I did not get to ride this week.  Either it was too wet (just rain this time), cold, or I had a head cold.  So I read in some old horse books I just got, two from the U.S.A. Cavalry and an old one from an ex Russian cavalry officer who got taught by both James Fillis and Federico Caprilli.  This guy literally got to learn riding from both sides, the high collection of Fillis to the free extended movement taught by Caprilli.  This cavalryman, Colonel…

This week I was fortunate, I got to ride Mia twice. I must admit that when I got out of the car on Friday and felt the COLD wind, I announced that it was official, I was insane! But I rode anyway. Of course.



I have been trying out several bits with Mia, all using my Micklem multi-bridle. There are several reasons for this. The main reason is that I am trying to find the most comfortable bit for Mia, the bit with which she is comfortable enough so that she will consent…

I have been stuck in my house this past week because of the snow and ice that fell earlier this week.  Unable to get to the stable and ride I have had to content myself with reading my horse books, a poor substitute for the real thing to be sure, but better than nothing, especially since I have some position faults that I still need to fix.…

When I restarted riding several years ago I developed a problem that had never bothered me before.  During my ride and for a few days later the sole of the balls of my feet felt sore, not terribly sore, but still sore enough to be irritating and inconvenient.  During my youth we were always expected to put up with pain, pain from sore muscles, pain from aching joints, and the pain from falling off our horses!  Since my foot pain was minor I sort of…

After months of saving most of my spending money for Christmas I finally saved enough to spend some on myself--well, horsie stuff really.  After my earlier experiment with a Myler bit I had been sort of disillusioned, but when I got home after realizing Mia did not have much room in her mouth I measured the thickness of the mouthpieces of several of my bits.  The results were eye-opening.  I finally realized that the thicker the bit was in the middle…