"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 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
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.
"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.
"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.
