Originally published in 1551, Hernan Chacon's Tractado de la Caualleria de la Gineta reflects an era of radical changes in the chivalresque-military world of renaissance Spain. The text deals with cavalry riding techniques as a means of military strategy and as a peacetime occupation. This new paperback volume in the Exeter Hispanic Texts series provides a text in the original Spanish, edited and introduced in Spanish by Noel Fallows. It will be of interest to a scholarly readership, particularly students of medieval Spanish, military tactics and equestrian history

Riding skills guru Mary Wanless looks at a series of common rider faults or problems and, through words and photos, explains how to correct them. Each fault or problem is demonstrated by a different rider - some working at basic level, others advanced. Mary gives each rider a lesson, taking them through the (often subtle) changes they have to make, and recording their progress with specially taken photographs. Readers can witness the changes taking place and understand through Mary's gifted teaching, how to make the necessary shift to improve their own riding skills.The 'before' and 'after' pictures show not only the improvements in the rider's position and effectiveness but also in their horse's way of going, for the two are interconnected. Among the topics for in-depth discussion are rider position, muscle tone and stabilisation; how our minds and bodies learn new techniques or change old habits; rider asymmetry; mental attitudes; lateral work; advanced work; and faults such as tipping forward, leaning back, hollowing the back, rounding the back, and pulling on the inside rein.

This introduction to the principles of classical riding contains exercises on how to adopt the classical seat and use classical training methods to improve your horse's way of going, in hand, on the lunge, and under saddle. Every type of horse and pony can benefit from this type of training.

Accomplished coach Islay Auty explains how to develop your teaching technique to bring out the best in your pupils, be they top-flight competitors or recreational riders. The text explains how modern coaching techniques can be applied to equestrian sport and, as such, the books is more about the skills of coaching than how to teach the actual skills of riding. It focuses on topics such as motivation, inspiring confidence, personal development, communication, awareness and judgement, psychology, and how people learn. The author examines the particular issues involved with teaching children, pleasure riders, and competitors at all levels - and brings her text to life with thought-provoking scenarios. Deals with modern coaching techniques and how they can be applied to the equestrian environment Written for riding teachers who wish to enhance their teaching skills, especially those who are newly qualified or still studying for their teaching certificate. Excellent background reading for those seeking to achieve the UK Coaching Certificate in Equestrian Sport. p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Minion Pro'} p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Minion Pro'} p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Minion Pro'}

Riding in perfect balance with the lightest application of aids is something most riders strive to achieve. But without the help of an instructor by your side at all times, it is easy for bad habits to develop unnoticed. With over 100 photographs showing common riding faults - such as tipping forward, weak lower leg position, heavy hands and incorrect application of the aids - this is an outstanding guide for anyone aiming for grace, balance and accuracy in their riding. Each of the 100 features includes a technique to work on and advice on what might go wrong and how to put it right. Focus is also given to the right mental approach, rounding off this complete riding problem solver. Classical riding instructor Susan McBane offers simple yet effective advice on how to identify and remedy 100 of the most common riding problems, with a straightforward and accessible approach to horses. Designed in easy-to-reference sections, 100 Ways to Improve Your Riding is the ultimate equestrian problem solver, helping you to get the most out of your ability and your horse. 'The instruction given in the book is ... based on sound classical principles ... a good buy for just about any rider and riding teacher.' The Classical Riding Club

Experience the thrills, challenges, and fun of Western riding! Beginning riders and Western riders of all ages and skill levels will love this complete guide to the exciting world of Western riding. Veteran rider and trainer Charlene Strickland takes you step-by-step through the process of becoming an effective rider, from evaluating a horse to dressing for style and safety. Choosing a Western Horse * Quarter Horse *Appaloosa *Paint *Palamino and more Tacking up * Fitting a saddle * Choosing a bit * Tack care * Proper attire Tips and Techniques * Choosing an instuctor * Conditioning * Training * Problem Solving Competitive Events * Trail riding * Equitation * Endurance riding * Horse show

Poisoning, due to carelessness or wrong feeding, can happen. The effects are traumatic and sometimes deadly. This book describes the principal poisonous and harmful plants that any horse-owner should be aware of, listed according to their toxicity. Important details about the symptoms of poisoning, first aid, and much more make this book essential reading for any stable.

