Get your horse in shape and maintain his overall fitness, regardless of his age or abilities. Equine Fitness will have your horse looking and feeling his best with a series of fun exercise routines specifically designed to enhance his strength, stamina, and agility. Clear step-by-step instructions and detailed illustrations make the exercises easy to follow, and the book includes a handy set of pocket-sized cards that you can use in the ring. Jec Ballou’s simple conditioning program promises lasting results for healthy horses and satisfied riders.
Over 40 floorplans and 190 dressage exercises (including pole exercises) Never get stuck riding around the edge of the arena again! All floorplans have both 20x40 and 20x60 diagrams Space to take notes and keep track of your progress Directives and tips sharing what judges are looking for Exercises to suit a variety of levels with space to modify and make your own THE TRUTH ABOUT THIS BOOK... When it comes to creating dressage floorplans, there's actually not that much you can do. Think about it; a dressage floorplan is no more than a series of straight lines and circles. That's it! The level of difficulty is increased by riding these straight lines and circles in different places, including transitions, and riding lateral exercises. But ultimately, when it comes to navigating your 20x40 or 20x60 arena, you will either be following a straight line or riding around a circle. Even when riding lateral exercises such as half-pass and leg-yield, you're still following a straight line. The only difference is that you are following the line in two or three tracks, rather than on one track only. So technically, we lied to you a little bit! This guide isn't a book of dressage exercises. It's really a book of dressage floorplans. BUT each floorplan can be modified to included different combinations of paces, transitions, and lateral work, giving you an almost infinite amount of dressage exercise combinations. We've created some of the exercises for you (over 190!), but there's also space for you to modify them and create your own. After working through this book, you'll never look at straight lines and circles in the same way again! Created by How To Dressage HowToDressage.com
Over the course of her riding and horse training career, Kathrin Roida has progressively gained a deep appreciation for the benefits of gymnastic exercises, particularly those that can be taught to the horse from the ground. "In-hand" training has long been used to help develop the dressage horse, conditioning and suppling his body while at the same time preparing his mind to grasp the movements that may eventually be expected. Roida relies on these techniques when working with young horses, which she prepares for under-saddle training with exercises first learned on the ground, improving balance and enhancing confidence by refining the horse's sense of his body and where it is in space. Roida also uses in-hand techniques to vary the training of the fully schooled riding horse and to solve problems that may be more safely dealt with from the ground. In this book she details her methods, sharing the stories of a number of horses of different ages, breeds, and training backgrounds, and demonstrating the steps to teaching them: shoulder-in, travers, renvers, pirouettes, half-pass, piaffe, passage, canter work, the Spanish walk, and much more. Throughout her conscientious attention to what is best for the horse ensures that not only do the lessons result in a horse that is healthy in body but also one that is healthy in mind and happy in his work.
A fantastically detailed and uniquely organized dressage reference for the rider. Discover the what, the how, and–most importantly–the why of more than 100 dressage movements. Color photographs of riders of various levels and on different breeds of horse show how each movement should look when ridden correctly. Each movement is clearly defined. Explanations include common mistakes and how to avoid them. Readers find out the benefits of each exercise and how it contributes to the “bigger picture” of the dressage training scale. “This book appealed to me,” says gold-medal-winning Olympian Isabell Werth. “Especially important is the emphasis on the meaning of the individual dressage movements within the overall context of a horse’s training. Only the rider who understands why the movements are important and what their purposes are can build a dressage horse systematically. This applies to both the development of the horse's muscles and the development of his mind.” Throughout, emphasis is placed on the horse as an individual and how it is the rider's responsibility to learn to customize movements and lessons to benefit any horse, with his particular physical and psychological characteristics in mind. Practical and easy-to-follow, this valuable resource provides explanations in seconds that will last a lifetime of rides.
The equestrian pursuit known as Cowboy Dressage melds the best of Western riding traditions and classical dressage in the pursuit of a harmonious relationship with a horse. Intended to be accessible to all, Cowboy Dressage is open to all breeds and all levels of riders; there isn’t a set frame for overall look, head carriage, or action. Lifelong horsewoman Jessica Black traces the evolution of Cowboy Dressage back to its roots, sharing the story of Eitan and Debbie Beth-Halachmy and their phenomenal Morgan horses that have served as the movement’s ambassadors. Black then expertly weaves Eitan Beth-Halachmy's experience and expertise into an engaging and articulate explanation of the philosophy of Cowboy Dressage; defines the expectations of the rider; describes what a participant needs in terms of equipment; and explores how the most important element—the horse—should be prepared. A wonderful and thorough section on groundwork, as well as specific training advice for achieving engagement, regulating the gaits, smoothing transitions, and balancing bend and straightness, get the reader started with a solid foundation. Specific descriptions of the Cowboy Dressage tests are provided, with additional tools for those interested in competition, including rules, divisions, and how to execute and judge tests.
In this volume, Mary Wanless discusses the underlying principles of riding as she sees them. Eleven illustrated lessons demonstrate these theories, which are based on increasing each rider's understanding of what "is", instead of what "ought to be".
This training method from some of the world's finest equestrians teaches that riding is an activity that must be learned by both horse and rider through a conscious awareness that ultimately will become a subconscious ability, once the modern rider gains a 'feel' for riding.
?The aim of this book is not to describe ideal training scenarios but to look at what we can do, to the best of our ability, with the horses we have. Difficult horses can become good horses?' Carl Hester
