Rocky Springs Ranch

11/03/2025

Wonderful examples and full explanation of reasons for proper rider training

The top three images show a range of what could be called no release "releases" over jumps. Starting on the top left, this rider has his horse's head cranked down with a ring gag bit. He has one set of reins on the gag ring and a second pair of reins at the ends of the gag rounds. This bit is inappropriate for jumping and the reins attached to the ring of the ring gag bit interferes with the action of the ring gag. This powerful setup can easily force a head in and down as shown. The result is the rider has almost totally removed the horse's ability to use their head and neck to balance on landing.

The next two top pictures also restrict the horse's ability to balance when landing a jump by limiting the horse's head and neck range of motion. All three of these top three images are no release "releases". Riders must give their horses freedom of head and neck movement starting at takeoff. Limiting that freedom of movement is dangerous.

The bottom three images show the riders releasing their horse's heads and necks over jumps. The left release is an effective and kind crest release that allows the horse to use their neck on landing, but it will take a couple strides for the rider to regain control with the reins. The center image shows another crest release, and while the reins are tight, the horse's head and neck are free enough to be used to balance on landing.

The bottom right picture shows the following hands in an automatic release. This is the optimum release because it offers the horse the widest range of head and neck movement to balance in a landing.

I believe that the best way to learn the auto release and following hands is to use the US Cavalry method that employs a loose belt or strap around the horse's neck to grab when jumping. The belt can move up and down the horse's neck and side to side. Using this moving belt or strap helps a rider to learn to balance over a jump without leaning their hands on their horse's neck. More importantly it causes riders to balance using their feet in the stirrups without placing their hands on the neck for stability and support.

You must release your horse's head and neck when jumping to be safe.

*Here is a link to my post on jumping straps - www.facebook.com/BobWoodHorsesForLife/posts/pfbid02FbGgeZuEvhJakXjFdCRhSprp7bndkykKw1jLzmmzvj9HbKQqjuUgBuG9z7ZPztuhl

10/31/2025

Thank you Bob Wood Horses For Life . Kids need to learn how to ride not just be setting there on the pony/horse.

By their size, these riders in these pictures are not kindergarteners. Their ponies look to be well cared for and probably well trained. Look at the left image with all the ribbons. It's not the kid's first show. Still, that pony and the other one have check reins from the reins to the saddles.

Since these young riders obviously have not recently moved up from leadline, why do they have these extra devices?

I had a British Horse Society Pony Club at my farm for many years. We had 7, 8 and 9 year old riders and we never needed check reins to help a kid control their pony or horse. Sure, sometimes a horse or pony would take advantage of a kid when we rode outside the arena by pulling the reins out of the kid's hands in order to stop and eat grass. It is a common event, but we didn't use check reins to solve it.

Instead we taught students awareness and planning. If a kid rides a pony that ducks down, pulling the reins to eat grass, they need to be ready for that. Because horses and ponies have strong necks in terms of their up and down movement, but they are relatively weak in their side to side neck movement we taught that riders need to be aware of a potential pony head dive to the grass and to be ready with one rein to stop it before it starts. This is a variation on the one rein stop and it works.

But that still doesn't explain why a show pony would need check reins because there is no grass in a show arena. So why do these ponies have them? I sincerely do not understand why. I can speculate. Maybe the kids are too weak to use the reins properly? Kids today are less physical. Maybe the ponies are not correctly trained? Perhaps, these check reins are now a new "must have" trendy accessory? There are so many baseless trends today in the horse world. Or maybe this is helicopter parenting motivated by "You can be too safe" bubble wrapping moms and dads wanting to eliminate the inherent risks of riding? These are some of my questions because I have no idea what the answer might be.

I do know two things. Horses and riders today are not as well trained as they were only a decade or two ago. Secondly, the impulse today to purchase a solution to a problem, instead of training a horse or pony out of that problem, is the go-to way to solve everything in today's horse world.

10/31/2025

The rider on the left is from the1960s. He is jumping in a Puissance. On the right is US Hunter Jumper Hall of Fame rider John French. These two images reflect the changes in riding and jumping over the past 65 years. For me the change is night and day.

The question is, which rider position would you like to be in if your horse stumbled in the landing? French could be dead meat with his feet way back and his upper body lying on his horse's neck. I'm thinking potential broken neck as he would slide forward onto his head if his horse went down in front.

By contrast, the Puissance rider is in a position to "keep the horse between himself and the ground", advice I received from a hand when I worked on a ranch. This rider is riding defensively with his feet under him in complete balance and in unity with his horse, thus reducing the odds of a stumble on landing. I am thinking he fox hunts as a Staff rider with one hand on the reins and the other free to carry a hunt whip.

I learned to ride in the 1950s and I've observed every declining step between the left picture and the right since the 60s. It's been hard to watch. Why has horsemanship declined so much in less than a century after centuries of horsemanship improving? It makes no sense. Going from practical effective riding to totally stylized riding is dangerous.

10/28/2025

Great article again Bob Wood Horses For Life thanks for the straight talk about the truth if being a good horse trainer.

Horse training is messy. It's not for the faint of heart or for the perfectionist. Training horses is a process of showing a horse the task, getting them to do it however well they can at first and then refining how they accomplish the task one step at a time. And because a horse is a powerful being with will, sometimes it can get oppositional with a horse that doesn't understand or doesn't want to do the task. After all, they just want to eat.

The part about not being for the faint of heart is about how a horse trainer deals with misunderstanding or opposition in a horse. Both require patience. If a trainer lacks patience and tries to force an outcome, all that is accomplished is the horse learns to fight.

The part about how perfectionists do not make effective horse trainers is that the process is hardly ever perfect. Training horses is by its nature messy. If a rider has been trained, for example, to please judges with perfect positions they can have difficulty being effective in the process of introducing new tasks to a horse and still maintain their perfect show riding. Only later in the process, when the work moves to refining tasks, is when their equation becomes useful. Until then, it's about staying on the horse while moving the horse as best you can through a training task to completion. This also requires patience.

I see a lot of people today who call themselves horse trainers who are really horse sorters. They sort out the tough ones and work with the easy ones. Or there is a type that bribes a horse with treats to accommodate them, but a horse that is "trained" through accommodation is not really trained because their will has not been challenged. These horses tend to spend the rest of their lives being the boss and not a partner with a rider. And of course, there are the horse trainers who use calming "supplements" or other drugs to make a horse in training more manageable. But I don't think a drugged horse can completely learn from training or retain training.

There is no getting away from it. Horse training is not easy. You can get frustrated, injured, disappointed and exhausted doing it, and in the end the outcome is not ensured. You can fail and along the way to success or failure, it's messy. Therefore, if you lack patience or are a perfectionist and fear failure, horse training is probably not for you.

10/26/2025