Recent content by sbloom

There are treeless saddles with quite narrow twists out there. Unless you're very light in your stirrups a treeless saddle is likely to be better.

Very lucky.

Do bear in mind the horses are eating any fresh growth, you may well be but you have to judge by ungrazed fields and even then they may not be growing the same. I wouldn't fit a saddle to a horse if it was stressed like that, and that's 1.5-2.5 hours, at home, without asking what you'd be...

In my experience, IF, and that's a big if, the saddle is designed and fitted in such a way as to truly benefit correct balance and movement in both horse and rider, then the horse has maximum two tree widths' change before a different tree or panel.shape,.or both, is needed. I personally think...

She is. If the horse had come up in front she wouldn't be, or not so much, so that's tell tale. If a horse really comes up a little more in piaffe (being already up in front in collected trot) the pommel should come up and the only reason a rider should look like they're on their fork (which...

This is from a public group on FB but in case the link isn't public I'll cut and paste and add the direct link. I think it's so relevant to this conversation though I realise her interpretation may not vibe with you or agree with your own interpretation. It's always good to question whether...

In fact a lot of the issues exist because of the effort to generate push from behind but not to train and ride the horse in such a way that the "gearbox" can take that amount of thrust and convert it into push UP in front. The horse instead remains "falling forwards". Then we develop gadgets...

Absolutely. Like I say if your body, your equitation, can mould the horse, help energy flow in the right way...and that is rooted in stability...then aiding can become invisible. We are SO far from that in most competition dressage.

The bounce is there in correct work but it's this ground recoil force, USING the ground and elastic tissues to flow through the whole body rather than picking the legs up and down and bouncing from left to right leg, standing leg relatively unflexed and hip pushing up. The bouncing croup is...

He's actually sitting on his whole pelvis, 3 point seat, and that is often easier in a standard saddle when the horse lifts in front like this. We have to adapt and flex with the changing balance of horse/saddle, but his entire body gives away that he provides stability for the horse, as a...

This is a fabulous post showing uphill balance in walk, slightly OT but kinda relevant, all about educating the eye. It depends on your horse, on your seat on all sorts of things I'm sure but we are not asking them to lift their feet, that's the wrong end of the telescope. We don't ask them...

It's astonishing what you can see in regular and social media "how to" articles and posts. You can see how the horse at the top (PK and Odin?) is using the ground, using the intrinsic elasticity in soft tissues to achieve the pace, the hind joints clearly compressing, and you can see how the...

Do you need to use the whip to ask them to lift their feet in any other pace? Ultimate collection means the trot becomes shorter in stride until it stays in place...just as we add extension with our seat and leg, we can add collection and amplitude. The seat is critical and with the leaning...

I don't seem to be able to quote, and there will be specific ways to train it but it's about where the horse is, and what needs to develop, and that's balance - increasingly taking weight behind, increasing collection - and then amplitude/cadence for passage specifically. Compare the image in...

Yep, ground recoil forces and shifting balance are ignored in favour of muscular effort but it's the way so many train the piaffe/passage and certainly what happened when I was in a similar situation to @CastlelackSportHorses. Very very few people talk about it so its no wonder people don't...