Misthaven

06/25/2026

06/24/2026

Here is something worth saying directly to every student in your program: the warm up is not all about you. Your body matters and yes you need to find your seat and your balance before the real work begins but the horse underneath you has muscles, tendons, joints, and a back that need progressive preparation before being asked to carry a rider and work correctly. A rider who warms up their own body and ignores the horse's is a rider who spends the first half of every lesson fighting resistance that a proper warm up would have prevented entirely.

A horse coming out of a stall or paddock is not ready to trot a twenty meter circle with bend and contact any more than an athlete is ready to sprint without stretching first. The soft tissues need blood flow. The joints need synovial fluid to distribute. The back muscles need to loosen and swing before they can carry a rider effectively. Asking a cold horse for immediate work does not just produce resistance, it also creates genuine physical discomfort that over time contributes to soreness, stiffness, and a horse that starts anticipating the work with tension rather than willingness.

1. A proper warm up starts on a long rein.
Teach your students that the first minutes of every ride should happen on a long rein at the walk - not a loose flapping rein with no contact but a long allowing rein that gives the horse freedom to stretch through the neck, swing through the back, and find its balance without the constraint of a collected frame. The horse should be encouraged to stretch the topline progressively before being asked to work in a more upright frame. I actually left a dressage barn I was boarding at because the trainer yelled at me for not cranking in my horse's head the moment my butt hit the saddle.

2. The warm up should be progressive not passive.
A horse meandering around the arena on a loose rein for ten minutes with a rider who is scrolling through their mental checklist is not warmed up, it is just walked around. A genuine warm up is progressive and intentional. Walk on a long (not loose) rein, building to a working walk with some bend and direction changes. Rising trot building to rising trot with light contact. Simple transitions, large circles, and gentle direction changes. The work gradually increases in demand as the horse's body loosens and the communication between horse and rider establishes itself. By the time the lesson properly begins, the horse should be through in the back, forward off the leg, and genuinely listening - not still half asleep from the paddock.

3. Watch the horse's back and topline during the warm up.
Teach your students what a horse that is not yet warmed up looks and feels like versus one that is ready to work. A tight back that is not yet swinging. A head that is carried above the bit with tension through the neck. Short choppy strides rather than a swinging reaching walk. These are all signs the horse needs more time before the contact is picked up and the real work begins. A horse that is warmed up correctly steps through with the hind legs, swings through the back, seeks the contact softly forward and down, and feels elastic and willing underneath the rider.

4. The warm up is also information.
What the horse offers in the first ten minutes tells you and your student what kind of ride is coming. A horse that is stiff on the left rein during the warm up is telling you something. A horse that is unusually forward or spooky during the warm up is telling you something. A horse whose back does not loosen up through the warm up the way it usually does is telling you something. Teaching your students to read that information during the warm up rather than ignoring it and proceeding with the planned lesson regardless is one of the most valuable horsemanship skills you can develop.

5. Build it into your lesson structure as non-negotiable.
The warm up is not optional and it is not a courtesy to the horse - it is a welfare requirement. Build a structured warm up into every lesson plan and hold your students accountable for using it properly rather than rushing through it to get to the interesting part. A student who learns from their very first lesson that the horse's warm up is a non-negotiable part of every ride carries that habit forward into every horse they will ever sit on. That is a gift that goes well beyond the arena.

The horse carries the rider and the least the rider can do is prepare that horse properly before asking it to work. Teach your students to warm up with purpose and intention for the horse first and themselves second. The quality of everything that follows will reflect it.

How do you teach your students to warm up their horse properly?

06/24/2026

THE REVERSED VOLTE…

“There is no better lesson in the World than this one for causing Horses to become connected, for teaching them patience, for making them supple and attentive, and also for putting them on their haunches…”
-d’Eisenberg

06/24/2026

06/23/2026

In order to be able to canter well the horse has to be able to lift himself into the canter with his outside hind leg. This means that both hind legs need to be able to step far enough underneath the body, and they need to be able to flex in their upper joints so that each hind leg is able to lift horse and rider up.

This requires a certain degree of straightness and suppleness, as well as some strength in the hindquarters and core muscles, which is why horses who are not born with a fabulous canter often need more time and more work to develop the skill and the strength needed for a balanced canter depart.

Straightness is needed to be able to canter on both leads.

Crooked horses will often canter only on the lead of the hollow/concave side, but not on the lead of the stiff/convex side.

