'Poignant and compelling, an equine Bridget Jones.' Racing Post Being a stable lass is probably one of the hardest jobs in the country, and yet for Gemma Hogg it is the most rewarding. She works in the beautiful Yorkshire market town of Middleham and if her colleagues are occasionally challenging, then the horses are downright astonishing. Now, in Stable Lass, she takes us into the closed world of a top racing yard, from the elation of having several winners in one day to the almost indescribable grief of losing a horse. Like most stable lads and lasses, Gemma arrived in her yard as a teenager fresh out of racing college and had to cope with living away from home for the first time, as well as adapting to the brutal long hours, backbreaking work and often treacherous weather. She describes falling in love with Polo Venture, the first racehorse in her care, the pure exhilaration of riding him on Middleham Gallops for the first time and what happens when a horse takes against you, from the growling gelding Valiant Warrior to the potentially lethal Broadway Boy. She brings to life the characters around the yard, from straight-talking boss Micky Hammond to the jockeys starving themselves to make weight, the wealthy owners and the other stable lads and lasses who come from a range of different places and backgrounds. Stable Lass by Gemma Hogg is a unique look into the world of horse racing filled with heart-warming stories and amazing thoroughbreds - some loveable, some cantankerous, all impressive.

A revised and expanded edition of the existing title The BHS Complete Training Manual for Stage 2 ISBN 978-1-905693-28-3, now including comprehensive background information on the techniques, knowledge and understanding required for the BHS Stage 2 exam, making it the definitive course companion. BHS Stage 2 is the second level and generally taken by professional people wishing to work in the horse industry. This training manual describes the level of practical and theoretical knowledge required for each element of the exam; how candidates should train to ensure competence in horse knowledge, care and riding; successful exam techniques (what to expect and how to present yourself); exam procedure for the ridden, practical and oral sections with valuable test questions and model answers; and what the examiners are looking for

In this new book, Susanne von Dietze, author of the bestselling book and DVD Balance in Movement, explains how to dynamically stabilize your back so you can ride with "feel" and in tune with riding's demands on your body, and your horse's, at all times. "Back-friendly" riding - the key to achieving harmony with your horse - is: Correct Effortless Sensitive Effective This new book includes exercises to improve: Flexibility Dexterity Mobility Stability With meticulously thorough explanations of body awareness, perception, and applicable aspects of physical fitness, von Dietze's program helps you train without overstraining so you can ride better, longer, while at the same time improving transitions, half-halts, sitting trot, straightness, and collection.

A revised and fully expanded edition of the BHS's very successful Training Manual for Stage 3. This guide, based on the latest syllabus, explains how candidates should train to ensure competence in every aspect of the two-part syllabus - horse knowledge, care and riding. Valuable test questions and model answers are also included.

Dressage training has changed little over the centuries and the principles laid down by the Riding Masters are as pertinent now as they have ever been. Understanding Dressage Training provides essential reading to those wanting to gain a deeper understanding of the importance of successful training. Everything you do on top of your horse, and how you do it is considered 'training' because you are forming habits for both the horse and yourself. For a balanced partnership between horse and rider it is important that it is fully understood what it is that you are aiming to achieve and exactly how you go about achieving it.

If you want to progress up from novice and need some help with the more advanced novice and elementary movements you will find this book really helpful. Kottas looks at each of the horses paces and gives a clear guide to what is required and most importantly how to achieve this. There are some excellent illustrations which clearly show everything from the rider's aids to the flexion required from the horse. The book also includes some stunning photographs which again are very easy to understand. There are also sections on lateral movements, changes of lead and piaffe and passage for those with greater ambitions.

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.

An introduction to western style riding, covering breeds, saddles and tack, rider position and aids, ridden exercises and western classes. Riding Western also includes a chapter on skills required for western horsemanship.

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.

This book discusses ground-pole training for all disciplines and shows how you can make the most of precious schooling time. It provides quick and easy pole layouts, using just a handful of poles. Different exercises are given for each pole layout, so there is no need to move the poles during a session. Exercises range from the simple to the more intricate, with the inclusion of more transitions, lateral work, raised poles/cavalletti, or riding in a different gait. Claire Lilley explains how these pole exercises can help you to ride with precision and improve your horse's way of going, adhering to the scales of training. You can also use the different layouts to check whether you are sitting straight, turning correctly, and riding transitions and lateral movements properly. She lists common rider faults for each exercise to help riders self-correct if schooling alone. As an experienced trainer herself, Claire knows that this book will prove an invaluable resource for riding instructors, providing a veritable cookbook of ideas for lesson plans. Poles are a great teaching tool, adding variety to every lesson and helping the teacher to explain lessons to the pupil. Teacher's tips are given for each exercise. Claire says: "Try the exercises for yourself and I'm sure you will be amazed at the improvements that can be made both in your riding technique and in your horse's way of going. You will never be bored with schooling again!"

