Category: Blog
Video Critique: Janice
19th August
Will Faerber from Art2Ride discusses the video sent in by Janice and makes suggestions for further improvement.
Video Critique: Claire
15th August
Will Faerber from Art2Ride discusses the video sent in by Claire and makes suggestions for further improvement.
3 Year Old: First Work In Trot Under Saddle
14th August
Good Morning this is Will Faerber from Art2Ride and I thought I would share this moment with you. This is Carrie Underwood and her three year old horse, Fancy. Fancy has had about a year off or so and we just lunged her a couple of times and got her stretching into the contact. This is the first time that Carrie has trotted her since then. I wanted you to see how beautifully this horse is working over it’s back!
My point that I want to make is how easy it is to work horses that haven’t been started in a wrong way. This horse is coming out and going forward and stretching right into the contact beautifully. She has beautiful rhythm and you can see how much she is thrusting off the ground already after only a couple weeks of …
Video Critique: Maureen
13th August
Will faerber from Art2Ride discusses the video sent in by Maureen and makes suggestions for further improvement.
Video Critique: Berni
12th August
Will Faerber from Art2Ride discusses the video sent in by Berni and makes suggestions for further improvement.
Video Critique: Chelsea
7th August
Will faerber from Art2Ride discusses the video sent in Chelsea and makes suggestions for further improvement.
Video Critique: Megan
6th August
Will faerber from Art2Ride discusses the video sent in Megan and makes suggestions for further improvement.
Video Critique: Tytti Submission 2
2nd August
Will faerber from Art2Ride discusses the second video sent in by Tytti and makes suggestions for further improvement.
Video Critique: Marion
1st August
Will faerber from Art2Ride discusses the video sent in by Marion and makes suggestions for further improvement.
Video Critique: Irenia
1st August
San Diego Horse Trainer Will Faerber from Art2Ride discusses the video sent in by Irenia and makes suggestions for further improvement.
Video Critique: Angie Submission 2
1st August
Will Faerber from Art 2 Ride discusses the video sent in by Angie and makes suggestions for further improvement.
Video Critique: Tytti and Usko
31st July
Will Faerber from Art 2 Ride discusses the video sent in by Tytti and makes suggestions for further improvement.
Video Critique:Katherine
31st July
Will Faerber from Art 2 Ride discusses the video sent in by Katherine and makes suggestions for further improvement.
Video Critique: Lauren G 2
27th July
Will Faerber from Art 2 Ride discusses Lauren G.’s second video submission and gives her suggestions for further improvement.
Shoeing: The Mystery of the Break Over
24th July
Good morning this is Will Faerber from Art2Ride and today I am here with Master Farrier Kenny Lyon, who does all of our horses and who you’ve seen in some of our other videos. We are going to do an update on Bailador. If you all remember, when Bailador came to us his feet were in really bad shape. It’s been about 6 months time now, so Kenny Lyon will show us what is improved and where to go from here.
Video Critique: Kerry Submission 2
23rd July
Will Faerber from Art 2 Ride discusses the problems that the rider is having and suggests some ways of solving them.
Video Critique: Kerry
23rd July
Will Faerber from Art 2 Ride discusses the problems that Jenny is having with the canter.
Video Critique: Jennifer Submission 2
23rd July
Will Faerber from Art 2 Ride discusses the follow up video from Jenn and Megawatt and gives them suggestions for further improvement.
Video Critique: Jennifer Submission 2
23rd July
Will Faerber from Art 2 Ride discusses the improvements Jennie has made in her horse in only a very short time.
Video Critique: Lauren G
23rd July
Will Faerber from Art 2 Ride critiques a video from Lauren G from Scottsdale, Arizona.
Video Critique: Jennifer
23rd July
Will Faerber from Art 2 Ride critiques a video sent in by Jennie.
Video Critique: Jennifer
23rd July
Will Faerber from Art 2 Ride critiques a video sent in by Jennifer.
Video Critique: Angie
23rd July
Will Faerber from Art 2 Ride critiques a video sent in by Angie from Bendigo, Australia.
Free Video Evaluations And Mentoring Scholarships
3rd July
Good morning this is Will Faerber from Art2Ride and I am here with my good buddy Zoolander. Today I am announcing that we are going to offer five free video evaluations! If you go to our website, you will see how to send that in!
