Half Halts at the canter. It's time to connect and balance for 2nd level...

"The canter.  Is your horse responding to your half halts? Watch what happens as Susan asks Beau to stay connected even more at the canter"

In this session Susan practices the half halt as taught by Robert Dover. To do this at the canter she feels when Beau starts to disconnect.  When Susan feels that happen she breaths in deeply.. bringing that breath up her chest and back into her shoulder blades. Susan  finishes that breath by bringing her seat forward, hugging her legs and closing her fingers on the reins.  This entire process takes only 3 seconds. As those of you who know Beau expect... He is not thrilled moving up into the balance he needs for second level. This is a time of great change for Susan and Beau and I am so happy to have caught it on film as most riders never get to see what can happen as a horse is asked to balance and connect at a new level. 

Can you see how Beau begins to understand the half halts better?  

http://youtu.be/LrYSDtIxOzw

Half Halts at the trot. Balancing for 2nd level. dressage instructor

"How do You Know? Can Your Horse Feel Your Half Halts at the Trot?"

  In this session Susan practices the half halt as taught by Robert Dover. To do this, she breaths in deeply.. bringing that breath up her chest and back into her shoulder blades. She finishes by bringing her seat forward, hugging her legs and closing her fingers on the reins. This entire process takes only 3 seconds. At first Beau was not sure what was going on. He has been doing half halts but has never really been thrilled with them

Is your horse really responding to your half halts or are you hoping that it is?

Straightness at the Trot. How you Can See and Feel it. Trudy Adams and Ani

"Straightness. The secret to having a horse that is more comfortable to ride and easier to influence.  Now you can watch a rider learn how to feel it, at the same time you can see how to be able to see when the horse is straight from the ground"

Most riders are not sure when their horses are straight, in fact, there are also trainers who are not sure. Now you can see how this rider becomes aware of when her horse is straight.

Is your horse moving straight at the trot? Try this and tell us how it works for you.

"Is your saddle shifting to one side? Now you can finally fix it! Dressa...

Most riders know this feeling. All of a sudden their saddle their saddle has shifted over to one side of your horse’s withers. Your saddle is slip sliding away and you did not even notice! This shifting saddle could be happening for many reasons. This could be because of how your horse is carrying you, a saddle not fitting the horse right, or more than likely, this is how you have been balancing your riding position in the saddle for a long time. You are not alone. Most riders do put most of their weight into one side of their riding position, and as a result that side of the saddle. This causes the saddle to shift to the direction where the most weight is. 


What can you do about your shifting saddle? Check out this video and you will know what you need to do. 

How do you ask your horse to back? Can you do it from a walk and a trot...

*"How do you ask your horse to back?  Can you do the same training to fix the back of an older trained horse as you do with a greener horse?  Why not?"*

Another blast from the past! In this session you will see how we are using backing to connect Susan and Darrien (her than new horse) To do this, she focused on keeping his shoulders and poll up as he backed. Darrien is still rooting a little with the reins at times (he came to us with this issue) but is much better than he was a few months ago. 

What did you learn from watching Susan and Darrien that you can use while backing your horse?

Does your horse root at the reins or pull you out of the saddle? Showing...

"Does your horse root at the reins or pull you out of the saddle?  The walk"

In this session we focus on Susan and her new horse Darrien. We have found that he will root, or pull on the reins at times and is very strong when he does this.  Our goal in this session is to find ways to change that behavior as we work on the walk and different patters. Darrien was new to Susan during this filming and came to us with this issue.  At the time of this filming Darrien has already become more relaxed than he was.  A month before this he was still "rooting" (pulling Susan out of the saddle) rearing and bolting.  They went on that fall to compete in the USDF Region Championships where they placed 3rd in the AA Intermediate 1.

Trot. Does your horse root at the reins or pull you out of the saddle? S...

'Does your horse root at the reins or pull you out of the saddle?"  Adding the shoulder in"

This is a blast from the past. It is Darrien from last year. He came to Susan with a few issues including "rooting on the reins". Our goal is to show him a new way of responding to the reins. As you will see, he can get very strong when he roots, in fact he can pull her right out of the saddle. Instead of correcting him when he roots (pulls on the reins to get them away from the rider) we focus on showing him a new way to use his body where he does not feel like he needs to pull the reins out of our hands. As you will see, little by little Darrien started getting softer and begins to release his neck and back.

Can you see how much Darrien has changed since than? Now it is very seldom that he roots, rears or bolts. Susan had done an amazing job bringing him to where he is.