Even if the rider has all of their body parts generally in the right place, they will feel out of balance and out of "sync" with their horse's movement when the shock absorbing joints in their hips and legs are locked and rigid.
"You should recognize that your equine partner has an eye of its own when jumping and allow a good horse to have some role in the decision making process." ~ Frank Chapot
A little trick for those of you who need to be more stable with your outside rein connection, and your outside hand in general, is to try the temporary exercise of holding onto your saddle pad with the fingers of your outside hand. Stabilizing your outside hand in this way will also help you to learn to better use your body, rather than your hands, to turn your horse.
Too much use of the inside rein will almost always make a horse fight. If your horse is fighting with you in any situation, check that you are not hanging on the inside rein unconsciously.
"Dressage is not an easy sport, there are so many variations, but the reaction to your leg, and straightness, are so important. You just don’t see top Grand Prix riders kicking or straining for a result. Don’t tease him, tap there so quick he doesn’t know it is coming. Everything in a horse’s life should be black and white, not grey." ~ Debbie McDonald
The most energy efficient way for a horse to gallop cross country is to gallop in balance, so that very little adjustments are necessary in front of the fences. If you could gallop in such a way that a fence could drop from the sky and land in front of you when you are just 3 or 4 strides away, and you could jump it well - then you will be giving your horse the best chance to finish the course with plenty of gas in the tank.
Your training goal for the "hot" or high strung horse should be to help him to learn how to control his energy. Don't try to wear him out. That will never work with the truly hot horse.
Michael Jung says he puts particular emphasis on checking his horses’ heart and respiratory rate once before and twice after each ride, the first time immediately after work and the second time after the horse had time to recuperate.
Don't forget that the way the distance rides between two jumps changes as the fence height changes. The horse will land further into a line or combination when the jumps are larger, which makes the distance effectively shorter.
The old masters learned early on that riding accurate arena patterns is the key for improving a horse's balance and straightness. Always keep this in mind in your training.
When you are teaching your horse something new, begin to teach it to him in the direction that he finds the easiest, so that it is a more positive experience for him.
Be extra careful when conditioning both young horses and older horses. Young horses have tendon/ligaments/bones that have not yet been strengthened. And the older horse’s ligaments and tendons tend to become less elastic and resilient over time.
"Don't delude yourself into thinking that you have light, soft hands, if you ride with loose, almost dangling reins on a strung out horse. That can be done with insensitive hands as well. A soft hand requires the rider to feel whether the horse is softly on the bit, chewing, and whether it responds to a light pressure, in other words, whether it has an active mouth. If he rides with loose reins, the horse can have a dead mouth, which will only show up when you use the reins to stop or to shorten the strides, as it will either let you pull its nose onto its chest, or it will invert, and in both cases it will open its mouth." ~ Oskar M. Stensbeck
"When you're carrying a bag of feed over your shoulder and that bag slips, what do you do? You move underneath the bag. That’s exactly what happens to the horse. Every time you move, he's going to try to get underneath you. So, our job is to stay in the middle and not move around so much." ~ Buck Davidson
Positive reinforcement is a very powerful way to train horses. And because of this, you must be very careful that you are actually reinforcing the right things.
Mental limitations can often be much more career limiting for riders than physical limitations. If things are difficult for you physically, don't give up!
A good lunging program will allow your horse learn how to balance himself on a proper circle in self carriage, without the added challenge of a rider on board.
A horse needs to have above average back strength to carry a rider easily in collection. If you have lofty goals with your riding, it is a good idea to keep your horse on a strength training program.
You don't really improve your horse's canter by just cantering around and around. Instead, use lots of forward and back transitions to "spice up" your horse's hind legs.
From Facebook fan Nicole Cotten Ackerman ~ "Someone once suggested I recognize that I was nervous because 'I love this and am so lucky to be doing it', and now I say that out loud to myself and my horse every time the nerves creep in... works wonderfully!!!"
"When your horse loses his 'go', try sitting lighter, not deeper. I find on my mare, when I'm losing impulsion, I'm gripping or riding too deep. And when I just relax my legs and drape them and use my hips more, my horse goes forward. Sometimes that means standing for a split second and re-adjusting my seat to get lighter but it works!" ~ Jennifer Stankiewicz
It may seem like riders only need to think about a formal conditioning schedule at the upper levels, but every horse at every level will benefit from a balanced and well thought out conditioning schedule.
"Permeability can only exist when, on the one hand, the thrust and impulsion from the hind legs reach the forehand undiminished, and on the other hand, when the weighting and flexing half-halts fully reach the hind legs. This requires the forehand and hindquarters to be aligned in such a way that, on a single track, the horse always adjusts his spine to the straight or curved line of travel, so that the hind legs follow in the same line as the front legs." ~ Waldemar Seunig
