Thursday, March 26, 2020
Tuesday, January 2, 2018
The History of Baker Blankets
I’ve always loved Baker.
I remember sitting in my room as a kid, thumbing through Dover, Horse
Illustrated and whatever equestrian magazines I was able to get my hands on
that week. There was always something special about the Baker
blankets, something classic and traditional that defined equestrian
style. Fast forward a few years (or more!) and I still love that classic Baker
plaid!
Although I’ve only recently been able
to dress my horse in Baker, I’ve had various breeches accented with Baker
plaid, saddle pads and various accessories adorned with their iconic pattern. I
love their vintage logo that hasn’t changed since the very beginning in 1866!
As I thought more about the brand itself, I did a bit of research and found
these amazing, vintage ads for baker blankets.
These were in newspapers from the
’50s!. I’m a huge fan of vintage advertising and absolutely love these. The
Baker brand began in Providence, RI in 1866 with S.W. Baker’s “Evaporating
Horse Blanket” (what we call a wool cooler these days). The same logo and
product description that originally appeared on those first coolers still
appear on every Baker blanket today! Talk about brand sustainability!
The original company closed in the
early 1930’s, but was purchased by William Ayres & Sons of Philadelphia in
the 1950’s and the blankets were re-issued in triple-weave plaid. They also
released a companion sheet that was originally called “Ironsides”. The Ayres’
also added “5/A” to distinguish their horse clothing products and the name “5/A
Baker” was reserved to describe the famous triple weave blanket.
In the 1960’s, the Ayres’ combined
forces with Philadelphia Blanket Company. In those days, the plaid was printed
onto the cotton. It wasn’t until after WWII that the plaid was woven into the
fabric. And in the 1980’s, acrylic fiber was also added to prevent shrinkage.
By 1987, the Ayres/Philadelphia due was bankrupt but in 1990, Curvon purchased
the Baker brand. Curvon, known as the oldest existing horse clothing
manufacturer, has helped restore and expand the Baker line to include other
products like saddle pads, luggage, clothing (for humans!) and many other
variations of that original horse blanket.
Now that you’ve had a history lesson
the brand, let’s talk details. I recently ordered the medium weight turnout blanket and
the turnout sheet, both in
the hi-neck version. I tried the turnout sheet first and immediately loved the
way it fit. I’ve never had a blanket fit Dancer this well before! (In case you
were wondering, he’s a 16hh Appaloosa gelding) Some small things I really love
are the chest buckle/snap combo. I think it’s more durable than just the
buckles and I like the multi-hook option which gives it a more custom fit. The
velcro under the front flap is great and helps keep everything in place. The
belly straps were WAY easier to buckle than my previous blankets have been and
I like that the nylon comes down over the buckle closure giving it a cleaner
look. I appreciate two rings for the leg straps for easy replacement if one
happens to break or get worn out. The hi-neck option has been great for us
because Dancer has been prone to wither rubs and after 3 weeks of almost
constant use, we haven’t had any issues with rubs. I also like that he has a
little bit of extra protection because we have pretty crazy wind out here on
the plains.
After much wear and tear, I am proud
to report that Dancer has not found a way to destroy, rip, or do much more than
get this blanket dirty. He’s really tough on his blankets and likes to roll
around, rub on trees and who knows what else when I’m not there! As for the
medium turnout, the fit is exactly the same. It’s incredibly durable and has
kept Dancer warm on our coldest nights so far. I should also say that they fit
very true to size – I measured Dancer as a size 76″, ordered that size and both
blankets fit great!
These blankets are so easy to switch
from one to the other and I love the classic design. They’ve both held up great
so far and after reading so many wonderful reviews – some from riders who claim
to still be using their Bakers after 10+ years – I expect these to last for
many winters to come. I honestly couldn’t ask for better blankets and
would highly recommend them to anyone who is looking for a durable, stylish
blanket that will hold up to just about anything!
Thursday, November 2, 2017
Finding the Ideal Free Walk Understand what constitutes a correct free walk and learn how you can help your horse produce a better free walk
Finding the Ideal Free Walk
Understand what constitutes a correct free walk and learn how you can help your horse produce a better free walk.
