Adamo Equestrian

07/28/2026

“I asked for a plan for my HORSE’S movement, not mine. It’s the horse that needs rehab, not me.”

A student said this to me after receiving feedback on her riding.

Her horse was hollow, crooked, and struggling to carry himself well. She had expected a list of exercises for the horse—a rehabilitation program to strengthen his body and improve his way of going. Instead, much of our conversation revolved around her: her balance, her posture, her awareness, and the way she organized her own body in the saddle.

She was surprised.

Like many riders, she viewed herself as the instructor and the horse as the student. From her perspective, the horse was the one with the physical deficits, so surely the horse was the one who needed the exercises.

The problem is that a horse cannot separate their movement from the person sitting on their back.

Our bodies become part of their biomechanics.

Every shift in our pelvis changes how the horse uses their back. Every collapse through one side of our torso influences how they load a limb. Every moment we brace, grip, lean, or become asymmetrical changes the information the horse receives about balance, direction, and weight.

In other words, rider and horse become a single athletic system. One cannot move independently of the other.

This is why any rehabilitation or gymnastic program is only as effective as the rider’s ability to perform it.

Shoulder-in, for example, is a brilliant exercise for improving lateral suppleness, engagement, and straightness—but only when it is ridden correctly. If the rider overbends the neck, collapses a hip, drives with the seat, or blocks the horse’s back with tension, the exercise no longer develops the horse as intended. It simply rehearses poor movement under a different name.

The exercise itself is not therapeutic.

The quality with which it is ridden is.

This is why the conscientious rider learns to balance themselves, control themselves, and understand themselves before asking the horse to do the same.

They understand that horses cannot separate our influence from their own movement. Every aid, every posture, every habit becomes part of the environment in which the horse learns to carry themselves.

The goal, then, is not simply to find better exercises. It is to become a better influence.

Because a horse can only move as well as the conversation we create with them allows.

In the end, horsemanship is not simply the education of the horse. It is the continual education of the rider.

07/28/2026

One of Egon von Neindorff’s favourite sayings that he repeated countless times in every lesson was: “Light hand, friendly hand, the hand is always ready to give.” This sounds great. But how do I do that? How do I keep my hand and forearm muscles so relaxed that there is no residual tension and no backward traction on the reins coming from my hands and arms?

The answer is the seat. The hand is only as good as the seat. If the seat is balanced, stable, and supple, the arm and hand muscles can relax. If the seat is not balanced, the rider will have to seek stability through the hands by balancing on the reins.


When the seat is balanced so that the rider’s pelvis, spine, shoulders, and head are stacked on top of each other like a tower of wooden building blocks for children, the upper arms can hang from the shoulder joints, and the forearms can create a connection with the pelvis and lumbar spine.


This feels as if our forearms and hands were attached to our pelvis, rather than our shoulders. The rein contact that the horse takes is then transmitted from our elbows to our hips, and from our hips to the horse’s hips, bypassing our shoulders. It allows the rein aids to become a part of the seat and weight aids. The forearms feel like extensions of the hip joints going forward to the bit, similar to the femurs that drop down from the hip joints and create a connection to the ground.


If the hands are not part of the pelvis and lumbar spine, the rein contact will travel up the arms to the shoulders, which creates tension in the entire arm.


A good way to check how light our hand really is, is to try and relax all muscles in our forearms and hands completely, so that we are no longer holding onto the reins with our hands, but let them lie in our hands.


Überstreichen, i.e. completely releasing one or both reins for a few strides will also tell us whether we were pulling on the reins or holding them with too much tension. If we were holding the horse together with the reins or pulling on the reins, the horse will invert or speed up when we release the reins. If we release the inside rein and the horse loses his bend, it’s a sign that he isn’t balanced yet, and that the previous bend was achieved by pulling on the reins, rather than balancing and straightening the horse.

07/16/2026

Standing at the rail and watching someone else's lesson will teach you things your own lesson can't.

When you're riding, you're inside the problem — reacting, adjusting, feeling. When you're watching, you can see the whole picture: the aid before the response, the moment the horse changes, what the rider did that you can't feel from the saddle.

06/25/2026

After 12 weeks of no riding it was good to be back on my best boy🖤

06/23/2026

The Happiest Horses 🥹

06/22/2026

In the horse industry, the customer is always right. Thing is- the customer is the horse, not you. So... *you* are not always right.

Unlike most businesses, there is a third party involved that doesn't get a vote. The horse. And sometimes there's a fourth. The rider.

My job isn't to tell people what they want to hear. My job is to make decisions that are in the best interest of the horse and rider, even when those decisions are unpopular.

Sometimes that means telling a client their horse isn't ready.
Sometimes it means telling a rider they aren't ready.
Sometimes it means refusing to do something that I don't believe is right, even if someone is willing to pay me to do it.

If you ask me to push a horse beyond where I think they can succeed, I'm not doing it.
If you want me to skip steps because you're in a hurry, I'm not doing it.
If you want me to use equipment, training methods, or management practices that I don't believe are in the horse's best interest, I'm not doing it.

