Emma Tilson – Coaching & Training for all disciplines
Serving Guelph, Kitchener, Milton and surrounding areas

Emma provides freelance, insured and certified coaching and training for riders and horses in any discipline and any ability. Emma will travel to your location to teach and or train in the Kitchener/Cambridge, Guelph, Rockwood, Acton, Milton, and surrounding areas.

Emma specializes in Hunter/Jumper and Equitation. She incorporates her experience and knowledge from her dressage training into her coaching and riding, as she feels strong fundamentals in flatwork are the success to any discipline.

Be sure to stop by Emma’s new website at http://www.emmatilson.com to learn about her and her services and see all the wonderful testimonials she has received from her students/clients.

And be sure to contact us if you need help with your website, whether it is a new design or ongoing maintenance… we’d be happy to help you.

Since my last post, we have had two new boarders come in to Shady Ridge. “CT” was the first to arrive at the end of January. He is a cute little Morgan who loves to be told how handsome he is…LOL  His ears perk up and he will come right to you. It took him a few days to settle in and realize that the huge round bale was all his (he is out in a paddock on his own per his owner’s request) but now he is aware of that and spends much of his days with his head in the bale. He loves when his owner Amanda comes to play with him… she will run around the paddock with him playing with the big ball and throwing snowballs for him to catch. He is a real cutie.

The second boarder, “Seinfeld” just arrived yesterday so we don’t know too much about him yet. However, we do know that is a really handsome boy. He’s a 17hh chestnut Hanoverian who barely fit in our warmblood trailer. No problem with his height but is he super long too so his butt was pushing at the back door.

Last weekend was the first show of the season for Megan and Buddy. They did the Trillium show at RCRA and we decided to just put him in the .90 metre (2′9″) classes for this first show. Buddy was a bit overwhelmed with all the horses in the warm-up area at first but eventually he settled down and started listening to Megan. And then when she got him into the ring… he was a speed demon . He was flying around the course but never dropped a rail. Megan changed his bit for the next courses and things were much more controllable. Unfortunately, the clock was against them and she ended up with time faults. I guess we should have let him be a speed demon. All in all, they looked great and had a good time and I got to take some great pictures of them (which can be found on our Facebook page).

Speaking of taking pictures, I have finished a couple of online photography courses in the past two months and am slowly learning how to use all the features and settings on my new camera. I am still learning and taking more courses but am having a lot of “ah-ha” moments when a shot comes out awesome and I actually know why it did . You can see some of these shots on my 2012 Photo of the Day album on my FB page.

Business has been pretty busy as well. I am working on a number of new websites right now (and of course updating other client sites to keep them current) and hope to introduce them to the world over the next couple of weeks. I love designing websites so if you need a site for your business, equine related or not, just let me know and I can provide you with a quotation. Feel free to see some of the sites I have designed at http://www.equinewebdesign.ca and http://www.docutype.net.

Speaking of Equine Web Design, have you “Liked” our new FB page for EWD? This is where I will post anything new that is happening with our business and any new website designs that we launch.

Well, I guess that is about it for this update. See you next time!

Luke is so worried about the ice that he wouldn’t walk over to the trough to get a drink. We would go out there and coax him over but one day there was no way… he wanted nothing to do with going to the trough so we made a path of old hay. It took some convincing but eventually he made it over but again, didn’t want to go on his own. The only problem with the hay path is that Ripples thought it was there for her… to eat. Thankfully we got a little bit of snow the other night and now Luke feels more steady and is making his way to the trough and Ripples is still eating the path.

We have discovered a new “issue” with Buddy. He has been so awesome for Megan lately and she gets over to ride him 4 or 5 times a week but there are days when he isn’t turned out due to the ground conditions so on those days, he is a little antsy and unpredictable. And, we are now seeing that Buddy is a really good boy unless he is in the arena with another horse that is acting up or fresh. Buddy seems to feed off that and decides that he wants to act up too. And when he acts up, he does this bucking bronco kind of thing which is hard for Megan to sit. She has yet to come off him but it does jar her around a bit.

So, to calm him down, he has to be put on the lunge line. That is an experience in itself at the beginning. Since he is already “up”, he acts like a jerk on the line and bucks and such. However, we think that yesterday he may have finally figured it out… if he is a bad boy, he gets put on the lunge line. It was like he all of a sudden said to himself (after giving us the evil eye each time he went by), “now I get it… if I am bad they put me on this stupid thing” and bam, he calmed right now and the rest of the lesson was awesome.

Back in my December post, I mentioned that I hoped to get a new camera for Christmas. Guess what? I got one and I am loving it! It is a Canon Rebel T3i with two lenses and I am having a blast learning how to use it. In fact, I am taking some online courses at http://www.learntotakephotos.com (thanks for the recommendation, Shannon) and this is helping me get a better understanding of manual settings on the camera that will work for different situations. I am still trying to master taking blur-free shots inside the indoor arena but am slowly getting there.

