Being able to feel the footfall of your horse and knowing at any given time where each of your horses legs are, is or should be, the foundation of good riding. Unfortunately, for most of us, it isn’t something we are taught when we start learning to ride. Indeed for a lot of people, feeling […]
The Importance of Footfall Read More »
Rider Biomechanics is not just about sitting in a pretty position It is about understanding the forces put on your body by your horse’s movement and how to match those forces in the proper directions at the proper times. Sitting well on your horse is much more difficult than one imagines. The most important thing
Rider Position & Biomechanics Read More »
The question of what contact is, how soft or firm the contact should be and whether one should always ride with contact or only use it sparingly is something that gets asked the whole time. Every person seems to have a different view point as to actually what is meant by contact. When I ask
When and how we apply our aids can make a huge difference to the way our horse responds. Our aids should be virtually invisible, soft and subtle but all too frequently they are anything but and are blindingly obvious and harsh. When we first start riding we are pretty much told to “kick ‘em to
When done properly the “Turn on the Haunches” or “Pirouette” is one of the most effective gymnastic exercises for your horse that you can do. A correctly executed pirouette is a thing of beauty, a masterpiece of collection, impulsion, suppleness, strength and balance. In canter, it is one of the most physically demanding movements we
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Whether we are talking about humans or horses a strong and supple core is required to support the spine and reduce wear and tear on the joints. For riders a strong core is essential, as an engaged core holds us in lateral and longitudinal balance and gives our seat stability. Pilates, yoga and Swiss Ball
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The turn on the forehand in motion is one of the first lateral movements that you can teach your horse. The movement is not found in any dressage test, and as such the exercise is generally undervalued and under utilised. The turn on the forehand in motion is invaluable in helping develop your horse gymnastically,
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One of the biggest concerns many students seem to have after attending a lesson or a clinic, is how they can continue schooling by themselves. Of course, I understand it much easier to train if you have your trainer there watching you and offering helpful advice but the goal for every instructor should be to
Troubleshooting – or listening to your horse Read More »
The ability of a horse to bend depends on his suppleness and flexibility. Although we often think about a horse bending from poll to tail, this actually does not happen evenly along the horse’s spine as the neck bends more easily than the thoracic spine, where the apparent bend is actually caused by a slight
I have just returned from a brilliant clinic given by Tom Nagel (author of Zen & Horseback Riding). During the clinic he asked us (his students) if we were pullers or pushers and went on to describe how in Zen philosophy one strives for balance in life, so that pullers and pushers both become a
Pull, Push or Pour? The hands. Read More »
Have you ever wondered why your horse veers to the left (or right) when you ride up a centre line in a dressage test or thought your horse was being naughty when he doesn’t hold a straight line as you approach a jump? If you find that you constantly have to use one rein more
The Seat (or why does my horse veer to the left?) Read More »
One of the things I talk about at my clinics is how important awareness of our body’s posture is for both us and our horses. Whilst most people accept that their proprioceptive system may need some help, somehow it is much harder to realize that our horse may also need help in improving his awareness
Alignment & Posture (Horse) Read More »
Does your horse fall in on a left circle and fall out on a circle to the right, or vice versa? Does he toss his head or try breaking into a canter when you want to trot? All too frequently we blame our horse for being naughty, but have you thought he may be trying
Balance & the Aids Read More »
Weight aids are fundamental in riding, but are all too frequently misunderstood or misinterpreted. Even if your instructor tells you how to distribute your weight to make a turn, do shoulder-in or travers, or to perform some other movement, you may still struggle to gain mastery over your body to produce the desired results. Let
I recently read an article by Wendy Murdock about the rider’s elbows and was immediately struck by how few articles I have seen written about them recently. And more importantly I realised that I had never written anything about elbows myself. Yet, how we hold our elbows when we ride has a major influence in
In this article I thought we would have a look at on the forehand versus engagement. You might think “I’m not doing dressage, I’m only hacking, it doesn’t matter” BUT you couldn’t be further from the truth. It does matter, because if we constantly ride our horse on his forehand, we can cause our horse
Forehand versus Engagement Read More »
Whether you compete at dressage, do just a little bit of schooling or are just happy hacking out – bending and circling are a great gymnastic exercise for our horses. Circles, and that includes loops and corners, can really help our horse stretch along his outside, as well as encourage him to flex his inside
To ride transitions well is probably one of the most important (and difficult) things one can learn as a rider. All too often the rider tips forward on a downward transition and tips back on an upward transition. Add in the rider who uses the reins for support on the upward transition, or hauls on
In this article I thought I would take a look at the first of the lateral movements, shoulder-in. I hadn’t realised when I started the article, just how long it was going to become. However, I decided that in order to really understand the true importance of shoulder-in, we needed to have a glance at
In this article I thought we would look at the second of the lateral movements – travers (also known as quarters-in, haunches-in or croup-in). As with my article on shoulder-in, I thought we should start with a quick glimpse of the history of this highly controversial movement before looking at the reasons for doing (or