Recent Articles

"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

"Horses have taught us that progress in learning takes place in an environment of contentment. Fear and tension block success. Boundaries must exist, be clear, and be consistent. Within those boundaries our horses are encouraged to express themselves." ~ Steuart Pittman

"It is not dressage that is difficult, it is making it look easy that is difficult. Some horses are born with presence, while others you can train presence. Either way, dressage is about improving the paces." ~ Carl Hester

“A good horse should be able to sort out his own feet at the jumps.” ~ William Fox Pitt

On asking the horse to work for an hour... "Don’t forget he has 23 hours to sleep." ~ Carl Hester

"It is so important that you do a proper warmup and make sure everything is loose and supple, then give a walk break – and then you can start sitting." ~ Ingrid Klimke

"The first thing to think in half-halt is to make it invisible to those watching on, which is easier said than done." ~ Carl Hester

"The difference between an incorrectly compressed horse and a collected horse is that the collected horse can put his nose toward the ground (stretch) while staying round." ~ Nuno Oliveira

When training a young horse you should be fairly single minded. Your main goal should be to build your horse's confidence in you, so that they think of you as a fair but strong leader.

Your ability to develop following hands and arms depends on the quality of your independent seat, which is required to allow you to give precise aids while following your horse's movement.

Good shoulder in work will improve the range of motion and sideways reach in your horse's half pass work.

Stay quiet and let the exercise teach the horse.

Activity doesn't actually start in the horse's hind legs, it starts with a signal in the brain - like a spark plug.

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

When doing lateral work, every time your horse steps nicely under his body with his inside hind leg, you should feel him stepping up into the connection of your outside rein. Be sure to make good use of that opportunity to soften your inside rein. Every single time.

"Most of the riders ride with their upper body very stiff – especially their shoulders. If the stomach is in balance and in the position it should be, the shoulders are allowed to relax, and should relax. You need to be loose in your shoulders." ~ Ernst Hoyos

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

"I hope a lot of the American riders start to realize that cross country is not all about counting strides and keeping the stride pattern that you’ve counted; it’s about getting in there and riding what you feel and making sure the horse sees the fence." ~ Lucinda Green

The most important part of the half halt is the give at the end.

"Don't raise your hands. The poll should be higher than the rider's hand." ~ Stefan Wolff

"The best stretch can be achieved on a circle when you feel the horse is balanced laterally and longitudinally. Slowly allow the reins to lengthen and see if your horse will lengthen his neck forward and downward. This will feel like a clear release and you will be able to see how the neck fills out and gets wide when you look down." ~ Felicitas von Neumann-Cosel

"Since the criteria of a correct seat are the same as the criteria of good posture in general, being constantly attentive to one’s bearing when standing or walking is excellent training. A correct vertical posture of the head and the trunk on horseback is not a special posture applicable only to riding." ~ Kurt Albrecht

Facebook fan Mo Jackson on teaching riders to maintain a consistent rein connection ~ "I try to teach this with pretending rider and horse are on the telephone. You are talking, oops no connection, talking again, oops no connection. This causes chaos in the horse's mind as he is trying to communicate, to be part of the conversation."

Always think of keeping your shoulders aligned with your horse's shoulders (or where you want them to be), and your hips aligned with your horse's hips (or where you want them to be.)

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.

"Push yourself away from your hands." ~ Stephen Clarke

"To become a rider it is not enough to be able to sit elegantly on a horse. Even a good seat and balance does not make you a ‘rider’. To be able to ride you must be able to influence your horse and to extract the best performance from him." ~ Christian Thiess

"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

Be extra careful when conditioning both young horses and older horses. Young horses have tendon/ligaments/bones that have not yet been strengthened. And the older horse’s ligaments and tendons tend to become less elastic and resilient over time.

"The jump is the product of your last three strides, always." ~ Michelle Strapp

The muscles in the horse's loin area (behind the saddle) are loosened and suppled with each good lateral step behind. Just one reason of many why lateral steps are a very important part of training horses.

"Suppleness means that the muscles contract and de-contract, and this has to go through the entire horse, it cannot be blocked in the middle of the back, and it also has to go through the rider." ~ Susanne Miesner

The right small daily actions performed with consistency can create amazing long term results.

Using a volte (a 6, 8, or 10 meter circle) before a lateral exercise like a shoulder in, haunches in, or half pass allows you to establish the bend for those movements even before you begin them.

Every well ridden corner in the Dressage ring is a suppling exercise, and should be recognized as such.

Riding backwards (too much hand and/or not enough leg) when the horse is "having a look" at a fence can easily cause a stop.

"A steady hand with a soft, following elbow invites a steady, soft contact from the horse. Working the bit or being busy with your fingers invites a false frame." ~ Alexis Soutter

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.

Jimmy Wofford, on rider nerves, "There is nothing wrong with having butterflies, you just have to get them flying in formation!" 

"If you keep your hands still, you’ll start using your legs." ~ Ulla Salzgeber

Confidence is something you need to build for yourself. It is something you have to actively pursue and proactively work to maintain.

"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.

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.

"Relaxation is the bread and butter without which you cannot advance to stage two, balance." ~ Charles de Kunffy

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

"There is no point in asking for connection until responsiveness from the leg has been achieved." ~ Laura Graves