Riding Level 2: Riding without the reins At famous Cadre Noir school of equitation in Saumur France, riders are put on horseback on long reins or the longeline for two years before they are allowed to pick up the reins. This insures they have a completely independent seat. Most of our students do not have…
Riding Level 2: Regaining the stirrups In Riding Level 1 we asked you to drop your stirrups and retake them at the walk. In level 2, you'll be asked to: 6. Drop stirrups at sitting trot and regain at walk There's not much I can say about regaining the stirrups that hasn't already been covered…
Revisiting the Independent Seat The third item on the Riding 2 checklist is the same as for Riding 1: 3. Exercises at halt & walk The only difference is we want you to be able to do them at the walk as well as the halt. So go back to this post and review those…
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…
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…