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Start light
START LIGHT – TO GET LIGHT If you never start light, you never give your horse a chance to be light. Horses hate surprises. Yet, riders often begin with too much force – pulling on the reins, dragging on the lead rope, or spurring for more forward. To the horse,…
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Position before Action
Position before Action – are you prepared? In our School of Lightness, Ecole de Légèreté, we emphasize the principle of “Position before Action,” rooted in François Baucher’s saying: “Position precedes the action.” Like the Scout motto “Be Prepared,” this idea applies to many situations. For me, it means not asking…
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Achieving Balance:
This article delves into the crucial role of hands in horse-rider communication, emphasizing the importance of achieving balance, relaxation, and contact for effective riding. It discusses the impact of lateral and longitudinal imbalances, and the key steps in establishing a reliable partnership. The hands play a vital role in guiding,…
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A New Website
Dear lovely followers of classicalriding.com.au, I’m writing to let you know I have created a new website – which, if you are subscribed, will now look a bit different. If you’ve been following on the social pages, now is a good time to subscribe to the website if you would…
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Relaxation, Balance, Impulsion
It’s a fail safe recipe. These three qualities are the foundation of all we do with horses. Without these basics, achieving other qualities is difficult and collection impossible. Relaxation and impulsion are an interesting combination. Too much activity, and the horse is not relaxed, it can run through or ignore…
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Opening the Poll
ON, IN FRONT OR BEHIND THE VERTICAL Often we see horses being ridden in a posture that is too ’round’, ‘curled under’ or ‘over-bent’. It may be due to lack of knowledge of how to work the horse correctly, or it can be the horse avoiding contact, trying to hide…
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More inside leg… or neck reins?
When a horse is ‘falling in’ on a circle or cutting corners, the common idea is: “more inside leg”. But often, this is not solving the problem, and can even make it worse, as horses tend to switch off to a constant nagging leg, and riders tend to ‘fall in’…
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Aligning your mind with your horse
When I watch a horse and rider for the first time, or the first time in a while, I look for what is working well – and try to acknowledge and encourage that. Then I look for what is missing: the relaxation, balance, fluidity and synchronicity in the connections and…
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More Forward?
“You don’t need a stronger leg, you need a stronger response to the leg.“ Philippe Karl Do you often hear… “More forward”? With more impulsion, we can find more activity, and maybe more straightness. But more forward doesn’t always help balance, and sometimes worsens it. “More forward” doesn’t mean “more…
Classical Riding & Dressage - Susie Walker 