"Do your warm up trot sets with shorter stirrups in a two point instead of posting. If you listen closely, you can hear me laughing… most of us cannot trot in two point for three five minute sets, much less stay there for our conditioning sets. Even though you will probably fail, stick with it. Make a project of your fitness while you condition your horse." ~ Jimmy Wofford
While the distance in between the jumps is a big deciding factor in the speed and length of stride that you should approach with... generally approaching a combination or complex off of a shorter, bouncier stride will give you more options.
Many riders think too much about stopping in downward transitions... meaning they won't be truly riding forward. This will likely cause the horse to brace against the hand, and/or to lose the activity of the hind legs. Instead, try thinking of changing gears without losing any of the energy and activity in the hind legs.
To help keep your horse uphill when spiraling in on a circle, imagine that you are going up a spiral staircase. With each stride inward on the spiral, grow taller and think about going up an imaginary step.
Always keep in mind that you need to engage your horse's brain to get him to truly think forward. Your goal should not be to merely get his feet moving, but to ignite the area of his brain that makes him decide to want to move forward. Only when your horse really wants to go forward do you truly have a forward horse... no matter how fast you are actually traveling.
Eventers need to make sure that the saddle that they use for cross country is truly suitable. The flap needs to be forward enough to give you room to easily push your feet out in front of you for security whenever necessary (such as galloping downhill, drop into water, deep mud on a downhill landing, etc.)
If you are riding any transition on a curve, do not forget to maintain your inside bend and flexion throughout the transition. This will help you to keep the horse straight (aligned to the curve), balanced, and connected.
When your horse is not being as responsive as you'd like, pushing harder is never the answer. In fact, that only makes the problem worse. Instead, go back a step and remind/re-educate your horse about being hot to the leg aids.
Many horses actually like and do well with a little bit of rein contact throughout the jumping effort. But there are some that are so sensitive, that any amount of feel of their mouth at the top of the jumping arc will cause them to either jump with their nose tucked to their chest, or try to fight the rider’s hand in the air. Both of which will ruin the quality of the horse’s jump.
"I do a lot of cavaletti work also with my dressage horses because then I can really make them active behind, over the back, stretching into your hand, and really supple in the back." ~ Ingrid Klimke
The more spirit the horse has, the more difficult he may be to train. But once you have developed a good partnership with the horse, this same spirit will make him a tremendous competitor, who will fight for you when the chips are down.
Pay attention to exactly how you release your aid after your horse responds. The key is to relax and release the aid in a smooth and subtle manner, with finesse.
From Facebook fan Deena Cahill ~ "If your horse is really tense when riding him, try riding while having a short conversation about happy things with someone else. You will be surprised how relaxed your horse becomes when your body naturally relaxes!"
"Look for a genuine coach with real coaching skills rather than a rider who may know how to do something, but not how to teach it. Also, find someone who has solid experience of working with riders of your level." ~ William Micklem
"The hind legs are brought far enough underneath the center of gravity by the rider’s legs, where they are gradually burdened with more of the combined weight of horse and rider for brief moments, which flexes their joints more. Like coiled springs, they push off with much greater elasticity afterwards than unflexed hind legs. This energetic, springy forward swinging creates a very characteristic feeling in the seat (you feel the work of the hind legs as well as the swinging of the back that it creates very clearly, yet pleasantly), which is typical for a gait with impulsion, and which signals to the experienced rider: „Now he is moving!“ He despises, on the other hand, a wishy-washy, unclear trot feeling under the saddle which is caused by dragging hind legs that hardly push off and consequently don’t make the back swing – whereas others seem to love it. De gustibus … No, this is not a matter of taste. One is correct, the other one is wrong! Thrust may be there naturally, but impulsion must be worked out - or better: into – the horse by cultivating the thrust." ~ Alfred Knopfhart
"Before starting the work of teaching the flying changes, the quality of the canter should be well established. The horse should be thinking forward, should accept the slowing and collecting aids and should be laterally submissive. The horse should be straight in the canter." ~ Chris Bartle
"The most repeated mistake is the riders' weight taking off before the horse and often with catastrophic results - The rider that learns to look after the Engine, Line and Balance of his horse on the Approach and allows his horse to make the decisions about where he takes off, repeatedly puts in a smooth and confident performance." ~ Lucinda Green
"It worries me when riders 'clinic hop' or switch from trainer to trainer in search of the magic bullet for making everything go well. Correct training is a three way relationship between a horse, a student, and a trainer, and students have to take some responsibility for their own growth and learning. You can be passively lectured or you can be an accountable student who listens, interacts with her instructor and finds homework to do between lessons." ~ Jane Savoie
"The quality of the flying changes is reflected in the expression, the length of the change, the straightness and the quality of the canter before and after the change. When we talk of changes having expression, we mean that during the stride of the canter in which the change is executed, the canter has a definite moment of suspension. This enables the horse to bring the new inside hind well under the body and to reach out with the foreleg. Expression should not be confused with tension." ~ Chris Bartle
"This might sound too simple, but I am convinced that the most important factor in keeping the horse's will to work day by day is allowing him to live a life as close to nature as possible." ~ Uta Gräf
"It is most important to realize that the topline is not one muscle from the ears to the hocks. There are different muscles that you have to train – the neck, the wither, the back, the loins, the croup and the hock. The muscles of the hind legs are connected directly behind the horse’s ears, if the topline muscles are not trained, the hind legs cannot move correctly." ~ Johan Hamminga
Think of that girth tight against your horse's side… after a while he tunes that out and barely notices it. The same will happen with your legs if they are always tight and clamped on his sides.
The quality of the contact that the horse will give you is largely dictated by the amount of hind leg activity at that moment, and how much the energy from that activity is able to flow in an uninterrupted way through the horse's supple and permeable body into your hands.
"They asked me at the Seminar, how should a horse look when it is coming towards you? I said to them, if you meet someone and they are looking you in the eyes, a little bit proud, nose up, not arrogant, but someone coming to you, giving you their hand, with a very positive attitude. That’s the way a horse should come to you – when he enters the arena, he should say, hello, here I am." ~ Sven Rothenberger
"I find it better to often have short, intensive moments – ten or fifteen minutes – not longer, then a break to allow the muscles to recover. If you want the horse to carry more weight, then you need time for muscle recovery." ~ Johan Hamminga
"The horse should understand 3 things from the rider's leg: forward, bend, move over. Until the rider understands this the horse can't, so they can't get inside leg to outside rein. Most riders/horses only understand using a driving leg." ~ Susan Moessner
"The forehand is not to be raised by the rider's hands ! This mania of trying to ride a horse with a 'Grand-prix neck', a horse who moves with Training level hindquarters, is abominable." ~ Charles de Kunffy
"Riders just worry about the horse’s head – but the horse has a hindquarter, a shoulder, and a head and neck. The rider’s lower leg controls the hindquarter, to a certain extent the shoulder is positioned by the legs and hands, and the head and neck are controlled by the rider’s hands, the horse has to think forward and straight." ~ Vicki Roycroft
"One can never, I believe, strive for a lack of criticism in riding – because I don’t think that there is such a thing as perfect riding. I don’t think anybody’s performance is beyond some sort of criticism." ~ Tad Coffin
"Nevertheless 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
"For what the horse does under compulsion… is done without understanding; and there is no beauty in it either, any more than if one should whip and spur a dancer." ~ Xenophon
