Recent Articles

"Always carry a stick, then you will seldom need it." ~ Bill Steinkraus

"I enjoy criticism as in constructive criticism, and I suppose because I am very open to that, I have been able to move on as the sport has changed." ~ Mary King

"Sit in the middle of the saddle after you’ve made sure your stirrups are even and let your shoulders and eyes follow the direction you’re going." ~ Debbie Mcdonald

Make sure you finish every training session on a good note, so that you always put the horse away happy. That will set the stage for a more positive attitude for your next ride.

"When a young horse is only ridden in one way, he does not develop balanced musculature. In this case, too much is demanded of some muscle groups, which damages the still-growing body. With a versatile basic training plan that includes riding out in the open, work with cavalletti and gymnastic jumping, the demand on muscles, tendons, and joints is more evenly distributed." ~ Ingrid Klimke

"I start by stretching the horse and trying to make him relaxed and supple. It’s a bit like gymnastics with a horse, dressage is. You wouldn’t expect a gymnastics person to just go and start their workout; they do a nice stretch in the warm-up first." ~ Charlotte Dujardin

"The horse’s confidence is of the utmost importance, and you want to do everything you can to avoid shaking that, no matter what the situation." ~ Mary King

If you want to develop a nicely shaped crest (the muscling on the top of the neck) on your horse, you have to make sure your horse is truly seeking the connection - reaching into the bit, rather than backing away from it by "giving" to your hand.

"Be strict with yourself about the way you do everything with the babies right from the very beginning." ~ Mary King

"Sometimes you need to just lightly guide the horse, the way you would gently take your grandmother’s hand to help her across the street. At other times, your horse is like a toddler; how firmly would you hold their hand to get them safely across the street? For a horse that likes to get heavy, we want to get to a place where you can drop the reins and they stay on your aids. For a horse that gets too light, and above or behind the bit, we want them to be confidently taking the contact and carrying you forward. The horse has to be as light or as heavy in the contact as YOU want them to be. You get to decide, not them." ~ Robert Dover

"Frame talks about how high or low [the horse] is, how long she is or how short she is. Think about a frame for a picture. A frame can be for a square picture or a rectangular picture. And then think about what kinds of walks and canters and trots there are. There are collected walks and extended walks, collected trots and extended trots." ~ Robert Dover

 "When you expect too little, you accept too little." ~ Robert Dover

"The better my dressage transitions are, the better the thoroughness, it means the horse can go from very fast, to very balanced and collected on the hindquarters, energy from behind, through – no argument with the bit – because the transition is through and fine, the horse can focus on the jump." ~ Ingrid Klimke

Horses point their nose at what they want to see in focus. This is why we want our horses' head and nose UP on the approach to their fences, and why we need to allow them to lower their heads and look at the takeoff of an open ditch or a drop fence.

The horse should be just as much "on the aids" and "between your leg and hand" when he is in a stretching frame, as he is in a working frame. 

Transitions work to engage the horse's mind as well as his hind legs.

Don't wait until the horse is doing something perfectly to reward. You must reward the horse when he begins to go in the right direction of the correct response, however slightly that may be. How else will the horse know that he has the right idea??

Always look for the feeling that there is a medium gait contained within your collected gait. If you don't feel that you could simply release your collected trot or canter into a medium gait, then you do not have true collection - You merely have a horse that is going slowly.

Similar to the way the horse is "in front of your leg" when he is responsive to a light forward aid and thinking forward on his own, he also needs to be "in front of" your inside leg to be responsive and bending properly. 

From Facebook fan Racheal Hawkins-Cox ~ "Compressing forward energy creates more power at jumps."

The sign of a good rider is that their aids are so light, smooth, and nearly invisible that you can barely notice them.

"Most alleged training ‘innovations’ aren’t really new but were actually dismissed as useless centuries ago." ~ Klaus Balkenhol

"Dressage is the most important because it teaches our horses to place all their power and athleticism at our disposal." ~ Jimmy Wofford

To succeed in the sport of Eventing, you need to be as motivated by your failures as much as you are by your successes. 

"The first step to getting our horses in self-carriage is getting ourselves in self-carriage. Core strength is a big part of that." ~ Carl Hester

Always have more time than your horse.

Gymnastic jumping is meant to teach the horse to better solve problems over fences. They teach the horse to think about their timing, develop their eye and accurate judgement, and to teach them to be clever with their footwork. To then go out and squelch the horse's initiative at fences by picking each spot for them in training is like throwing all that gymnastic work right out the window.

When jumping fences with a related distance between them, make any needed adjustment early on in the line, and then focus on riding the rhythm and quality of the canter, while patiently waiting for the jump to come to you. 

"The rider who is able to ride his horse in a correct and controlled shoulder-in will later find all other lateral movements easy." ~ Ernst Hoyos

Always remember that the various movements in Dressage are not an end in themselves, but rather are tools to develop the horse's flexibility, suppleness, engagement, and self carriage.

Remind yourself often that you want your horse to fall in love with your hands. 

"The knowledge of the nature of a horse is one of the first foundations of the art if riding it, and every horseman must make it his principal study." ~ Francois Robichon de La Gueriniere

"The freedom of the shoulders in all gaits is always only the result of elevation, and this in turn is the result of the hindquarters carrying the correct weight." Gustav Steinbrecht
 
It is never about trying to "lift" the horse's shoulders! It is about increasing hind end engagement and lowering the quarters. Only then can the front end elevate.

"If the rider encounters a problem, he must first look for the cause in himself. Most of the time, the rider is the cause of the problem. Only someone who looks at his own riding critically and is willing to improve constantly and learn more will be a good rider." ~ Ernst Hoyos

When riding (or driving...), don't watch your steering wheel! Look at the road in front of you. 

To strive for those elusive "forward feeling" hands, aim to keep your hands slightly in front of your saddle pad at all times.

"Your corners and short sides are what make your movements. Nine times out of 10, you have to do something out of a corner. If you ride a bad corner, you ride a bad movement." ~ Charlotte Dujardin 

If you want to ride a soft and responsive horse, you must strive to be a soft and responsive rider.

"Riding is, therefore, an ongoing, never-ending, challenging process. That aspect makes riding so intelligent and significant an effort. One merely strives, never arrives." ~ Charles de Kunffy

"Every transition counts." ~ Carl Hester

"The only limits you have are the ones you put on yourself." ~ Jane Savoie

An effective rider has trained their inner voice to be either positive or constructively negative, never self defeating.

"Leg yielding is a loosening exercise for the horse – they pull up the leg, fold the joints, push the leg to one side. It is far easier for the horse to leg yield from the centre line to the wall. He wants to go to the wall for help, but never let a young horse go all the way to the wall. The wall is like a magnet, stop him short of the wall." ~ Kyra Kyrklund

If you really want that coveted independent seat, you need to be willing to regularly do the "not so fun" stuff, like riding without stirrups.