The Riding Level 1 Curriculum

Over the spring and summer I’ve put up posts detailing the requirements for our Horsemanship Level 1.  If you read through those posts, look at the relevant chapters of the Manual of Horsemanship, and attend at least Horsemanship classes in which you have the opportunity to practice handling, grooming and tacking up, you have a…

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Ride with Authority

The final item on the Riding Level 1 scoresheet is: 15. Demonstrate overall authority, safety & confidence This is similar and related to the last point on the Horsemanship Level1 sheet: 11. Demonstrate safety and common sense when working around horses In your riding test you will be marked on your habits from the ground…

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Safety in numbers

Or rather, safety with numbers, is this week's topic.  In other words, how do you 14.  Identify and maintain safe distance in group while riding and halted It's not enough to simply maintain the pace and direction of your own mount in relation to the fixed objects in the ring; you also need to be…

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Time to Stirrup Things!

Sorry, it's a dreadful pun, but I couldn't resist. The stirrup is arguably one of the most important inventions in the history of mounted warfare, and of riding in general.  The advent of the stirrup allowed a rider to mount more easily (making it feasible to wear heavier armour into battle), to rise out of…

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Freeing the sword hand

Up till now all discussing of the Riding 1 curriculum has implied the use of two hands on the reins.  This is because we ride with English tack in the Cavaliere program and teach English style riding (for the reasons for this see these previous posts: English or Western pt I and pt II).  However,…

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Alphabet soup: dressage arena letters

Take a lesson at almost any riding school and you will hear a stream of letters flowing past: "twenty metre circle at C", "between K and A develop working canter", "change rein FXH" and so on.  These letters are not acronyms or arcane code, but simply markers on the dressage arena. No one seems to…

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Setting the Pace

First off, thank you to all you wonderful volunteers who came out yesterday, post-Canada Day hangovers notwithstanding, to pound posts, hammer rails, attack weeds and re-hang gates at Red Colt!  We got a lot done in a short time and we couldn't have done it without you! Transitions Up until now in our Riding level…

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Exercises for an Independent Seat

We begin all our riding sessions with warm-ups for both horse and rider.  For the horse, this involves progressing walk and trot, circles, changes of direction and suppling exercises to warm up the muscles and joints prior to exercise.  For the rider, the warm up serves an additional function: to develop an independent seat. The…

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The Riding Curriculum

Over the past dozen weeks or so I've written posts detailing the requirements for our Horsemanship Level 1.  If you read through those posts, look at the relevant chapters of the Manual of Horsemanship, and attend at least three Horsemanship classes in which you have the opportunity to practice handling, grooming and tacking up, you…

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