1. Pam, let me begin by stating that I’ve known you for several years – as an instructor, trainer, and expert in classical dressage. Can you tell me what inspired you to make the transition from someone who rides horses to a trainer/instructor and owner of Starlite Dressage https://www.facebook.com/snufflesfromhorses/?
Pam: Because I realized there was a huge lack of good instructors, so I pushed myself to learn all that I could learn.
2. Can you name one or two people who have inspired you in your equestrian journey?
Pam: Mrs. Catherine Vessley , and the second one is Gerhard Ablinger who had his Reitlehrer FN Certificate from Germany. He just loved dressage and was dedicated to the movement of the horse, and harmony of movement – so he & Cathy were my inspirations.
3. How do you keep training interesting?
Pam: To me every day there is something new and challenging – every day, all the horses are different so it’s never dull and there’s always something to learn and teach every day.
4. What keeps you going on those days when it’s hard to find the time, or the weather isn’t cooperating or you’re simply feeling tired?
Pam: There’s three things – Time, weather & feeling tired - the time- I arrange my life so that riding can happen..that’s just how I arrange it and so having an indoor arena was a priority for me for the past 25 years being that I live in Northern MN cuz I realized that riding outside in winter just doesn’t work and I cannot afford to board more than one horse, so that was part of my things that you give up in life…I gave up a lot so that I could afford to ride because it was such a priority to me, and that way I can ride at night. I used to work the night shift, the afternoon shift and days and with the indoor I could always ride.
But feeling tired…I have learned not to ride when I’m too tired - I don’t make myself ride when I’m not feeling well. If anything I do ground work with the horses because it’s just not fair to me or to the horses to push myself when I’m not feeling up to it.
5. How does dressage relate to your ever-day life?
Pam: For me, It is not separate from my everyday life…it IS my everyday life.
6. Do you have any pointers on choosing the right horse for the rider and vice-versa?
Pam: My number 1 question is what the person wants to do, because a dressage horse needs to be built for dressage and needs to have the right mentality for dressage; training a dressage horse up to Grand Prix can take over ten years even with the very best temperament and conformation.
Just like a race horse needs a race horse – you wouldn’t put an Escort into the Indy 500 – not if you wanted to be competitive in the Indy 500, so it is finding out what the rider’s goals are.
7. What suggestions do you have for people who want to optimize the positive relationship between horse & rider?
Pam: I would say spend as much time as with your horse as you can – watch it move, understand what makes it happy or unhappy..and that does mean spend as much time as possible…not just once a month but every day.
8. When training a horse – how important is the relationship between horse and rider/trainer?
Pam: It’s very important – it’s the #1 thing. In fact, when I do clinics is “Does the horse have any pain or lameness issues”, because as a teacher, as a clinician, I don’t know the horse at all, and it’s very important for me to know if there’s any pain, or what the person has been doing, because it’s really important not to push a horse that has any soreness. Also, the more a rider can improve herself the clearer are her aids and the more apt the horse is to understand what is being asked, leading to a more trusting , confident relationship.
9. Do you have a favorite quote or mantra that guides your work with your horses?
Pam:There are so many – but the one that I focus on is Calm, Forward & Straight because you have to have them: Calm, Forward, Straight and it’s in that order too.
10. Do you have any words of wisdom for riders who are struggling with a specific challenge?
Pam: a very loaded question…it depends on what the challenge is and what the goals are.
11. Do you have any thoughts or reflections you’d like to share that I didn’t bring up?
Pam: No…nothing more – those are very good questions. A lot of them can be elaborated on - or example -choosing the right horse… even if you look & look and look there are no guarantees, just like when you buy a car, sometimes it’s great and it’ll . Last forever, other times you get a lemon, but with a horse you’re dealing with a living animal so a part of teaching virtues is that when things go wrong – don’t blame people – look at yourself. Realize that maybe this is your horse’s limit – maybe you need to develop that horse to excel at where he’s at, and then find a different rider for the horse & start again. But never blame anyone – you’ve got this animal and now it’s your responsibility, so what can we do.” There are a lot we could elaborate on.
Pam and I discussed possibly
coming back periodically to unpack some of these topics. Dressage is such a complex and complicated discipline, there's so much to learn about! Watch for future blogs!
Great advice, too, about dealing with it when the horse is not exactly what you expected. So often, we blame others-the horse, the seller, etc-but the reality is that you have the horse! I love it!
This was a great read! Good advice to look inside when there are problems and to spend as much time as possible with the horses