We have a due date of the 1st of August for the video submissions. Like I said, we will offer five free video evaluations up to an hour long. In addition, two of those submissions will receive video scholarships! In other words, we will offer two mentoring spots valid for one year’s worth of mentoring over the internet through video submissions and phone consultations. If you would like to apply for those positions, please send in your videos. Note: All videos will have to be made public, so anyone awarded the scholarship positions must agree to …
Sergio
23rd June
Hi this is Will Faerber from Art2Ride and I am coming to you from Guadalajara, Mexico. I am working with my student Sergio, who is also a trainer here in this area, who you can view in the following video…
Can Ed Be Cured or Not
Leg Yield
19th June
Good morning this is Will Faerber from Art2Ride with my lovely wife Karen and our horse Zoolander. Today, in the following video we are going to talk about the first and preliminary foundation exercise of classical dressage, and that is the leg yield…
Are branded remedies better than generic
Zoolander
19th June
Come check out this short video on Zoolander, who is for sale!!! If you are interested, please contact us at: ksavage613@yahoo.com .
Dave Murphy: Student Update 4
31st May
Good morning this is Will Faerber from Art2Ride and I am here with Dave Murphy giving you an update. Dave has been working his horse for about a year and a half now and she is coming along beautifully!
If you saw our previous videos of this horse in the beginning of her training, she was a very spooky horse and she was very difficult to handle. See the difference now? She comes out and has a nice stretch in the walk. She has a lovely four-beat walk now that is swinging over her back. There is no tension and you can clearly see how well she has begun to fill out behind the saddle and in her neck and you can see the whole topline! She is much more able to carry Dave’s weight now. She is also not freaking …
Piaffe: Update 2
31st May
Good morning this is Will Faerber from Art2Ride and I am here with Kristen Balch and her horse Contigo. We are here today to talk about how to begin the piaffe.
We have done a couple months of piaffe on the ground and we have got him doing it pretty nicely, so now we will introduce the weight of the rider. You do not want to do this until the horse is clearly moving the diagonal pairs, then you can begin to add the weight of the rider. In the piaffe, the rider is going to stretch herself up, lightening the saddle, and restrain her back. In other words, she will not have the freedom that you normally have in the back to help the horse move forward. So she is going to restrain in the back a little bit and …
F Murphy: Student Update 3
23rd May
Good morning this is Will Faerber from Art2Ride and I am here in Rancho Santa Fe this morning with Ms. Murphy. I wanted you all to see this horse and it’s progress. She has been working on this for about six months now. She started as kind of a rail western horse and if you go back and view the earlier videos you will see she is moving quite differently now.
If you go back and look at the previous videos and see how she was moving, you will see that she was really laboring to be able to carry Ms. Murphy. Now you can see that she is well underneath herself , you can see that the whole topline is beautifully lit up, and she is tracking up and engaging. This is a very good working trot for this horse! …
Zoolander Ready For A New Home
2nd May
Good morning this is Will Faerber from Art2Ride with my lovely wife Karen Loshbaugh on our horse Zoolander!
We just wanted to make the announcement today that Zoolander is for sale! We have rehabbed him and are selling him for only the cost to rehab him (board, etc.). He is an eleven year old Canadian sport-horse. We rescued him because he was bought by a beginner rider who was scared of him and thought about putting him to sleep. We could not let that happen, so we got him! We have been rehabbing him a little over a year, minor foot problems but mostly lack of training problems. He is looking very nice now! He is working over his back beautifully!
Anyone looking for a really nice horse that can’t afford a really expensive one, here is a really nice one that you …
Educating The Rider’s Eye
25th April
San Diego Horse Trainer, Will Faerber, educates the rider’s eye.
Tour of Guadalajara Facility
18th April
Good morning, we are coming to you from Guadalajara Mexico to take you on a tour of this amazing facility!
Piaffe: Contigo, Update 1
5th April
Good morning this is Will Faerber from Art2Ride with my good buddy Contigo. About a week and a half ago we showed you how to work a horse in piaffe, so now we are going to continue that.
When starting a horse in piaffe, I tend to do this every other day or so once I have started a horse in it. I want to remind you of the prerequisites to working a horse in piaffe and they are: the horse is correctly working over his back and that you as a rider have developed the ability to ride on the weight of the rein (that is you are able to release to the weight of the rein). Once the horse has developed enough topline to begin this, he must work in the weight of the rein, otherwise if you start …
Piaffe: How to start correctly
30th March
San Diego Horse Trainer Will Faerber from Art2Ride discusses the correct development of the Piaffe.
