Sports & Recreation

How to achieve the ultimate connection with a horse. 

Within these pages lies an ambitious study of the interplay of mechanisms put in motion when man and horse meet, communicate, and ultimately become one. Dominique Barbier and Dr. Maria Katsamanis examine how "lightness" is generated, using the simple and elegant basics of the universe—atoms and molecules—which exist all around us. Scientific findings and theoretical underpinnings allow us to better understand how lightness with a horse occurs—and how to harness it.

Discover practical guideposts for the mechanics of "riding in lightness," including:

• Five common misconceptions about riding and horses
• Seven keys to meeting the challenges we so often face when working with horses
• Four elements necessary to ensuring the horse's comfort and willingness to join us in"the dance"

If you listen properly, horses will tell you how to train them. This book is a published declaration of their needs as our athletic partners, fellow competitors, and friends.

Those who work with and train horses on a regular basis are likely constantly searching for new ways to make inroads and find answers when faced with tough training or behavior problems. Grand Prix dressage rider and performer Yvonne Barteau has trained her share of horses over the years—from off-track racing Thoroughbreds, to Arabians, to Friesians, to Warmbloods—and she asserts that everything that needs to be known about effectively training a horse is already known…by any horse.

“Each horse,” says Barteau, “will know and respect the person who figures out how to train him, if that person is fair. The best trainers are not only ‘horse whisperers,’ they are listeners. And readers. They listen to what the horse has to say. They can read horse body language and behavior patterns. They are calm and they stay calm under pressure. How did they learn that? By studying horses. Over time the horses told them how to be a horse trainer and they listened.”

Barteau believes that every dressage rider can learn to listen and read, and so experience greater success and partnership with his or her horse. In this book Barteau has used her knowledge and decades of experience and success in and out of the dressage ring to help put to paper what 10 different dressage horses would say to you about horse training if they could. Through the dressage horse’s mouth, from his point of view, readers learn: how simple things really are and how complicated we make them; the value of routine, consequence, and peace; the importance of leadership, fairness, and trust; the need for your sense of responsibility to match your ambition; plus, what kinds of rewards really work and what frightens, annoys, or causes horses to disregard us altogether.

True liberty, says Jonathan Field, is much more than simply removing equipment and stepping outside the pen or arena: It is moving with your horse, communicating only with intention, and creating a seamless, smooth, and rhythmic dance. "When you do liberty right, you become one with the herd," he writes. "And not only do you develop an amazing connection with your horse, but it's one of the most fun things you will ever do."

Developing communication skills and your relationship with your horse through liberty benefits all that you do, whether on the ground or in the saddle, whether competing or riding for pleasure. Quick responses to subtle cues, clear aids, and a relaxed and attentive horse: These are the keys to liberty, and they are also objectives when you ride, drive, or interact with the horse on the ground around the barn. Liberty, therefore, teaches you to be an all-around better horseman or horsewoman.

With Jonathan Field's step-by-step liberty training method, you learn to have a better "feel," to reward the horse sooner, and to time your aids just right to ensure you get the response you want. Plus, you discover how to approach things from the individual horse's perspective—an important key to getting a horse to act because he wants to, rather than because he has to. Fabulously illustrated with hundreds of action-packed photographs taken on Field's spectacular ranch in British Columbia, this book can change the way you are with horses and change the way horses are around you.

A proven classic for improving every rider's functionality on horseback. 

5 minutes a day is all the time you need to achieve:
• Better balance in the saddle
• Improved body control from head to toe
• Increased influence with your seat
• Flawless leg position and subtle aiding
• Quieter, softer hands and contact your horse can trust
• Less physical stiffness, tension, and riding-related pain
• Confidence in your ability to communicate with your horse

PLUS, in just 5 minutes you can improve a horse that's:

• Unwilling to go forward or "dead" to the leg
• Hollow-backed, high-headed, or above the bit
• Heavy on the forehand and unbalanced
• A chronic "puller," "leaner," or "head-tosser"

Start or end your riding sessions with Wendy Murdoch's 5-Minute Fixes, and you'll be amazed how quickly you can replace old habits with new ones, get out of your "riding rut," and transform what you can't do to what you can do…naturally, capably, comfortably, and consistently alongside a happy riding partner — your horse.

