I just finished reading a wonderful book: Mount and Man written in 1925. The author, Lt Col McTaggart, was a retired cavalry officer who clearly understood and loved horses. It’s a fascinating look into the state of riding in the United Kingdom in that era. The forward seat was still new and controversial, although apparently … More Mount and Man
I often see debates about the frame and movement of the horse. Do you allow the horse a longer frame, in order to develop certain areas? Or is allowing that longer frame risking the future of collection? Is putting the horse “on the shoulders” automatically damaging? Or is there a purpose to be served, even if … More Two Equilibria
I’ve been spending my spare time playing with the new sand in the arena. More on that in another post. For this post I wanted to bring back some of the words of wisdom shared in the ground work conference I attended last week. The location was a sanctuary of my “past life”, where I … More The Aid System
Someone shared this lovely video on Facebook, and in my estimation it has not had enough views – so I’m doing my little part to spread it around. The video is of the top two rides from the 1976 Olympics. You can find lots of vintage Dressage videos on YouTube – but what makes this … More How it was: 1976
Blog post ideas have been flying at me faster than I have time to complete them. The result is that I have many started, just waiting for me to give the final touches to complete them. But, as recovery of my back accelerates, I’m getting back to work on a full schedule – at the … More On horses and learning – Zettl quote
You’ve probably heard it: “Control the feet and you control the horse.” It’s popular with the Natural Horsemanship folks. An even better variation is “Control the feet and you control the mind.” Trouble is, if your definition of controlling the feet is to make the beast run when you want, stop when you want, and … More Control the feet
Horse Crazy Once Again 