I decided when I got the new camera that the more practice I get, the better so I am actually posting a ‘Photo of the Day’ on my Facebook page. I didn’t want to call it ‘A Photo a Day’ in case I missed a day so ‘Photo of the Day‘ gives me an excuse should I get too busy to take and post a shot on any given day. Be sure to check them out at http://www.facebook.com/janice.byer. I have also posted some on my Shady Ridge Photography website at http://www.shadyridge.smugmug.com/.

That about covers everything for this time. I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season and wish you a healthy, happy and prosperous 2012!

See you next time.

Happy Holidays from all of us at Shady Ridge Farm!

In my last post (way back in October), I talked about the horse show season ending on a great note for Megan and Buddy. They had some challenges during the beginning of the show season but everything worked out and they advanced up to the A circuit and had a great few shows at the end of the season. Now it is time to get ready for the next season so Megan and Buddy have been working a lot on fine-tuning some of his green issues and building their relationship and I am so happy  to see her have great ride after great ride once again (there was some frustration during his recovery).

Since we do not have an indoor arena here on our farm (one day we will…. when we win the lottery ), and since Megan and her awesome coaches are so excited for the next season, we decided that it would be a shame to only ride him once a week or so over the winter, not to mention how hard it is to get Randy to trailer Buddy over during nasty winter weather, we decided it would be best to board Buddy at Sher-Al for the winter. So, he went over there during the last week in November and he seems to really like it there.

He seemed a little quieter than normal for the first couple of weeks but has since perked up. I think he was feeling like he wouldn’t be seeing Megan very often but that didn’t happen. She now goes over and rides him 4 or 5 times a week so he is getting lots of exercise and time with his mommy. I think he likes the other horses too as they all seem to stick their heads out of their stalls and stare at each other. All in all, it may not have been something we budgeted for but we are making it work and it is the best thing for both of them. They have bonded and improved so much in just the short time that she has had more of a chance to ride him.

With Buddy being at Sher-Al now, that meant that Luke would be alone at our place. Although he was always in a different paddock than Buddy, we were concerned that he would be lonely. However, he was a really good boy and it didn’t bother him at all that Buddy was gone.

In order to get Luke a friend (or two) and to help offset  the cost of having Buddy over at Sher-Al, we decided to take in a few boarders. We placed ads here and there and mentioned it on our FB fanpage and website but so far have not had any takers. We have a beautiful place and offer lots of lovin’ but I guess a lot of people are looking for a place that has an indoor arena. Not to mention, there is a lot of competition for boarding in our area. So, we’ll just keep working our butts off to help pay for him being over there. If you know anyone who is looking for boarding, please have them contact us or visit our website.

Although we do not have any boarders, we have found a friend for Luke. Friends of ours were looking for a place to move their horse and we offered them a stall and paddock space. Her name is Ripples and she is a big, beautiful Belgian. We always thought that Luke was a good size horse but he looks like a pony next to Ripples. She is such a gentle giant… very sweet and very pretty. Luke and her have hit it off and they get along great. Neither bugs each other and they seem to love each others company.

As part of her being here, we asked if it would be okay to ride her. Of course her owners said yes so now we just have to figure out how to get some tack for her. She hasn’t been ridden in a while so her tack seems to have been lost but they are finding pieces here and there and we almost have a bridle that fits her. The only thing is the nose band and chin strap seem to be a little tight so we are going to have to keep trying until we get the right one. Don’t even ask about a saddle yet… don’t think any of ours will fit her so may be searching for a large saddle soon. We’ll have to wait and see.

What else is new? Well, the cats are huge again this winter. They put on so much weight and get so furry in the winter. They are like big puff balls. And with the cold weather, they also stay a lot closer to the barn. During the summer they wander more and have spent nights outside the barn but the colder weather means they want to stay where the food and warmth are.

The busy Christmas season is now upon us but I am a little disappointed that it looks like we will probably not have a white Christmas this year . Christmas in Canada should be white! After that, I could careless about having snow . This rain in December is not welcome! Too depressing, not to mention muddy. Do like the warmer temps though. I guess you just can’t have everything… warm temps and snow

So, besides new phones (our contract was finally up and we have now joined the touch screen world) and new couches, that is about it. Not much else is new. Christmas will bring new “things” (including… fingers crossed… a new camera for me..LOL) so hope to have more good things to report the next time I post.

We hope that you all have a wonderful holiday season and get a chance to relax and enjoy the company of family and friends.

Wishing all of our family and friends a very

Merry Christmas and a happy, healthy and prosperous 2012!

