Free Your Shoulders with the Pendulum Arm Swing
Do you stiffen in your shoulders when you ride? Do you lean forward, tense or cock your wrists? Do you have difficulty getting your horse to go forward? Learning to swing your arms like a pendulum from...
View Article10 Everyday Essentials for Your Barn Back Pack
Whether you’re a working student or groom, there are a lot of things that you use throughout the day and a lot of things you might not have on hand that you wish you did. Enter the barn backpack....
View ArticleWatch Your Tongue!
Do you know what your tongue is doing while you ride? Is it relaxed or tense? Do you move it around or brace it against the roof of your mouth or cheek? How about your horse? Does he play with the bit,...
View ArticleWhat to Do When Your Horse Is Loose
Well, it happened. Your horse has gotten loose, and suddenly you’re faced with the daunting task of trying to catch a spooked 1,000lb. animal with a built in flight response before he injures himself...
View ArticlePro Tips for Taking Stunning Horse Photos with Your Smartphone
My first digital camera changed my recorded equestrian life. Gone were the awkward, ginormous-head-tiny-rump photos I’d so often caught on film years prior. Now, when my horse moved from where I’d...
View ArticleThe Skinny on Jumping Straight and Narrow
Ready to take on the challenge of clearing a fence that is taller than it is wide? In his bestselling book The Riding Horse Repair Manual, top eventer Doug Payne gives us the skinny on jumping straight...
View Article2016 Olympic Equestrian Events May Take Place Outside of Brazil
2016 Olympic Equestrian Events May Take Place Outside of Brazil, Confederation Warns (via rio-de-janeiro-travel-information.com) The head of Brazil’s equestrian confederation issued a dire warning this...
View ArticleTake a Chance on Horses
I was raised by a single military father. He was a strict man, but he was fair. He would always encourage me to be conservative, but I inevitably did the opposite. I wanted to be daring and I admired...
View Article5 Ways to Combat the End of Show Season Blues
The end of the show season is always a bit bittersweet, I think. It’s a time where we’re faced with the reality of our successes and our failures during the past year, and it’s a time where we can...
View ArticleHope Glynn: 8 Things I Look for in a Close Contact Saddle
These days, California-based hunter rider Hope Glynn of Sonoma Valley Stables in Petaluma has a full plate. With 40 clients, 53 horses and ponies in training, and a busy on-the-road schedule of more...
View ArticleWhat Should You Visualize When Nervous?
One of the most popular and well-known uses for visualization in sport is to see yourself being successful. To pump yourself up to get in there and crush it, win it, do your best. But in my experience,...
View ArticleBravery is Learned. “Practice Your Guts.”
I recently read a quote by George Morris that resonated with me a lot. Now, I’m not a “GM groupie”. I respect his accomplishments as a horseman and I think he’s definitely knowledgable, but I don’t...
View ArticleHow to Braid Like a Pro
Let’s be real for a sec…braiding a mane is a gigantic pain in the ass. But so too is showing up to a show looking like ass. So you pay a pro a lot of money to come do the ‘do, or you wind up...
View ArticleWhen Riding a Horse Feels Like Riding a Motorbike, Try This
Who hasn’t felt that familiar “motorbiking” sensation as your horse freewheels around a turn, falling in to such a degree you feel like your inside shoulder and knee might as well be brushing the arena...
View ArticleBeezie Madden: “What I Look for in a Close Contact Saddle”
When you reach the kind of superstar status where people recognize you by your nickname (Hey, Beezie!) and the world’s toughest critics (*cough* GEORGE MORRIS) marvel at your textbook position, you can...
View ArticleTake Your Ride Back! 4 Fear Busters to Get You on Your Way
Fears! We all encounter them. Here’s what you can do to tame yours before they grow wildly out of proportion. 1. Get to know your “internal alarmist” ©CEBImagery/Flickr CC You can think of your fear as...
View ArticleTwo Rules for Winter Conditioning
Avoid training derailments from bad weather by following my two rules for conditioning during downtime, outlined below. By doing so, you will not only ease your horse’s re-entry to full-time riding,...
View ArticleBarn Manners: When Strange Holiday Situations Happen to Horse People
‘Tis the time of year when people give you a gift, and you don’t have one to give to them. Maybe you receive an intentionally ugly sweater. (Why did that become a thing? Why?). Will the store even let...
View ArticleA Goal Without a Plan is a Wish
Have you ever found yourself thinking this way? “I hope this is a better season for me.” “I wish I could improve faster.” These are not the thoughts of a focused rider. Wanting and wishing will not get...
View ArticleNo Wasted Strides: How to Own the Jump-Off
When I first started doing the jumpers, I often came out of the ring with a huge grin plastered on my face, saying something like, “Wow, I went soo fast!” And guess what? Each time I said this I ended...
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