When you are riding, is your horse carrying himself, or are you in-fact carrying him? Self carriage in horses can be explained as your horse carrying himself, without needing support from or relying on you, the rider, in order to continue and maintain the movement he is performing. Your horses ability to carry himself comes from him being responsible for his own…
Do you , like many riders, find yourself overlooking the humble serpentine as being too basic and easy a schooling movement to be of any real consequence to your horses development? If so, I would love to challenge you that the modest serpentine, if ridden and worked on correctly, can be a fantastic training aid for both your horse; and for…
Does the thought of any sort of prolonged periods of sitting trot fill both you, your bum, and your horse’s back with a sense of dread?! Perhaps the find the more you try not to bounce; the higher you appear to go?! Sitting trot is probably one of the most confounding things to master when you first begin riding. And…
Feel… A hugely important component of successful horsemanship and something that is often considered as a talent that you are either gifted at birth with or your not! From years spent helping and watching people ride, I do agree that some people seem to have a more natural feel than others. However, I have also found that, often, riders who…
Do you find that often when you ride, your hands begin to do their own thing? Waving about, flagging some imaginary air traffic, conducting a symphony, or just bouncing up and down like a jack hammer?! To make this even more frustrating; it seems like the more you try to ‘quiet’ or ‘still’ your hands the worse the problem becomes……
There seems to be two types of riders in the world, those that love an OTTB and those that don’t! I am squarely in the former category and if you are also there, well make yourself comfortable because this week on Daily Strides we are focusing on basic exercises you can begin implementing with your OTTB today that will help…
