Good afternoon, this is Will Faerber from Art2Ride and I wanted to show you another one of the horses that we are now working with. This is Carrie Underwood and her horse Etch-A-Sketch. Etch-A-Sketch is just four years old, and just started dressage training with me just a couple of months ago. We are thrilled with this horse and think she has a lot of potential once she fills into herself.

As you can see in the video, she is quite huge and just look at that lofty beautiful trot. She is just now learning to stretch. When we first started her, she had a little break in her third vertebrae, which is why it is so important that we get her all the way out there. You can see sometimes when she accepts the contact that she comes a little …

Will Faerber from Art2Ride discusses the video sent in by Meike and makes suggestions for further improvement.

Hi this is Will Faerber from Art2Ride with H2O and Barb. Barb leases this horse and it is the same horse that you saw in our last video with my wife Karen Loshbaugh. The last video was the first time that we had gotten him into a complete deep stretch, so I wanted to show you the student working on the exact same thing.

Look how easily this horse is able to work with Barbara. This horse was very very stiff, she was the kind of horse that just pulled her head up into the air and jammed her neck back into her body. Now Barbara is experiencing her very loose over her back and swinging. Much improved, beautiful! So this is really about a month of training, 3-4 days a week, just getting her softened up and lunging correctly. We …

Hello this is Will Faerber from Art2Ride and today I am here showing you one of the new horses that we are training. We have been working with this horse for about a month. It was a hunter and her name is H2O.

She has quite a strong back, but she was quite stiff through her neck. I wanted to show you a video of her first day of really getting a full stretch, she has really loosened up. This was a horse that would really brace against your hands and start to run. Look at how nicely she is beginning to swing over her back after only a month! Look at how we have the full range of motion! This is my wife Karen Loshbaugh riding her today.

I wanted to introduce you to some of these horses because we will …

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 …

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.

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 …

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

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

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 …

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 …

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! …

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 …

San Diego Horse Trainer, Will Faerber, educates the rider’s eye.

Good morning, we are coming to you from Guadalajara Mexico to take you on a tour of this amazing facility!

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 …

San Diego Horse Trainer Will Faerber from Art2Ride discusses the correct development of the Piaffe.

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.

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 …

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!

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

Will Faerber and Karen Loshbaugh from Art2Ride give you an update on Bailador’s progress in lunging.

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

Hi this is Will Faeber from Art2Ride with my lovely wife Karen Loshbaugh and we are going to tell you about one of the secrets of dressage. In an earlier video we talked about how the legs are used and how the leg can be used to make the horse move sideways, straight forward or when we come underneath to engage the horse’s back. One of the things that most people have wrong when I see their position is the outside leg. The outside leg is one of the keys to getting a horse to bend correctly.

Usually when I tell people to put the outside leg back, they usually swing the leg back from the knee and they think that means to put the leg back. What that does as you will feel when you try this at home is …

What I would like to start off with is a little thing I call, what are we trying to do? Which is something I ask people all the time who are riding horses. What are you trying to do? and what are you trying to accomplish? I am amazed at how many people can’t answer that question. Another one I get in dressage is, what is collection? I am amazed at how many people can’t answer that question as well, especially when they are supposed to be a dressage rider.

What we are going to start out with today is trying to learn what working gaits are. Working gaits mean the point at which you are working through the back and the horse is working it’s topline. The point at which you are working the topline is where you are in …

This is Will Faerber from Art2Ride, and we are in Irvine Park today giving a clinic.

My wife is riding a horse named Kyro, who started working with us in a clinic only a few short weeks ago. He is a draft cross, who I think when he started with us in the first clinic, had never been stretched and looked like a very shortened draft horse. This is a perfect example of when we sometimes find horses in interesting places and they surprise us!

Most people are often surprised by how well their horses can move. These horses that they thought would never be capable of doing dressage, and yet once they see them begin to light up their toplines and move correctly through the back, they see how differently they can look.

This horse looked very hollow-backed, as you can see …