In riding, we make attempts of setting goals, giving ourselves something to inspire, challenge, motivate, and reward ourselves with. We feel accomplished when we have met the goal, or disparaged when we fall short of it. Perhaps the goal is not specific enough to attain or fail at, so becomes a safety net of sorts.
The [...]

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I’ve rekindled my need for physical activity. Still cold, still snowy after a new accumulation of 19+ inches just this week alone. I’ve got a bit of cabin fever, combined with watching videos of my old teacher talking about seat training… pushes me out the door. Scout, my love, was quite anxious to be brought [...]

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So much focus is put towards the horse’s head set, having a light mouth, being collected and balanced. So much focus on our goals, with little insight into how we get there. Do we ride the same train from one terminal to the next hoping somehow to get to our destination despite riding the wrong [...]

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Circular, that is time. We live in a world dominated by linear functions, our calendar reads left to right, start to finish. There is little left of the cycles we once relied upon as a species to guide our functions from day to day, week to week, month to month, season to season, year to [...]

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So it’s icy out and I have work tonight so no time to play with the ponies. I figured I would post something written over the course of this fall. It was largely inspired by a Neuromuscular Therapy course I was attending, and also from the previous understanding I’ve had of the horse. Something to [...]

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Scout’s overall improvement from yesterday to today has been very noticeable. We are looking for forward, forward, forward. A familiar sentiment from my work with Andie… We are getting more energy, more involvement, more mental connection. We had less forward in leading today from yesterday, the temperature difference was noticeable and the horses were [...]

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Andeut
Finding relaxation is often a trying task. Andie, as she is affectionately called, has not had the most relaxing life. From what I have been able to gather, she had been trained using methods to bring her into hyperflexion prior to my purchase of her. My primary interest was only for breeding when I was [...]

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What does it mean to be a weak rider? Is it the inability to hold the correct posture and position in the saddle? Is it the lack of strength in the aids to apply them correctly and productively? What if weak riding were not a bad thing, but a highly sought after reality?
In weak riding, [...]

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In the scheme of things, to find balance between touch and no touch, to find that weight of a mere 5 grams, seems a simple task. Not seated in the saddle there is no concern over one’s own balance in the saddle. Being connected via a simple rein, touch between the hand and the horse’s [...]

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According to each rider, equitation or horsemanship has a different meaning. Some popular themes run along these lines:

Encyclopedia Britannica - (horsemanship)Art of training, riding, and handling horses. Good horsemanship requires that a rider control the animal’s direction, gait, and speed with maximum effectiveness and minimum effort. Natural aids are a rider’s balance, hands, voice, and [...]

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The thought of 5 grams, the weight of a nickel, the weight at which muscles do not resist when pressed. A simple weight, a simple pressure, simple but not easy. To apply a mere 5 grams of pressure with the hand is nearly indistinguishable with no touch at all, it is subtle and short of [...]

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Much has been written on the subject of hyperflexion of late. It seems that since the initial public outcry for it’s abusive effects, a multitude of evidence has since been designed to prove just that in every media - web, print, video and audio. There are seminars, there are lectures, books and so on. They [...]

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