Posts from August 2012

by Lori Albrough

It was years ago that I first heard about Temple Grandin. Temple Grandin is an autistic woman. She also holds a PhD in animal science, is a professor at Colorado State University, a designer of humane cattle handling systems widely used in meat-packing plants throughout North America, the author of a number of books, and is a popular and sought-after lecturer and consultant.

But I didn’t know all that when I first heard about Temple Grandin. It was simply the title of her book, Thinking in Pictures, that caught my attention.

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by Lori Albrough

I’ve never worked a horse in a round pen before. It’s not that I thought it was hooey or something, I’ve just never needed to. And honestly, a lot of the round penning I had seen looked like a great deal of running the horse around for a long time on a small circle, and that I didn’t care for. It didn’t look good for their legs. But at a more basic level, with all the horses I’ve started, I’ve had my technique and it has worked for me. The Fjord horses I work with are, by nature, pretty low-fear, high-intelligence animals. I start by teaching them to lunge in my indoor arena, and they easily pick the concept up […]

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by Lori Albrough

It was just over twelve years ago that I showed up for my first dressage lesson. Excited and eager to learn proper technique from an accomplished coach, this was my first intro to true dressage riding, although I had been a rider for 25 years at that point. Less than ten minutes into the lesson, however, I found myself huffing, puffing, and overheating, and the only thing I was eager for was to take in enough oxygen and shed my top layers of clothing. And THAT was my introduction to what a physical workout riding can be!

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