So you know how to ride a leg yield, but you can’t help thinking that it feels labored and dull. You try so hard to push the horse over from point A to B, and you barely make it over in time. It sounds like you need to refine your leg yield! And I have...

What is the most important aid you can choose to use while riding? The leg? Your seat? The whip?…Or maybe your voice? While the above aids are very important and highly effective, there is another, more important aid, that many riders overlook. Attitude Yes, your attitude really is an aid, and quite possibly, it’s the...

Reading your horse from up in the saddle is one of the most valuable skills you could ever learn. So many times, riders often just hop on and go for a ride, opting to be merely a passenger. While there are many instances where “enjoying the ride” is completely ok, it is far better for...

Imagine you are riding along in a nice, peaceful trot. But when you ask for canter, your horse shoots off like a cannon and goes around a circle like a crotch rocket motorcycle navigating a sharp turn! Your horse just keeps getting faster and faster as he falls more and more to the inside, and...

Over the years, as I’ve grown as a rider and learn more and more about how everything connects, I have come to realize that there is ONE major ingredient that hails above all else. One simple concept can aid in the improvement of all the other fundamentals and intertwine to complete the package. It’s the...

The fast, rushing horse. The horse that just runs and runs and won’t stop. Many people will tell you that this type of horse is full of energy and can’t contain it. It might be true that he is full of energy, but the ironic part is that he is being lazy by not using...

Hind end engagement is one of the most important elements, or ingredients, for creating fabulous movement in your horse. Impulsion is often sought after, but your can’t get proper impulsion without engagement. Think of engagement as a compressed spring. When it compresses, that is engagement. When you release the energy and it springs up, that...

The beautiful, elegant, ever-flowing free walk. It seems simple enough, but many riders have major problems during their free walk. In fact, there’s one particular problem that seems to creep up on almost everyone during the free walk, often costing them some serious points. Can you guess what the biggest, most common problem with the...

The 20 meter circle is one of the most basic fundamental patterns ridden in dressage. It appears in training level and first level with the trot, stretchy trot, and canter. Most riders ride the 20 meter circle each time they are on their horse, but did you know that most people get it wrong in...

How often have you heard something in a lesson that you don’t actually fully understand? For me, I would just smile and nod, hoping for the best. And all of a sudden my instructor would say, “Good,” and I really had no clue what I had done. In fact, there was a ton of riding...

Ah, the infamous, highly dreaded, “horrible, no good, very bad day,” stretchy trot! This very difficult movement is first presented in training level and is seen throughout first level in the dressage tests. It’s a movement that almost everyone hates and would rather skip. But this movement is all too important to be ignored. Once...

Sometimes we can’t help but to treat our beloved equine partners as if they were our very own children. So badly we want to pour on the cuddles and drench our horses in attention and praise. As horse owners we try so very hard to make our horses happy. We give them treats, dress them...