CW Horsemanship and Equine Care

08/04/2026

Dora’s pole work and free jumping session

09/02/2026

Steady work acted some barrels xx

22/12/2025

Perfect Xmas exercise!😁🐴🦄💕xx

03/12/2025

It’s not something you ask for, it’s something your horse offers when the training is correct.

True stretching forward-down means:
💡 Your horse trusts your hand
💡 He’s in balance
💡 The hind legs are active and stepping under

But this only happens when you set it up right:
➡️ You ride from back to front
➡️ You follow the movement with your hand, no pulling back
➡️ You respect the rhythm and seek relaxation

Only then will your horse feel confident enough to truly let go and stretch into the contact.

It’s not a warm-up trick. It’s a sign that your horse is mentally and physically aligned with you.

Has your horse ever offered a true stretch like this? 👇

23/11/2025

Paint horse William just backed and doing so well waiting for his momma to bring the bosal xx 💕🐴

12/11/2025

Back schooling horses this week after a week off riding to recover from a bout of post viral ME …not 💯 but getting there xx 💕🐴🐴

12/11/2025

Moomin Ben checking out his full clip 💕🦄

29/10/2025

Training Tip Tuesday. The short diagonal-simple change exercise. Again, we are looking at setting the horse up for success with the flying changes. This exercise is a great way to test your horse's straightness and balance. The rider must ensure that the horse is properly cradled between the aids in order to perform this exercise without deviating from the line of travel.

Begin in the canter and travel across the diagonal line asking for a walk transition slightly before the centerline. Walk as long as is necessary to adequately prepare the horse for the new lead and ensure that the horse is listening to the aids. Then, ask for the left lead and continue across the diagonal line and onto the next short diagonal. Again, ask for the walk transition slightly before the centerline, prepare the horse for the new lead and begin cantering again on the right lead. This exercise can also be ridden as a single loop if the angle is too steep in the small ring for your horse to maintain his balance. You could also add a challenge by riding the turn at E as a 1/4 pirouette turn. Regardless of how you ride the exercise, you may find that the horse begins to anticipate, and may even offer, the change. Reward the effort if he does.

This exercise is great for improving throughness, straightness, collection and balance. It helps the horse to become more forward thinking and is extremely helpful in developing the rider's coordination of the aids. All of these things and proper geometry will go a long way toward beautiful, clean flying changes.

28/10/2025

November events

Sun 2nd HVRC jumping Woodnook
Sun 9th Ledston Dressage
Sun 16th Walton lodge pairs chase

🐴💕xx

19/10/2025

Jack doing great at dressage again 🐴💕xx

19/10/2025