In this long-awaited follow-up to the highly praised Cobs Can! Omar Rabia introduces the idea of a systematic, progressive series of exercises designed to develop suppleness, collection, obedience and ride-ability in cobs. He discusses the prerequisites of starting this journey and the reasoning behind working cobs in-hand before ridden work is commenced. While the exercises are set out in a progressive order, each exercise offers particular benefits and works on 'target areas', so you can choose exercises that will most benefit your cob before moving onto others in the series. Progression within each exercise is explained so that riders know when to move onto the next step within the exercise.

A guide to understanding the training concepts involved in producing a supple, well-schooled horse or pony. It includes topics such as: educating the horse and rider; relaxation in the horse; balance and regularity; energy versus impulsion; bending and suppleness; and collection.

This marvelous book, borne of a unique collaboration between Dr Allen Schoen - a world-renowned veterinarian and author - and trainer and competitor of many years, Susan Gordon, introduces the 25 principles of compassionate equitation. These principles, conceived by Schoen and Gordon, are a set of developmental guidelines, encouraging a level of personal awareness that may be enacted not only through the reader's engagement with horses, but can be extended to all humans and sentient beings he or she encounters. The 25 Principles share stories and outline studies that identify and support methods of training, handling, and caring for horses that constitute a safe, healthy, non-stressful, and pain-free environment. Through their Compassionate Equestrian programme, the authors encourage all involved in the horse industry, worldwide, to approach training and handling with compassion and a willingness to alleviate suffering. These simple changes, that any horse person can make, can have a vast impact on the horse industry and society as a whole.

Following the highly acclaimed Kottas on Dressage, this book offers advice on the correct way to introduce work on the paces, exercises and movements, together with in-depth analysis of common problems and the ways to correct them. The author makes the points that many errors, so easily attributed to the horse, are rooted in faulty posture or aiding on the rider's part, and emphasises throughout the importance of focusing on these issues at all stages of training. Constant emphasis is also placed on the need to be mindful of the horse's mental and physical ability to copy with what is being asked of him - there are reminders throughout that, often, the best way to achieve progress is to take a step back and ensure the building blocks are in place that will facilitate the next step forward. The need to consider various aspects of conformation is also stressed - not all horses are perfect specimens, and the overall training of any horse will be enhanced if due consideration is given to individual considerations. Dressage Solutions takes the reader through many stages of training, from ensuring that the basic paces are correct, through introducing the lateral exercises, developing the canter, rein-back, piaffe and passage, to a final chapter that explains some of the long-established movements of the High School. This is a journey that will provide much food for thought, and a great deal of invaluable advice, for all riders who have progress and their horse's well-being at heart. p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Minion Pro'}

This title addresses the topic of coaching and the value to the rider of learning to coach themselves. Coaching is a supportive, one-to-one relationship that helps individuals with all kinds of goal-setting, decision-making and achievement, whether in sport, at work or at home. A coach will assume: that you have the commitment and the ability to acquire the skills necessary to achieve your goals; that you know a lot more than you realize about what can help you - and also what is holding you back; that it is possible to break even the grandest goals down into achievable steps; and that you gain just as much useful information from the problems you encounter as from the things that you find easy and do well. In this clear and accessible book NLP (neuro-linguistic programming) coach and trainer Wendy Jago shows how you can use the core skills of coaching to coach yourself and help you and your horse become the best that you can be. She explains every stage of the coaching process, from its basic beliefs through to the practicalities of making sure that every ride has a purpose and a valuable outcome. Straightforward exercises and examples from everyday riding help you at every stage. Longer case studies from Wendy's coaching sessions illustrate coaching in practice and demonstrate how quickly and effectively it is possible to learn to coach yourself.

What does the horse feel when a rider is crooked in the saddle? What is it like to go faster or slower, to round curves and travel straight, with an unbalanced load to carry? What goes through the horse's mind when he is over-flexed and over-aided...when he is forced into biomechanically unsound positions? What happens when a prey animal (the horse) must learn to defeat his own preservation instinct and perform on cue with a predator (humankind) clinging to his back? In this important book, Dr. Ulrike Thiel-a clinical psychologist, psychotherapist, sport psychologist, dressage rider, riding instructor, judge, and Xenophon Society classical trainer-examines these important questions, and others. With the use of exercises and astute comparisons, Thiel gives readers an eye-opening tour of the realm of the ridden dressage horse, ensuring we all work to make the job of "being ridden" part of a mutual pursuit-a dance involving two engaged and caring partners, a friendship binding mind and body.