Not because I'm stubborn.

Because that's what you're paying me for.

You're not paying me to agree with everything you say. You're paying me because somewhere along the line you thought I knew more about this topic than you do. You're paying me because you trust my judgement.
And judgment only has value if you're willing to stand by it when it's inconvenient.

The older I get, the more I realize that good trainers spend a lot of time disappointing people in the short term.

We slow horses down when owners want to speed them up.
We tell riders to go back to basics when they want to move forward.
We insist on foundations when everyone else is focused on results.

And yes, sometimes that hurts feelings.

The rider is ready when the rider is ready. The horse is ready when the horse is ready.

And a trainer's first responsibility is protecting both of them.

Even when that means saying no.

Especially when it means saying no.

06/22/2026

Things your riding instructor wants you to know:
1. This sport is hard. You don't get to bypass the hard…..every good rider has gone through it. You make progress, then you don't, and then you make progress again. Your riding instructor can coach you through it, but they cannot make it easy.

2. You're going to ride horses you don't want to ride. If you're teachable, you will learn from every horse you ride. Each horse in the barn can teach you if you let them. IF YOU LET THEM. Which leads me to…

3. You MUST be teachable to succeed in this sport. You must be teachable to succeed at anything, but that is another conversation. Being teachable often means going back to basics time and time and time again. If you find basics boring, then your not looking at them as an opportunity to learn. Which brings me to…..

4. This sport is a COMMITMENT. Read that, then read it again. Every sport is a commitment, but in this sport your teammate weighs 1200 lbs and speaks a different language. Good riders don't get good by riding every once in awhile….they improve because they make riding a priority and give themsevles opportunity to practice.

5. EVERY RIDE IS AN OPPORTUNITY. Even the walk ones. Even the hard ones. Every. Single. Ride. Remember when you just wished someone would lead you around on a horse? Find the happiness in just being able to RIDE. If you make every ride about what your AREN'T doing, you take the fun out of the experience for yourself, your horse, and your instructor. Just enjoy the process. Which brings me to...

6. Riding should be fun. It is work. and work isn't always fun.....but if you (or your rider) are consistently choosing other activities or find yourself not looking forward to lessons, it's time to take a break. The horses already know you don't want to be here, and you set yourself up for failure if you are already dreading the lesson before you get here.

7. You'll learn more about horses from the ground than you ever will while riding. That's why ground lessons are important, too. If you're skipping ground lessons (or the part of your lesson that takes place on the ground), you're missing out on the most important parts of the lesson. You spend far more time on the ground with horses than you do in the saddle.

8. Ask questions and communicate. If you're wondering why your coach is having you ride a particular horse or do an exercise, ask them. Then listen to their answer and refer to #3 above.

9. We are human beings. We make decisions (some of them life and death ones) every day. We balance learning for students with workloads for horses and carry the bulk of this business on our shoulders. A little courtesy goes a long way.

Of all the sports your child will try through their school years, riding is one of 3 that they may continue regularly as adults (golf and skiing are the others). People who coach riding spend the better part of their free time and much of their disposable income trying to improve their own riding and caring for the horses who help teach your child. They love this sport and teaching others…..but they all have their limits. Not all good riders are good coaches, but all good coaches will tell you that the process to get good is not an easy one.

*thank you to whoever wrote this! Not my words, but certainly a shared sentiment!

06/16/2026

06/09/2026

A good turn doesn’t happen at the corner. It happens several strides before it.

One of the biggest faults I see in the arena (or anywhere else) is the "last-moment adjustment." The attempt at executuon without sufficient prepapration, taking the horse by surprise, and leaving the rider desperate with their aids.

One example is when we wait until we reach the corner to ask for the turn, and then we wonder why our horse falls out through the shoulder or braces against the bit. Whether this is an actual corner or the "edge" of our described geometry off the track is all the same.

We are essentially asking them to make up for our lack of planning.

When you plan your lines with intention, knowing exactly where you are starting your turn, how you are preparing the bend, and where you are exiting, you create a "safety net" for your horse. They stop scrambling and stressing over what’s coming next and start focusing on how they are carrying themselves through the work.

Geometry is the map, and your intention is the compass.

The next time you enter the arena, identify your "preparation point" for each corner. Instead of waiting for the corner to start, start your preparation (like your half-halt or your shift in weight or your sest adjustment) several strides before the corner actually begins. Notice how much more "quiet" and balanced the turn becomes when the conversation starts early.

🐎 Give this a try this week and let me know... does your horse feel more "with you" when you give them the roadmap early?

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🐴 Our focus this month in the 𝘼𝙘𝙖𝙙𝙚𝙢𝙮 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝘾𝙡𝙖𝙨𝙨𝙞𝙘𝙖𝙡 𝙃𝙤𝙧𝙨𝙚𝙢𝙖𝙣𝙨𝙝𝙞𝙥 is "Arena Navigation and Geometry." Be sure to look back over our recent posts and stay tuned for more on this subject all month long.