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…
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…
Young horses! It is such an honour as a rider to be one of the first people they get to work with, however can sometimes feel like you are riding an eel! They are moving up and down in the rhythm and if there is a dance that you are both moving to, it quickly becomes evident that no one…
Are there days where your horse’s camel impression is worryingly accurate? He lounges along, his back all strung out resembling a cable that’s sole purpose is to work against you. His neck stretched out in what must be an extremely uncomfortable way, his nose pointing skyward… And it seems that all your efforts to establish a correct contact are falling…
The bell rings, you set off aiming for the first fence, you pop over it… And suddenly it’s like everything begins to speed up and rather than being the pilot, you have somehow been relegated to passenger status. All the ‘if this then that’ scenarios you have spent months practicing are just gone and you are hoping that somehow, through…
You’ve just popped the fence and, in your mind, it was a success. Mostly because you managed to stay on board for it! However, as soon as your horse lands, you are beginning to think that your ‘upright seat’ is becoming more and more of a fantasy… In fact, every stride your horse takes is literally bumping you further and…
