Tip/Quote of the Day # 954Always remember that what you do habitually will feel normal to you, whether it is right or wrong.Tip/Quote of the Day # 953"When working on your horse's balance, keep in mind that horses can't be balanced under unbalanced riders. We always need to begin with the education and balance of the rider." ~ Debbie McdonaldTip/Quote of the Day # 952Your 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.Tip/Quote of the Day # 951You drive your horse heavily into your hands when you lean back even slightly behind the vertical.Tip/Quote of the Day # 950
“I start by stretching the horse and trying to make him relaxed and supple. It’s a bit like gymnastic with a horse, dressage is. You wouldn’t expect a gymnastics person to just go and start their workout; they do a nice stretch in the warm-up first.” ~ Charlotte Dujardin
Tip/Quote of the Day # 949When your horse is impressed by a jump, and gathers itself a bit to look on the approach, you have a free half halt. Do not get caught taking back in this situation, or you may cause your horse to stop. Think "keep the hind legs moving" all the way to the base of the jump to ensure that you maintain sufficient forward energy as the horse looks. Yet don't push them out of balance by trying to run at the jump.Tip/Quote of the Day # 948One of the biggest differences between good riders and the very top riders is the speed of their reactions.Tip/Quote of the Day # 947The horse that wants to fall out on circles should work more often on a square figure than a circle, until the rider has better control of the outside of the horse's body.Tip/Quote of the Day # 946Don't just get a good canter and then forget about it, you need to think about the quality of your canter every stride all the way to every jump.Tip/Quote of the Day # 945 “You don’t go to competitions to see how good you are, you go to show how good you are!” ~ Bruce DavidsonTip/Quote of the Day # 944"Don't jump 4'6" over 2'6"." ~ Jimmy WoffordTip/Quote of the Day # 943When your horse stretches, you cannot follow him with your posture, rounding your shoulders and leaning forward - or you will be encouraging him to fall onto the forehand. Tip/Quote of the Day # 942The horse points his nose at what he wants to see in focus. This is why we want our horse's head and nose UP on the approach to their fences, and why we need to allow them to lower their heads and look at the takeoff of an open ditch or a drop fence.Tip/Quote of the Day # 941What do we want from our horses over fences? Consistency and balance. If we as riders are more consistent and balanced with our own position as we ride a course, we make achieving that with the horse much easier.Tip/Quote of the Day # 940When your horse is spooking, don't stare at whatever it is that they are looking at. Look where you want to go, and don't let any of his antics change your focus. Tip/Quote of the Day # 939One of the biggest reasons riders meet resistance when attempting to control their horse's canter is that they stop following the motion of the horse's head and neck with their elbows.Tip/Quote of the Day # 938There must always be a medium trot or canter within your collected gait. If you feel that you could not simply release your collected trot or canter into a medium gait, then you do not have true collection - you merely have a horse that is going slowly.Tip/Quote of the Day # 937Especially in front of really wide rampy jumps, it is tempting for riders to soften the reins too much, to sort of "help" the horse to go forward. The bigger the jump, and the faster the speed on the approach, the more important it is for the rider to maintain the feel of the horse's mouth in the last stride.Tip/Quote of the Day # 936Riders with short arms need to ride with longer reins.Tip/Quote of the Day # 935"Don't take the tempo down without revving the engine." ~ Chris BartleTip/Quote of the Day # 934"Cross country rides best when you attack it. Don't let IT attack you." ~ Jonathan HollingTip/Quote of the Day # 933Put your leg on just before you start to shorten your reins after the free walk or the stretching trot circle. This way you can ride forward into that shorter rein (as well as asking for bending) even as you are shortening them. The increased activity of the hind legs will lift the horse's head and neck naturally from your stretching position, and that allows you to shorten the reins with minimal fuss. If you start to shorten your reins with your leg off, and your horse will be more likely to hollow his back and resist. Tip/Quote of the Day # 932Always look for the feeling of a shoulder fore positioning in your half pass. This will help to prevent the haunches from leading, or the horse from leaning heavily on the inside shoulder. And it will also help to keep more engagement in the inside hind leg, with more impulsion overall in the movement.Tip/Quote of the Day # 931Prepare for a flying change by making sure that your horse is responding sharply to what will be your new inside leg. Make sure he feels very active and responsive to that aid, while staying loose through his body, before you ask for the change.Tip/Quote of the Day # 930You cannot make your horse jump cleanly, so don't try to pick him up with your hands and legs, and attempt to throw him over the fence with your body, Instead - set them up for success, and then let them jump cleanly.Tip/Quote of the Day # 929"Sometimes we have to surprise the crazy ones to make them do a nice test, and either do no warm up or do something random, but overall, horses love a routine." ~ William Fox PittTip/Quote of the Day # 928Frequent quality transitions are the best way to confirm that your horse is listening equally to both the driving aids and the restraining aids.Tip/Quote of the Day # 927On the