Horsemanship

Bella Barr shares how spending time with trainer Sean Coleman helped her find the fun in riding.

The magic of being in the New Forest for four days is there are ditches and stream crossings everywhere. Sean set it up so we could spend some time on ditches, then go off fast across flat open country to work on opening up his stride, or weave in and out of trees in a wooded area working on isolating leg and hand aids, and then cross another few ditches as we went on to the next thing. 

In the first of her two-part series, Hanna Walton talks about how starting your young horse correctly can save you time in the long run. 

Finding Zero is not sitting in the field with a book, although that's a great thing to do too! It's about using our senses to absorb each other's presence and truly connect the human and horse spirits. Taking time to Find Zero can be like having a reset button in a relationship, and as you use it, your horse will begin to understand that it is also a signal saying, "I'm ready to listen to you".

Recently, I had the pleasure of chatting to Editor, Kate, all about coaching and performance psychology. We touched on some issues that Kate and Archie faced, as well as looking at different approaches and strategies that are helpful to all equestrians. 

Freddy Steels talks to us about how he instils an understanding of pressure in his young horses during starting.

It may surprise you that I like to back my young horses in a halter but without a saddle. I am more in-tune with feeling their every move underneath me. Of course, I do add the saddle into the backing process, as it will be useful in the future for more advanced movements, and after all, most people do ride in a saddle. 

What eating dirt can teach us. Crissi McDonald shares her tale of the wider lesson her horse Caleb taught her.

In the late nineties, I landed face first in a dressage show schooling arena, right before my class. After I’d wiped the grime from my helmet and clothes and ridden in a test that the judges complimented us for ‘impulsion at all gaits’, I decided I’d had enough.