I WILL WALK FOR PRAISE

When I got to ride Merlin today I did not have big hopes since he “got away” with standing for 15 minutes last week.  As usual I waited for Merlin to sigh, and then I did my escalation of my driving aids, WALK, light squeeze with both legs, then a light touch of my spurs.  To my utter surprise Merlin started walking after making me…

"Who invented this dalgum Training Scale, anyway? Where, on God's green earth, did it come from?" mused the rider, after setting her horse fair........

http://DressageUnderground.wordpress.com

Ever since I started reading books on riding I have been trying to puzzle out what the horsemen actually MEANT.  When I got my first horse I had the comforting illusion that I knew at least a little bit about riding (I had 4 years of trail riding as a young kid).  My first horse, a 5 year old just gelded green broke Anglo-Arab gelding quickly taught me that I did not know much at all.  Fortunately a few months after I got him I ran into and quickly adopted the…

I got to ride Mia twice this week, but, since Debbie wrenched her back badly, I didn't get a riding lesson. So I worked on things in my position that Debbie had been getting after me about, mostly making sure that my lower leg did not go too far back. Debbie DOES NOT like seeing the whole girth when I am riding, she wants my lower leg right at the girth. Of course…

Captain Federico Caprilli of the Italian Cavalry, the originator of the modern jumping seat, left very few writings, just around 22 pages, that introduce us to the thinking of this revolutionary equestrian thinker. It is very easy to read these articles quickly and to sit back and go--oh…

So, last night Maggie and I had a lesson. We were outfitted with the running martingale, which is working well, although it got adjusted a bit tighter. Beauty of the running, it only engages when you need it and it doesn't help you actually ride your horse or get it round. It also takes away Maggie's favourite game of throwing her head in the air and doing whatever the hell she really wants to do... always a bonus.

So, we warmed up and then out comes the longe whip. Now we're…

7 Steps to a Better Ride

STEP 7 – COLLECTION – THE SWEET REWARD

By Deborah…

We often can see rider's setting their horse's heads by pulling the reins back and forth and the horse ends up in a head set, without experiencing true collection.... so how can we get our horses to offer collection and a nice round head set?…