The Saddle Camp

This is How I Teach Rein Contact. Thanks Maia and Champ for being such Awesome, patient models 🏆💕🦄

And this is Part 3 of How I Teach Canter 🤣. When you canter on your own 2 legs, your body’s doing the same as it does when you’re on your horse cantering. Now you can practice cantering anywhere, anytime 🤗. So happy our arena’s back in action so we can get back to lessons (on a real horse) tomorrow 🎉 🦄

We’re absolutely loving the new arena surface!!!! Just going slow today in case I damage any tendons in the deeper sand 😆. But we’ll be gently practicing all week, so we’re totally all set for all the exciting school holiday fun from next weekend onward 🎉🦄💫

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…