"When should I make a half halt?" she asked me. The obvious answer is when you need one, but if she's asking that question, maybe the answer isn't so obvious after all! (Click on Blog Title above to read full entry)

It's not unusual for a novice rider to emerge from a dressage test and announce, "Wow, that whole thing went by in such a blur!" Later when that same rider has worked her way up to Fourth Level, if she has an occasion to ride another horse back in First Level she's apt to observe how luxurious it is to have all that time in the test to prepare for the next movement. In the same vein I've heard Grand Prix riders remark on how much "free time" they have when they ride a Prix St. George test... (Click on Blog Title above (in blue) to read full entry)

Most teachers have nefarious designs on your mind—ones that they may not admit to. You just may want nuts and bolts explanations of the "which leg goes where" variety. Most times that's not all you're going to get... (Click on Blog Title above (in blue) to read full entry)

I used to live by the mantra, "Frustration begins where knowledge ends."

If I was having a hard time with a horse, I would stop and think, "What don't I know about this situation?"

It could be that I just didn't have enough tools in my tool box to get to the right answer. Maybe I hadn't done my homework and I was asking for something more advanced than we were ready for......

And then there is the Dunning Kruger effect.... (Click on Blog Title above (in blue) to read full entry)

There's a time (we hope) in everyone's riding where a transformation takes place. It's when you start to find your "voice" and begin to exercise it. Before this can happen, riders struggle through some predictable stages. Typically, even while working on their own, their heads are filled with the scolding words (not even intentionally directed at them) by their teacher reminding them of their assorted malfeasances and inadequacies. When they get past this stage and their confidence grows, they begin to have a “voice”.... (Click on Blog Title above (in blue) to read full entry)

Have you ever ridden with a coach who raises the jumps when you're not looking? (Click on Blog Title above (in blue) to read full entry)

The line where collection begins is a blurry one. It's further complicated because too many of us who try to produce it don't quite know how to, and for mercenary reasons some horses are rushed into tests which require collection before they have the strength or understanding to pull it off correctly. (Click on Blog Title above (in blue) to read full entry)

Owning a sound horse is a blessing that many horse owners have but do not appreciate, until the horse is lame. There are many reasons why a horse may become lame (limp), such as arthritis, wounds, disease, foot problems, sprained /strained tendons &ligaments, and even broken bones. This month’s article on tendon & ligament injuries is going to cover a topic close to my heart, as my own horse has finally recovered from a ligament injury after two years, and is now competing at horse shows with his new owner. (Click on Blog Title above to read full entry)

"Pick the right patterns, execute them correctly and they will school the horse." That was Major Lindgren's message to us back in the day, and a dictum we followed faithfully as we wrote out lesson plans to practice-teach demo riders at the Instructors Seminars... (Click on Blog Title above (in blue) to read full entry)

It may come as no giant surprise that what something feels like and what it looks like are often not the same. That’s why we have video, why we have mirrors, and why we have frustrated instructors who can’t figure out why their students won’t do as they’re told. (Click on Blog Title above to read full entry)

Wrong! When you think about it, there aren't many sports in which "cheating" isn't de rigueur— not just expected but accepted and intrinsic to the way the game is played... (Click on Blog Title above to read full entry)

For most of us life is dictated by routines. They provide structure and order which can translate to comfort. Or, if unchallenged, they can bury you in a rut. Years ago at my first teaching job my rut took me on the two mile drive from home to barn and back three times a day with little variation.

One morning I had to go someplace—I don't even remember where—on an inconsequential errand. And I was shocked to see all the people out and about on the roads doing things. Had anyone asked me beforehand what I expected to see, I'd likely have nailed the answer, but I was surprised anyway. In my rut I'd forgotten to imagine the possibilities.

As riders we have to imagine the possibilities too. (Click on Blog Title above (in blue) to read full entry)

Here’s a post I stole off one of the ubiquitous Classical Dressage message board on Facebook: My young horse was trotting nicely, enthusiastically on a chilly winter day. Suddenly he dropped a shoulder and started bucking. What should I have done?

Well, given where the question was displayed, can you guess what readers offered as answers? (Click on Blog Title above (in blue) to read full entry)

Cornered!

Unless you answer to "Nuno" or "Willi" (where the W is pronounced like a V) when you train, you really need reference points. If your internal gyroscope is so finely tuned that any deviation from perfect balance is immediately detected, disregard everything which follows.... (Click on Blog Title above (in blue) to read full entry)

I must have been traveling too often, staying in too many hotels....

You know how down by the ice machine next to the elevators they always have vending machines? The ones with a big Plexiglas window and a whole mess of snack items—Sun Chips and Fritos and Ring Dings and Lorna Doones—each stacked on copper spiral holders all in rows and columns? And you put your 75 or 85 cents in the slot, the machine blinks READY READY READY, and all you have to do is “Select.” Punch B-4 and grind grind fwoop, out the slot at the bottom comes your Snickers. E-6 and fwoop, here are the Cheetos. In other words, once you’ve made the preparation, the machine is equally, universally prepared to deliver you anything on its menu.

It strikes me that it isn’t a bad idea to think of making your horse a bit like one of those vending machines. This is what I mean: (Click on Blog Title above (in blue) to read full entry)

I knew TBs are smart, but how did my mare find an internet connection in her new run-in shed? We didn’t wire it for that, but she clearly read my blog and decided she wanted to stay a hunter princess wannabe. That is, until her stomach over-ruled her heart and she let me catch her with some grain.  But it had been a solid 10 minutes of racing around the pasture, bucking and squealing. Or maybe she was just excited about her trip to a foreign country: Eventingland. (Click on Blog Title above (in blue) to read full entry)

Unless you're incredibly pigheaded, you don't have to live with your decisions.

