6 Silky Chicks have just moved into the Clubhouse. All set for cuddles, when you’re not riding horses 🐥💕🦄
This is How I Teach How to Canter - Part 2.
We start with a rise trot on the lunge, and make the transition to canter (holding on to the saddle) at A.
Then when the horse comes back to trot, the rider puts both hands forward and rises to the trot to help both horse and rider keep their balance as the horse slows down.
Once the rider’s comfortable with both hands on the saddle (it’s a quick hack to teach the hips to tilt so the rider’s seat follows the horse’s movement more easily), then we practice:
- taking 1 hand off the saddle and putting it a little above and in front of the saddle while cantering:
- taking 1 hand off and then 2 hands off while cantering:
- going from a trot into a canter keeping the hands above and in front of the saddle, while following the movement with your hips, while keeping your legs long.
This is How I Teach How to Canter 🤗
This is Part 2 on How I Teach Rise Trot. At a walk, I ask my rider to stand up and sit down slowly, so they’re finding their balance while the horse is moving, and to work out which muscles to use.
And then I encourage the horse to gently roll up into a slow trot.
With the rider keeping their fists pushed into the horse’s neck (just in front of the saddle blanket) as if they’re leaning on the handlebars of a bike, and using their stirrups like the pedals to stand up from - the rhythm and balance usually comes to them very quickly.
Then you can start to make the tiny tweaks like “bend your knees as you land”, or “penguin feet” to help get their knees from gripping and putting their calf muscles against the horse instead.
Usually when their toes point down, it’s because they’re gripping with their knees. So there’s words you can play around with like “turn your toes out”, or “penguin feet”, or “bring your legs forward”. Or their wrists might have dropped and they’re rounding their shoulders and backs, bringing their knees on. Different phrases trigger different responses in different riders. So have a few up your sleeve!
Then you can start talking about “closing your calves against the horse as you land” to make it a soft landing, to keep your legs underneath you ready for the next stand up, AND to tell the horse to keep on trotting.
My aim is to keep my riders soft and following, and then add strength - so the rider can turn it on and off in different parts of their bodies. Then they’ll be set for giving clear communication to horses for the rest of their lives.
A BIG Thank You to Sophie for letting me film her last night! This was the first time I’d lunged Harry with a rider on board 🤗💕. He was great! A really lovely rhythm. And our transition into trot will get smoother as we get to know each other.
This is How I Teach Rise Trot.
I teach this in ALL of our camps, day camps and short rides.
I think it’s the hardest thing to learn. But once you have the hang of it, jumping and galloping are very easy 🎉.
Have fun!
This is How I Teach Sit Trot - in practice.
Thank you so much, Jemima, for letting me film your lesson on Champ!
You were Awesome 🏆
This is How I Teach Sit Trot.
The only thing I didn’t film quite right is the Heel Stamp.
The idea is to stamp the heel down as the horse lands from his moment of suspension, and then the rider relaxes that stretch to a more level foot when the horse is in the air, before stamping the heel down again for the next landing. In this quick demo I let it look like the rider lifts their heels instead of just relaxing.
And a HUGE Thank You to Natasha Althoff at Your Riding Success where I learnt the heel stamp from. It makes it soooo much easier to describe it and to ride it.
Also, I said it “looks like the rider is doing the hula hoop to the front” but I meant “feels like”. When done right, it just looks like you’re sitting there, effortlessly 🤣.
You’ll need the sit trot shape to go from a trot back to a walk and from a trot into a canter.
I teach this (in this much detail) on the lunge in our private lessons and as part of our 4 Day/3 Night Camps.
And one more thing - I teach it on the lunge so I can ask the horse to keep trotting, and my rider can keep their whole body relaxed. They only need to concentrate on how their body follows the horse’s movement.
Makes it super quick to learn and to develop that muscle memory for life.
Have fun practicing!!!
This is How I Teach How to Turn A Horse.
Us Humans have Tall bodies so it’s easy for us to turn on the spot. But horses have Long Bodies.
