Highgate Dressage Stables

15/11/2023

Stables repairs - guess who’s coming home?

27/08/2023

My new Groom’s

13/08/2023

Horse-box/ Water trailer - Garage finally completed.

02/08/2023

Dressage Connection 2023, presenting Gotthilf Riexinger 5* Judge. The same format of LIVE SCORING and PUBLIC POST TEST DEBRIEF for ALL to learn. . The judges attending will have full access to a LIVE STREAMING FROM THE JUDGES PERSPECTIVE AT C, WITH REAL TIME COMMENTARY. All RIDERS WILL RECEIVE A COPY of this too! Giving themselves and their trainers an opportunity to soak up this amazing learning experience! Dont miss out! 25, 26 and 27 August 2023 at the amazing Summit Ridge World class venue, Gauteng!!!!

01/07/2023

After competing to Prix St. Georges as a young rider in the 1980s, Kyle Kuvalanka took the path many young adults do: He sold his horse and headed off to college, and from there embarked on a career far from the barn. But even as he spent decades in the professional world of consulting and biopharma...

26/06/2023

Karvani looking like a super-model this beautiful winters morning.

17/06/2023

Finally home - Happy Dance

12/06/2023

19/05/2023

Today Baringo is having his teeth checked by a dentist at a lovely yard - Blair Athole

10/05/2023

Emilio to retire on a winning note:Isabell Werth not only holds the record for the number of horses she has taken to the top of international competition, but she is also setting records for the number of horses she retires while they are at the top and go on to a happy retirement! https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/2023/05/isabell-to-retire-emilio-on-a-winning-note/

28/03/2023

Oopsie Daisy !! Just checking if you were paying attention!
See attached the different levels for dressage.
It gets rather confusing after Advanced.
I’ve edited this visual (I had previously forgotten the MEDIUM level!)

26/03/2023

26/03/2023

Things your riding instructor wants you to know:
1. This sport is hard. You don't get to bypass the hard…..every good rider has gone through it. You make progress, then you don't, and then you make progress again. Your riding instructor can coach you through it, but they cannot make it easy.

2. You're going to ride horses you don't want to ride. If you're teachable, you will learn from every horse you ride. Each horse in the barn can teach you if you let them. IF YOU LET THEM. Which leads me to…

3. You MUST be teachable to succeed in this sport. You must be teachable to succeed at anything, but that is another conversation. Being teachable often means going back to basics time and time and time again. If you find basics boring, then your not looking at them as an opportunity to learn. Which brings me to…..

4. This sport is a COMMITMENT. Read that, then read it again. Every sport is a commitment, but in this sport your teammate weighs 1200 lbs and speaks a different language. Good riders don't get good by riding every once in awhile….they improve because they make riding a priority and give themsevles opportunity to practice.

5. EVERY RIDE IS AN OPPORTUNITY. Even the walk ones. Even the hard ones. Every. Single. Ride. Remember when you just wished someone would lead you around on a horse? Find the happiness in just being able to RIDE. If you make every ride about what your AREN'T doing, you take the fun out of the experience for yourself, your horse, and your instructor. Just enjoy the process. Which brings me to...

6. Riding should be fun. It is work. and work isn't always fun.....but if you (or your rider) are consistently choosing other activities or find yourself not looking forward to lessons, it's time to take a break. The horses already know you don't want to be here, and you set yourself up for failure if you are already dreading the lesson before you get here.

7. You'll learn more about horses from the ground than you ever will while riding. That's why ground lessons are important, too. If you're skipping ground lessons (or the part of your lesson that takes place on the ground), you're missing out on the most important parts of the lesson. You spend far more time on the ground with horses than you do in the saddle.

8. Ask questions and communicate. If you're wondering why your coach is having you ride a particular horse or do an exercise, ask them. Then listen to their answer and refer to #3 above.

9. We are human beings. We make decisions (some of them life and death ones) every day. We balance learning for students with workloads for horses and carry the bulk of this business on our shoulders. A little courtesy goes a long way.

Of all the sports your child will try through their school years, riding is one of 3 that they may continue regularly as adults (golf and skiing are the others). People who coach riding spend the better part of their free time and much of their disposable income trying to improve their own riding and caring for the horses who help teach your child. They love this sport and teaching others…..but they all have their limits. Not all good riders are good coaches, but all good coaches will tell you that the process to get good is not an easy one.

*thank you to whoever wrote this! Not my words, but certainly a shared sentiment!

24/03/2023

So true

Hahaha TRUE 😆
credits: Pegasus Dressage Music

24/03/2023

Max Bonomi will be giving another clinic this weekend in Harare, I would really encourage the dressage riders, Dressage Zimbabwe to take lessons with this incredibly talented young man. He has competed and qualified in the German National Champs, in which he won and placed in the 1.40’s champs this is an amzing feat - no professional rider from Africa has ever done this before - he has consistently scored 9’s and above in his style class which equates to a 9’s in medium to advanced dressage tests - on young green 7 year old breeding stallions.

05/03/2023

All this rain has left us with lush green paddocks. Updated photos - new garage for horsebox and the water bowser is now nearing completion. Domestic quarters and hay barn foundations completed!

01/03/2023

Having cleaned and polished the horse-box, time to get it in the air and work underneath removing the rust and grim!

11/02/2023

Sewage spilling out the main Harare sewage pipes and running into the wetlands below my property. This wet lands feeds directly into the city of Harare.

For those of you buying water from this area
I suggest you be careful - as the sewage is running down Valley Road past and through many prominent business.

13/08/2022

Winning the qualifier at Gauteng Champs. What a lovely day made all the more possible with the support of Megs and Mark Zofka, Esme, Martine and of course Colin Roberts.

24/07/2022

Fantastic day at the WDC in Zimbabwe - thank you to the organizers for well run and supported show.

15/06/2022

Alpha Baringo - Elementary. 78%

11/06/2022

After 2 years of fighting soundness issues, and some very deep lows it’s wonderful to finally have this horse back. Fingers crossed long may it last.

02/06/2022

Please feel free to contact me if you would like to book an appointment with Mark Zofka.

The human eye is not capable of observing the gait of the horse naturally. This machine is a gait analysis system that renders your horses movement in 3D, which allows the farrier to shoe your horse in a precise manor, (added benefits of of long term soundness, etc.) this is the only machine in Africa, top farriers in the world use this machine and most if not all the top yards in the first world use these machines to maximum their horses soundness and comfort.

26/05/2022

Look who’s back… I hope.🙏🥹

16/05/2022

Sincity 15/4/22 Medium 71%