Chambon: It’s correct use and adjustment
27th March
San Diego Horse Trainer Will Faerber from Art2Ride discusses the correct use of the french stretching device called the chambon, which is particularly helpful for beginners with extremely hollow or sway backed horses such as in the retraining of saddlebreds.
Laura Sakakeeny: Student update 2
26th March
Good morning this is Will Faerber from Art2Ride here in Poway with Laura Sakakeeny, who you have seen once before. I wanted to give you a little update on her and also show you how beautifully her horse is now going.
Interesting thing with this horse today is that she has been able to sit to the canter for the first time and he is beautifully working over his back! This was another horse that was a little broken over in the neck, but now that is straightening out beautifully and we can hardly see that at all. We are very happy to say that Laura just went to her first horse show with this horse doing dressage and did very very well!
After we do a little work, we always come right back to the stretch. We remind and refresh the …
Judith Bailey: Student update 1
24th March
Good morning this is Will Faerber from Art2Ride and I am here in Poway bringing you an update on Judith Bailey, who we haven’t seen in about a month.
I wanted you to see her now and see how well this horse is trotting compared to our last video. Look at the difference in his trot! Look how clearly he is swinging over his back, beautiful stride! This is a 71 year old beginner rider doing all this beautifully! If she can do it, so can you! Look at this lovely little horse, swinging actively and underneath himself, rhythmic and over his back! Absolutely fantastic Judith!
Once again, this is Will Faerber from Art2Ride and thank you for joining us and we will see you next time!
Correcting Overflexion: Update 1
23rd March
Good morning this is Will Faerber from Art2Ride here with Ginny Walker and her horse Cordell. We did a very long video on this horse about a month ago showing you how to correct the break in his neck. I wanted to show you how much he has improved since the previous clinic only one month ago. This ride is by his owner, Ginny Walker, rather than my wife, Karen.
As you can see in the video, you can barely see that break in the neck any more. See how much longer his neck is out and how much more swing he has? That is what we want to see, seeking the contact with the bridle. This horse was more broken than any of the horses I have worked with in a long time. It took us a long time to …
Getting Your Horse To Like The Bit
20th March
Good morning this is Will Faerber from Art2Ride. I want to give you a simple idea of how you can improve the horse’s contact and acceptance with the bridle.
I have received several emails lately about how people’s horse’s mouths have been ruined and they can’t ride them in bridles any more and have to ride them in hackamores and things like this. So I wanted to share a little secret about how to get your horse to accept the bridle that we use as well as my father, Nuno Olivera and many masters. We use a sugar cube.We want the horse to enjoy the bit, mouth the bridle and get their salivary glands to work. We want to see the horse’s mouth softening as well as a nice foam. I am also a singer and eating these hard candies keeps …
Art 2 Ride Book Club: 4
27th February
Hello this is Will Faerber from Art2Ride and I am here with my good buddy Bailador this morning for our book club. Today I want to talk to you about the book “Training Show Jumpers” by Anthony Paalman.
Anthony Paalman was born in Holland and his education began at the Royal Dutch Calvary School. For many years he was the official national trainer and senior course designer for the Show Jumping Association for Ireland, Mexico and Switzerland. Several world and Olympic riders have been his pupils.
The reason I am showing you this book is because this man takes exactly what we do, he takes classical dressage and applies it to jumping. I have had a few people ask about what sort of devices we use, and we actually don’t use anything except side reins on our horses. Once in a while …
Clinic in Guadalajara: 8
25th February
Good afternoon this is Will Faerber again coming to you again from the Guadalajara Country Club here with Masha. This horse has a few problems, including that he is broken in the neck. What we are talking about here today is trying to get the horse to lengthen out from the shoulder so he doesn’t just bend the neck over, which is what a lot of these horses do.
There is nothing worse than a horse that comes behind the bridle and just drops the bit in his mouth, because when in a difficult situation will just run away with you. If he looks like he is a little behind the vertical it is because he is broken in the neck. We are now going to experiment with a sitting trot with this horse, as long as it doesn’t affect the …
Clinic in Guadalajara: 7
25th February
Good afternoon this is Will Faerber again at the Guadalajara Country Club working with Masha again on another Spanish Sport Horse. Masha has had this horse for about two years. As you can see, this horse is behind the vertical with a old break in the third vertebrae.
