Story of Sue and Marchall
Story of Sue and Marchall
When I met Sue, she was competing in endurance riding with Marchall. Marchall was only young and would experience some anxiety at competitions. Sue went back to ground-work with Marchall and strengthened his foundation then got back into the saddle and thoughtfully introduced him back to competition environments. She accumulated a tool bag of strategies and approaches for dealing with anxiety in the extreme conditions that endurance competitions can present and their logbook started to fill with kilometers.
In true Sue fashion, she got interested in the real purpose of dressage. Not as a “sport” but as a gymnastic strengthening and conditioning process for keeping a horse sound long term. At the time Marchall was an endurance athlete. Fit and lean. For the last couple of years Sue has been on a wonderful journey with Marchall. Whilst they still do a lot of kilometers out in the bush, they also hit the arena to work on Marchall’s posture and gymnastic ability. Sue understand the purpose of school figures, lateral movements, pole work and developing contact to gymnastically straighten and strengthen Marchall.
Today, they enjoy working equitation, attending clinics on everything from dressage to cow work. The coolest thing to observe has been the physical change in Marchall. Here are two photos. The first was taken in June 2018 early in his dressage journey, and the second in February 2020. I like these two photos for comparison. The first shows a horse that is fit. The second shows a horse that is also fit, but now has improved muscling of his neck and hindquarters and he reaches further under his centre of mass.
I really enjoy coaching Sue and Marchall. With Sue, I have found a beautiful friend that likes researching, exploring and experimenting with ideas about horses as much as I do. With Marchall, well….he is my favourite arabian horse. If Marchall was a human he would be that super intelligent quirky guy that does not hesitate to call you out on any bullshit. Marchall is a true gift horse, he has made Sue rise to the challenge of working with him and that she has done and the progress is inspiring to watch 😊
