lgrice 
Snowman, an $80 horse, purchased from among the “leftovers’ at auction became an acclaimed show jumper. Christmas is the story of hope found in unexpected places.- a hope that can’t be shaken and ultimately lasts – beyond the next political cycle or horse show season.
Training your horse to wait will bear fruit in many disciplines where immobility is assessed. Halting square and staying attentive 3-4 seconds – which can feel like and eternity- is required in dressage, working equitation and in obstacle classes.
Mounting your horse sets the tone for your ride. Teach your horse to wait. Train him to accommodate all mounting forms and tolerate all styles, from either side…graceful and less so. Mounting from the ground, from a block, leg up …or vault on!
Mounting manners set the tone for your ride with your horse. Starting on a good note is the best predictor for a harmonious ride.
The horse show judge won’t give you and your horse any extra marks for meticulous mounting manners. But the way I see it, careful training in one area of horsemanship spills over into other areas of riding…
Mounting manners don’t affect the score on the horse show judge’s card or change a barrel run time, so naturally many riders don’t devote horse training time to standing still…until it starts to become a bigger problem…
Memories of my early days at the local riding school include eager young equestrians falling off. Yet we riders were advancing faster than our understanding Anxiety rises and riders fall when they try to skip steps. And riders, when anxious, don’t really enjoy the process.
Describing research into rider falls, an article headline read: The risk factors surrounding many falls may be preventable. Makes good sense to me. And it lines up with what I’ve noted as a judge and riding coach over the years. While wearing protective gear – helmets and safety vests – do prevent the severity of … Read more
Would you say you’re always aware of what you’re saying to your horse? Riding techniques may vary but if we can put our riding aids into words we’re likely communicating clearly to our horse. And are we more intentional about the signals we send to horses we ride than the words we speak in casual (human) c
conversations?
The rest of this article I wrote for Canadian Horse Journals is available on their site https://www.horsejournals.com/riding-training/rider-development/psychology/when-things-go-wrong-show-ring