James Jackson Equestrian BHS Senior Coach / BHSII

25/01/2026

Delighted to be invited to be on the 'Ask an Expert' panel for Horse&Rider Magazine. My first piece of advice on my approach to a productive warm up has been published in this month's edition.

Putting complex topics that I could talk about for days in to a couple of hundred words is hard! Hopefully this all makes sense...

25/01/2026

This might seem a bit left-field to those who only know me from talking about technical riding training. But it goes a lot deeper than that.

I have recently been reflecting on the artistry inherent in training horses. It's easy to dwell about our mechanics - how we sit, where the heel-hip-shoulder line is, how tense our arms are. It's also easy to obsess over our horses' mechanics - where is the back lifting, quite where are they placing a hind hoof in a canter transition, how consistent is the flexion, ... .

These are all very important points; the first set of rider-focussed considerations often levied at beginners, and the more horse-centric focussed on those moving to develop horses' way of going. But they are merely the mechanics, the process, of training horses to be harmonious and beaufitul and expressive. They are the means to the end.

So where does the harmony, the beauty, and the expression come from? It's artistry. It's not being obsessive over minor details without recourse to the beauty of the art of riding. It's not drilling movements until our horses are dead behind the eyes, tired of mind and body, for the sake of executing the perfect transition.

Does your riding make you smile, or does it make you frustrated? When people watch, are they emotionally invested in the partnership you show between horse and rider? Are you allowing mistakes to happen - and embracing them - because the margin between accepting the average, trying something new, making a mistake, and abject failure, is so small?

Seek out the smile (in you, your horse, and observers). Seek out the expressive beauty of these wonderful animals. Seek out the feeling that makes the hairs stand up on the back of your neck.

Rarely do you see this spoken about these days, but the likes of Decarpentry, Nuno Oliviera, Alois Podhajsky, James Fillis, Baucher, all wrote in these terms, while also exposing the technical approach required to get there. Embrace how top-end artists in other fields talk about this emotional connection and channel it. What does a movement in a dressage test mean? How can you ride it to make people emotionally invested in the performance and the training? Benjamin Zander is an inspiration:

For more classes like this one, please visit the Benjamin Zander Center - https://www.benjaminzander.org/Alan Toda–Ambaras, cello; Dina Vainshtien, pianoInte...

30/11/2025

It's been a long old summer with ongoing medical treatment for Vigo, but between all that the schooling continues. The focus recently has been on shaping the half-steps which he began offering, and really focussing on his canter. None of this is 'wow-factor' show-off stuff; that will come later - no 5 year olds looking like 8-9 year old horses here! This is about getting the very solid foundations of suppleness, straightness, responsiveness, and balance in place so that is the template he always knows and uses in his work, and builds for longevity in his ridden work.

The half-steps are a natural results of the walk lateral work which I spend a fair amount of time working on. He started naturally offering a diagonal response sometimes in that work, so I've been gradually shaping it as it arises. I picked up a lovely little nugget from Christoper Bartle in that the piaffe is like a delicate diamond waiting to be found - we've got to protect it, polish it, and shape it, but never be overbearing with it. I want his half-step work to be relaxed and supple, not from tension. You'll also note that the aids for it I use are purely collection in the walk with an elevated body posture - no rhythmical nagging with the legs!

He's a huge horse - about 18hh - so his canter was always going to take a while to balance and collect. Lots of careful work later, and it's reallys starting to get there. He's got huge powerful paces, and the risk at this stage is one ends up with a horse that has a lot of 'go', but no balance (and as a result can tend to be heavy in the hand). He's now happy to strike off in to a canter which he is managing himself, in a light contact. The further collection will come as I gradually introduce counter-canter and lateral work in to the canter schooling. But I would always aim for balance before power - it's easy to add power back in later, but very hard to fix balance issues later.

He's feeling super-supple and responsive, and is a joy to ride. Taking time with him really is coming to fruition now; good things to come.