We are trying to get him to stretch his head and neck out, which you have seen in many of our other videos. Some people think that these Spanish horses with high necks need to be ridden with their neck high all the time, nothing could be further from the truth. Friesians especially tend to hollow their backs more easily than any other horses I’ve ever seen. We see a lot of people buy them thinking that they are great and not realizing how weak they are in the back.
When we first started …
Clinic in Guadalajara: 6
25th February
Hello this is Will Faerber from Art2Ride here in Guadalajara, Mexico with Jorge. Jorge bought this horse a while ago and we watched Jerry school it for him and we saw how nicely it went!
Jorge is a beginner rider but look how beautifully he is able to stretch this horse and how he is able to develop his balance without holding on with his hands. That is the most important thing for a rider. A rider who’s balance is dependent on the reins is never going to be a good rider. The horse will never relax and will probably go lame because someone has been hanging on their mouth. Look how a beginner can get on a correctly trained horse and get the horse to stretch and stay over his back while developing his own balance and will feel the …
Clinic in Guadalajara: 5
25th February
Good morning this is Will Faerber from the Guadalajara Country Club this morning with my good friend who I call Jerry. He produces a TV show for horses called “The Land Of Horses”. You can find that online at: www.tierradecaballos.com . He does numerous shows about different trainers and horses. This is the first time that I have worked with him and I couldn’t be happier with what a great job he’s done on the mare this morning!
She already has a lovely working trot over her back and is very well developed. He has also been working with Masha here, who is the trainer at the Guadalajara Country Club. Look at how nicely this horse is working over it’s back in the stretch! Also, look how even this horse is working from front to back, that is the hind and …
Clinic in Guadalajara: 4
25th February
Good morning this is Will Faerber from Art2Ride and I’m still here with Masha and we thought we’d show you how he is going now after our big warm up.
Take a look at the video that we did from the beginning of the session and compare it to this video and how his back is moving. He is lengthening from the shoulder and his hind and back leg are now moving together on the same plane, which is the cardinal rule of dressage. We are working on half pirouettes with this horse . What we were having trouble with was her horse was stalling out before, so we are going to make a much wider turn and we let a half pass set up the position of the back. After a few attempts she does one quite nicely! On the last …
Clinic in Guadalajara: 3
25th February
Hi this is Will Faerber from Art2Ride and I am here in Guadalarja, Mexico with my good friend Masha. We are working with a horse that is new to me and that’s why I wanted to share it with you. He is a Spanish Sport Horse that has very impressive movement.
This horse was bred in Spain by the military breeding farm. He was the champion of Spain and is now the champion of Mexico for the last three consecutive years! Masha is showing him in Dressage. She started riding him in August of 2012 and definitely has a big future! I am very excited to see these horses because it’s a whole new generation of horses in Spain, which are being bred for much more correct leg movement, which we look for in dressage. I was so impressed with this horse’s …
Clinic in Guadalajara: 2
25th February
Good morning this is Will Faerber from Art2Ride and I am here at the Guadalajara Country Club working here with Masha. Masha is the daughter of a famous Russian Olympic rider. She is working here with a lot of these Spanish horses, which we will show you in upcoming videos. They are developing the Spanish Sport Horse breed, which is really using the Andalusians and Lusitanos as foundations for these horses and they are creating a lovely horse that can really get over it’s back and has natural straight moving gaits as opposed to the Andalusians in the past that had crooked front legs.
I have heard people say that with Friesians and horses like that, since they have necks built the way that they are that you shouldn’t stretch them. Nothing could be further from the truth. The higher the …
Clinic in Guadalajara: 1
25th February
Good morning, I am here giving a clinic in Guadalajara, Mexico. They are having a huge show here today and I wanted to introduce you to a beautiful Spanish sport horse and to show you how wonderful these horses work, how easy and light they are, and also what wonderful temperaments they have. I see so many people in America buying horses that are too big for them. These horses here have some of the best movement now of the horses winning in Dressage, and they aren’t giant. They are perfect for a lady or man. Just look how beautiful the movement is!
