RIDING THE HORSE
Riding horses entails much more than just sitting on a horses back and waiting for the horse to take *you* for a ride. A well trained horse is a delight and pleasure to ride anywhere. A horse that takes you for a ride is not safe or is it pleasurable. Every minute a person is on a horse's back, he or she is training it to go a certain way; correctly or incorrectly. No matter what the discipline, the horse should be moving forward willingly and rhythmically. A well trained horse will help a rider learn to be balanced and comfortable. This will, in turn, help to keep the horse well-balanced and comfortable. People who ride horses really have a great responsibility for the horse's welfare. Learning and practicing as much as possible will help enhance the horse's movements. Ever watch a horse move beautifully out in the pasture all by himself then be uncoordinated and stumbling with a rider on its back? It's not the horse's fault. It is the rider's. We cannot expect the horse to carry an unbalanced, uncentered human around gracefully and balanced.The articles in this section are to help the rider improve his or her seat so as not to impede the horse's way of going. Yes, there are many times that the horse needs specific exercises to condition to a specific discipline. However, always keep this in mind ... "the human does not ever teach a horse to do anything which it does not already know how to do".
ENJOY!!!
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ARTICLES
FEATURES:
UNIFIED RIDING - Meet Kathi Berman Gilmore
Articles Coming:
On Classical Dressage
Jumping
"The Natural Ride"
"The Horse knows how to be a horse if we leave him alone ... but the riders don't know how to ride. What we should be doing is creating riders and that takes care of the horse immediately".
--Charles de Kunffy