For more information, please visit http://shadyridgefarm.ca/boarding.htm

In my last post (http://shadyridgefarm.ca/blog/?p=1082), I filled you in on the challenges we faced this summer with Buddy. They included having to change saddles as his body changes made the old one uncomfortable for him; working through head-shaking syndrome which, in the end, was fixed by a pair of pantie hose; and unevenness in Buddy’s feet causing him to compensate using muscles that he shouldn’t have which eventually took its toll on him. A new saddle; pantie hose; a new farrier; and a couple of acupuncture treatments and Buddy is a happy horse again.

And with a happy horse, Megan was able to take Buddy to some great shows to end out the horse show season. In fact, it felt like we did a horse show almost every weekend over the last few months (in truth, it wasn’t every weekend but it felt like it as they trained almost every day and then showed several times which meant we didn’t do much else).

First she and Buddy competed in the final Trillium show (before the championships) of the season at the Caledon Equestrian Park in Palgrave, the Zone Classic. They did 3 classes at .75 meter in one day and it may have been a little too much for Buddy’s first show back but they did great and it was so wonderful see a smile on Megan’s face each time she came out of the ring.

Next she did her very first “A” Circuit show, again in Palgrave. It was the Autumn Classic and this time she moved up and did the 1 meter classes. Unfortunately, they don’t run the classes all of the same day for this show so she showed three days in a row. This can be a bit of a pain when you have to trailer in for one class each day so we decided to stable him at the horse park. This was his first time staying overnight at a horse show and, to be honest, I was a bit worried about how he would react but he handled it like he had been doing it for years. We stabled with another family so we shared the duties of mucking and feeding and it all worked out great (didn’t want to pay to have a groom do this for us). Oh… and Megan had a great weekend including a 5th in her first “A” show class (in a field of close to 30).

Then she did her second “A” show the following weekend which was the Canadian Show Jumping Championships. Again we stabled Buddy as her classes were one a day. They did great in her first class getting 9th in a field of over 30. The second class didn’t go as well but they did get through the whole course. Unfortunately, the last class didn’t go well at all but they learned from it and that’s a good thing. We ended off the day with everyone from Sher-Al watching the Grand Prix with all the big names in horse show jumping. It was a great weekend and we had a great time.

Last weekend she was supposed to show again in an Equine Canada sanctioned show but unfortunately that didn’t happen. On Saturday, while jumping 3′9″ in her lesson, Buddy came down over a jump a little crooked which put Megan off balance and she fell off him landing on her knee. We still went to the show and supported her friend Taylor (who was doing her first 1.20m classes) and her coach Greg and, although it was rainy and cold, we had a great time and they did awesome with Greg winning the 1.20m class and Taylor getting 4th. Videos of both can be found on my YouTube channel.

So, although the summer show season started off great, then turned a bit sour, it ended off great and now we are concentrating on getting ready for next year’s show season which will come sooner than we know it The trainers at Sher-Al are excited for Megan and Buddy and want them to board at their farm for the winter so they can train on a regular basis and be ready to kick butt next year. We are still discussing this as it is not exactly in the budget but it would be great for Megan to have access to an indoor arena during the cold months and not have to worry about Randy whining when Buddy needs to be trailered there.

Other new things… we have a fence around the sand ring. Yay! Now Megan feels more comfortable riding there without having someone with her.

We said good-bye to Carole, our coach for the last several years. She has had a tough year and had to make some decisions in the best interest of her and her children and thus moved to Niagara Falls. It was sad to see her go but it is the best thing for all of them. I hope she stays in touch!

And, our first veggie garden was a huge success this year. We had radishes, cucumbers, peppers, green peppers, lettuce, and tons of tomatoes. We shared a lot with friends because it was just too much for us. I attempted several things with all the tomatoes we had and ‘most’ turned out great.

Business is great with a whole bunch of new website designs during the summer. Be sure to check them out in our Portfolio at http://www.equinewebdesign.ca. I love designing websites and it’s even better when the subject has to do with horses

That’s about it for this update. I am not making any promises as to when I will get a chance to update again but hopefully I won’t be as tardy as I have been lately.

See you next time!

Sher-Al Farm Equestrian Centre
Mono/Orangeville, Ontario

For the past 15 years, Sher-Al Farm has been producing top riders and horses of all levels. Their trainers are dedicated to helping riders succeed both in and out of the ring.

Their Top Quality Show Jumping Facility allows you to take full advantage of learning in a state-of-the-art, safe riding environment. Large Indoor and Outdoor arenas; 30 stalls; 6-horse walker plus so much more… Sher-Al offers everything you need to be the best can be.

Just 10 minutes from Palgrave and within 1 hour of most major horse shows.

We invite you to visit their website to not only see how Sher-Al can help you but also see yet another one of our equine web designs.

