind) can make a huge difference. To correct bulging shoulders (often most obvious on a circle you see the outside shoulder too far to the outside, often with too much neck bend to compensate), we use counter flexion. When a horse’s shoulders are bulging one way, their head and neck are usually bulging in the other direction. For example, if you were travelling on the left rein with left flexion, your horse’s shoulders are likely to be bulging right. An effective way to correct this crookedness would be to counter-flex your horse’s neck. In counter-flexing, you are encouraging their shoulders to move in the opposite direction that they were bulging, therefore, correcting their crookedness. Alternatively, if your horse’s shoulders are falling in, the best correction would be to take more bend to the inside, which should encourage their shoulders to move to the outside. I hope that gives you some food for thought and inspiration for your week in the saddle. Ride well! Brett

20.01.2022 Zarah and Orla (Fernleigh Creek Orla: Mt Tawonga King/ Myross Morgans Hine) forming a great relationship. Only been at Crystanby for a few weeks. Concentrating ...on slowing down, maintaining rhythm and tempo. Learning to stretch topline especially the neck without rushing. Both doing an awesome job. Some leg yield on the circle to start some engagement. Just a few steps at a time so we don’t lose the softness of the frame. This particular lesson in the photos was really lovely. Images by Noni Martin. See more

18.01.2022 Time to start regular Working Equitation Days again I reckon. Been to long. So Sunday September 29th. Working Equitation fun day to start I think. Come and learn about the sport and the obstacles or to develop your skills further if you have done some before. 3x2hour sessions. Max 4per group. I will try to match skill levels as much as possible or you could get a group of four friends together and book a whole session. PM me for details.

15.01.2022 Mt Tawonga Kitty. Nearly 22yrs. My heart horse. Best horse to ride. School horse extraordinaire. Very hard to get nice photos out in paddock. But under saddle s...he is magnificent. And to the anonymous student just look at those gorgeous soft hands. Don’t you ever let anyone tell you otherwise. If you can ride Kitty this well you are awesome. See more

11.01.2022 Another awesome Working Equitation day at Crystanby. Some regulars and some new riders. So nice to see good dressage training being applied to doing the obstacles. Well done to all who attended. Next day end October. Don’t have any photos yet but there were some taken so hopefully some later.

11.01.2022 More of Mt Tawonga Kitty giving a lesson today.

04.01.2022 So pleasing to see this girl (Black Ruby of Belvue) doing so well. After having to give her up for personal reasons she was successfully rehabilitated from an paddock injury from a great team of people. Then great careful and expert early training by her new owner (friend and student). Now she has weaved her spell on another friend and student who is taking her on for the next steps of her training. Proud of you all. Photo Julia Harvey.

04.01.2022 Apologies The wrong date advertised for this WE day. Now corrected.

03.01.2022 Big shout out to Julia Harvey who on Sunday battled many anxieties to flaot her new horse( Gus the QH) to a strange indoor to have a lesson. Not only did she ride him she taught him first steps of leg yield, trotted with impulsion and is starting to correct little things without being told first. Gus is such a good boy for her. It was not that long ago that anxiety almost completely stopped Julia riding at all. So looking forward to seeing them progress. Good work Julia.

02.01.2022 Working Equitation Lessons today. Eloise riding Marcus(TB) and Kel riding Halle(Morgan).

02.01.2022 Still places available. 9am-11am; 11am-1pm and 1.30pm-3.30pm. Full size working equitation area. Relaxed, fun and informative. Please message me if you have any questions or wish to book.