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The Runaround: An Exercise for Achieving Collection (Really!)
Sandy Collier has enjoyed great success in her career as an NRCHA, NRHA, and AQHA champion horse trainer. Named one of the “Top 50 Riders of All Time in All Disciplines” by Horse & Rider Magazine, she was inducted into the Cowgirl Hall of Fame in 2011, and the NRCHA’s Hall of Fame in 2012. Collier…
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4 Steps to the Emergency Dismount
It was over 25 years ago, but I can still close my eyes and immediately feel the pounding of hooves on the hard dirt road in my head, and the rawness of my skinned and abraded hands as they desperately pulled to one side, then the other, on what were, at the time, fairly useless…
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Riders! Do NOT Put Your Shoulders Back!
The rider’s trunk and extremities interact and depend on each other. For example, hands and arms depend on shoulder position, which depends on the shoulder girdle, which depends on the position of the spinal column (in particular, the thoracic spine). All of this interconnectedness means that the common instruction heard in riding rings round the…
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Mounting Anxiety?
How do you think your horse feels about being mounted? Does he fidget? Throw his head up? Drop his back? Root at the bit? It is easy to unbalance your horse when you mount him, and you can also unbalance him when you dismount. Learning to take your time in the process of mounting and dismounting…
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Counter-Canter, Counter-Flexion: An Exercise by Raymond the Horse
If horses could talk, what would they say about the exercises we ask them to do and the movements we have them perform? Grand Prix dressage rider and popular equestrian performer Yvonne Barteau has wondered this throughout her lifelong career with horses, and so she has tried very hard over the years to learn to…
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The First Ride: Analyzing a Horse on the Flat
Doug Payne is a well-known equestrian on the international scene, perhaps most recognized as the eventer-most-likely-to-wear-a-helmet-cam. His pulse-quickening videos are seemingly everywhere, leaving hundreds of would-be riders dizzy from their virtual Rolex experience. But Payne is also recognized for his ability to see “what could be” in horses others may have dismissed. Here he gives…
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Walk This Way! 3 Common Gait Problems and Their Solutions
Arthur Kottas-Heldenberg was accepted as a student at the Spanish Riding School of Vienna in 1960 and rose rapidly under the tutelage of Colonel Alois Podhajsky to become the youngest ever First Chief Rider in the history of the school. Internationally respected, Kottas has successfully trained many horses and riders to Olympic standard in dressage.…
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Fix the Horse That Refuses to Go Forward: Tips from Heather Smith Thomas to Beat the Balk
Remember those stubborn ponies of your past whose fat bellies deflected your thumping heels like a bug guard on the front of a pickup truck? I can recall more than one incident when “Misty,” “Sweetpea,” or “Katrina” just decided they would do no more (and really, looking back, who could blame them?) Most of us…
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