Is Horse Sport at Risk?
I’ve been watching the clouds gather. The storm has slowly been building, but most people around me seemed unaware. The first claps of distant thunder have sounded, and it got […]
Think Less, Feel More
If there is one trend that I see reflected in social media, it’s that too many people think too hard about working with horses. Whether it is the positive reinforcement folks who obsess over every aspect of a horse’s life that might be experienced as an aversive or the Dressage […]
Review: Ridden
This book spent a few years on my wish list on Amazon. I was intrigued by it, but I was shy of spending money on modern works about Dressage. I had already purchased a couple that I found wanting. Still, the approach this book claimed to take was intriguing, so […]
Have a Seat
The girl was eleven years old. She was riding in a group of adults, returning after a long ride down to the creek. They’d just been galloping through corn fields, she bareback on a young Thoroughbred mare, not long off the racetrack; the adults all in saddles. She’d chosen to […]
The Greatest Gift
What do you have your horse for? A pasture pet? A fine choice, but what I have to say here will not apply to you. Do you plan to drive him? Another wonderful choice, but if that is all then you can likely use the next few minutes in other […]
The Art of Relaxation
The first thing that a rider must learn, if he aims to become an artist, is the art of relaxation. This means detachment, serenity, enjoyment of the work for the sake of beauty, unconcern with success or failure, praise or criticism. In this sense – power of total concentration of […]
Review: Riding Logic
I’ve chosen as my first book review the first serious riding book I ever owned. A gift from a friend around the time I got my first horse, I have read and reread it many times over the decades. I’ve also loaned it to my students many times over the […]
The Literate Equine 