by Melinda Snodgrass | Aug 5, 2023 | Blog
Let’s first get the fact that I am sometimes an idiot out of the way before I get into musing about how little I knew about riding until I started riding with my coach extraordinaire, Leslie Apfel. I have these great Romitelli riding boots, that I just love, but when I wore the brown leather ones — the zippers would always slide down while I was riding. I thought it was due to the leather softening up, but then Leslie said, “Don’t they have a zipper guard?” she looked, and yes, they have...
by Melinda Snodgrass | Jun 3, 2023 | Blog
Yeah, I’m a car person. I’m a big time car person. It’s the once place where my liberal cred really falls down. If I won the lottery I would have like eight or ten cars. So, in that spirit I went out to the car show in the parking lot across from the Round House this morning to check out the all electric Lucid. I’ve been reading about them in Car & Driver, vehicle won car of the year, and it’s slick. It’s also narrower than the Tesla S which would be...
by Melinda Snodgrass | Apr 19, 2023 | Blog
One of the constant complaints I hear regarding Andor is how the first few episodes are boring, nothing happens, what was the point of all this? In this era when there isn’t a Michael Bay EXPLOSION INSIDE AN EXPLOSION!!! people think a particular show or movie is slow, but I found the pacing of Andor to be nearly perfect. We all know the over-arching plot — Cassian Andor becomes a rebel intelligence officer, steals the Death Star plans, and dies, but what Tony Gilroy did was far deeper and...
by Melinda Snodgrass | Feb 7, 2023 | Blog
So, it’s time for another thrilling adventure in dressage neepery. This time it’s all about the importance of the leg in riding, particularly in dressage. This all started when my coach blew my mind by telling me that in the leg yield (which is a maneuver in which the horse steps sideway while keeping their body parallel to the rail while still moving forward) the yielding leg ie the leg that is pulsing against the horse’s body and telling them to step sideways remains directly under the...
by Melinda Snodgrass | Feb 7, 2023 | Blog
You would think I would have learned this before now given how long I have been riding (rode for the first time at 3 years old. Had my own horse at 7, sweet black and white paint named Suncloud), but it took riding with Leslie to help me truly, fully, understand how to control a horse almost exclusively with my seat and my core muscles. I can go from an extended canter to a canter so collected we’re almost cantering in place just by using those core muscles and thinking more up than...
