January is always a time for reflection—looking back on the previous year and setting goals for the new one, both in horse sports and in life. Luckily for me, I get to spend most of my January in sunny Ocala. I arrived on January 14, and after a couple of days unpacking and getting the horses settled, I pretty much hit the ground running.

While in Florida, I plan to ride with Peter Gray and Hannah Sue Hollberg. My first introduction to Peter was at the 2024 AECs, where I scribed for him. His dedication to teaching was immediately apparent from the judges ’ booth. He is a wealth of knowledge, and after that experience, I knew I wanted the opportunity to ride with him in the future.

Hannah Sue is no stranger to Area VIII. I had the opportunity to ride in a mindset clinic with her this past spring at Erin Strader ’s farm in Georgetown. I walked away from that clinic feeling invigorated and excited to apply everything we worked on over the two days. I ’m incredibly thankful that both of these professionals have been so welcoming and generous in sharing their knowledge.

My first lesson with Peter Gray was on January 17. Peter put eyes on both Canvasback—known around the barn as Shack (owned by Cathy Wieschhoff)—and Zambian (owned by Lisa Thomas). He began by asking thoughtful questions about what I ’ve been working on, each horse ’s strengths and weaknesses, and their upcoming competition schedules. Since this was our first lesson together, we used the ride to evaluate warm-up routines, focusing on lateral suppleness and responsiveness to the aids so both horses could work through their entire bodies.

We started with a walk exercise: riding a 20-meter square and performing a quarter turn on the forehand at each corner. The goal was to ask the inside hind to step under and through the turn while staying active. At the same time, we worked on increasing and shortening the walk stride. To lengthen the step, I allowed my hips and seat to swing and move with Shack; to shorten it, I closed my knee and thigh and thought about gently blocking the energy of his topline with my seat. While it sounds simple, the walk is often one of the hardest gaits to influence without creating tension or losing rhythm.

As the lesson progressed, we spent significant time developing travers (haunches-in) at the walk, eventually building toward the beginnings of half-pass. We created the bend by riding an eight-meter circle in the corner before continuing down the long side in travers. I used my outside rein to half-halt and regulate the front end, my outside leg to activate and bring the outside hind inward, and my inside rein to maintain suppleness and bend. Over time, this work progressed into half-pass at both the walk and trot. While the lesson was slow and technical, it was mentally demanding for both Shack and me.

Zambian, on the other hand, is full of talent but can be a bit on the lazy side. Lisa Thomas gave him a very positive start after his racing career, and I ’m thrilled to have the ride on him. Picture the classic lesson pony who slowly falls through the inside shoulder with no bend through the rib cage, making the circle smaller and smaller until he ’s standing happily in the middle—and the rider doesn ’t even notice. That ’s Zambian.

We approached his warm-up differently, focusing heavily on responsiveness to the inside leg to encourage bend through the rib cage and prevent him from falling through the shoulder. Peter had me hold both reins in my outside hand while walking on a ten-meter circle and spiraling out to a 20-meter circle. With my stick in my inside hand, he had me reach back and lightly tap Zambian ’s inside hind—between the hock and stifle—while reinforcing the aid with my inside leg. This helped clearly communicate that when I use my inside leg, I ’m speaking directly to his inside hind. We did this exercise in both directions, and it was incredibly effective in improving responsiveness without creating tension or quickness.

One quote from Peter during this lesson really stood out to me: “When we ’re working on the early stages of suppleness—just getting them to bend left and right—we don ’t worry about activity, forwardness, or march. We just want them to bend. Horse yoga.”

We did a lot of “horse yoga” with Zambian. When we moved into trot work, the focus remained on lateral suppleness and riding the inside hind under the body, while also developing a slower tempo with a bigger step, rather than a quick tempo with a short stride.

On January 18, I had my first light jump school with both horses at Hannah Sue Hollberg ’s farm. It was absolutely pouring rain, with temperatures in the low 50s—definitely not the Florida weather I had envisioned, but still better than January in Kentucky.

We jumped both horses with the same idea in mind. Hannah Sue places a big emphasis on the horse “drawing” to the fence. This doesn’t mean getting strong or dragging the rider, but rather teaching the horse to lock on and give the feeling of, “Oh, I know where I ’m going next.” You can tell this is happening when the horse ’s ears are focused forward toward the fence, rather than flicking around the environment or constantly back at the rider.

We spent a lot of time developing this feeling, which required me to focus on my body position and avoid being busy or loud in the tack. Hannah Sue emphasized that in the final three to four strides to a fence, she almost wants to be bored—her job is done. She ’s established the balance, shown the horse where it ’s going, and made the necessary adjustments. In those last strides, she simply holds her position, supports the horse ’s balance with her lower leg, and lets the jump come to her. Sounds easy, right? We all know better.

Zambian is a very different ride than Shack and can be a bit behind the leg. One comment from Hannah Sue that made me laugh was, “The lazy ones are like a diesel engine—you ’ve got to let them run for a little bit before they lock on.” That rings very true for him. We ended the lesson discussing bitting options for both horses, something we ’ll continue to evaluate and experiment with during my time in Florida.

It was an incredible first week, and I ’m excited to see how much progress we make while I ’m here. I ’m thankful to Cathy for allowing me this training time—being immersed in this environment provides endless learning opportunities. I ’m also incredibly grateful to my husband, Mike, and my friend Olivia for holding down our farm in Paris, KY, so I can be here focusing on my own development. I feel supported, and my ears are forward and locked on to 2026 and everything this year has in store.

-Nikki Burns