Although it’s sometimes sought like the holy grail by dressage riders, a square halt is not to be valued as an end in itself, but for what it tells you about your horse’s development. Think of it as a...
Charlotte Dujardin made waves last summer when she earned Great Britain's first-ever Olympic medals in dressage—a gold ones, to boot—in both individual competition and with her teammates for a team gold. Her career with the Dutch Warmblood gelding, Valegro...
Q: My 5-year-old gelding’s introduction to dressage is going well, but I can’t figure out how to keep him from collapsing his shoulder inward when we do circles or bend in the corners. How do I help him stay...
Crocheted ear bonnets (also called “ear hoods”) first became
popular in the world of show jumping. Grand prix riders, competing on grass
fields during spring and summer, realized their horses were often distracted by
flies and gnats. It was disconcerting to gallop...
“I think we have to be open to innovations in bit design and materials,” says Hilary M. Clayton, BVMS, Ph.D., MRCVS, Mary Anne McPhail Equine Performance Center dressage chair, Equine Sports Medicine, Large Animal Clinical Sciences, College of Veterinary...
The half-halt is probably one of the most misunderstood, misused, skipped over and hardest to learn skills in riding. That may sound exaggerated, but even if you think you know how to half-halt, are you really sure you have...
One of the biggest questions concerning young performance horses is when to start their serious training. Being too hasty can risk both physical injury and behavioral problems. Horses mature at various rates, and their readiness to work needs to...
If you've gone to light, active aids with your legs (squeeze-release, squeeze-release) and you're still not getting your 35-degree angle, you can transfer part of the responsibility for going sideways out of your right leg and into your right...
Breathing in the new leather fragrance in the tack shop, facing a wall of tall English boots, all gleaming softly, waiting to be tried on, you wonder: Will I be Cinderella, or an ugly stepsister when I take up...
Don't expect instant results, and never force your muscles and joints. Work on the rusty-hinge principle: When a rusty hinge makes a door stiff, you oil the hinge, and then rock the door to and fro to...
