Have you ever glanced down mid-trot or canter and seen your lower leg doing a full-on windscreen wiper impression? You’re not alone. I see this all the time. Novice riders trying to figure out how to stop that swinging lower leg from distracting their horse (and them!). The issue is that so often, trying to ‘fix’ your lower leg won’t…
Let’s be honest; many riders don’t really long for a ‘better trot’ in their riding. In fact, most are quite happy to simply work with what they already have right now and see the trot as a filler. A part of the ride that gets you from one thing to the next. And trotting, by its very nature, doesn’t really…
The key to a good quality trot is to remember that your horse must be moving forwards at all times. I call this forwardness in the trot. This is not to be mistaken for running, rushing, or jig-jogging. True forwardness requires that you, the rider and decision-maker, must be thinking forwards throughout your ride… And, in this case, in the…
Landing on the correct diagonal can be hit and miss for many riders. Let’s face it, there’s a chance you’ll get it right 50% of the time! And while most riders are pretty well versed on their diagonals in the trot… It’s ‘feeling’ the diagonal that causes confusion. Trotting has a two-time beat. The 1,2,1,2,1,2,1,2,1,2 that you experience and feel…
The canter to trot transition is the one transition that so many riders don’t ever think about until they are in the midst of it. So much focus and attention are put into getting into the canter, and yet the ‘getting out of the canter’ is just left to chance. Today I want to give you a few ideas to…
Have you ever felt that feeling? The feeling you get when you’re trotting and you ask for the canter. Rather than your horse simply striking cleanly from the trot to the canter, you experience this extremely uncomfortable and unbalanced trot. A trot that gets faster and faster until finally you almost fall into a canter. Not a great feeling, eh?!…
