Do you pull on your horse’s mouth even though you know you shouldn’t? Does your instructor tell you to “give to your horse” all the time? Do you try to throw away the reins after you have used them in an attempt to stop yourself from pulling?

Does your horse show any of these signs? If so, a poorly fitting saddle may be the cause. 1) showing any objection to being saddled 2) being “cold-backed” during mounting 3) slow to warm up or relax 4) resistance to work 5) resistance to training aids 6) hock, stifle, or obscure hind limb lameness 7) […]

The last of the Centered Riding® Basics is Grounding. Sally Swift calls this the glue that binds the other Basics together.  The roots-of-the-tree image in the book, Centered Riding, illustrate Grounding. Grounding provides supple stability in riding while lengthening provides the power. (We will leave lengthening for later. Without Grounding you can’t lengthen.) Grounding is […]