As riders, when we get nervous or anxious, our first human instinct is to lean forward, grip with our knees, and clutch the reins (or the saddle horse, or the horse’s mane!).
This is not a very secure, let alone effective, position for riding.
What I want to do today is to give three exercises to help you feel more relaxed, balanced, and able to give clear directions to your horse.
The order of these exercises is not random as we will be following the Structure Your Ride Formula I introduced in last week’s video.
We will begin with a Warm Up exercise to release any tension or gripping, then do a Rider Skill Building Exercise to teach you a specific movement to counteract leaning forward, and finally I will show you how to ride a classic training exercise for your horse, and why this particular exercise can be so calming.
Let’s get started! Hit play below!
6 Responses
Thank you for the video and suggestions on the exercises for riding better.
Our pleasure, glad you enjoyed them!
-Julia, HorseClass Community Manager
I have already purchased the book. It is excellent. Descriptions are well done and esay to follow. Xouple of questions: is the book available unbound. It would be great to be able to take pages out and be able to slip them into plastic sheet protectors (put then into 3-ring binder) to keep them clean while out in the arena. Also, with the exercise of wrapping stirrups to help with using proper pressure, I am assuming the stirrup length would need to be lengthened to compensate for the thickness of tne wrap, yes?
Thank-you for all of your help.
Hi Debra, thanks for your comment! I’m so glad to hear you are enjoying the book so far 🙂
At this time, the book is not available unbound. I would suggest purchasing the individual lamination sheets from a Staples or office supply store and you could put them on the pages!
And yes, you are correct about the stirrup wrap. Enjoy the ride,
-Julia, HorseClass Support
Excellent clear explanations
Exceptional teaching hard to find 👏💕
Thank you so much Linda!