That's because you can change them! I have said time and again that a rider's most important character trait is self awareness. Question yourself constantly. When you do something, do it with conviction...then afterwards question yourself some more. (Click on Blog Title above (in blue) to read full entry)

It's 20 years ago. I "sort of " know how to ride. (At that point I'd already been doing it for almost 30 years and ridden I-1.) I'm having a lesson with Maj. Lindgren. The horse—a lower level one—is on a 20 meter circle. The horse is going forward. His outline is round. The circle is accurate. But Lindgren keeps shouting, "He is not through. Push him through!" Not much changes because, honestly, I don't really understand what he means.

So now, years later, the worm has turned. It's my time to explain the inexplicable—to put physical sensation and mental connections into terms not so generic or esoteric that I'm doing nothing more than talking to myself. (Click on Blog Title above (in blue) to read full entry)

Put De Posit Here, Not Dere

Bill Steinkraus was a show jumping icon of the 1960s and winner of the individual gold medal in that discipline on Snowbound at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics.

At a clinic I attended years ago, he was speaking of schooling a hot horse that wanted to rush its fences, but his metaphor has many applications in dressage training as well. He likened the... (Click on Blog Title above (in blue) to read full entry)

You hear a lot of contradictory advice about training the walk. One line of reasoning goes: Unlike the trot or canter, the walk has no natural impulsion to it. Without this willing self-motivation, the rider can easily introduce tension or restriction that's hard to get rid of. The solution— (Click on Blog Title above (in blue) to read full entry)

I’ve been thinking lately about fear – both the long-range, abstract kind (I am being a bad parent and therefore my child will grow up to become a social abomination) and the concrete, immediate kind (my horse will refuse to jump that giant brush and I will crash into it and die).  In my sport – and I can only assume in many others as well – fear is not necessarily a positive emotion.  It can paralyze you, impede your progress, and seriously get in the way of teaching your horse to do its job. (Click on Blog Title above (in blue) to read full entry)

Tammy, Tell Me “Through”

Today’s topic makes some assumptions. For this to be an address-able issue, you have to be at the stage where your horse goes on a steady contact established between your pushing aids and your receiving, elastic elbows. You must be able to have created a round topline, and your horse must be reactive to your leg such that he’ll go forward willingly and you have a reasonable shot at controlling his wither balance (at least laterally and, to a degree, longitudinally).

This is about “throughness.” (Click on Blog Title above (in blue) to read full entry)

Learning From Competitions

Ready to go to GMHA... and still clean!

This weekend, I headed off to GMHA not quite knowing what to expect.  Six weeks earlier, I sent in my entry for Suki’s first recognized event.  Already, the year had not started ideally; but, I was determined to meet my goals. Hand surgery?  Psh.  Horse with an abscessed heal… icthamol. Horse that pulls shoe off of the foot with the heel abscess?  My awesome farrier for putting the shoe back on ASAP.  What’s a total of two weeks off, really… (Click on Blog Title above (in blue) to read full entry)

There is no more glorious feeling (apart from rolling in the mud) than galloping through the finish flags at the end of a clear cross country round. Your coat is shining with sweat, your ears are pricked, and the crowd gathers round to admire you - and then you realize that your rider isn't hugging you in glee at finishing the course - she's draped on your neck, gasping from pure exhaustion. How embarrassing! I mean, clearly, the horse has done most of the work, anyway, so it's sort of inexplicable to have such a tired rider, but it happens all the time! (Click on Blog Title above (in blue) to read full entry)

To Coby:

Leave Him Wanting More

I believe I am speaking for the majority of other instructors when I say this: When the lesson I'm teaching is coming to its conclusion, I have tried to tie what we were working on with the horse up into a little package "suitable for mailing." We have accomplished either what I wanted to (or been able to) and the horse is "done." (Click on Blog Title above (in blue) to read full entry)

Pro and Con Tact 


Picture the friendly cop on the beat strolling along the sidewalk, nodding to shopkeepers, and twirling his night stick as he oversees his neighborhood.

Alternatively, imagine a not so friendly policeman slapping his nightstick into the palm of his hand and rousting out vagrants loitering in doorways or trying to catch a nap on a park bench. Two very different relationships—each representing the way your horse can interpret the concept of contact. (Click on Blog Title above (in blue) to read full entry)

 


"Over the barrels, through the two angled jumps, hard right then up the blue skinny, bend right to the skinny in the middle and then quick left to the other skinny then back down over the oxer to the other set of angled jumps...” or it was something like that.  Riding in a Lucinda Green clinic is a little bit like playing with one of those wooden labyrinths that tips too and from, but you are on horseback, hoping that neither you nor your horse falls through one of the holes... (Click on Blog Title above (in blue) to read full entry)

Ten Things...


You ever do a ten list?  Ten things you wish you could do, ten things you wish you had done different, ten things you have done right?  How bout ten dumbest things you have ever done, or most embaressing.  Ten best friends.  Ten best lessons.  Ten best books?

Here are ten things I tell all my students, from 40 plus years of riding... (Click on Blog Title above (in blue) to read full entry)