Pony Care: A complete guide to buying and caring for your first pony will appeal to both owners and their parents. It has been cleverly written by Alison Pocklington, who has previously been awarded the Horse and Hound Groom of the Year and published the very successful first book, The Essential Guide to Professional Horse Care and Grooming. Now, as the mum of a horse-mad child and riding instructor to many, Alison is only too aware of the pitfalls of finding the right horse or pony to match the rider. This great little book offers sound practical and in-depth advice, tips and guides to get horse and pony ownership off on the right foot. Most children who learn to ride dream of owning their own pony. Pony Care offers parents an in-depth guide for what is actually involved in successfully buying, owning and caring for a pony. With advice on finding the right pony, buying the necessary equipment, livery options, daily care, feeding, shoeing, health, exercise and, when the time comes, how to go about selling the pony. Common mistakes can be made when there is a lack of knowledge or experience, in seeking the wrong advice or being in too much of a hurry. Alison Pocklington shares a wealth of experience complete with tips and checklists. 'This book is a MUST HAVE for anyone who has had the tireless and repetitive call to buy from their pony-mad child.' - Lucinda Green MBE

A valuable self-test and revision aid for candidates working towards their BHS Stage 2 exam. The questions are presented in a lively, engaging style in different formats, many very visual. There is space for students to write the answers on the page and model answers can be found at the back of the book.

With a show-jumping career spanning over forty years, Nick Skelton is a legend in the equestrian world. No other rider has won so many major competitions on so many different horses and he is as popular at Olympia and Hickstead as he is at Aachen, Geneva, Paris and Spruce Meadows. Skelton has competed in eight Olympic Games. He was part of the gold medal-winning Great Britain team at London 2012 and made history by winning the individual Olympic gold medal at Rio 2016, riding at the age of fifty-eight his beloved horse Big Star. Nick Skelton began riding at the age of eighteen months on a Welsh pony called Oxo. At the age of seventeenth in 1975, Skelton took team silver and individual gold at the Junior European Championships. He has competed many times at the European Show Jumping Championships, winning numerous medals, both individually and with the British team. In 1980 he competed in the Alternative Olympics, where he helped the British team to a silver medal. He still holds the British Show Jumping High Jump record that he set in 1978. In 2000, Skelton was forced into an early retirement after he broke his neck from a serious fall. But following an amazing recovery he came out of retirement in 2002 to compete again. Now he tells the full story of his eventful life and matchless achievements.

For a horse or pony to perform well - whether that be in eventing, endurance, show jumping, reining or any other of the myriad disciplines within the modern equestrian world - he has to be fit for the job. Fitness is vital whether you aim to compete at international level or local weekend competitions, because a fit horse will stand a better chance of staying sound, both physically and mentally, and will have a longer and more active life. The same criteria apply if you choose not to compete but to ride purely for pleasure. The happy hacker or trail mount is still a working animal and needs to be prepared and maintained accordingly. After all, a Formula One racing car and a weekend run-around both need correct fuel and to be kept in good working order. In "Getting Horses Fit", Carolyn Henderson, with the assistance of competitors, equine science experts and experienced owners, explains what fitness means and how to achieve it, enabling owners to work out an individual fitness programme suitable for their own horse, whatever their level of activity. The topics include: assessing your horse; health and condition; disciplines and their demands; feeding for fitness; environment management; building strength and suppleness; interval training; tack and equipment; travelling and competing; lungeing and long-reining; poles and gridwork; hands-on techniques; and diet and fitness for riders and the mental approach.

Compiling a programme of pilates exercises designed to help the dressage rider enhance their ability for success, this book contains over 500 pilates exercises that have been specifically chosen to best suit the needs of the dressage rider. It contains photos and detailed instructions which clarify each exercise.

Lungeing and Long-Reining, published in association with The British Horse Society, is a step-by-step guide to training, exercising and suppling horses from the ground, written by Britain's leading exponent of the art. The book begins with advice on handling untrained youngsters and works through a logical training progression, culminating in advanced dressage movements. Straightforward guidance is given on: Training foals and young horses Lungeing equipment and technique Introducing long-reins and early lateral work Backing and riding young horses Lungeing over poles and fences Advanced long-reining; including cantering, rein-back, shoulder-in, travers, half pirouettes, half-pass, renvers, canter half-pass, canter pirouettes and tempi flying changes. Piaffe and passage Olympic dressage rider and trainer Jennie Loriston-Clarke has broken and schooled countless dressage and jumping horses, and initially uses lungeing and long-reining to establish the horse's basic education and create mutual respect between horse and handler. The knowledge she has gained over the years while working with novices and older 'difficult' horses sent for retraining, is distilled in this book into simple instructions, so that others can avoid making costly mistakes when training their horses. The goal throughout is to produce a horse that is confident, keen and happy in his work - which should be the aim of every trainer. Illustrated with specially commissioned sequence photographs, this book will prove particularly valuable in the early training of young horses, as well as in improving or retraining older horses, and refining dressage movements in advance horses.

