You have spent the past few months diligently improving your young horse’s standard of education. A lot of time invested on the basics of moving forward in a balanced rhythmic way. He is happy, you are happy and the next natural progression is to ask for the canter. However, it seems all those carefully cultivated hours in the arena fly…
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 ever found yourself halfway through a turn on the forehand; either purposely or not? Perhaps you were out hacking and there was a gate… You tried a little turn on the forehand, just like you had heard about, to open it, but ended up dismounting! Or maybe your instructor or trainer mentioned it, you tried it with the best…
Do you find that the only time you begin seriously thinking about lunging your horse is when you are about to ride, and he has just a little bit too much ‘enthusiasm’ for your liking? Or perhaps your idea of lunging is chasing your horse round and round in circles until one or both of you are too tired (or…
You have finally managed to truly be able to dictate what lead your horse strikes off with, each time, in the canter. The shouts of ‘Wrong Leg’ following you around the arena are a thing of the past… However, now everything you have learned is being turned a little on its head when you realize that sometimes, you can indeed…
