My Virtual Eventing Coach One on one help and advice for you and your horse!

"Don't set the horse up when cantering over a pole - allow the horse to make mistakes and learn to adjust its own stride to negotiate the pole." ~ Eric Smiley

You need a short bouncy energetic canter in water. Not just to the jump in, but to any jump out or otherwise related to the water. Getting long and flat in the stride can be especially disastrous at a water jump.

What you are used to doing will often feel right to you. That's why you should make sure that what you are doing is really correct, before you practice that way so many times that it becomes an ingrained habit - one that might be difficult to change.

"Rhythm is more about balance than footfalls. Don't get obsessed with managing the footsteps, rather try to keep the horse bearing weight evenly in the hind end and the feet will fall into a steady rhythm." ~ Suzy Hettich

The evenness of the contact reveals the straightness of the horse.

The hindquarters are the engine, but you steer the horse by directing his shoulders.

A rider's hands can only be as good as the arms they belong to.

"Don’t let him trick you into too much contact. He is allowed to go into your hand, but not an ounce more. Never cover up in training, never one stride with too much in your hand. One ounce too much will build up too much tension; shorten the frame creating the reason to let go of the rein. Don’t accept that when you engage him, he becomes more rigid – bend him in, bend him out, test if the suppleness can match the engagement. Make him looser when you collect him. When I collect, can I keep him supple? If you don’t test him, he’ll test you. Expose him to a touch more suppleness in extension and collection – a little more throughness. If you don’t ask for throughness you won’t get it." ~ Steffen Peters

I love to look for an area in a field where I can do a big circle on the side of a hill, where on that circle the horse has to go down into a little dip in the ground and back up again. This can really help the horse to "let go" in their backs. The canter in particular usually feels loose and free when they come out of it.

"When you do something too much, too long, it’s called drilling. That’s not a good word with horses. If it’s not perfect it's ok. We have tomorrow, we have next week. Don’t be excessive with the horse." ~ George Morris

Always finish an exercise with a proper transition to walk, don't just fall into a heap.

"The more avenues of learning, the more rounded the trainer will be. The more variety of exercises, the more rounded the horse will be." ~ Andrea Benson

A tip for instructors...  When a student has a lightbulb riding moment during a lesson, ask them to explain it you in their own words. This way it becomes even more cemented in their own mind, and you can more easily help them find it again if they lose it.

"Competitive toughness is an acquired skill and not an inherited gift." ~ Chris Evert

Always finish each ride on a good note. Do something your horse does well so he can feel good about himself.

It is possible to have contact without a real connection (in fact, it is quite common unfortunately), but a true connection always involves good contact. The connection involves the horse's entire body… with energy created in the horse's hind legs traveling through the horse's supple body, and into the rider's hands. 

It can be a skill in itself to be able to pick up a quality canter or gallop in a straight line and jump a fence that is a short distance away (as you would coming out of the start box on cross country.) Like any skill, this one will only get better with practice. So this is something to practice at home.

Counter bend is a great tool when your horse tries to bulge against your outside aids. And following that up with a change of direction then further reinforces that aid, teaching your horse to have more respect for it.

"I think the rider's attitude in the ring is transposed to the horse's attitude... I think the difference between the good riders and good trips versus the outstanding trips are in large measure the positive attitude and inspiration that one shows to the judge and the way one  tackles the problems of the course in riding the horse." ~ Michael Page

You have to push YOURSELF to get better, because no one is going to do it for you.

As you complete a halt, lighten your seat slightly to invite your horse to keep his back up underneath you. This will allow you to move off after the halt without the horse hollowing and dropping his back.

A horse can only be straight when they are equally laterally supple on both sides. 

"The idea of Dressage is to be able to slow your horse down while using your legs, rather than by using your reins." ~ Christoph Hess

"No complicated riding before the horses are going truly forward. In dressage, the difficulties are often created by a lack of good basic work (which is the foundation of the house)." ~ Nuno Oliveira

"Riding: The dialogue between two bodies and two souls aimed at establishing perfect harmony between them." ~ Waldemar Seunig

From Facebook fan Judi Martin ~ "Distal dexterity [precise control of your limbs] is dependent upon core stability."

If your horse is not "hot" to your leg, and you therefore need lots of leg to keep him going, how will he ever hear the leg aid that asks for something more, like lateral work or a flying change?

Even the hot horse needs to be ridden forward.

The difference between good riding and bad riding is that good riding is difficult to see. 

A horse's energy flowing through a turn is similar to water flowing through a tunnel. Just as the outside wall of the tunnel is paramount, a good connection on the outside rein is crucial to a successful turn. 

Do not miss the possible opportunity to shorten your reins when your horse changes his balance in the direction of increased collection. If you do miss it, and are riding with a length of rein that was more appropriate to the longer, lower frame that you had previously... you risk losing the amount of increased collection that you had just attained.

"Remember, the conversation between you and your horse must never be dull or inert. It should be, 'Ask, receive, give. Ask, receive, give.' Ask with your body and legs; receive through your body into your hands; give primarily with the hands, but also with your body and legs, so that you can ask all over again, receive again and give again. The give is your thanks. If you don't give, you must ask harder the next time, and even harder after that, until you end up with a dead or resistant horse." - Sally Swift

It is possible to have contact without a real connection (in fact it is quite common unfortunately), but a true connection always involves good contact. The connection involves the horse's entire body… with energy created in the horse's hind legs traveling through the horse's supple body, and into the rider's hands. 

When asking for a canter lengthening or medium canter on a hot horse or one that is prone to tension, it can be helpful to initiate the upward transition with a bigger scoop of your seat rather than your leg. This helps the horse to understand that you want a bigger stride, rather than simply more speed.

With many horses it takes at least 10 to 20 transitions in a row in the warm up to get to the point where they are really balanced, rideable, and listening equally to all of the rider’s aids. Do you do enough in your warm up?

Happy, fresh, relaxed, and supple horses always perform better than horses that are drilled and drilled!