Looking to expand your equine knowledge? Start the year off right with five great educational books to learn more about training techniques and horsemanship. Keeping reading for more information!
Know You, Know Your Horse
An Intimate Look at Human and Horse Personalities, Identifying “Types” and Matchmaking to Ensure Long-Term Relationships
By Mary Morrow and Eunice Rush
Wouldn’t it be wonderful to understand how horses think? How they will react to certain situations in advance? As a matter of fact, wouldn’t it be wonderful to know how the people in your life think and will react, too? Now you can! Know You, Know Your Horse delves deeply into sections of the horse and human brain to describe core personalities—what the authors call “Social Styles.” Understanding these personalities allows the reader to determine which kind of horse will work best for which kind of person. This helps ensure success in selecting, rehabbing, choosing training methods, as well as matching a horse and rider to a particular discipline. Includes a bounty of tests and charts to enable each reader to more accurately determine accurate horse and human personalities. Any horse owner (seasoned or new) or trainer (amateur or professional) will gain a more complete understanding of what makes their equine partner tick by reading this book.
40 5-Minute Jumping Fixes
Simple Solutions for Better Jumping Performance in No Time
By Wendy Murdoch
Better balance in the saddle, improved body control from head to toe, and increased influence with your seat are just a handful of the simple fixes offered in this straightforward training manual for jumping. Most of the suggestions provided require only a few minutes to learn and offer solutions for making jumping more enjoyable for both riders and their horses. By starting and ending each ride with these simple, easy, and effective fixes, equestrians will happily and efficiently replace old habits with new ones and get out of the riding rut we all find ourselves in at some point in our riding career.
Longeing the Rider for a Perfect Seat
By Linda Benedik
History has proven that riding on the longe line doesn’t just promise, it guarantees more direct riding skill advancement. It maximizes learning, shaving off months—possibly years—of struggle and frustration, and develops the sensitivities of the rider while preserving those of the horse.
Now, for the first time in book form, this step–by–step guide to both longeing others and being longed unveils the secrets behind the most beautiful—and functional—riding in the world. By combining traditional mounted exercises with yoga, conscious breath work, and hands–on bodywork, Linda Benedik’s unique rider–longeing program, Riding Without Reins, helps the rider create a personal balance that leads to a deeper connection with the horse while at the same time developing a stable, correct, elegant, independent seat—every rider’s goal.
Riders, instructors, and longeurs will learn the nuts–and–bolts of rider longeing, including how to:
• Choose a longe horse and outfit him correctly
• Cue him with stance and longe whip, and be safe about it
• Structure a rider–longeing session at various stages of seat development
• Maximize learning and rider recall while avoiding common pitfalls like physical exhaustion and over–facing
Riding on the longe line offers a safe, controlled learning environment that enables beginners to relax and develop a feel for the gaits and provides the ideal venue for experienced riders to perfect their position, fine–tune their aids, and identify gaps in their riding education. Simply put, on the longe line, all riders can achieve their riding goals—whatever they may be—in far less time, while conscientiously preserving the well–being of the horse.
Includes a section on equestrian vaulting!
By Lisa Campbell
Combine Lisa Campbell’s clear directions and photos with Diann Landau’s illustrations and, well, anyone with a little ambition and a few good tools can build the projects within these pages. Each project includes a ready-to-go-to-the-store shopping list, detailed instructions and plans, and helpful photos. There’s even tips on how you can individualize projects using painting schemes or logos. Full details on setting up dressage arenas, including making the letters, are also provided. And if you’re not up to the challenge, the plans can be handed over to a professional or amateur carpenter who’s not even a horse person—or to an enthusiastic spouse!
By Heather Smith Thomas
A go-to manual for any horse owner, this book addresses a range of equine behavioral problems, from the mild—refusing to stand still or tail rubbing, for example—to the severe, such as rearing under saddle or attacking other horses. With topics broken into four main categories—bad habits in the stable, correcting ground manners, problems under saddle, and the reluctant traveler—noted rancher and horse book author Heather Smith Thomas dissects each topic by addressing the source of the problem, providing solutions to the behavioral issue, and discussing what to do if the fix doesn’t stick.