One of the most important focuses as a trainer and instructor is making sure riders actually “ride” the walk. I believe if your butt is in the saddle, you are training your horse, whether you are taking a walk break, schooling movements or going on a trail ride. You and your horse can use the initial walk of your ride, the breaks and the cool down to relax. But if you allow the horse to walk poorly—with a lack of energy, an incorrect rhythm, hollowness or without stretching toward the bit—how does he know you want a good free walk in your dressage test?
The Free Walk
An ideal free walk is four clear beats, has good energy, overtracks (when the hind hoof surpasses the print made by the front hoof) and the horse’s neck reaches forward and downward with a round, long topline.
Horses need plenty of free walk breaks during training to let their muscles relax. Consistency is the most important quality in the training so the standard must not change when you take a walk break. If the free walk has the following elements, your horse will feel good when you shorten the reins and go back to work. During the walk break, ask yourself:
• Is my horse in front of my leg?
• Is he reaching for the contact?
• Is he using his back properly?
If not, when you go back to work, your horse might be behind the leg, disconnected and feel tight, hollow or stiff in the back. The rider cannot be upset with the horse because she allowed these traits during the break.
Besides consistency in the training, riding a good free walk is effective strength-building. Think of the difference for yourself if you do a power walk. You are striding down the road with good posture, with your eyes up and your arms swinging. Compare that to strolling along, dragging your feet with your head down. Which one is better for your body? For a horse who needs to improve fitness, the walk is the most important thing to focus on. Riding a super free walk—especially if you can do it out of the arena and up and down hills—builds muscle without putting a lot of strain on joints and soft tissue.
Riding the Walk
This energetic walk will move the rider’s body a fair amount. When a horse marches in the free walk with a lot of energy, overtrack and stretch, he must use his back and neck a lot. The rider must follow to stay with that movement.
“Moving with the walk” means your whole body follows the movement of the horse’s whole body. When I talk specifically about “following,” I am referring to the rider’s shoulders, elbows, forearms and hands. Most people are aware that their hips must move with the horse so they don’t stiffen and therefore tighten the horse’s back. The hips must follow the exact movement of the horse’s back. The leg must follow the horse’s rib cage precisely. However, often I find people have been told to have quiet hands, and they think that means having hands that are still. In the walk, especially a good quality walk, the horse must oscillate his neck forward and back. If the rider doesn’t follow this oscillation, then the horse will not feel free to use his topline.
Proper following in the walk will teach the horse that he can use his neck and increases the amount he uses his back. He should be able to walk through his whole body. Conversely, a rider who does not follow with the walk makes the horse hold his head and neck still, therefore holding and tightening his back, making the walk smaller or sometimes even compromising the four-beat rhythm of the walk.
In the walk, the rider’s hands should go forward as the horse’s ears go forward and down, but only as much as the horse requires to maintain a steady contact. The hands will come back to a neutral position as the horse’s ears come back and up. This is opposite of the way the rider’s hips move. The motion is like a rowing machine. The hands go forward as the hips go back then the hands come back as the hips go forward.
The rider’s pelvis must follow the motion of the horse, but I always urge people not to force this motion. Riders should not push or drive with the seat bones in the walk. If you try to push and shove with the seat to make a bigger walk, the horse usually drops his back and slows down. Instead, focus on following with the arms, and the pelvis will usually move enough. As soon as the rider stops following, the pelvis usually stiffens.
Find Your Free Walk
First, make sure you are following the walk. Ask someone to walk along with the horse while you close your eyes. Imagine the way it felt to ride a horse for the first time. I ask the student to totally relax and let her body feel like a wet noodle. Many people will automatically follow quite nicely with the arms the first few times they ever sit on a horse because they haven’t been told to “sit still.” Exaggerate how much you follow. Think of an old-time washboard with your thumbs on top or a rowing machine and move your arms. Then tone it down slightly. Often, people think they are following much more than they are.