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.

Real Riding offers different ways to approach traditional and natural principles of horsemanship. The emphasis throughout is on employing empathy and understanding and looking at things from the horse's point of view. It sheds light on common misconceptions, difficulties and contradictions, and the pages are crammed with exercises, simple "tricks" and things to do that can make a real difference. Perry Wood aims to put harmony with horses within grasp of every rider and brings the art of riding into the 21st century.

Learning to ride should be fun, progressive and constructive, but all too often children can be frightened or put off. Teaching them is not easy. This book offers advice, exercises, lesson plans, games and teaching tips designed to provide variety and sound instruction, plus a range of innovative ideas for making learning to ride an enjoyable, worthwhile and satisfying experience, even for the very young.

This title aims to show how the horse's muscles work and explains how this knowledge can be put to good use in riding, whether in competition or for recreation. Using her own careful anatomical drawings, the author studies the skeleton, the action of the muscles, and the role of the nervous system before applying this information to various riding situations. The demands placed on the horse's systems in dressage, jumping, eventing, racing and even polo are all examined, with advice on how good riding practice can help avoid problems. With the knowledge of the horse's anatomy gained in this book, the rider should better understand what is being asked of the horse, and how to achive it with sympathetic riding and horse care, making this a useful manual for all riders.

When Victoria meets Moonshine, an ex-racehorse saved from the slaughterhouse and abuse, she despairs at having to ride such a difficult horse. The pair compete in dressage, a sport that tests the unity of horse and rider as they engage in what can only be called dancing. They compete against horses bred solely for the sport, always struggling to overcome the bias against horses like Moony. As she grows and comes of age, Victoria teaches Moonshine to trust, and Moony teaches Victoria the importance of heart and perseverance. Together, they master many trials and compete in the Junior Nationals in this inspiring and compelling true story of how a girl and her horse changed each other's lives forever.

Codependency, a compulsive behavior sometimes known as "relationship addiction," is often characterized by a dysfunctional, one-sided relationship that is emotionally destructive--even abusive. For years Susan Conley found herself trapped, married to an addict whose health, welfare, and safety she valued far above her own. Over time she watched as she lost contact with her own needs, desires, and sense of self. But then at forty-two, after yet another crisis came to an anticlimactic resolution that left nothing healed and little to hope for, she decided, having never so much as touched a horse, to take up riding. Here, with humor and honesty, Conley chronicles her experiences, sharing how her pledge to rediscover herself following her divorce was aided, abetted, and challenged by the horses in her life. "They were as large a part of my recovery as were any of the self-help books I read, personal development workshops I did, and 12-step meetings I attended," she writes. "The struggle to heal the wounds of a dysfunctional marriage was actually made easier via the real wounds received from horseback riding." Many Brave Fools explores the ways in which horses enriched Conley's life, and how the process of making herself into a rider also helped her become the person she most wanted to be: not the "ex-wife of an addict," but a responsive, confident, even courageous woman, entering the prime of her life.

Dressage, the equestrian practice in which a horse makes highly precise movements in response to barely perceptible signals from the rider, has taken hold of America's equestrians. Participation rates have risen by 200 percent over the past twenty years, as baby-boomer riders have discovered dressage to be less strenuous and dangerous than jumping, yet offering the satisfaction of mastering techniques and the opportunity to compete and advance to higher levels of achievement.
101 Dressage Exercises for Horse & Rider, presented in Storey's highly visual "Read & Ride" format, features a full arena diagram and stepby- step instructions for each exercise. The exercises address all levels of riders, starting with the basics and moving up to maneuvers developed by members of the U.S. Olympic team. Training tips and masterly guidance make this an indispensable reference for all dressage riders. Even Western riders interested in enhancing their performance will find these foundational exercises useful.
Dressage riders are information-hungry readers, often referred to as "the thinking horsemen." This book's sturdy format, combbound and drilled so it can be hung on a ringside post, will appeal to these reading riders, whether in or out of the saddle.