I am going to have her go large and show us some lengthening down the long side. Look at the movement in this horse! You can go and compare this to Revelle or Totalis (some of the best horses in …
Bobbie Hanson: Student Update
6th February
Good afternoon, this is Will Faerber from Art2Ride here at Sycamore Trails with Bobbie Hanson and her horse. Bobbie has been working with us once a week for the past six months. Her horse has gone from an unmanageable lunatic to what we see here today!
A few short months ago any little thing would have been enough to send this horse into a fit, but now he comes out nicely with his belly pulling up and working great over his back for Bobbie. Look how lovely and consistent he is beginning to be. If you compare this video with the one we did a few months ago, you will see that he is much more developed across his topline, the hole behind the saddle has disappeared for the most part and his neck is looking beautiful.
Once again, this is Will Faerber from …
71 Year Old Beginner Gets It Right!
3rd February
Good morning this is Will Faerber from Art2Ride teaching a clinic at Peppertree Farms in Poway, CA. I am here with Judith Bailey who is a beginner and has ridden in three clinics with me so far. In that short period of time, she has been able to get her horse stretching into the contact and moving and swinging over it’s back. We are very proud of her!
The point of me showing this is you can see with even a beginner, once you understand these concepts, you can begin stretching your horses and getting them working over their backs so they will develop correctly. Not only does it develop the horse correctly, it develops the rider correctly as well because the rider cannot balance against the reins. It teaches the rider to stretch up and get into the right position …
Bailador Lunging II
27th January
Will Faerber and Karen Loshbaugh from Art2Ride give you an update on Bailador’s progress in lunging.
How Do You Stay Fit To Ride?
21st January
Hi this is Will Faerber from Art2Ride and I am here today with my lovely wife Karen and our horse Zoolander. We had a request come in asking about rider fitness, so we are going to discuss that and what we do in particular. We will discuss how we stay in shape and the requirements to ride at this level.
You will never be a better rider than you are fit. So if you are out of shape, just know that that will always stand in your way to some level or another. You need flexibility, strength and wind to be able to ride, so in other words you need a cross training type of exercise. The most important thing is eating well. I am a raw foodist who eats about eighty percent raw food. I eat a thing called raw …
Horses That Spook: Teaching Relaxation
16th January
Good morning this is Will Faerber from Art2Ride and I am here with my good friend Bailador, who you’ve seen in previous videos before. Today I thought I would spend a little time talking about horses that spook.
Very often in horses that come to us we find (and especially the big and powerful ones) that they have gotten into the hands of riders that are not very experienced who are afraid of them, and they begin to spook at every little thing. Pretty soon they can’t go around the ring without spooking ten times, and then they start dumping people. So now I am going to explain how you deal with it.
One of the things that I want to point out is relaxation (like doing a shoulder in or a half pass), it is a skill that we have to …
Correcting the Overflexion In the Horse’s Neck
5th January
This video is about Correcting the overflexion in the horse’s neck.
Merry Christmas: Bailador 4
26th December
Good afternoon this is Will Faerber from Art2Ride here with my lovely wife Karen Loshbaugh to wish you all a very merry Christmas! We are out here today with Bailador, who we introduced you to a few times earlier. Leslie experienced working over his back yesterday, and today Karen will be working him.
As you can see in the video, he has really begun to swing over his back. Bailador is a very big horse, 17.3 or so, and like we see with so many other horses his size, they have been shut down. They have never really been allowed to go in their full gaits because usually someone gets on them that are afraid of the size of the gait and how big the wave is. This horse has a big push through it’s back. So when you go out …
Frauke Murphy: Update 2
24th December
Good morning this is Will Faerber from Art2Ride here with Frauke Murphy continuing their training. Frauke has been working with this horse for about a month now getting her to stretch on the lunge line and doing the same thing on it’s back, and I wanted you to see how nicely she has developed since then.
When we look at Frauke we can see that she has a very nice leg position, but she needs to just stretch her shoulders back. This will happen over time, this is only her third lesson with me. She will begin to get those things straightened out as she gets her horse straightened out. Every time her horse starts to come up, she needs to be sure that when she softens her a little bit that her shoulders don’t come over with it.
