Olympian Kasey Perry-Glass helps a rider on a Third Level horse who likes to curl around the left side. They increase the engagement of the right hind leg and counter-flex to improve straightness. They also school lateral work in the canter to improve straightness. They practice a single flying c...

Courtney works with this pair on making the canter for the pirouettes rideable before schooling them.  When he shows some naughtiness, the rider rides through it and Courtney explains her approach to correcting this. They decide to continue in the trot, working on the medium trot.  He tends to of...

They continue the work on the trot half pass, controlling how quickly he moves sideways, and then move on to the medium trot on the diagonal. The previous work provides the control needed, and he shows a good lengthening without being too lofty.  The stretch at the end of the workout is exemplary...

Courtney King-Dye-Dye teaches Corrine on Shanghai, a six year old showing at Third Level.  They demonstrate their warm up, stretching low in the first few minutes.  He has had an issue with rearing, and Courtney talks about how they have been dealing with it.  Corrine has worked with Kenny Harlow...

With a tense horse, Laura suggests lots of changes of direction to encourage softening on both sides and suppling on the inside leg. The horse should give to the inside rein, which Laura feels is a good safety feature as many horses spook from something on the outside. When the horse is relaxed, ...

After warmup, they move on to canter work, adding 10-meter circles and shoulder-fore to improve the quality of the right lead canter. The voltes help to relax and balance the horse so that they can do other movements such as counter canter.

They move to the left lead, but again stress the quality of the walk before going to canter. Circles can be used in any gait to diffuse tension and to help balance a big canter. Then when counter cantering, the canter needs to be ridden the same way regardless of the direction. If the quality of ...

They finish the ride with lateral work in the trot working on the leg to rein connection with the goal of keeping the same tempo and connection regardless of what movement they are doing. If the horse gets too quick, Laura recommends using a shape to slow him down.

An insightful interview with Laura and Gwendolyn about riding a tense horse. Brought to you from the historic Hamilton Farm, home of the U.S. Equestrian Team in Gladstone, New Jersey.

In Part 1 of this series, Felcitas rides the Andalusian stallion, Aragon GAF. She discusses how important it is to catch the spirit of the horse without negative tension but help them to express themselves with positive joy of movement. (We apologize for some disturbance in the audio.)

In the next video, Felicitas demonstrates how a steeper hill helps challenge the horse to sit more and helps with his balance. She will even come to a halt on the hill and ask the horse to back up a few steps to challenge him more. All the time, she focuses on keeping him straight and allowing hi...

In Part 3, Felicitas rides a hot little stallion and demonstrates how important it is to settle him when he gets too hot. She chooses various inclines on the hills to help him gather and carry himself more. She even uses a grouping of trees along the hill to create a figure of eight that challeng...

In this final video, Felicitas demonstrates how she uses the hills to develop her horse's piaffe and passage. This is a nice example of how the extra energy in the field allows her to use the walk between heat and explosion and helps the horse to relax and dance instead of forcing him. (We apolog...

Felicitas von Neumann-Cosel discusses why she uses the hills and outdoor work in her training program. She explains the physical and psychlogical benefits she sees in her horses.

Grand Prix trainer and instructor Chrissa Hoffmann explains and demonstrates how she is helping a rider address her horse pre-existing tongue issue. Chrissa explains the bridle padding they use and how they are training him so that he is comfortable and uses his body to go into the bridle instead...

FEI 5* Judge Janet Foy helps a rider deal with a horse that is spooking at the videographer. They stop and patiently let the horse check out the camera, give him time to go and check it out, dont make a big deal about it, and the horse soon understands it is nothing to be afraid of.

Monique works with a rider on a horse that gets easily distracted by new objects. She wants the rider to focus on where the horse's ears are. When they fixate on something then the rider needs to do an exercise like a small circle or transition to get the ears to switch back to the rider. Then on...

When it comes to a scary object, if the energy gets too tight near the spooky place, try going to a different area and do a 20-meter circle in a forward trot. As the horse relaxes, move the circle a few meters closer to the scary object, noticing where the horse gets tense again. Positive progres...

Monique has the rider continue to work the horse towards the scary object. With time and patience, and focusing on exercises in stead of the object, the horse actually gets closer and closer to it in a positive and non-forced manner.

Jackie helps a young, professional rider working with a horse for the first time. Their challenge is to take this extravagant mover and put him into a little more of a package as well as get his attention when he gets distracted without making him tense.

They notice that the horse tends to get faster and hotter as he is ridden, so Jackie suggests they try to slow everything down. She wants everything to be “boring” to help the horse relax. The focus is on improving the lateral connection, which will in turn improve the longitudinal connection fro...

They work on slowing down the left lead canter by using the outside rein and the rider putting weight in her stirrup pads instead of in her seat. They finish with carefully stretching him in the trot keeping the relaxation and having the nose go out in front.

Steffen has them work in the trot remembering to be sure he gives and moves away from the leg before releasing the pressure.

Steffen Peters first talks about the use of counter canter in teaching the flying changes. He watches her warm up at the walk and trot.