Make sure your inside leg is quietly on the horse before you begin a turn. Even though your outside aids actually turn your horse, your inside leg is the post that he needs to bend around. Many riders are caught out with their inside leg completely off, and only put it on when they find their horse is falling in through the turn. By that time, it is much harder to correct.
"Courage is not the absence of fear but rather the judgment that something is more important than fear. The brave may not live forever but the cautious do not live at all."
Always use both reins together to steer, especially when jumping. Using one rein only turns the horse's nose - but using both reins turn the horse at the shoulders, which means his body will more accurately follow your chosen line.
"Through the energy of impulsion mobilized from within himself, the horse is now prepared, in his physique and emotional attentiveness, to respond instantly to the slightest indications to change his tempo, posture, direction or gait." ~ Waldemar Seunig
Think of your leg, seat, and rein aids as ways to communicate with your horse. You don't physically push or pull him anywhere, you give him subtle signals. And if he doesn't initially respond to your subtle signals, you need to teach him to - EVERY horse can learn to respond to light cues, if taught properly.
When things are not going especially well in training, you must go out of your way to find things to reward. This will help to keep your horse's level of confidence in you as high as possible, and will motivate him to keep trying for you.
"Nothing is as impressive or as valuable for the training as being able to control the impulsion and the desire to go forward to such an extent that the rider is able to bring his horse to a standstill from an extended trot or canter without the slightest effort or disturbance. Conversely, departing immediately from the halt into an extended gait is an equal proof of the absolute desire to go forward." ~ Alois Podhajsky
"A horse with good foot work will rarely fall. A horse who is not given the chance to practice that footwork because he is always brought to the right spot will come big time unstuck when the s*** hits the fan and the fallible human on top gets it wrong." ~ Lucinda Green
From Facebook fan Gabby Ballin ~ "Just because something went bad once doesn't mean it'll go bad again. If you anticipate a problem, your horse will too."
"What we want to start creating in these horses is an engine that is always running, where we don’t shift gears until we want to. It’s like revving your RPMs and waiting a moment before you shift up into that higher gear. But if you don’t have that energy in the lower gear, you might stall when you go to send them forward." ~ Laura Graves
"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
“When you don't have a confident position, it’s saying to people you don’t believe in yourself. So sit up, shoulders back, chin high, and ride your best test.” ~ Robert Dover
"Working over a single pole on the ground, notice if the young horse prefers to chip in a short stride or stretch for a long stride. Then remember this is the default that they will return to when things go wrong." ~ Eric Smiley
You can't straighten a crooked stick just by bending it until it's straight. You have to bend it in the opposite direction to truly straighten it. The same is true with horses. Moments of exaggerating the bend in the direction your horse doesn't like to bend will cause him to become straighter.
"First thing I look at when I buy a horse is paces rather than breeding. Beautiful parents don’t always produce beautiful children. I’m not looking for the flashiest paces, but also the trainablility and rideability. How are you going to keep a big, flamboyant mover sound into Grand Prix? You want an easy mover." ~ Carl Hester
A sound horse's head does not move in the trot. So if your hands move at all in the trot, you are moving the bit and disturbing the connection from your horse's perspective.
"You should recognize that your equine partner has an eye of its own when jumping and allow a good horse to have some role in the decision making process." ~ Frank Chapot
"In the half halt that creates carrying power, we are asking the horse to slow down and carry more weight when his hind leg joints are closed and his hind foot is on the ground. The levade, in which the horse sits on his hindquarters, is the ultimate example of this kind of closing of the joints while carrying the weight." ~ George Williams
"I’m not sure if it is chicken or egg, but the riders who sit in the middle of the movement, in the middle of their horse are the ones with the self-carriage." ~ Chris Hector
From Facebook fan Rachel Mackmin ~ "Shoulder control established with outside rein and thigh allow us timid riders to let go of that inside rein! It's so hard to give that inside rein to a spooky horse!"
One of the biggest reasons riders meet resistance when attempting to control their horse's canter is that they stop following the motion of the horse's head and neck with their elbows.
Riders often tend to forget their outside leg in the equation of the bending aids. If you want to achieve true bend in the horse's ribcage, your outside leg must keep the hind quarters on the track.
Whenever you see a rider "miss" and meet a bad takeoff spot at a jump, it is often a clear sign that rider has been taught to "look for a distance" at their fences. Riders who do not look for a distance, but instead ride the quality of the canter all the way to the base NEVER miss!
"Correctly understood, work at the lunge line is indispensable for rider and horse from the very beginning through the highest levels." ~ Egon von Neindorff
Turn on the forehand and leg yield can be used to teach the horse that the rider's leg can mean something other than, "Go forward."
The horse must understand this concept in these very basic movements before you will find much success with any of the more complicated lateral movements.
"Only use the spur to correct. The spur is not intended to ride a movement. It cannot just support the gait or the movement. Make a clear correction with the spur. If you are constantly giving your horse an aid, he will get numb to it." ~ Steffen Peters
If you want to be able to soften the reins without your horse speeding up, make sure you think about relaxing all driving aids (seat and leg) when you give the rein.
The horse that is the fastest on cross country is often not the one that is allowed to gallop at a greater rate of speed, but rather one that is highly adjustable, and is ridden on economical lines.