While this horse …
Frauke Murphy: lunging 4th week
24th December
Good afternoon this is Will Faerber from Art2Ride and I am here with Frauke Murphy and her horse. This is the second or third lunging session she has had with us and it has been about four weeks. I have a previous video that you can view to compare, she was very high headed and had a fat belly with no back engagement whatsoever.
Now we can see that she is starting to swing very nicely over her back. Frauke sometimes lets her get a little too close to her, so she is going to move her out on the circle again. We want to keep contact with that line when we are lunging the horse so that we can keep contact with her mouth. Just like riding: the whip is your leg and the line is your rein to the …
Frauke Murphy: First lesson
24th December
Good morning this is Will Faerber from Art2Ride working here with Frauke Murphy for her and her horse’s first lesson with us. I taped a little bit of when we began on the lunge line so you can see what we started with, which you can find under our videos.
This is a horse that has done very well on the western circuit and has had about ten years of training. What we noticed is while she is very obedient, she is working very hollow and pulling her neck over and cranking over in the third vertebrae and not seeking the bit, which is what we see now. They have done a very good job of teaching her how to be a nice quiet horse, but now she will learn how to work over her back and the ride she will give …
Bailador: Update 2
23rd December
Good morning this is Will Faerber from Art2Ride and I am here with Leslie Johnson and her horse Bailador. We introduced you to Bailador about a week ago, and then it rained for an entire week, so this is only the second day we are able to work after that rain. This is the first time Leslie has been able to ride him getting him into the stretch.
We are looking at what a few days of stretching has done for this horse, after teaching him how to lunge correctly which you saw in the previous video. Now Leslie is learning to get him working over his back herself. When he comes up, she sends him forward with her legs before she does anything with her hands, so that it comes from behind. We’ve been discussing the idea of people riding …
Bailador: Update 1, Lunging
12th December
Good morning this is Will Faerber from Art2Ride and we have been introducing you to our new horse in training, Bailador!
This is about the fifth time I’ve lunged him. He is used to having his head tied down and would brace upward and tighten. This is a horse that used to spook at every little sound and would jump out of his skin, and like so many other horses today is only half trained. If everything is perfect, this horse will kind of go along okay but as soon as something goes wrong he was ready to jump out of his skin and buck. After only a few days, he is already starting to relax and stretch into the contact. Notice how long I have the side reins on this horse, just like we have shown you in other videos. …
Bailador: Introduction
12th December
Good morning this is Will Faerber from Art2Ride and I am here with a new horse that has come in for training for about two weeks. I thought it would be a good opportunity for us to see what kind of changes we can make over that kind of time.
This is Bailador who belongs to a woman from Los Angeles. He is a ten year old and a registered Oldenburg and interestingly enough he is actually the son of the stallion we have here named Contigo. As you can see he has a rather long back and is a very large horse and has had quite a few back problems and soreness. His back is looking pretty good today when a week ago he would flinch away from your hand. I have already worked him for a total of five days, three …
Laura Sakakeeny: Student Update 1
3rd December
Good morning this is Will Faerber from Art2Ride and I am here in Poway doing a clinic. We have Laura Sakakeeny in the ring with us this morning and she came to our last clinic that we held here. Her horse was a Hunter before we started this and neither her horse or she had ever done much dressage. I saw her about 6 weeks ago and since then she has put what she has learned into practice.
Look how beautiful her horse looks now! She has done it all on her own getting her horse stretching. Look how beautifully this horse is working over it’s back now! Once you understand the basic principles that must guide you, you can train your own horses. Laura demonstrates a stretch for us on a circle and this direction is a little more difficult to …
Devon and Oxsana: Update 1
9th November
Good morning this is Will Faerber from Art2Ride and I am here in Orange County with Devon and her project horse Oxsana.
When we first began working with Oxsana she was having some problems from an old injury on her ankle and issues with her saddle fit. She was sore in the shoulders and every time the saddle would hit her she would look like she was off. Happily we have come a long ways since those days which we will show you now.
Devon is going to keep her in a stretch and go into a rising trot. We ask for a little more swing in her trot so that she will swing through a little more in the rising trot. Now it looks quite even. Now to develop her working trot she will bring the poll up, finding that place …
Gaited Horses And Dressage
7th November
Good morning this is Will Faerber from Art2Ride here with Kristen Balch for our second Q&A session. The question that came in is: Is dressage appropriate for gated horses?
