One of the most frustrating parts of being (or living with!) someone who rides horses for fun or as part of professional work on a farm, barn, or stable is dealing with the horse manure smells. A lingering barn odor sometimes makes the clothing we wear horseback riding stink! In this article, we’ll be talking …
Has your horse or pony recently started tossing their head up in the air when you are riding? When horses start head tossing behavior, it can be a sign of a few things. Because head tossing can have a few causes, it may take some detective work to figure out which is the correct solution …
Most horses have four main gaits: the walk, the trot, the canter (called a lope in Western riding), and the gallop. Within these gaits, horses have a huge variance- horses can be taught to trot or even lope as slow as other horses walk! The speed of each gait depends on many factors. Just like …
Learning to sit the trot is something western rider must learn, and something most dressage riders dread! It’s the most difficult gait for most horseback riders to learn to ride, but our sitting trot tips are here to help. Below you’ll find a few easy exercises I picked up during training, competing, and teaching dressage …
When people use the word saddle sores they might mean two different things: either sores that develop on riders due to sensitive skin being irritated during riding or sores that develop on a horse’s body underneath the saddle. What are saddle sores and how do riders get them? Minor saddle sores are part of …
The diagram below provides an important tip for equitation classes that many beginners learn the hard way – by performing the pattern incorrectly in the show ring. As this diagram shows, to correctly execute a figure 8 in an equitation class at a horse show, it is important to not ride the pattern in …
Sometimes the technical terms and jargon used by horse owners and horseback riders can be confusing to beginners and those outside of the “horse world”. Recently, we’ve been exploring some of these concepts through a blog, and today we are going to talk about what it means to say a horse is “heavy on the …
There are many ways to cue your horse when riding. One of the most popular ways, unique to the Western style of riding developed in the United States, is called neck reining. Neck reining is in some ways the “opposite” of what is called direct rein riding. What is Neck Reining? In direct-rein riding, the …
After competing in dressage for years, one statement I’ve heard occasionally- especially in the midwest- is that dressage is unnatural for horses. Proponents of this view feel that the way in which horses are “forced” to move during a dressage competition are not natural, and that such movements would never be performed by a horse …
The canter can be a hard gait to learn, and the speed that accompanies the gait can bring anxiety for many beginning riders. In this article, we’ll talk about: cuing your horse to canter relaxing as you transition into the canter sitting correctly in the saddle so you feel secure and connected how to know …