Tag: young horse


Lungeing the Young Horse: Example #1

22nd March

This is Dave Murphy and his young Arab filly Zena.

Zena, only a few short weeks ago was a pretty energetic(lets say) young lady who was a little bit out of control. Just by learning some of the basic principles of classical dressage, Dave has learned to apply them to this young horse. As you can see with only 10 or less sessions since we started, this horse has gone from being an uncontrollable young thing to now where she is safe in her pen, letting Dave catch her and coming out and going to work, just by applying a few simple principles.

You can also see why I wanted to film this horse. Here is a horse that has never had a saddle or bridle on and just by teaching it to lunge correctly, you can see how this horse is …



How To Develop the Sitting Trot

23rd January

So today, we are talking about introducing the young horse to the sitting trot.

The biggest mistake that most people make with this, is they sit too long. Young horse’s backs take quite a while to form, so if you just drop your stirrups (as so many people do), you will probably end up hollowing the back of the horse, because the horse won’t be able to sustain it.

So, when your first beginning the sitting trot on a horse, what you want to do is get them into the stretch, and then only sit in the stretch. This teaches the rider independence as well. My student Sarah in this video, is working with a horse that has only had a few weeks of dressage training, and is learning to stretch. To get him back in place, she waits a moment till she …




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.

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