It presents step by-step training programs and showing advice from recognized experts in hunters, jumpers, equitation, dressage, and eventing, along with money- and time-saving ideas on health care and stable management.
After reading two stories in this month’s issue, our profile on eventer Tamie Smith (page 28) and Tik Maynard’s feature on the 2015 Thoroughbred Makeover (page 42), I’d planned on doing some natural-horsemanship training, a topic touched upon in both articles. I was going to start simple and see if my offthe-track Thoroughbred would follow me around the arena at the walk and trot, something we used to do years ago before my daughter arrived and free time became scarce. But instead I ended up riding because it was a beautiful December day in the 70s, so we went on a trail ride. Given the unusually warm weather, the trail ride probably made sense, but my decision had me thinking about how easy it is to put off or dismiss…
George H. Morris is the former chef d’équipe of the U.S. Equestrian Federation Show Jumping Team. He serves on the USEF National Jumper Committee and Planning Committee, is an adviser to the USEF High-Performance Show Jumping Committee and is president of the Show Jumping Hall of Fame. 1 This looks like what I call a vintage southern hunter ride where riders from the South had a good feel and eye but were never taught the American classic position that riders in the Northeast or Southern California were. When I judged riders like this in equitation, there were some very good riders, but they didn’t have the form, and I was always hard on them. The wing is covering this rider’s leg, and the photo is dark so critiquing it is…
To learn about Julie’s evaluation philosophy and to see an example of how to best present your horse for this column, visit www.PracticalHorsemanMag.com. Whether I am judging a model class, evaluating a prospect for a client or sizing up the yearlings at home, I first stand back and look for an overall impression of balance and symmetry. My ideal horse “fits” in a square box. By that, I mean he is defined by matching and equal parts, both front to back and side to side. This allows for athletic ability, soundness, trainability and longevity in the job. A horse who fits in a box will have a body that is made up of one-third shoulder, one-third back and one-third hindquarters. I like to see the withers and point of croup…
Based at Fox Covert Farm, in Upperville, Virginia, Jim Wofford competed in three Olympics and two World Championships and won the U.S. National Championship five times. He is also a highly respected coach. For more on Jim, go to www.jimwofford.blogspot.com. Sometimes my clinics are more fun for me than they are for the participants, especially during the question-andanswer sessions. I like to have Q&A at my clinics and seminars whenever possible because that means I am talking about something that interests at least one other person in the room. It’s better than delivering the same stale, canned lecture I gave last week (and the week before)—and the questions keep me up to date on issues that are currently hot topics for the general membership. Most of the time, I have…
Shoulder-in is the first true lateral movement. In leg-yield, which lays the sturdy foundation for the lateral movements, the horse moves sideways as well as forward. But leg-yield itself isn’t technically a lateral movement. The distinction? In leg-yield, the horse stays straight from poll to tail. For a true lateral movement, his body bends evenly from poll to tail around your inside leg. That even bending through the body is what you’re going to teach your horse with shoulder-in. In this pattern, his outside shoulder comes in off the track and aligns with his inside hind leg so he’s on what we call “three tracks.” If you watched him coming toward you, you’d see his outside hind, his outside fore directly in front of his inside hind, and his inside…
The best way to show a horse he can travel straight down the rail with his haunches on the track and his shoulders off is with a movement he already knows: leg-yield. But instead of asking Cassiano to move diagonally across the arena while staying straight through his body and parallel to the rail, I’m asking him to stay straight through his body but to move parallel to the rail and at an angle to the track. I set him up by riding a 20-meter circle, which required almost no bend through his body. As I approached the rail in the corner, I asked for a few steps of spiral-out—with the feel of pushing his haunches further out than his forehand—to position him on about a 40- to 45-degree angle…