A common mistake is a free walk with too little energy. I ask people to give the horse all the rein (assuming it is safe to do so) and ask for more walk until they find how much walk the horse can give. This might mean he breaks to the trot for a couple steps. No problem! Quietly bring the horse back to walk through the voice and seat and then ask him to walk forward again. I use leg, voice and maybe the whip if needed to create more walk. Again, do not pump and push with the seat bones. The more energy the horse has in walk, the more he will be willing to stretch. The more he stretches, the bigger you can get the walk.
When the rider can stay connected to the horse’s mouth this way, with an elastic contact, he is then ready to use that contact to influence his horse. Just as a young horse must learn to simply accept contact before he learns to yield to it, a rider must first learn to simply find the contact at all times before she can affect the horse through the contact. If the rider learns to ride with hands that correctly follow the horse, the horse will become more sensitive to her requests. For example, a horse who expects a following hand will be very sensitive to the moment when the hand stops following to give a half halt that shifts the horse’s balance.
One of the most basic half halts is to go from free walk on a long rein to a medium walk, where we ask the horse to close the frame and come a bit more onto the haunches in preparation for a transition. This transition from free walk to medium walk is a hard one for many horses—they either anticipate an upcoming transition to trot or canter and get tight in the back or they lose energy and get stiff through the topline. As the rider shortens the reins for medium walk, the driving leg is ready to ask the horse to keep the energy and march he had in the free walk. Then the core of the rider engages and the hands close around the reins to rebalance the horse or shift the weight slightly to the hindquarters. This is a moment when the rider’s hand does not follow because we are telling the horse to shorten himself from back to front and stay more uphill, rather than allowing him to lean down and forward into the contact. Once the half halt goes through the horse’s body and he responds by shifting his balance, the rider once again follows in an elastic way with this new, more uphill connection.
Practice riding transitions from free walk to medium walk and back to free walk. This seems like it should be such an easy thing to do, but it isn’t! And if the rider can go from passively following to gently affecting the horse’s balance, the horse will be ready for a good transition to trot or canter and listening closely to his rider.
Eliza Sydnor Romm works as a dressage trainer and instructor at Braeburn Farm in Snow Camp, North Carolina. She is a USDF Certified Instructor through Fourth Level and is an active competitor from Training Level through Grand Prix. She specializes in working with young horses. She and her husband, Jonathan, live in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, with their son and daughter. (elizasydnordressage.com)
Tuesday, October 31, 2017
riding notes from the Stephen Clark Clinic 2015
Notes from the Stephen Clarke Clinic, October 3 and 4th, 2015
- where the horses head is at is his business, the rider needs to ride forward with still hands. hands should be quiet and relaxed.
- train your horse to step into the outside rein as soon as you put your inside leg on.
- to improve the canter pirouette - do the pirouette canter through the corner then go forward - progress to doing this is all the corners.
- rule = the size of the pirouette is directly related to the quality of the canter.
- improve the half pass - start in shoulder in- then half pass, then travers, then half pass.
- to improve the extension - in the medium trot break the long side down to three parts, 1) start in shoulder-in 2) straighten and lengthen 3) go back to shoulder-in. bring the gait back before it loses the rhythm and balance.
- exercise to improve the half pass in canter, do the shoulder fore, do a few steps in half pass, do a few steps in shoulder fore, repeat .
Wednesday, March 29, 2017
http://www.womenshealthmag.com/fitness/yoga-poses-to-open-hip-flexors
1/8 Alison Feller
8 Yoga
Poses to Release the Tension in Your Hips After a Crazy-Stressful Day
Alison Feller
You wake up early every day to squeeze in a five-mile run or
45-minute spin class (you go, Glen Coco). Then, from 9 a.m. until well
past 5 p.m., you’re crushing it at work—and by “crushing it,” we mean you’re
busting your butt while it’s firmly planted in your desk chair, hunched
over your laptop and phone simultaneously.
We’re all guilty of sitting too much, and the whole “sitting is
the new smoking” thing is no joke. “Most of us spend a lot of our
time sitting, which limits the range of motion of your body and makes your hips
extremely tight,” says Bethany Lyons, instructor and co-founder at Lyons Den Power Yoga in New York City. “Not to mention the
fact that your hips are emotional centers of your body. Combine those together
and you’ve got some crazy tight hips!” (Tone up and chill out with Women's Health's Flat Belly Yoga routine!)