I grew up in Kentucky where people raised Thoroughbreds but rode Tennessee Walkers and saddle bred horses. I grew up all around saddle bred horses and have retrained many of them over the years to be riding horses, dressage horses, jumpers and even some hunters in the hunt field. The first thing that you have to understand about gaited horses is you cannot have a gaited horse and do dressage because it won’t work. What gaiting horses means is to create artificial gaits not the natural three gaits. Dressage is all about perfecting the three natural gaits of the horse, that is why in correct dressage the cardinal rule in the trot for …
Proper Saddle Fit
5th November
Good morning this is Will Faerber and Karen Loshbaugh from Art2Ride and we are coming to you from our clinic in Whitehouse, Ohio. Karen will now show us a little saddlefitting demonstration since we have had so many requests for it on our website.
Yesterday when we watched this horse it couldn’t move because the saddle was impeding the horse’s movement, especially in the shoulders. As a trainer, the last thing we want to do is make it difficult for the horse to perform what we are asking of him. They become unhappy and resentful because we are asking them to lift their back and carry themselves when their saddle is restricting them from doing that, which can be quite painful for them. So if you hit on certain areas of the horse’s back (which we call negative reflex points), the horse …
How To Get A Horse On The Bit
5th November
Hi this is Will Faerber and Karen Loshbaugh from Art2Ride here with our horse Zoolander. Today we are going to start our Q&A sessions on video. We have been answering a lot of questions from people who view our videos around the world by typing them out and I thought it would be much more informative if we had a dialogue about the question itself.
The first question is: How do you get the horse on the bit? I think for a lot of people it is really confusing and I remember going through this stage too. How much pressure do you have? Should it be the weight of the rein? Should it be 20lbs of pressure? So the basic question is: How do you get a horse on the bridle? What you have to understand is what has to take …
Dave Murphy and Zoe: Update 3
25th October
Good afternoon this is Will Faerber from Art2Ride and I thought I would give you a little update on Dave Murphy because we have gotten to a good place with her. Dave has been working with me once a week for a little over eight months. As you all have seen, Dave has learned to lunge his horse correctly and has come a long way!
When Dave first started riding this horse, the thing that I was immediately struck by was how uncomfortable she was carrying his weight. This horse really needed to work to build up enough strength to carry him. She certainly is big enough to carry him once she has been conditioned. What I wanted to point out today was how lovely and free her walk has become! I am no longer seeing the horse struggling to carry …
Will Faerber’s Book Club: If Horses Could Speak
23rd October
Hi this is Will Faerber from Art2Ride and and I am here this morning with my buddy Zoolander to do another episode of our book club.
These are a couple of books that should be on every modern rider’s shelf. Starting of with “If Horses Could Speak” which is not a book but a DVD including it’s companion, the book “Tug Of War: Classical Versis Modern Dressage” by Dr. Gerd Heuschman. These books have really saved me a lot of talking because I have been teaching this style of riding of teaching horses to get correct over their back and stretch and relaxation for many many years. I was happy when I found these books because I found a veterinarian who actually explains it. There’s actually an older explanation by a veterinarian which you might want to check out as well named …
Tanya and Soleil: Recognizing The Working Trot
13th October
Good morning this is Will Faerber from Art2Ride and I am here in Orange County today with Tanya and her horse Soleil. Soleil has been working with me for about six months now. Soleil started out not so good and unsound due to bad feet and a bad back. I wanted her to help you a little bit today.
We had a question come in asking for help: “I feel my horse stretching down but it feels like it’s on the forehand”. It’s going to feel a little on the forehand in the beginning but the main thing is whether the horse is swinging through behind or not. That will tell you whether or not the horse will develop correctly or not. Tanya has just begun to be able to do this and today is actually the first day that she …
Zoolander Working Trot
11th October
Good morning this is Will Faerber from Art2Ride and I am here with my wife Karen and our project horse Zoolander. Zoolander is developing quite nicely across the topline and stretching into the contact, so today we are going to show you what it’s like to bring the horse up and find how high we can develop the working trot before the horse drops it’s back.
We find the horse’s position in the stretch and then all you have to do is simply bring the poll up as high as you can without the horse losing it’s back, that is what the rider’s goal is. This will tell you what the horse is ready to do because it will drop it’s back if you bring it up too high. Then we are going to try a little sitting trot to see …