The bend is approaching and you begin preparing both you and your horse to ride straight and accurately through the turn. However, as you ‘shift’ your seat bones into ‘position’ your horse begins, well, almost side stepping… The further you get through the turn, the further your horse is from the path you had planned; in fact, he has derailed…
You turn the corner and ask your horse to lengthen the stride in canter a little. But, instead of covering more ground with each passing stride, it feels like his legs have begun to move nineteen to the dozen. Flashbacks to pony riding are flying through your brain… And the rushing and racing is becoming more intense with each passing…
Left – Right – Left – Right – Left – Right… The horse’s head turning one way and then back the other. Every single stride. A misguided attempt by the rider to achieve ‘on the bit’. Have you ever seen this? The horse looks like he is auditioning for the role of the bobblehead in the back window of…
Have you discovered that your horse is a bit of a maths whizz? He has somehow figured out that if he shaves just a few meters or yards here and there off of the odd corner or three, he has to do less overall in each lesson or schooling session. He seems to have a strong understanding of distance and how to…
When we begin riding, we are generally told about this almost magical ability that we have to communicate with our horse, known as the weight aids. However, it soon becomes apparent that we have to master many other aspects of riding before we can hope to use our weight to communicate with our horse… Unfortunately for many of us,…
How many times have you asked your horse to leg yield, moving forward yet sideways, only for it to become frustratingly obvious a few steps into the moment that what is happening underneath you is definitely not what you had in mind?! Asking our horses to leg yield is one of the first introductions they will have to lateral movement.…
