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Complete training for horse
and rider from beginner to advanced
Work books available for $25, order by e-mail or phone!
If You Can Dream It, You Can Become It, this could be my Life's motto. I have followed my dreams and been on our US Olympic team 5 times! This book of Lisa's is a great workbook full of simple, yet very powerful ideas. Nearly all of these concepts including feeling, visualization, nutrition, body awareness I teach and use myself. I have been riding and teaching for a lifetime. My success has come through being the best partner, I can be, to my horses. I have had excellent teachers ( humans & horses), been working out at the gym since the 1980ties, and studied sport psychology. To think like a horse and put myself in their shoes, has always be my outlook on training horses. For me, the greatest riders, in any discipline, make it look as if the horse is performing by himself. This " becoming one with the horse" is the magic of horsemanship! It is the greatest feeling in the world.
Lisa's book gives you tools to consciously improve your riding, feeling, awareness, and relationships with your horses. Enjoy your journey!
Anne Kursinski
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Striving to Achieve that Successful Ride
Lisa Kent, a former Miss Maine, is focusing here energy on rising to the upper levels of equestrian competition.
by Kevin Thomas - Times Record, July 27th, 1997
Gorham - Lisa Kent stood straight and looked into his eyes. Spiderman returned the stare, adding a snuggle and kiss.
"Spiderman loves to give kisses," said Kent, still cuddling with her horse, a 10-year-old thoroughbred that Kent has been riding up the equestrian ladder toward the brink of international and Olympic events.
Lisa Kent is a familiar name to some, but from a different competitive arena. Nine years ago, she was accepting congratulatory kisses after winning the Miss Maine title that sent her to the 1988 Miss America Pageant.
All the glitter seems so long ago. Kent has cleaned out her share of horse stalls since. But now she is eyeing a new kind of sparkle - the shine from an Olympic or World Championship medal.
Kent, 30, is currently the nation's sixth-ranked woman rider in the combined competition, a three-day event featuring dressage, speed and endurance, and stadium jumping. Among all riders in the U.S., Kent is ranked 12th.
"Six months ago, I was ranked 49th," Kent said, sitting at a picnic table on the grounds of Kent's Stables, which occupies 32 acres of Gorham countryside off Route 114, close to Standish.
It's quite a rise, from 29th to 12th.
"Yeah," Kent admits with a grin. "It's exciting."
Kent won her first "advanced" level competition last March and is fast becoming a force in the combined. She will ride Spiderman again in the Fair Hill (Md.) International three-day event Oct. 24-26. Success there could lead to a spot on the U.S. team in the 1998 World Championships in Ireland. From there, Kent's sights focus on Sydney, Australia, site of the 2000 Summer Olympic Games.
"You have to keep on striving for what you believe in," said Kent, who has unquestioned faith in the power of positive thinking. She continually utters positive quotes, and inspirational blurbs are posted throughout the stables.
One reads: "The will to win is important, but the will to prepare is vital."
Returning to horsy roots
When her parents built a stable on their Gorham property, Kent began giving lessons while still a student at Gorham High.
At school, she was also busy. She had tried gymnastics in junior high but took up running and basketball in high school. She finished fifth in the state cross country meet and eventually received a financial-aid package to play basketball at Pine Manor College in Boston in 1985.
The big-city folks did not understand Kent's fascination with horses.
"When you're not around horsy people, you tend to get a lot of feedback like 'that's not a career' and 'you should really do something else.' I was listening to that," Kent said of her Boston experience.
"So I started going through the motions (at Pine Manor), but my heart wasn't in it. And I knew I really missed this and wanted to pursue it."
After one semester, Kent returned to Gorham, to rejoin the horsy crowd. She now operates the stables, with help from her boyfriend and farrier (blacksmith), Brent Brown.
Since returning from Boston, her only sidetrack was the beauty pageant.
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"I thought it would be fun - it's always fun to dress up as Cinderella," Kent said. For the talent competition, Kent did a gymanastics routine.
"Well, I couldn't ride my horse on stage," she said.
She retired from pageants after the Miss America contest and soon was competing as an equestrian. Always aiming high, Kent had hopes of competing in the 1996 Olympics. But her horse, Hunter, became injured with a stressed hind joint.
"There's going to be ups and downs," she said.
Choosing path to success
Kent won an intermediate-level competition in Vermont last August - her first victory. Leading by a fraction of a point before the final show-jumping competition, Kent began playing her mind games.
"I tried to visualize that I'd been eliminated when I entered the arena," Kent said. "And I needed to show everyone that I could still ride really well."
Kent and her horse, Midnight, jumped a faultless round to win.
The visualization - which also helped her ignore a sprained ankle - is just part of Kent's focus.
"I've read a lot of books on psychology or riding," Kent said. "To me, it's black and white. A person chooses their positive path or they can let their life be cluttered with negative excuses.
"I choose the positive. I feel that's what has enabled me to come along so quickly."
Kent also has good teachers. Karen O'Connor, an Olympian and five-time Lady Rider of the Year, is Kent's chief instructor. Kent has trained with O'Connor (and her Olympian husband, David) in Virginia and Florida.
Kent also receives instruction in dressage from Massachusetts-based Kathy Connelly. Dressage showcases the horse's balance, obedience and harmony with the rider through a series of movements.
Also key to Kent's success is Spiderman. Like Hunter and Midnight, Spiderman has been trained only by Kent. Spiderman was supposed to be the backup to Hunter, but he has surpassed expectations.
"I'm very fortunate. He has the natural abilities," Kent said. "Now it is a matter of his progression in training."
Competing in the highest class - advanced - Kent and Spiderman finished first in the 1997 Mid-Atlantic Horse Trial Series, a trio of events in North Carolina, Virginia and Maryland. Kent and Spiderman won the Virginia competition and placed high enough in the others to win the series.
That success boosted Kent into the rankings and put her on a list of riders eligible for next year's World Championships.
Kent may have risen even high in the rankings, but in the spring's biggest competition last April in Kentucky, Spiderman developed a sore foot and Kent had to withdraw. Another setback to overcome.
"It's one of those things that makes you tougher, makes you keep working," Kent said, always churning out the upbeat thoughts. "You've got to realize that it's not going to be a perfect road."
Still, it is a road that Kent doggedly travels, along with her understudy-turned-star-horse - the graceful, powerful and kiss-crazy Spiderman.
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Featured Testimonial
"I met Lisa Kent 5 years ago after purchasing a 15 year old Grand Prix Schoolmaster. Lisa's knowledge of equine biomechanics, impact of properly balanced feet on biomechanics, sports massage therapy, equine diet and homeopathic supplements is key to the successful maintenance of my horse. He turned 20 this year and continually becomes "physically" younger by the week thanks to Lisa's skills and knowledge. Lisa truly believes in working as a member of a team comprised of others including my trainer, farrier and veterinarian. Her open-minded team approach to equine care is unique. Lisa has willingly shared her knowledge with me and encouraged me to open my eyes and seek every opportunity possible for my continued education of everything equine related. I highly recommend that you incorporate Lisa's talent into your equine care program. I owe my equine partner's over-all health to the knowledgeable guidance and encouragement Lisa has provided."
Sincerely,
~Myra Flanagan
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Kent's Stables
726 Fort Hill Road
Gorham, Maine 04038
(561) 310-3450
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