Equestrians of all ages, from all walks of life, are drawn together by the common thread of safeguarding the welfare of their horses while traversing many miles of the most beautiful horse trails. Riders participate to test their ability as equestrians as well as their horses’ athleticism. Some compete to win, and others ride just to complete. Whether you want to ride to complete or ride to win, the horse’s welfare is paramount. Learn more about the sport before you participate here.......

Preparing a horse for Endurance includes more than just conditioning muscles, suspensory, and aerobic capacity to handle the physical stresses of competition. Teaching rein and leg aids, body position, and voice commands will result in a calmer, more manageable and responsive horse that is less stressed by the excitement of a ride. Teaching ground manners, leading skills and handling will make it easier for the Veterinarian to examine and evaluate your horse effectively and treat him if necessary. In addition, you will find that your movement through the vet check is more efficient, resulting in faster ride times. Read more.....

One common denominator that applies to all horse training is the behavior of the horse with regard to his relationship with humans. Although it is always worthwhile to improve your horse’s training, this article assumes that you want to teach the basic skills that ensure a safe, responsive horse and are most applicable to Endurance. Round pens are nice and very useful, especially when working with a young horse, but suppose you don’t have access to a round pen or an arena, and all you have is a horse and some basic “stuff”. Learn more...

In previous articles, we discussed two simple exercises that help gain your horse’s respect and teach him where he is supposed to be under lead. Assuming that we now have his attention and that he will walk calmly on your shoulder in a straight line, stopping and backing up when you stop and back up, let’s expand that to include turns left and right. Read more......

Catching your horse in the pasture when you want to go riding can be a frustrating experience if he doesn’t want to be caught. One of the most useful and important things you can teach your horse is “Come to Me”. It will save you countless hours of chasing your horse around the pasture and make it easy to catch him if he escapes at a ride. Deb Bennett once said something like “The goal of all horse training should be to get the horse to want to be with you more than he wants to be anywhere else”. Learn more...

The “head down” cues using poll and lead line pressure work well when on the ground. However, if we want to have the horse drop his head from the saddle…. at any gait… then this cue doesn’t work as well. There are many advantages to being able to cue your horse to drop his head from the saddle. Such as.....

Have you heard the John Lyons adage “you ride the horse you lead”? All training is cumulative. How successful you are at teaching saddle manners depends to a large part on how well you have taught ground manners, particularly those dealing with respect issues. The rider should always be interacting with the horse while in the saddle. You should actively “ride” the horse, not just be a “passenger”. The objective is to become as much a part of the horse as possible. Find out how.....

It is important to prepare your horse physically and emotionally for what he will experience at ride vet checks. Previous articles address some of that as part of ground manners training. However, your horse will be expected to not only stand quietly under lead, but to do so while being poked and prodded all over by veterinarians and P/R volunteers. In addition, his recovery to pulse criteria will be much quicker if he is calm and relaxed. We can cue a horse to relax by creating an “environment” that he associates with pleasure and relaxation. Learn more.....

In most cases, we want our horse behind or beside us under lead. However, there are times when we want to “send” him first...… to go in front of, beside, into, over, or onto something, such as a horse trailer, a mounting platform or a log. In addition, on technical Endurance rides if your horse has been taught to “tail” you can help him by letting him pull you up a hill with his tail instead of having to carry you up. We want the horse to move forward on our body position and arm motion, but we must first get him to perform the action before we can associate it with a specific cue.  Read more.....

This document is a compilation of several slide show presentations (PDFs only, no audio or video) given as part of a series on leveling up to 100s. Topics covered include: managing your horse's footfalls, using x-rays to evaluate your horse's feet, proper pacing, nutrition and energy requirements, dynamic evaluation and adjustments (on trail and in camp), and taking care of yourself during the ride. Download PDF..... (note: accompanying videos included down below)