What Are Your Legs Doing? (Half-halt Help)
How are the half-halts coming? Does a breath and a light thigh pulse work? Or are your legs exhausted by the end...
Photo Challenge: Atop
It's an inherited seat; elders and babies ride loose in time, strong and vulnerable and not quite domesticated. Sky-tall and exquisitely...
The Mysterious Half-Halt
Thanks to a request, I'm writing about the half-halt. Ever notice how every definition you read starts with the disclaimer that it's the...
Do You Communicate Like a Coyote?
Some of us baby-talk and cuddle our horses like they're twelve-hundred-pound teddy bears. Some of us enter the pen with...
Part Two: Norman, Is That You? (The Reactive Horse)
Last week, I wrote about horses who are The Strong Silent Type. This horse is the opposite. Describing him sounds...
Part One: The Strong Silent Type (Of Horse)
I've said it before: While growing up, I saw She Wore a Yellow Ribbon more often than I saw my...
What To Do When Your Horse Is Wrong
It started small. It started the way it usually starts; the rider pulled on her horse's face. It's a fundamental disagreement:...
Energetic Tidiness in the Saddle.
Some of us climb into the saddle and have all kinds of crazy dangerous things happen--right out of the blue. We...
Riding a Suspension… of Disbelief
Some of us are okay with who we are in the saddle. We don't question the ride, or if we do,...
Mental Focus Means Not Trying Too Hard
My friend and I took yoga while we were in high school. It was 1971 or so, and I can't...
Bite Your Tongue.
It's an election year and I'm a politics geek. There, I said it. But the rhetoric is deafening. Sometimes there...
Riding the Inside of Your Horse
When I was just a dressage-princess-wannabe, before I became a full-blown Dressage Queen, I thought dressage riders all wore a kind...
A Serenity Prayer For Both of You
The seasons are changing and the air feels cooler. That's what you notice, but your horse seems just a bit...
The Truth Behind Bit Drama
Do you know how your bit works? No, I mean really. Not some cowboy-on-YouTube's fantasy about horses needing to learn to carry...
Ride Shorter, Progress Farther.
If I were to write a training book entitled Less is More, it would be hundreds of pages long. The...
You're a Timid Rider?
What if it isn't a bad thing? I have a "big picture" thing I want to say and it's going...
Serenity NOW! (Training Calmness)
She wrote, "I struggle with him to stand still. I suspect he recognizes I am nervous."I'm answering an email question...
Halt, Rein-back, Cha-cha-cha.
This is how it feels: It's a trot that's resistance free. He glides with relaxed strides. At first you think...
Subscribe to Blog via Email
Enter your name and email to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.