I teach it at a standstill to start. That way it’s a little more obvious how each hand and leg, and where you’re looking, work together to direct your horse, and allow it to make that shape.
This is How I Teach One Rein Stop. Practice for Emergencies…
This is how I teach how to stop your horse. When horses are calm and feel safe, it’s easy to ask them to stop.
And if this doesn’t work, the next step would be to do a 1 Rein Stop. . Video on that coming soon 🤗
This is How I Teach How to ask your Horse to Walk Forward.
This is task 6 in Level 2 of our Riders Log Book.
To zoom ahead and see how it all fits together, see www.Saddlecamp.com.au/log-book
How I Teach How to Hold the Reins.
You can zoom ahead and see how it all fits together on www.Saddlecamp.com.au/log-book.
And you can practice this at home 💕🦄🎉
How I Teach How to Dismount. It’s Task 2 of Level 2 in our Log Book 🎉. Maybe I overdid the excitement at the end 😆🤣
This is how I give a leg up to my riders.
When i’m riding and don’t have a friend nearby to give me a leg up, I use a mounting block.
Getting a leg up, or using a mounting block, doesn’t put as much strain across my horse’s back. And I don’t stretch the stirrup leather on one side.
Also, by putting one hand on the mane and the other on the pommel, I’m not pulling the back of the saddle across the horse’s back, and giving the saddle a permanent Mounting Warp - because the saddle is only anchored at the front by the girth.
This is Task 2 in Level 2 of our Rider’s Log Book.
How I Teach Checking and Adjusting Stirrups from the Ground - Task 2.1 in our Riders Log Book.
I hope you’re having a great Autumn holiday so far 🦄💕.
How I Teach Checking and Adjusting the Girth from the Ground - Task 1 in Level 2 of our Riders Log Book.
Hope you’re having a great Autumn Break 🎉
Task # 6 in our Riders Log in Level 1 - Catch and Saddle Up A Pony - is Rugging a Pony.
This is how I teach how to Rug a Pony.
If you’d like to zoom ahead, see all the Log Book tasks on www.Saddlecamp.com.au/log-book
And if you’d like to experience it all yourself, you can book in a lesson, Mini Adventure Ride, Day Camp, Trail Ride or Sleepover Camp on www.Saddlecamp.com.au
Have fun! Helen
Part of Task # 5 in our Riders Log Book - How I Put a Bitless Bridle on.
Bitted bridles are a bit harder! There’s more coordination required and buckles to do up.
We’ve been using Bitless Bridles on all our horses and ponies here for the last 6 years or so.
We were having a lot of trouble putting bridles on some of our horses. They were a little upset at having their mouths hurt by new riders who didn’t understand what their hands were connected to (ie waving flies away and talking with their hands while holding the reins).
Our saddle fitter noticed us covering the bits with peanut butter and molasses to get the bridles on one morning.
She said “Hey, these bitless bridles have just come on the market. I’ve bought a couple of spares - would you like to borrow one and see what you think?”
And we have never looked back.
You still get the leverage effect, but it’s more like a hug around the head than a pull in the mouth.
And it tends to make all my riders more aware that there are other body parts we can use to ask our horses to stop, slow down and turn so they’re becoming more effective riders, more quickly.
And, as you can see from this video, we don’t have any trouble putting bridles on any more. Cadie’s reaction is the same as all my horses.
We don’t even think twice.now - all our horses go straight into a bitless bridle as soon as we start them here.
And if our riders are a little rough on the reins, the horse isn’t hurt, and I just calmly remind them to keep their hands “quiet” until they need to give an instruction.
Task 5 in our Riders Log Book - Saddling Up 🤗.
Hope you enjoy! And if you’d like to zoom ahead in our riding lesson progression, see them all on www.Saddlecamp.com.au/log-book
An extra for task 4 in our Rider Log Book. How I Pick out the Hooves.
Victory was a lovely demonstration model 🦄💕.
