Tag: balance


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 …



Recognizing Back Development

19th September

Good morning, this is Will Faerber from Art2Ride and I am here with Jodi Anderson and her horse Casanova. We had a question come in a couple days ago from someone who is working their horse and developing and they wanted to know how to recognize if the horse is developing it’s topline.

It is quite simple because you will see the topline change. By topline I mean the point in the middle of the horse’s ears all the way back to it’s tail. If you look at the horse in the video, you can see how the top of his neck muscles are lit up and the bottom of his neck muscles look very soft, but he’s reaching out from the shoulder. Look how evenly his diagonal pairs are moving (the outside hind leg with the inside foreleg), that is …



Learning To Develop The Stretch

14th July

This is Will Faerber from Art2Ride and I am here once again with Dave Murphy. On Wednesday we showed you him working in the walk and now we are working in the trot for one of the first times under saddle.

Notice the horse’s mouth is still a little busy there, so we are working on getting her to quiet that down. Dave is letting her into a real working trot and if she has a little problem, he is just going to stretch up and then let her stretch and get longer. Dave is doing a great job there with not pulling the mouth of the horse. Notice if she comes up, he follows up with his hands to follow up the motion of the horse and then as she stretches down, he just lets her back down again.

One of …




From the Blog!

Join me as I post weekly blogs covering many topics relating to Classical Foundation Training. I have intentionally left out the word "dressage" because many people have a negative association with the prevalent "crank and spank" approach or that it is a sport for only those who are afraid to jump.

Dressage as it is meant to be is an understanding of how to best optimize a horse's movement and ability to carry a rider, surely a benefit for any horse, any discipline. It is also important in maintaining your horse's safety, soundness and sanity.

Art2Ride Associate Trainer Program: Marnie: 2021 Yearly Submission

Art2Ride Associate Trainer Marnie gives her yearly update for 2021.

Art2Ride Associate Trainer Program: Ryanne: 2021 Yearly Submission

Art2Ride Associate Trainer Ryanne gives her yearly update for 2021.

Art2Ride Associate Trainer Program: Marie: 2021 Yearly Submission

Art2Ride Associate Trainer Marie gives her yearly update for 2021.