Did you know there is an area of your brain known as the "Lizard Brain" that thinks only about the immediate moment and your means of survival? Yes, in certain circumstances, your "Rational Brain" can effectively "shut down" and you are at the mercy of a reptile...dry-mouthed, sweating, queasy, unable to think clearly—even though you know better. When does the Lizard Brain run the show? It can happen in any number of unfamiliar, uncomfortable, challenging, or "stressful" riding situations. But here's the thing: with the right kind of training, you can learn to manage the reptile within, which leads to greater confidence with horses, better riding performance, and ultimately, happiness at the barn, at shows, and everywhere in between. Andrea Waldo teaches you how to:

• Handle uncomfortable emotions, such as fear, anger, anxiety, and embarrassment.
• Hone your mental game and focus your riding time to get the most out of your hours in the saddle.
• Care for your emotional injuries the same way you would care for an injured horse.
• Produce a state of "Focused Calm" and tap into the skills you have (whether you know it or not!) to ensure an outstanding ride. 

A devilishly good guide to riding dressage!

Like the classic Seven Deadly Sins, the seven deadly sins of dressage presented in this innovative guide—

• ignorance
• timidity
• pride
• fear
• gluttony
• impatience
• sloth

  wreak havoc on both rider and horse development and training. Calling attention to common mistakes and offering new strategies for avoiding age-old pitfalls, this entertaining and instructive manual addresses the philosophical issues of incorrect dressage training by examining each vice in depth. Using a touch of humor and sound advice, this guide comes complete with practical exercises, enlightening photographs, and useful information for becoming a better rider and person.

Jane Savoie presents a revolutionary approach to riding by which you can train your mind and shape your attitudes to achieve higher levels of skill than every imaged.

The book deals with such concepts as

• luck
• worry
• dreams
• “loser’s limp”
• commitment
• criticism
• frustration
• inspiration

You will learn relaxation exercises that will not only rid you of stress and tension, but will also enable you to benefit fully from the use of “imaging” as a working tool to achieve desired ends. And you will skillfully invoke the “As If principle” to think and behave “as if” you are already experiencing your wants and needs.

The author explains how words, and word-images, play a major role in determining your actions. For example, if you say “challenge” instead of “problem,” you will positively enhance your performance.

The “training” chapters take all the general principles and apply them to specific riding situations. The final chapters deal with “competition,” focusing all the tools and techniques learned earlier on actual performance scenarios.

Throughout the informative and spirited text, there are scores of personal anecdotes about some of America’s leading riders—and their affinity with the ideas and teaching of the author.

A sensitive retelling of events that shaped a childhood, a career, and an evolving philosophy on what it means to love something—and for that love to be enough.

“Following a passionate path usually isn’t easy,” writes horsewoman Chelsea Canedy in this uninhibited and deeply thoughtful memoir tracing her experiences in the horse world and how they have impacted her development as a competitor, a teacher, a wife, and a mother. From a gate left open and a herd of horses galloping desperately down a busy road to a sage-burning “clearing space” in a barn; from falls, poor rides, and heart-wrenching divorce to connection, opportunity, and transformative friendships, Canedy digs deep to identify themes that not only tell her unique story but speak to the reader’s own. Writing with the same natural feel she found at an early age in the saddle, Canedy coaxes us to grasp the broader truths that working with horses can so often unveil.

 Reminiscences, both tender and painful, prove a catalyst for deeper exploration of what it is we are really looking for when we pursue a passion—and what it is to be human at every stage of that journey. Canedy’s sensitive retelling of the events that molded her are hewn from the barn and arena, but her perceptive questions about existence, both in its most general sense and its most nuanced, offer any reader valuable lessons in true and lasting personal growth. Canedy bravely shares the painful mistakes she has made with both horses and people, the intense guilt that has accompanied these transgressions, and how learning to accept setbacks and starting over “the best way you know how” is sometimes, maybe, what gets you where you want to go.

 Offering distinct lessons in how to be compassionate, curious, flexible, tenacious, open, aware, and ready to roll with the punches, Canedy’s book is for every reader with a passion they feel driven to pursue, while perhaps questioning its value as the years unfold. “Knowing what it is that ‘fills you up,’” writes Canedy, “in this life, that is enough.”