My lessons last weekend really got me thinking, and it took me a bit to organize my thoughts into words. My weekend students are wonderful, caring riders, but they were struggling with my basic approach to riding and training today. I felt as if I had failed them because they Read more
Okay so fair warning, this is a bit of a pet peeve of mine. If you have spent time with me you probably already know my thoughts on this subject. If not, then lets start at the beginning. A lot of jumpers are ridden with large bits – often gags Read more
Most horse owners rarely think about their horse’s fitness level or try to actively improve it. Most of us just go about our ride working on training the horse to do his job. However, most of the training we are doing is asking the horse to carry himself better, which Read more
Most people assume being a good rider is the same as being a good trainer, which is far from the truth. Good riders learn proper position and aids. They learn how to ask correctly for skills and ride well trained horses. However, when a horse doesn’t respond properly a good Read more
Recently I’ve been working with a few horses who have some rather serious issues. Most of these issues occur when the horses are stressed or put in unfamiliar situations. This has really gotten me thinking about the coping mechanisms horses develop and how we can help horses cope better. Horses Read more
I’ve had several people ask me when they need to do groundwork before they ride and when they can just get on and I’ve found myself having a lot of difficulty answering this question. Although to most people’s eyes I often “just get on”, in my opinion that isn’t possible Read more