When I was first starting out as a rider, I thought that straightness was a simple and easy concept. I remember the first time someone told me that one of the hardest things to do on a horse was to ride a straight line. I didn’t believe them! However, turns out they might just have been right… This is part…
How do you know if you have actually achieved true impulsion? What makes this ‘real’ impulsion different from simply running around the arena like the energizer bunny with your horse? This post is the fourth in a series I have created about the training scale. I suggest also checking out the previous posts on rhythm, suppleness, and contact. At ‘Step…
Contact and connection; hot topics for many riders. This is often because they can feel quite elusive. There is confusion regarding what needs to happen in order for contact to occur. And, how can you tell if the contact is correct and ‘good’? This post and episode are the third in a series about the training scale. We have already…
What if I was to say that suppleness is less about being ‘bendy’ and more about how energy flows in you and your horse… Would that challenge you a little? Or is this something which, if you think of yoga, makes sense? If you sometimes struggle to maintain that lovely ‘loosey gooseyness’ in your horse, is it possible that you…
Rhythm is often a funny thing when riding. The reason for this is that rhythm, in the true sense of the word, is any beat that is on repeat… And, most horses tend to have a beat or two that they repeat. This leads many riders to struggle with rhythm. Their question is “if there already is a rhythm, why…
It can feel really overwhelming when we begin looking at all the different things you need to include when training your horse, right? All these ‘steps’ and ‘principles’ are big pieces of a puzzle in their own right; they also have to work together in order to get the full picture! The training scale is a proven way for you…