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“It’s so important that these horses enjoy every day of their work. Our routine is that we train in the school four days a week. On Monday and Tuesday they work, and then on Wednesday they go hacking on the road, and that means every horse—every horse in
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When working with a horse that does not have a great natural lengthening, make sure that you don't ask for too much too soon. Compare this to a singer who is training their vocal cords… they gradually expand their range until they hit their limit. This helps to
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"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
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“We get the horses as loose as possible before we ask them to do more work in their bodies. if they’re not loose in the beginning, they’re not going to be loose and supple in their proper work.” ~ Charlotte Dujardin
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Your weight or seat aid trumps your leg and hand aids at all times. So if you are unconsciously giving conflicting aids with your weight/seat and your legs or hands, your horse will usually not do exactly what you expect him to do.
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Here and there you'll run across a Total Dressage Masochist – a nose to the grind stone sort of rider whose horse's hooves will dig deep and perfect 20 meter ruts in her arena. More often among recreational riders there's a tendency to practice the
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Always perform the halt and salute in your Dressage test with aplomb. It shows the judge that you have confidence, and it makes for great show photos!
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If you are riding with short stirrups in a saddle that was not really designed for shorter stirrups (i.e. an all purpose saddle), you will usually find that your leg gets pushed backwards when landing over fences.
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The relationship between horse and rider is somewhat similar to a marriage. Don’t let familiarity trick you into doing the same thing over and over.
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“Bad jumping can happen at any speed. I have watched some of the most brilliant, stylish jumping I have ever seen at the Maryland Hunt Cup, where the fences vary from 4 feet to 4-foot-10 in height and the average speed for this 4-mile race is about