Recent Articles in Tip/Quote of the Day!

It is possible to have contact without a real connection (in fact it is quite common unfortunately), but a true connection always involves good contact. The connection involves the horse's entire body… with energy created in the horse's hind legs traveling through the horse's supple body, and into the rider's hands. 

When asking for a canter lengthening or medium canter on a hot horse or one that is prone to tension, it can be helpful to initiate the upward transition with a bigger scoop of your seat rather than your leg. This helps the horse to understand that you want a bigger stride, rather than simply more speed.

With many horses it takes at least 10 to 20 transitions in a row in the warm up to get to the point where they are really balanced, rideable, and listening equally to all of the rider’s aids. Do you do enough in your warm up?

Happy, fresh, relaxed, and supple horses always perform better than horses that are drilled and drilled!

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.

When a horse is crooked his energy gets stopped up like water in a hose with a kink in it. 

From Facebook fan Kelly Turman-Meyers ~ "The longest paths [in learning how to ride and compete] are usually those people without good trainers. The shortest path is to find the best classical trainer you can and ride as many horses as you can."

"Regularity and rhythm have to go through all the collected work as well. If the horse gets heavy, use the energy more. If you remember this rule, it will stop you making mistakes even if you are not as experienced as a rider. Keep going back to the basics." ~ Jonny Hilberath

In any lateral movement, keep your eyes pointed to the spot that you want your horse to go to. 

"Beginners are not bad riders, they merely lack experience. The only truly bad riders are usually 'experienced' in the poorest sense of that word; those who blatantly and ignorantly bully their horses." ~ Egon von Neindorff

Having sufficient energy in your canter allows the horse to jump more smoothly and easily. Make sure you are truly riding forward!

Whether flatwork or jumping, you never want to look at any time like you would flip off the back end of the horse if someone were to cut your reins.

You must train your horse to understand that he should stay at whatever speed you put him in until told otherwise. Remember that every time you allow your horse to make a decision about his speed or energy level (or don't realize that he has done so), you are training him to make these decisions on his own.

"If the horse has a high opinion of the rider, he will let himself be guided, if not, he will resist." ~ Nuno Oliveira

"If you put a muscle where it doesn’t want to be, it is broken down – not build up." 

So don't go thinking that you are building the right muscles when you force a horse's head into a position. The horse has to be using those muscles correctly to actually develop properly.

Always remember that the hot horse must learn to control his energy, not do without it.

Correct Dressage training will improve the balance, carriage, responsiveness, strength, and confidence of the horse of ANY discipline.

"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 

If you follow your horse's mouth with a consistently elastic feel, he will learn to trust your hand so fully, that he will lose the desire to escape it. 

Too often I see riders asking their horses to be forward and in front of their leg, and they don't get the response they are looking for... yet they move on to the next thing they had planned anyway. Whether the next thing you plan to do is a jump or a dressage movement, your best bet would be to put that on hold for a moment, and really insist that your horse responds 100% to your leg. You won't get much else done without that quality.

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.

"Concentrate on the transitions, forward and back, build the activity from behind. When you bring the horse slightly back, you still have to push her forward to the hand, you can keep riding as long as you can feel the hindlegs in your hand." ~ Susanne Miesner

"The reaction to the leg is everything. The ability to collect a horse from the seat and leg, not the hand, is quite an art." ~ Debbie McDonald

Many horses are quite responsive to their rider’s gentle voice. Don’t forget to take advantage of this when your horse is tense or distracted.

"There are many different schools of training – the one thing that is most important is the welfare of the horse, the one thing we must concentrate on is producing healthy and strong horses." ~ Emile Faurie

Good shoulder in work will improve the range of motion and sideways reach in your horse’s half pass work.

Make sure you understand the difference between energy and stored energy - it is the difference between speed and impulsion.

"When training a riding horse, the aim is to introduce natural gymnastic work. This is the way to ensure that his joints become more supple and his stamina and muscle tone improve. The horse’s way of going is totally dependent on his muscles and the contraction and relaxation of the different muscle groups are essential for strengthening them. Cavalletti work is very useful for this because it develops strength in particular muscles by asking the horse to move in a specific and controlled way." ~ Ingrid Klimke

It is quite easy to let a poor transition slide by when you are working on something other than the quality of your transitions at that moment. But that will lead to bad habits, and the loss of the gymnastic value of the transition. No matter what you are specifically working on, make every transition count!

"When you relax your arms and feel the reins softly you need to feel that your horse wants to step into the contact. If you do not then he is behind your leg and seat." ~ Yvonne Barteau

"The back is the bridge in the horse, and it can only be there if the hind leg is really working. The rider has to influence the hind legs to build that bridge, otherwise it is a horse in three pieces, back, front and you somewhere in the middle." ~ Francis Verbeek

One of the biggest keys to success is the rider's ability to differentiate between resisting and pulling on the reins.

A good horse will forgive you when you make a mistake - and expects you to do the same.

From member Sharon Fitzgerald ~ "Stopping on the third perfect response (if we are at least 20 minutes in) and getting off is a very effective training technique for solidifying work. Horses have near perfect memory. What I end on is often what I start with the next session. That sets the stage for progressive training. At this point, my horse knows I will vault off if he tries and succeeds at doing what is asked."

Take your time when riding transitions. Many riders seem to rush through them just to get them done. Be conscious of preparing for each one, and feeling all of the details while you are making the transition - being ready to abort the transition if things start to go wrong. 

When trying to improve the activity and engagement of your horse’s hind legs in downward transitions, think of a trot in place and dancing your way to the walk or halt.

A horse can turn lazy or become unresponsive to the aids within a single ride. It's up to YOU as his rider to make sure he is responsive to light aids!

If your horse struggles to maintain a consistent rhythm, think of using your breathing to help him stay regular. This is one reason why counting is so useful, as when you count, you will breathe in that rhythm.

"If he puts his head up, keep riding, don’t pull down, he’ll decide it’s not comfy up there…" ~ Debbie McDonald

"The back is the bridge, and the energy is going from the hind end and the hocks over the back through the neck and into the mouth, and then back again." ~ Ernst Hoyos

Turn on the forehand and leg yield can be used to teach the horse that the rider's leg can mean something other than, "Go forward." The horse must understand this concept in these very basic movements before you will find much success with any of the more complicated lateral movements. 

"I like to think of the tension in a Thoroughbred’s body as it seeks to learn the meaning of our aids as an intense desire to please us." ~ Steuart Pittman

"Most of the riders ride with their upper body very stiff – especially their shoulders. If the stomach is in balance and in the position it should be, the shoulders are allowed to relax, and should relax. You need to be loose in your shoulders. As long as the rider is breathing in the upper body he is going to be too tight, too cramped to get the horse to go forward from a relaxed seat. The rider learns to breathe in the lower stomach and everything will relax. The weight will come into the saddle and the horse moves away from the aid of the weight. But if a rider cramps in the upper body, he cramps everywhere and is effectively unable to ride his horse." ~ Ernst Hoyos