Your hands are an aid in your riding. So understanding why the way you hold your reins and how to judge the height of your hands when riding is important. And realizing how much your hand aids are impacting and affecting your riding can change everything. As riders, one of the first things we learn is how to ‘hold’ the…
Contact can often look effortless for some horses and riders. And yet, for many other riders, consistent contact can seem like an enigma. Any efforts at consistency tend to lead to heaviness. Or a complete lack of any contact! So where is this fine line between consistent, quality contact and washing lines? In order to develop contact with your horse,…
I am all for intentional, relaxing hacks with your horse. And I also think that it’s worth remembering that not all hacks have to be for ‘doing nothing’. In fact, there are some things that may actually happen more easily when out of the arena. Working contact is, for some riders and horses, one of those things. We are always…
As I was creating my notes for this episode, it struck me that there is a strong probability that this sounds a lot like Goldilocks! Too much, too little and ‘just right’ will come up repeatedly as I begin talking about your hands when you are riding. Obviously, we are aiming to achieve ‘Goldilocks’ hands; just right! But seriously, the…
Most riders have heard about how they should ‘ride from the inside leg to the outside rein’; but really – what does that mean?! How exactly do you ride from what seems like a bit of a diagonal and what about all the other aids? Should we forget about them? The term ‘riding from the inside leg to the outside…
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…
