Austin Eventing

’ve been meaning to write this for a minute. I want to talk about fitness. Both for riders and horses. As you know, I recently came back from California where I spent a considerable amount of time learning how to properly condition endurance horses. Us Eventers tend to take pride in fitness levels of our horses (with good reason) but it seems some folks don’t give their own fitness levels as detailed attention. “You are either helping you horse, our hurting your horse. Ge

I enjoyed a great weekend at Pine Hill. The facility exceeds anything I have seen before for its natural setting and sheer size. I was challenged with new things to learn about eventing and being an equestrian in general. Mostly, I was amazed and delighted with the new friends I found in the eventing community. I love how everyone works together, looks after each other, and shares so willingly of their own lives. I felt very welcome and it eased many of my own fears of screwi

From Austin Eventer, Heather! The theme of the Austin Eventing cross country schooling weekend, at Pine Hill, was balls! I’m sure everyone has heard someone who is deemed to have done something courageous to be ballsy or having big balls or brass balls. Well last weekend, riders found their balls, grew larger balls, had multiple balls, developed brass balls, and loaned their balls to others in need! I started the weekend having lost my balls! The loss was due to multiple fall

Hello, everyone! Brandy here with another Rider Recap—this time, fresh off two days of cross-country schooling (my first ever!) at Pine Hill. I have a bit of a sun, exertion, and adrenaline hangover (not to mention chafing and a smooshed toe!) from my weekend in the saddle, but I’m riding high on my team’s accomplishments! It all began at zero-dark-thirty on Saturday when Lisa pulled up in Megatrina, her beast of a diesel rig. I loaded all my gear (and beer) and off we went t

Thoughts offered from one of our very own Austin Eventer’s perspective. Thank you to Brandy S. for taking the time to submit this post! Oh, yeah, I’m sore. Lisa must have asked me five times yesterday, “How do your legs feel?” I kept saying, “Oh, I’m good,” and thinking to myself, “Why on Earth does she keep asking me that?” Well, now I know. My legs are a little sore, but man, my shoulders and arms are useless! It hurts even to type this! So, you must be wondering why I’m r

We’ve chatted a little about the need for physical conditioning of both horse and human in this sport. Another aspect of being successful in Eventing is the mental combat we enlist in when we put our foot in the stirrup. The emotional draw to this sport is unwavering for most of us. Our unequivocal partnership with our partner and horse, our support and growth from our coach, and our sense of belonging from our fellow teammates all pile together to create an empathic jour