As an instructor it takes time to develop a repertoire of exercises to suit all ages and abilities. This book has the answer: it provides a wide range of ideas for lesson plans, with notes on how these can be adapted and developed for different levels of recreational rider, from beginner to advanced, whether children or adults.The lesson plans are organised into teaching subjects to allow instructors to go straight to a chosen topic and find exercises to suit riders of different abilities, along with teaching tips for a professional delivery.

In 1948, the year of the London Olympics, the Daily Mail carried a centre spread of a Lippizaner horse performing a capriole. On the strength of this photograph, the young Charles Harris took a train to Aldershot, where the equestrian events were held, and after narrowly avoiding arrest for loitering without authorization in the stable area, managed to procure a meeting with the rider of the horse, Alois Podhajsky. As a result, and sponsored by Colonel VDS Williams, one of the leading equestrian figures of the day, Charles became the first pupil to complete the 1948 - 52 course at the Spanish Riding School in Vienna. Every day he wrote down what he had learned, illustrating each point in his own inimitable style, filling two thick A4 notebooks. These numbered notes are faithfully reproduced just as he wrote them, forming a unique and fascinating record of the nuts and bolts of classical horsemanship as taught at the most exclusive and famous riding school in the world. The workbooks are prefaced by a memoir of the author's life, taken mainly from transcripts of conversations with his nephew, Robert Sherman, together with additional contributions from his contemporaries. Born Charles Gallewski in the Jewish quarter of Sunderland in 1915, Charles experienced a traumatic childhood, spending time both at a workhouse and a children's home. After an incident-packed period during which he deserted from the army and changed his name twice, Charles, a talented horseman, gained a fellowship of The Institute of the Horse and his future looked promising. However, his return from the Spanish Riding School found him a prophet without honour in his own country as the equestrian establishment resisted the teaching and discipline of the Spanish School. A fierce and unforgiving opponent when disputing points of equestrian technique and safety, Charles became a thorn in the side of the British Horse Society who having previously awarded him a fellowship, then stripped him of the honour. This memoir, at times painfully frank, often extremely moving yet full of humour, provides a compelling insight into one of the great characters of the horse world: a brilliant, yet always controversial man.

In recent years dressage has been the fastest expanding equestrian discipline in Britain and many other countries around the world. As a result, a rapidly increasing number of people will need to know how to earn the marks in the arena and more judges will be needed to assess the tests. Judging dressage is a big subject and in The Dressage Judge's Viewpoint Jane Kidd has covered it in a concise, straightforward and clear way. This book is the ideal introduction to dressage and a valuable reference book not only for riders but also for judges and trainers. * Over 200,000 people ride a dressage test each year in Britain * Understanding the judge's perspective helps riders to improve their test performance, be it at their local riding club, at affiliated horse trials or international dressage * Illustrated throughout with clear, instructive photographs

Is your riding performance a series of peaks and troughs? Do you find it hard to concentrate on the right things? Are you easily distracted by negative thoughts? Do you lack self-confidence, fear it, or confuse it with arrogance? Does your riding lack goals and ambition? Do you prepare properly for competition? "A Sport Psychology Workbook for Riders" deals with these issues, and more, in a clear, realistic and sympathetic way. While the author clearly emphasizes the need for technical proficiency, she makes the point that becoming a truly competent rider involves much more than just technique. Effective riding is ultimately a two-way communication between rider and horse, and the benefits of the rider being relaxed, confident and focused are enormous. In this book, the reader is taught how to achieve this beneficial state through employing mental strategies that are used by top riders (and other athletes) whilst training and competing. These strategies are explained in logical, down-to-earth terms, cutting through the muddled and destructive thinking which so often bedevils performance. While the book focuses primarily upon preparation and performance in the competitive disciplines, the ideas and strategies expounded will be of equal value to all riders who want to achieve a happy and successful relationship with their horse. Furthermore, since sport psychology is the psychology of peak performance, the strategies on offer have many positive applications in daily life.