The key to easing up all that tension: yoga, of course.
These poses will help open your hip flexors, keeping your body loose and
helping you walk a little taller. Hold each pose for five full, deep breaths,
Lyons recommends.
1/8 Alison Feller
The pose: Crescent Lunge
Why it’ll make your hips happy: “Crescent lunge stretches
your legs, groin, and hip flexors,” says Lyons. “You’re also forced to create
stability and balance, so you’re strengthening and stretching your body.”
How to do it: From downward-facing dog, step one foot
forward between your hands, aligning your knee over the heel. Keeping your back
leg strong, lift your upper body, sweeping your arms overhead, palms facing in.
Stack your joints—your shoulders are over the hips, your front knee over the
front ankle, and the back heel over the ball mound of the back foot—and draw
your low ribs in toward one another.
2/8 Alison Feller
The pose: Crescent Lunge with Lift
Why it’ll make your hips happy: “This is some intense toning
and stretching for the back leg,” says Lyons. “...Stretching and strengthening
the muscles helps with your posture. Developing strong hip flexors will allow
you to stand up straighter, appear taller, and look more confident. If your hip
flexors are tight, they’re going to pull you forward when you move.”
How to do it: From crescent lunge, tuck your back toe, firm
up your back leg, and hold.
The pose: Low Lunge
The pose: Low Lunge
3/8 Alison Feller
The pose: Low Lunge
Why it’ll make your hips happy: “This pose allows you to go
a little bit deeper in the stretch than you did during crescent lunge,” says
Lyons. “There’s more stretching now and less strengthening. It’s basically a
modification, since you don’t need to add an element of balance. Consider it an
‘easier’ pose than crescent lunge, but it’s still super effective.”
How to do it: From crescent lunge, bring both hands to the
ground on either side of your front foot. Drop your back knee to the ground,
and lift your torso so your upper body is upright, placing your hands on your
front leg for balance.
4/8 Alison Feller
The pose: Reclined Half-Pigeon with Quad Stretch
Why it’ll make your hips happy: “You’re getting a deep hip
and back leg opening, and drawing the foot in stretches the front of the thigh
all the way up into the hip,” says Lyons. “You’re hitting the stretch from all
angles."
How to do it: From downward-facing dog, lift the right leg
up toward the ceiling, and then draw the right knee toward the right wrist,
placing it on the floor while bringing the right foot as close to the left
wrist as possible. Keep the hips even and square to the front of the mat. Lean
forward, keeping the feet active and the hips centered. Bend the left knee,
catching the left foot with your left hand and drawing it in toward the hip,
stretching the front of the thigh. At the same time, reach the left knee toward
the back of the room and let your head rest on your right forearm.
5/8 Alison Feller
The pose: Mermaid Series
Why it’ll make your hips happy: “Feel that stretch in your
back quadriceps? You’re doing it right,” says Lyons. “This series strengthens
and stretches your hip flexors and core muscles while opening the hips.”
How to do it: From half-pigeon, bring the upper body upright
and bend your left knee. Catch your left foot with the left hand and draw it in
toward the hips, keeping both hips squared toward the front of the mat. If
possible, work the foot into the crux of the left elbow, and then take the
right arm up and over to catch hands into a bind over your head.
6/8 Alison Feller
The pose: Reclined Hero Pose
Why it’ll make your hips happy: “This is an advanced pose,
so proceed with caution and move into it very gently,” says Lyons. “It’s a
giant hip opener—you’ll feel it.”
How to do it: Begin in hero pose, kneeling with thighs
perpendicular to the floor and your inner knees touching. Slide the feet apart
to slightly wider than hips-width distance apart, and the tops of the feet flat
on the floor. Exhale and lower your back toward the floor, first leaning onto
the hands, then the forearms and elbows. If possible, lean all the way back so
your torso is on the ground with arms overhead.
The pose: Camel Pose
Why it’ll make your hips happy: “This extension gives you
the opportunity to get a full stretch through both hips at the same time,” says
Lyons.