With the popularity of the cob rising year by year, it's time to extol the virtues of this humble hero of the horse world. Cobs Can! is an instructional training book specifically geared to cob riders who want to improve their flatwork and jumping. Using kind and gentle training methods that work with (not against) the typical cob's nature and build, Omar Rabia shows that it's perfectly possible to train these wonderful creatures to advanced levels. The book includes lateral work in walk, trot and canter, as well as piaffe, passage and Spanish walk. There are tips on jumping and exercises to improve technique. Most of all the book is a celebration of achievement, of what's possible when the versatile cob and a thoughtful rider combine their efforts - proving that cobs really can!

Over the course of her riding and horse training career, Kathrin Roida has progressively gained a deep appreciation for the benefits of gymnastic exercises, particularly those that can be taught to the horse from the ground. "In-hand" training has long been used to help develop the dressage horse, conditioning and suppling his body while at the same time preparing his mind to grasp the movements that may eventually be expected. Roida relies on these techniques when working with young horses, which she prepares for under-saddle training with exercises first learned on the ground, improving balance and enhancing confidence by refining the horse's sense of his body and where it is in space. Roida also uses in-hand techniques to vary the training of the fully schooled riding horse and to solve problems that may be more safely dealt with from the ground. In this book she details her methods, sharing the stories of a number of horses of different ages, breeds, and training backgrounds, and demonstrating the steps to teaching them: shoulder-in, travers, renvers, pirouettes, half-pass, piaffe, passage, canter work, the Spanish walk, and much more. Throughout her conscientious attention to what is best for the horse ensures that not only do the lessons result in a horse that is healthy in body but also one that is healthy in mind and happy in his work.

Burghley Horse Trials has been a perennial delight for both riders and spectators ever since the Marquess of Exeter started it in his beautiful parkland in 1961. The " Little Book of Burghley" charts the event's rapid elevation to the status of much-loved sporting institution through the riders, horses and officials who made their mark at Burghley. It also provides a fascinating snapshot into how the sport of eventing has modernized during 60 years of triumph and drama, and how Burghley has played an important part in that development. Above all, it shows why the Burghley Horse Trials have become the ultimate annual highlight in any sportsman's calendar.

Anatomy, particularly functional anatomy, is a vital and dynamic subject, an appreciation of which leads not only to superior husbandry and welfare, but also to a better understanding of the anatomical challenges associated with riding, training, overtraining, injury and rehabilitation. Using Alexa McKenna's fabulous illustrations, this book shows the correlation of the skeleton, muscular system and locomotion, providing a clear insight into the functional and dysfunctional horse. It also addresses the largely misunderstood concept of 'perfect conformation' and looks at the effect on function of the rider and tack, using cutting-edge diagnostic techniques such as thermal imaging and gait analysis. Again with the emphasis on the visual, readers will be able to appreciate how muscles function in differing athletic disciplines by analysing the heat generated in musculoskeletal structures after exercise. This will also highlight the importance of post-competition recovery. The book concludes with a range of useful techniques to improve the function of any horse, including stretches, taping, wrapping and other proprioceptive techniques to increase balance, flexibility, awareness and posture.

THERE ARE MANY BOOKS AND DVDS devoted to the technical training of horse and rider - how to perform movements correctly, clear obstacles, communicate efficiently, and in other ways attain the idealized image of an athletic partnership that results in competitive success. But this book is different: its focus is how the rider and trainer can make it easier for the horse to perform optimally. This includes improved understanding of what are reasonable expectations for a particular horse at a certain level of schooling, how to improve his fitness (including strength and conditioning), as well as background on how injuries may develop as a result of interaction between internal and external factors, such as genetics, conformation, management, and training. Relying on her veterinary background, in-depth research, and dozens of interviews with top riders and trainers from around the world - including Beezie Madden, Carl Hester, and Pippa Funnell, to name just a few - Lonnell provides guidelines for nurturing a happy, healthy equine athlete. With special focus on conscientious pacing when building the horse's physical capability over time, diversification of schooling practices, detail-oriented management and care, and putting the horse's needs above competitive ambition, readers are given a solid grasp of what it takes to truly reach the pinnacle of equestrian sport - and remain there - on a consistent basis. Throughout, gorgeous colour photographs of world-class horses and the people who work with them visually demonstrate the success of these methods.