What’s the difference in Western and English riding?
Question: Dear Julie,
I have ridden Western for the last 20 years, and have trained my horses based on the resistance free method or natural horsemanship as it is most commonly known today.
Training In Intervals
Most riders probably haven’t thought about intervals since high school gym class when an instructor told you to execute repetitions of a particular exercise followed by rest periods of the same duration.
Read More
Work In Hand: The Benefits
We often hear something along these lines from rider, “I don’t have any interest in haute école, so why should I care about the work in hand?”
The question may come from a trail rider who can’t imagine that high school riding has any relevance to a day in the woods with their horse, or from a hunter or jumper rider who finds all dressage irritatingly slow.
Work In Hand: The Half-Pass
Historically the lateral movements, including half-pass and shoulder-in (which we discussed in our last article), evolved during the Renaissance. The early literature includes descriptions of lateral work in treatises by the Neopolitan masters Federico Grisone and Gianbattista Pignatelli.
Read More
Work In Hand: The Shoulder-In
We’ve talked at some length in earlier articles about the extremely light touch that characterizes great work in hand. Let’s discuss some of the ways the classical movements are executed in hand, and why these movements are of interest — even if you and your horse intend nothing more formal than trail riding.
Read More