by Shari Maguire

Now that you have developed the comfortable cadence and rhythm from the day to day repetitive exercises of bending around your inside leg, flexing the head and neck, suppling the five body parts we talked about earlier, the head, poll, neck, withers and shoulders, it’s time to move on to the trot.

…

Continue reading »

by Shari Maguire

The training sessions are easier and more successful if you start with a horse that has the conformation suitable for this particular discipline.

Ideally, the Western or English pleasure horse should be long across the topline of the neck and short on the bottom line. This makes it easier and more natural for the horse to carry its neck in the right spot. Not too high or too low, just about level from the poll to the withers, the nose no more than 3-5 inches in front of the vertical not behind the vertical or “behind the bit”.