How to fix a horse who lacks forward

One of the most frequent issues people ask us about is why their horse won’t go forward when they try to school them in the arena. So in this post I’m going to focus on one of the main reasons why that happens and give you some ways to actually fix it.  Now, as soon […]

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How to control your very forwards horse – without winding them up in the process!

The other day, Jo was reminiscing about a grey mare she used to ride when she was a teenager. Her name was Holly. The perfect choice, Jo reckoned, since she was a fairly prickly character! Jo recalls, “Holly was a fantastic forwards-thinking horse who jumped like a stag. And since lots of people told me […]

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Is it really all about working from behind?

The ‘circle of energy’

Is putting all your focus on working your horse from behind really the best way to ride? If you’re like many riders who’ve come to us for help, you’ve probably been taught to think that riding your horse from the back to the front is the ‘correct’ way to do things. And if you hold […]

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Talent isn’t everything

Wild native ponies at home on Exmoor

I remember my first real equine encounter as if it were yesterday…  I was in the middle of my first ever groundwork lesson. A birthday present from Jo to her then completely non-horsey husband in an effort to help me understand why she spent so much time at the stables while I was messing around […]

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Dodgy Steering Isn’t A Laughing Matter

If you were driving your car along a narrow lane and needed to tuck into the side so that you and the driver of another vehicle coming the other way could pass each other without incident, wouldn’t you be alarmed if turning the steering wheel suddenly had the opposite effect that you were hoping for […]

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