And be sure to contact us if you need help with your website, whether it is a new design or ongoing maintenance… we’d be happy to help you.

We are also proud to have designed Sher-Al Farm’s logo…

Summer is usually a time when we have more time on our hands to enjoy something besides just working and school but this summer has been just crazy busy (for both my business and family life). For many years, we did a scattering of horse shows, usually on someone else’s horse, but this summer Megan has a wonderful new show horse with loads of potential so we have been busy trailering out for training as well as doing lots of riding and lessons at home.

However, she hasn’t done as many shows this summer as she would have liked as Buddy has had to overcome a few challenges. First, when they increased their training  in the spring, Buddy’s body built up and his saddle no longer fit. As he isn’t one to complain about anything, we didn’t realize that he was uncomfortable until it got to the point that you would run your fingers down his back and he would drastically flinch. So, we had to get him a new saddle. It wasn’t in the budget, that’s for sure but he is so much happier now that he has a good fitting saddle. We ended up getting a second hand Pessoa at Baker’s Saddlery… they both love it.

Then we had an issue with head shaking. Every time she would ride outside, he would shake his head up and down which made him hard to ride. We did a lot of research on the cause and how we could fix it… after all, she couldn’t ride inside all the time so we had to think of something. The causes are endless and include everything from allergies to being photic (a reaction to the sun in the nerve down their nose). We tried nose nets and supplements and just about any suggestion that people came up with and nothing seemed to work. Then one day we saw a video of a homemade nose net made out of a pair of pantyhose. It seemed farfetched and although Megan made a few, it took several weeks before she finally agreed to put one on his nose. It was like a miracle… it worked instantly. During one lesson he went from a hard to ride headshaker to a dream ride. So now Buddy wears pantyhose on his nose when he is ridden outside.

Then we noticed that Buddy’s butt seemed to be uneven and he wouldn’t stand square. After a while the unevenness took its toll on him and he wasn’t the lovely mover and motivated horse he used to be. Again, we weren’t sure what to do so researched a bunch of options. We tried a chiropractor and that seemed to help him tremendously. However, the adjustments didn’t seem to hold for very long and he was back to not being happy. We were then told that he made need to get injections into hocks. Unfortunately, doing the x-rays and injections was going to cost a lot of money so we had to think about that option.

While we were considering the injections (and whether we needed to do the x-rays first or just the injections), Megan’s coach at Sher-Al suggested we try getting acupuncture. We figured, why not? It was worth a try. The vet that came out was a lovely man who knew, as soon as he walked into the barn and saw Buddy standing in the crossties, exactly what was wrong with the horse. He did an acupuncture  treatment which was very interesting and the next day, you could tell Buddy was feeling much better. The acupuncture stimulates the nerves and muscles helping to break up scar tissue that had developed by using the wrong muscles while he compensated for the unevenness.

We waited 5 days and although he was much better, he wasn’t back to his regular self so Dubro came out and did another treatment and that one definitely helped. The first couple of rides Megan did with him … he was like a big kid… happy to work and loving that he wasn’t in any discomfort. So now we are working on building up the right muscles and he is slowly coming along. Megan has been riding him almost daily to help his muscles tone and the helpful advise and training from all of the coaches has been invaluable as well. It’s funny, each one has their own way of doing things but when you combine them all together, it is nothing but good for Buddy!

This past weekend, Buddy did his first show in almost a month (and only back working for just over a week) and he was a such a good boy. He isn’t 100% yet but Megan is really happy with how well he did. They pinned in each class (unfortunately the classes were small) and we were so happy that he was feeling good and willing to work. However, by the 4th class, we could tell he was getting tired as he knocked a couple of poles so they decided to call it a day. Next weekend they will do a Trillium show in Palgrave. He likes the big Grand Prix ring so we will keep our fingers crossed that they have a good time and, if they pin, even better

So, it has been a bit of a busy and challenging summer as we figure out each new issue with the horse that we have some much confidence in but the remainder of the summer, and the show season, look very promising. I hope to have a little more time to post updates as things settle down.

Myrddin Equestrian Centre

Myrddin is a unique equestrian centre located on Trafalgar Road in the scenic Town of Erin. Myrddin offers the ultimate in personalized riding instruction. Our certified coaches, top-calibre school horses and extensive facilities coordinate to provide a complete learning experience for the novice to advanced rider.

Our instructional programme is centered around the Canadian Equestrian Federation Rider Level Certification Programme. Classes are tailored to the individual’s goals and time constraints. Instruction is aimed at not only departing knowledge but also supporting the individual to make the changes necessary to achieve their goals.

We invite you to visit their website to not only see how Myrddin can help you but also see yet another one of our equine web designs.

And be sure to contact us if you need help with your website, whether it is a new design or ongoing maintenance… we’d be happy to help you.