The reason is that the legs of the stiffer side tend to support a larger share of the body mass. As a result, the legs of the hollow/concave side are less burdened and therefore more available for movement. They tend to lift off sooner and take longer strides than the others, which predisposes the horse to canter on the lead of the hollow side.

In order to enable the horse to canter on both leads, he has to learn to support his weight with his left pair of legs as well his right pair of legs.

Suppleness is needed because the outside hind leg has to flex under the body mass in order to lift horse and rider up. If the outside hind leg is too far behind, it won’t flex its joints, and it can’t lift the weight. Instead, it will push the body mass forward in flat, quick strides. If it is underneath the body, but remains unflexed, it can result in bucking or running away because the horse doesn’t really know how to deal with the effect of the weight on his hind legs.

Strength in the hindquarters and abdominal muscles is required because the canter depart is a little like weight lifting, where the athlete squats underneath the bar bell and then stands up.

The work that teaches the horse the body awareness, the coordination, the straightness, the suppleness, and gives him the necessary strength for the canter is done mostly at the walk and trot. The old masters used to say that it is the trot work that develops the canter, and it was customary in the past to train the horses in the lateral movements in the trot before starting serious canter work.

De la Guérinière even mentions that horses were trained in piaffe and passage as well before he started to train the canter.

Here are some specific qualities to look for when preparing the horse for the canter:

* Well balanced walk and trot
* Through the back
* On the bit
* Relatively straight
* Half halts go through
* Shoulders can turn
* Hind legs can sidestep

You develop these qualities through the work we call “bending in motion”, which can be divided into three phases:

Phase 1: Bending and turning (circles, serpentines, voltes, figure 8s, turn on the haunches)

Phase 2: Sidestepping with the bend against the direction of travel (enlarging the circle, turn on the forehand in motion, leg yield, shoulder-in, counter shoulder-in)

Phase 3: Sidestepping with the bend in the direction of travel (haunches-in, renvers, half pass, passade/pirouette)

Horses with a very good natural canter may only have to be worked in bending and turning exercises to be able to canter well.

Many, if not most horses should also be able to do some exercises that involve sidestepping with bending against the direction of travel before they are balanced enough to canter well. In some cases, you may even have to work on haunches-in, half passes, and perhaps even the piaffe before they are balanced and coordinated enough to canter.

Bending and turning creates the lateral suppleness of the horse’s shoulders and spine that is required for a well balanced, uphill canter.

Sidestepping with the bend against the direction of travel creates the necessary lateral suppleness of the hind legs, and it brings the crossing hind leg closer to the center of gravity, so that you can flex its joints with the help of the body mass.

Half halts and transitions between walk and halt, trot and walk, and trot and halt develop the vertical suppleness of the hindquarters that is necessary to squat and lift with his hind legs.

They also develop core muscle strength.�If your horse is familiar with the reinback or with haunches-in, renvers, and half pass, you can use those as well to improve the flexion of the haunches, as well as the strength of the hindquarters and core muscles.

06/21/2026

This

I’m not impressed by speed.

It happens at every horse show. Someone is driving around the warm up ring, grins at me, points at the horse they’re driving and proudly says, “It’s only his fourth (third, fifth) time in the cart!”

I am not impressed by this.

They might as well say “Look at me! I didn’t properly prepare him for what I’m asking him to do, but I’m getting away with it, yay!”

I see it online too, with equestrian influencers sharing how quickly their horses were trained to do some impressive feat.

Is it possible to train a horse both quickly and well, so the horse is comfortable, both mentally and physically to do the job we’re asking them to?

Yes, of course it’s possible.

But speed isn’t the point. The horse is the point.

In an industry of futurities, and c**t starting challenges, and all sorts of other systems that reward speed, we need to consciously slow down.

Often, it takes time for a horse to be able to truly understand what’s being asked of them. It takes time for them to build the strength to do the job to their potential. It takes time for us to work together in partnership with our horses.

And that’s okay.

Go slow, you’ll get there faster.

You and your horse are learning together. Don’t worry about how fast someone else is doing it, or claiming to do it. Listen to your horse, take your time, and enjoy the journey.

It doesn’t matter how quickly you train your horse. What matters is your horse, their experience and your relationship with them.

06/17/2026

Hey everyone my phone is dead so I’ll be offline until later tonight until I hunt up a new one !Sorry for the inconvenience!