This was a wonderful week in that I got to ride three times.

However the spirit of revolution that started in Tunisia three weeks ago has finally reached both mares I ride, both Mia and Cider said no more to my most recent experiment using the Myler bits.  Of course the cold I had was quite bad and very weakening, and it really messed up my physical abilities.  Last…

I did not get to ride this week, again it was too cold and I had a miserable cold.  So I drowned my sorrows again by thinking about horses.  I decided to explore controlled kicking.  I first ran into this movement when I read "The Compleat Horseman" by Gervase Markham (1614).  On page 67-68 he writes

"Next to advancing (rearing), you shall teach your Horse to jerk behind (kick), in this manner:  when at any time…

This has been a WET week down here in Stanly County, N.C., we got 2 1/2 inches of rain!  Bad for riding, but still wonderful news because we just got put in the extreme drought category.  Again.  The years long drought is predicted to continue this year, so I am grateful for every drop of rain that falls.

It had rained around an inch Tuesday night, so I expected lots of…

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…

My wonderful son asked me last week what I wanted for Christmas, muttering that it was probably too late to order on-line to get something by Christmas.  I went to the wonderful book site (amazon) and found that I could get any amount of horsie books by Christmas, and I asked for "Riding and Schooling Horses" by Harry D. Chamberlin, the Captain of the US Cavalry teams for international competition so long ago.  This book,…

(dazzle-to blind or dim the vision by an excess of light)

Many, many times over the past few years I have faced Mia, the Arab mare I ride, with puddles. Like many Arabs Mia does not like crossing water. I have spent a lot of time coaxing Mia through these horrible puddles, and after some resistance Mia, the brave mare that she is, eventually crossed every puddle, and throughout the lesson she would improve. However let a few weeks go by without puddles and the next time out…

While reading Gustav Steinbrecht's "The Gymnasium of the Horse" I was impressed that he did not seem to think that the "classical" dressage seat was suitable for riding all horses all the time. As a Forward Seat rider I was particularly impressed by Steinbrecht's "forward" seat (which he calls the "crotch seat") and how much it resembles the Forward Seat for Slow Equitation (as described in my blog…

Around a year ago. I got Gustav Steinbrecht's "The Gymnasium of the Horse" (first published in 1884), one of the truly classic dressage books. I've read the first 93 pages several times, and I found myself coming back to certain passages over and over again, for they introduce and explain a concept that I had not fully understood from my earlier dressage…

Well, I tried yet another bit on Mia on Wednesday, a 3-piece snaffle with a copper roller in the middle. While she was more accepting of the bit I was still getting some head tossing when I applied rein aids. Tear my hair out time, what COULD be wrong? I had lightened my contact, which she liked, I was doing my rein aids lighter and lighter, which met with Mia's approval, Debbie said my hands were fine, and what else could it be? Debbie and I discussed it and…

For the last two months or so I had been driving by this new sign in Midland, NC saying Tack Exchange. Finally I found the store in the rear room of a beauty salon! I haven't entered a beauty salon in around 40 years, but this one didn't smell too bad so I ventured in. The owner of the salon has started a consignment tack store, with bits, saddles, clothes,…

Debbie worked her usual magic on the mare she is training.

She finally found a western saddle that fit the mare's shoulders (a Wintec synthetic). Then she took the mare too the beach (lucky mare) and faced her with new challenges. Debbie said it all came together when the surf crashed into the mare's hind end, the mare…

BRRR. It is COLD outside, when I woke up it was still in the high 20's F with a brisk wind. Since I no longer have horses I could stay warm this morning. I am so glad not to have to carry feed (I always fed more for the cold), hay, warm water (to wet the feed), and break open the ice on the water trough. With my MS this had gotten REAL challenging. Such a luxury to be able to stay inside. No frozen fingers or toes, and I do not have to feel sorry for the shivering…

This month, both on the forum and on video, there have been discussions on whether use of bits constitutes abuse of the horse.

Let me be clear, if the rider does not know how to keep proper contact with the horse's mouth using a bit is abusive. From the pictures and videos I've seen in the last few years VERY FEW riders know how…

Well, I have given up on going back to using regular bits for now, it is back to learning all the subtleties of the Wellep bits! Mia had behaved quite well when I used the Mullen mouthed snaffle, but she communicated to me that she MISSED the mouthpiece of the Wellep. So I got the regular cheeked Wellep snaffle out and sat there trying to figure out how I could use the bit on Mia and still have the stability I needed to keep good contact. Finally I decided on bit…

The last two weeks I was all excited, I thought I would be able to go back to riding with my favorite bit, the JP Dr. Bristol Hunter D. Last spring, when I last used this type of bit, both mares had been going very well, keeping contact well, with relaxed tongues and lower jaws, and we had fun "talking" back and forth with the bit. So I changed the bits on my bridles and went out full of optimism and hope. Both mares decided that since they were 1) horses, 2)…

This summer I decided to try out my Wellep bits and see if this bit really was a new, improved method of bitting. Usually when the weather gets hot the horses start politely refusing contact with my hands, and then I change to one of my bitless systems. My experiment was to see if the horses would voluntarily keep contact with my hands throughout the summer with the Wellep bits. I succeeded in this, I only used a bitless bridle once, when I forgot my regular…