The simple act of paying attention By Amanda Barton A beautiful grey gelding rode into the arena for the next session of a clinic I was teaching. The horse was immaculately presented and the rider was clearly really experienced. In short, everything about the partnership looked great. But despite this all was not well. After …
Pat Burgess – a coach ahead of her time Pat put the horse’s wellbeing at the forefront of her coaching and has a natural ability to inspire confidence and a sense of fun in horse and rider By Amanda Barton (along with notes from Pat Burgess) I have had a few reminders lately of the …
Pat Burgess – A show jumping coach ahead of her time Read More »
Amazing Brace by Hans-Michael Schoebinger “With that kind of brace I wouldn’t get on her”, Mark Rashid said to me when I was about to mount Harpa, an Icelandic mare in the middle of Colorado. He was right, she was not giving into the bit, not a bit. After his mentioning this, I decided to …
BREATHING A SURVIVAL BREATH OR A THRIVING BREATH? By Amanda Barton One time I asked Mark Rashid why it is that he rarely talks to riders about their riding position. His reply really got me thinking; he said that 70% of the issues of position and alignment are fixed by getting the person to breathe …
What do we mean by “Softness” What we are talking about are some really positive qualities in the connection between the horse and rider that are based on mutual trust, relaxation and ultimately peace. By Amanda Barton If you have ever seen Mark Rashid’s clinics or read any of his books then softness is probably …
Finding your Centre How you can use the power of your core to be more effective with your riding By Amanda Barton How heavy is a 2 year old child? Well that should be a simple, empirical question. When my daughter was a toddler, most of the time, my husband or I had no problem …
Exercises to Find Your Centre By Amanda Barton A SERIES OF EXERCISES TO HELP FIND YOUR CENTER FINDING YOUR CENTRAL AXIS Before locating the specific point which is your center its useful to get an idea of your central axis. Dancer Andre Bernard said “ideal posture can be found when you allow the parts of …
