Conquering Contact
According to the dictionary, contact means “the state or condition of physical touching” and “the state or condition of communicating or meeting.” In my mind, only if we take both of these definitions together can we really get a sense of the concept of “contact” as it relates to riding and training a horse. The […]
The Fundamentals of Forward
Ride your horse forward and make him straight! ~ Gustav Steinbrecht There may not be a more misunderstood concept in riding than that of “forward”. It may also be the most frequently uttered instruction in lessons across the world. It is one of the most foundational principles in training horses. Without “forward” there is no […]
“Embrace the Suck”
This post was written by one of my favorite Dressage riders, Lauren Sprieser. It’s so important that we riders understand that riding is HARD. It will NEVER be easy, and no matter how much we work for “beauty and lightness” there’s never going to be a horse that doesn’t struggle with *something*, *sometime*. So, I […]
Enough or Too Much?
I’m a certified personal trainer. I push myself to work out pretty hard to stay as fit as possible for not just my riding, but for my health as age inexorably presses on me. I know how it feels when muscles are burning, are so fatigued that they are trembling, and when I just can’t […]
Conditioning Corner: Long and Slow
When I was a young rider going through training with the British Horse Society, one of the things I was exposed to was a proper “legging up” program for a horse. At the time, it was common for horses to be turned out in pasture for the summer and then brought back to work for […]
Training Tips: Relaxation or Tension?
Traditional wisdom in training horses is that training a horse through relaxation is preferable to training through tension. But, how many of us can explain why that is, or what it means to train “through relaxation”? We’ve all seen horses in tension. Look no further than the local riding school to see horses with swishing […]