TSB BLOG

Category: Tips and Ideas

  • Warming Up for the Dressage Test: Tips from Olympian Phillip Dutton

    Warming Up for the Dressage Test: Tips from Olympian Phillip Dutton

    Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event 2017 starts today with the first horse inspection, and the dressage phase kicks off tomorrow morning. To make sure everyone’s ready to go, here are five tips for warming up prior to your dressage test from MODERN EVENTING WITH PHILLIP DUTTON: 1  Start in walk on a 20-meter circle if the […]

  • Let’s Dance! This Arena Exercise for Horses Rocks

    Let’s Dance! This Arena Exercise for Horses Rocks

    When the circles seem to never (ever…ever) end and your horse starts spooking at his own pile of manure just for something different to do, it’s time to liven up your schooling sessions. There are many ways to make training more engaging, including imaginative uses of lateral work, props like ground poles and cones, and […]

  • Sit on Your Hands to Ride Better

    Sit on Your Hands to Ride Better

    We all want to communicate with our horses in ways they can understand. When riding, that communication is dependent on our aids. What we might not realize is just knowing what the aids are and in what order to apply them isn’t enough to “speak” clearly to your horse. It is important sit centered, straight, […]

  • Half-Halts Everyone Can Understand (No, Really)

    Half-Halts Everyone Can Understand (No, Really)

    No one can give us the skinny on how to do an honest-to-goodness half-halt like motivational speaker and dressage rider Jane Savoie. She gets that this integral part of, well, basically EVERY riding activity, can be difficult to understand and tough to put into practice in a way that it actually (really and truly) works. […]

  • 9 Tips for Better Flexion and Bend from Uta Gräf

    German Grand Prix dressage rider and trainer Uta Gräf has made a name for herself in international dressage circles, not only for her cheerful nature and wild hair, but also for her beautifully ridden, content, satisfied horses. Now Gräf lets us in on all her training secrets in her new book UTA GRÄF’S EFFORTLESS DRESSAGE […]

  • Top 10 Lessons from Top Horse Trainers

    One of the best perks of working for an equestrian book publisher (assuming you are just the littlest bit horsey) is the constant immersion in equine-related theory, philosophy, and how-to. There is so much opportunity to absorb the ideas of great horsepeople and to try their techniques and methods for oneself—or to come to understand […]

  • Hey Riders! It’s Time to Tame Your Lizard Brain!

    Don’t we all like to feel like we’re in control of our actions and reactions? Especially when it comes to working with and riding horses—it is in our best interests (in terms of living to see another day, that is) to maintain some semblance of calm, cool, rational control in stance and movement, and to […]

  • Is Stress Coming Between You and Your Horse?

    There are a lot of things these days that can making getting to the barn difficult, or even impossible. Hey, from experience, it even can happen when your barn is in your backyard! Work, kids, spouse, meals, extended family, friends, fitness, errands, household repairs and chores, appointments—you name it, they take time, and pretty soon […]

  • Video: Fold a Horse Blanket Like a Pro in 30 Seconds

    Here’s a quick tip to take you into your weekend when you’ll be puttering around the barn and hanging out with your horses: “A blanket should always be folded neatly and hung up,” say pro grooms Cat Hill and Emma Ford in their bestselling book WORLD-CLASS GROOMING FOR HORSES. “Blankets chucked over the wall or […]

  • 5 Tips to Train Your Horse Turn-on-the-Haunches

    In the book COWBOY DRESSAGE, readers not only discover the story of how and why this new discipline has secured such an avid and expanding fanbase, they also learn the movements recommended by Cowboy Dressage founder Eitan Beth-Halachmy as beneficial to the development of horse-and-rider partnership. Here are his tips for adding the turn-on-the-haunches to […]