Yes, horsemanship is about riding and using the right aids and getting a horse to do what you want it to do, but it is also about so much more.

If you had to pick the most important factor in training a riding horse, then it would have to be the rider’s position in the saddle. It also happens to be one of the hardest things for a rider to achieve and maintain through all the paces.

Before you can deliver ‘rein aids’ you must know how to hold the reins properly and how to avoid some of the common mistakes that people make.

Unfortunately, horses can’t speak human and humans can’t speak horse, however we can create a new language that will communicate what we want our horse to do.

If you want to become a really top rider, or even just an effective rider, you need to know your horse’s paces or foot falls. WHY? Well, how can you give your horse an aid to canter on the right lead if you don’t know when his hind foot is leaving the ground? How can you correct an uneven pace if you don’t know what it should be?

Sarah, an internationally experienced rider and author, has kindly allowed us to reproduce some of her arena exercises from her fantastic book, “The Right Track”.

Born in Young NSW, Australia, Warwick Schiller fulfilled his lifelong dream to become a horse trainer when he moved to the US in 1990. 

Mouse was purchased by our member 'Skye' a while ago at a livestock market. When Skye talks about a condition score of 1.5, she means that Mouse was so thin that all of her ribs were showing, her neck had no muscle, her withers and backbone stood up, and her rump muscles had wasted away!