How to do it: Kneel on the floor with knees hips-width
distance apart and thighs perpendicular to the floor. Press the shins and tops
of the feet firmly into the floor as you lift your heart and begin to lean
back, keeping the chin near the sternum. Press your hips forward so they stay
over your knees, and either keep your hands at your low back for support or
grab your heels, pulling forward strongly from your hips.
8/8 Alison Feller
The pose: Dancer’s Pose
Why it’ll make your hips happy: “This pose creates an
extension of the spine and a push-and-pull opposition, creating stability and
stretch,” says Lyons. “It’s also a time to practice your focus, drishti, and
balance.” (Not to mention the fact that dancer’s pose is an Instagram fave.)
How to do it: From standing, shift your weight onto your
right foot and lift your left heel toward your seat, bending the knee and
grabbing the foot on the outside with your left hand. Begin to kick your left
foot into your left hand to lift your leg toward the sky, reaching your right
arm forward.
Say goodbye to yellow underarm stains
Say goodbye to yellow underarm stains
According to the folks at Degree, the stains occur when the
aluminum in your antiperspirant or deodorant combines with the salt in your
sweat. The stains are notoriously difficult to get rid of with normal washing
in the laundry machine.
Using three shirts, we tested out a quick, easy and cheap
trick to remove the yellow armpit stains, and look at the results!
Cheap & easy way to remove yellow sweat stains from your
clothes
Here’s what you need:
3% hydrogen peroxide
Dish soap
Baking soda
Toothbrush
How to remove yellow sweat stains from your clothes
After applying the ingredients directly to the shirt, use an
old toothbrush to work them in for a minute, and then let the shirt sit for at
least an hour before putting it in the washing machine.
We didn’t use any precise measurements, but we do recommend
doing a pre-test on a small area.
How to remove yellow sweat stains from your clothes
This solution worked like magic on both white and colored
shirts, and we also hear that OxiClean does the trick as well.
To prevent the stains in the first place, Degree says it
helps to wear loose clothing, make sure your antiperspirant deodorant is dry
before you get dressed and don’t use too much product.
Tuesday, March 28, 2017
boost productivity
In need of a productivity boost? You don't (necessarily) need more coffee. What you do need is a new frame of mind. If you can train your brain to work harder, you'll be more diligent and get more done. Whether your sluggish moments come at work or around the house, here are five strategies sure to defeat laziness.
Narrate Your Life
If your biggest problem is staying focused, try mental modeling. It's a technical term for a really simple concept: Turn your day into a story. An article on The Science of Us paraphrases Charles Duhigg, author of Smarter Faster Better: The Secrets of Being Productive in Life and Business, to suggest that people who narrate their days to themselves are better able to keep focused:
Airplane Days
You know how being on an airplane forces you to stay off the grid for a little while? And how, if you're traveling alone, you have to stay radio silent with family members or coworkers about what everyone's working on? Every once in a while (or whenever you get behind) schedule an airplane day for yourself, like entrepreneur Bryan Guido Hassin says he does on Quora: Turn off your phone, close your email, silence desktop notifications and GSD–get shit done.
Empty Your Mind
If you need to clear your mind, try this: Tear a piece of paper out of your notebook and write down everything that's on your brain at the moment. Any ideas you have or pressing items on your mental to-do-list, write them all down on paper. It doesn't need to be organized, it just needs to be marked down. From The Positivity Blog:
Quiet Hour
On her blog, Gretchen Rubin, author of "The Happiness Project," recommends a series of mental exercises from writer and author of Wake Up and Live, Dorothea Brande. They're designed to challenge your creativity and mental flexibility, but I happen to think the first exercise is also a great way to keep focused in the early morning or at the start of a new week:
Touch it Once
An author on Byrdie mentions a productivity strategy they picked up from The Chalkboard Mag's editorial director, Suzanne Hall: When you open an email or get a text notification or receive an event invite, "touch it once," which means deal with it right then and there. Respond, reply or RSVP and get it off your brain for good. So now you can deal with more important things.
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