question of "Should I use a stronger bit?" Jimmy Wofford says, "The correctly trained horse should be able to compete in a plain snaffle and simple cavesson in all three disciplines. However, it takes a long time to train your horse correctly, and you have to live through the short-term to prove that I am right in the long-term."Tip/Quote of the Day # 926From Facebook fan Donna Peters ~ "Once you feel what it feels like when the withers rise and the back fills up the space under your seat and thighs, you never forget it."Tip/Quote of the Day # 925"The horse needs to learn how to jump from a bad distance. How is he going to learn if you don't practice this?" ~ William Fox PittTip/Quote of the Day # 924Does your horse regularly hit rails behind? Check that you are not hanging onto his mouth, or taking back on the reins on the descent of the jump.Tip/Quote of the Day # 923A half halt will not "go through" unless your horse is relaxed in the back and at least somewhat connected.Tip/Quote of the Day # 922“My Father always strived for Olympic glory, but he was well aware that he would not reach this goal if he took shortcuts. He knew it was better to wait than rush a horse’s training. Our highest aim is to make our horses more beautiful and keep them healthy through their training. To achieve this the three daily priorities with all horses are 1) take small steps, 2) keep variety in the training and 3) foster the horse’s personality … which means we should never dominate our horses." ~ Ingrid KlimkeTip/Quote of the Day # 921"Don't look at your steering wheel, look at the road." ~ Chris BartleTip/Quote of the Day # 920When the horse is at a level where they are ready for it, mixing up a few strides of shoulder in, a few of half pass, a few more of shoulder in, to a few steps of renvers is a great way to keep your horse sharp to your aids, and is a great test of the horse's lateral balance.Tip/Quote of the Day # 919When horses carry tension in their back, it usually shows up one of these two ways: Either the tension incites their flight response, and they want to rush, rush, rush…. or because they don't like the way their bodies feel they become "stuck," and it becomes very difficult to get and keep the horse in front of your leg. Dissipate the tension and get the horse's back happily swinging, and the nervous, rushy horse relaxes into an even rhythm, and the "stuck" horse will begin to go happily forward.Tip/Quote of the Day # 918It 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.Tip/Quote of the Day # 917A horse's balance, or lack thereof, is most evident in downward transitions.Tip/Quote of the Day # 916The time to think about each jump and the particular questions that it may ask is when you are walking your course. Once on course, keep thinking about maintaining the quality of your canter, and let the jumps just get in the way.Tip/Quote of the Day # 915A great way to introduce flying lead changes to your Event horse is when out galloping in a field. It is quite natural for them to change leads cleanly when galloping strongly (when they are also in balance.) So this can be used to our advantage to help them understand what we want.Tip/Quote of the Day # 914As you finish a course, ask yourself if you are finishing with the same pace that you started with. If the answer is no… the next question you need to ask yourself is which speed was better for your horse's jumping - the way you started, or the way you finished? Then make sure you use that information on the next course that you jump.Tip/Quote of the Day # 913"To get TB's (which easily can get hollow and short necked and tight in the back) to stay loose, swinging and over their back you sometimes let them go a bit "deep" to start, then always going to engaging exercises to bring the poll up." ~ Lara Knight Tip/Quote of the Day # 912When working on trot/walk transitions, if you feel your horse is being lazy with one hind leg in the transition, do a few steps of leg yield off of that leg before moving on - making sure your horse is hot to that lateral aid. Tip/Quote of the Day # 911Horses that have a smooth and naturally balanced gallop stride often have longer careers in this sport. Keep that in mind when looking for a prospect. Tip/Quote of the Day # 910Frequent transitions and half halts are ultimately what give you impulsion rather than speed from the energy in your horse's stride. Tip/Quote of the Day # 909"Relaxation is the bread and butter without which you cannot advance to stage two, balance." ~ Charles de KunffyTip/Quote of the Day # 908"A horse with impulsion will display rounder, more fluid, and more continuous action and will develop supple joints and an elastic musculature. There is a subtle vibration in the impulsive horse's body." ~ Charles de KunffyTip/Quote of the Day # 907From Facebook fan Andi Stockton Fox ~ "It's much easier to ride to the base of the fence when I am actively riding forward to the fence."Tip/Quote of the Day # 906When jumping, long stirrups might seem easier to you, but shorter stirrups (within reason, of course) will make you a better rider. Tip/Quote of the Day # 905When teaching, I am always on the lookout for signs that the horse might need a short stretching break. Sometimes it is something as subtle as a more anxious look in the horse's eyes. And sometimes it is more obvious, like the horse starts to become a little more fussy about the contact, or starts to get a little lower in front and/or heavy in his rider's hands. It is wise to give your horse a short stretch at whatever gait you are working in, exactly when your horse needs it. This keeps his body more comfortable, keeps him enjoying his work, and most importantly - builds the amount of trust that he has for his rider, and the idea of training in general.
