Recent Articles

"When you get on, you should feel that your stirrups are a little bit short. As you warm up, as you come out of the saddle and come forward and jump, you should feel that you’re coming into a more comfortable position. If when you get on, you’re comfortable in your stirrups, they’re invariably too long." ~ William Fox-Pitt

Tightly clamped thighs make you lose your nice deep seat, and drive the horse's back down into a hollow position.

Make sure there is a slight time lapse between a light aid and a correction. This gives the horse a chance to respond to the light aid - and it gives him a chance to LEARN from the correction.

Many times horses benefit from cantering early on in the warm up. Don’t wait until the trot feels perfect. Canter early on to improve the trot.

Nagging isn't giving the horse feedback, it is desensitizing him to the aids.

"Dressage is not just for competition. It is gymnastics for horses and all horses can benefit from it, as they are more likely to stay sound with a long, stretchy neck, soft body and easy movement." ~ Carl Hester

If you don't give your horse something to do when riding, he might come up with a plan to give you something to do. Have a plan, and keep him busy.

"Connection is often misunderstood. The horse must be taught to go from the seat and leg to the hand for it to be correct. But some riders will try to force it by working their hands and arms to 'work the horse’s neck back and forth to achieve that lightness,' which is incorrect." ~ Lilo Fore

With horses that like to curl their neck and become over bent, the rider needs to be careful not to get their reins too short. This will cause the horse to stay too short in the neck. Think of having longer arms that are always reaching towards the horse’s mouth.

"What is essential is not to tighten the legs during the dressage training, but rather to use them without effort while allowing them to hang softly near the horse’s sides." ~ Nuno Oliviera

"If you don't pull you won't have to kick and if you don't kick you won't have to pull…" ~ Jimmy Wofford

When a horse collects, his shoulders will come up naturally. Don't attempt to artificially raise the front end.

If you overdo counter bend to the point where your horse is falling in on his inside shoulder, it can quickly become a counter productive exercise. Do not let the horse’s neck bend excessively in any direction.

Tension and aggression breeds tension and aggression. Remind yourself of this when things are not going well in your riding.

Don't copy successful riders' bad habits. Look at what they do well. Just because they can pull off success with quirky form doesn't mean you can.

When riding on slippery footing, think about some of the same tactics that you would use to drive on an icy road. Go a little more slowly and don't make any sudden turns or changes of speed. Also think about stepping a little more into your outside stirrup in your turns, to help you be more effective with your outside aids. This will help your horse keep his outside hind leg more under his body, so his hind legs will be less likely to slip out from under him on the turns.

"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

We must not forget that the horses we ride today are descended from the ones who did NOT get eaten by the mountain lion at the water hole. In other words, it is perfectly normal for horses to be spooky.

Dressage riders should aim to mix their horse’s schooling up with hacking and even some jumping if possible, as it will help to keep the horse more fresh and interested in his work.

Frequent quality transitions are the best way to confirm that your horse is listening equally to both the driving aids and the restraining aids.

It is a good idea to sit back every month or so and assess your training program and its current results. Be ready to add to or change your plan if you are not seeing results.

You have to have experiences to gain experience.

All You Need is Leg

(with apologies to Lennon and McCartney)

We were working on his flying changes—a middle aged OTTB with a flock of internalized tensions and a penchant for sucking back behind the leg. I was hoping to use some combinations of canter leg yield and canter half pass to make him come forward to the hand and to lessen the surprise of the change aids. (Click on Blog Title above (in blue) to read full entry)

I find that many riders are using bits that are too big for their horse’s mouths. While certainly better than a bit that is too small, when a bit is too big there is too much movement of the bit sliding back and forth in the horse’s mouth. Horses want the bit to be still in their mouths, they don’t want it sliding left and right all the time.

"The most important thing is for the horse to be thinking on its own. Unless you’re Michael Jung, you make mistakes and things go wrong. You have to teach the horse the stride isn’t always right, the line isn’t always right, and that’s why we start from trot." ~ William Fox Pitt

From member Karen Barbato ~ "Asking my horse to move laterally off my leg is NOT a negotiation. DO IT NOW (and with a happy face!)"

Great tip from member Sharon Fitzgerald ~ "It is only when you get completely out of your horse's way that you can feel exactly what they are doing and then have a hope in hell of influencing it. Otherwise you might be spending a lot of time just fixing what you are causing."

"The horse’s posture, his strength, and his suppleness, all influence very much the sensations that the bit creates in him." ~ Dupaty de Clam

"Don't take the tempo down without revving the engine." ~ Chris Bartle

The more often you give the reins, the softer your horse will be… both in the mouth and in the body.

Riding with shorter stirrups will stretch out your leg and improve your shock absorbers.

It can be a good exercise in awareness to exaggerate both extremes of an aspect of your position, such as leaning all the way to the left and then all the way to the right. Whichever way feels easier or less awkward for you might indicate that you tend to regularly sit to that side. Experiment with that and try to find the middle.

From Facebook fan Mary Apfel-Vandeyacht ~ "Riding is a lot like driving a manual transmission... You may be able to make it go (when learning how to ride), but you're going to break it and look like a schmuck unless you learn right."

Even if the rider has all of their body parts generally in the right place, they will feel out of balance and out of sync with their horse's movement when the shock absorbing joints in their legs are locked and rigid.

No moment riding without stirrups is ever wasted!

From Facebook fan Andrea Monsarrat Waldo ~ "You can learn to take the best from different trainers, but first you have to have a "skeleton," a theoretical framework to hang it all on, and that takes time and some consistency of training, I think. Once you have a system you can add to it/alter it, but with no system it's just a jumble of random techniques."

"If your horse looks carefully at what they are jumping, is able to make small alterations when getting a little too close or far away from a fence, then produces an appropriate jumping effort and copes quickly with the unexpected slip or stumble, they can be said to have a ‘fifth leg.'" ~ William Micklem

"You can influence a horse but you're never really in control." ~ Chris Bartle