As ever thanks to Lyne House Livery for looking after him brilliantly, Laura B - Saddles for keeping us comfortable, and Westlake Vet Physio for tuning him up.

01/11/2025

Great day of Continuing Professional Development! Lovely to watch a whole range of horses, from 5 year olds to those established at Grand Prix. The focus was looking at the training progression through the levels, and how the steps all link together.

29/09/2025

A friend commented that there hadn't been many Vigo updates over the summer. So here we are! It's all been quiet as following injected chemotherapy for his sarcoids, they weren't fully resolving. He underwent laser surgery and follow-on chemotherapy under general anaesthetic with a visiting specialist at the beginning of August, and has been healing up since then.

While he still has further healing to go, he's been back in work for a couple of weeks now. He's feeling absolutely fabulous; now aged 5 he's building up strength, but not rushing him is really paying dividends. His canter has come on hugely, with his counter-canter is really working well to develop the straightness and collection, and we've started to play with some flying changes. Scrappy, but the bare bones are there. He's also getting very very clever at piaffe half-steps in lovely light collection. Of course, we spend at least two sessions a week hacking out around the lanes to have relaxing chill time and general fitness development. Really rather a lot of fun all round and I couldn't be happier.

Frustratingly, I'm not convinced we've completely removed the sarcoid activity around his eye. The healing is going really well, but there's one patch that is causing me concern. More vet checks to come. Fingers crossed it's nothing, or sortable. Time will tell. For now, I'm enjoying his company, and having a hugely talented horse to play with who is showing the benefits of progressive, unrushed but still performance-focussed training.

Thanks as ever to Three Counties Equine Hospital for his ongoing treatment, Westlake Vet Physio for keeping him in prime condition, Laura B - Saddles for saddle goodness, and Lyne House Livery for his top quality care (and more nurse duties than I would like to have asked for!).

23/08/2025

This is a great bit of research. I very very rarely use side reins these days (and I never, ever, use draw reins - I hate the things with a passion). The key learning points are, if you are using side reins, to consider:

- Are you using them because others do, or are you using them for a specific purpose with knowledge?
- Do you understand horses' biomechanics, and the influence using side reins can have?

Most riders who use auxiliary reins do so owing to others’ influence and their own lack of skill, research has found – and those who use them tend to have less knowledge of equine biomechanics than those who do not. Read more below

22/08/2025

A great day today as I’m back on board Vigo. He’s had about a month off for some laser sarcoid surgery and follow-up associated treatment, as a course of injected chemotherapy didn’t shift them totally. Early days, but currently things are looking great. Thanks to Jeremy Kemp-Symonds and Giulia and the team at Three Counties Equine Hospital for his excellent treatment.

He’s lost a little bit of muscle mass, but is in great condition. A couple of weeks walk work hacking around the hills here, with a graduated introduction of schooling, will get him right back in no time.

The great thing with teaching the young horses all the lateral work, and half steps, means you can pick them up and start tuning up their suppleness and collection with ease. It was lovely to have a play with all the buttons while out and about today. He’s feeling fab!

It’s been such a stop-start year for him, so hopefully this is the point he can work more consistently. But he’s very well established, and only just turned 5, so I’m not too concerned. Good times ahead 🤞🤞🤞

14/08/2025

Love this! Well worth a read.

The Art of Producing the High-Level Horse

In today’s world, where goals are king, results are worshipped, and egos often take the reins, we’ve lost touch with something essential: the art of the journey. The quiet, thoughtful process of developing a horse, not just for performance, but for partnership.

Too often, the pursuit of high-level training becomes a checklist of movements, an external badge of status. Grand Prix as the pinnacle. Piaffe, passage, pirouette all proof of success. But we rarely stop to ask: Success by whose measure? And at what cost?

Because if a horse’s well-being were truly at the centre of our goals and not just a footnote in our mission statements our training would look radically different. It would move slower. It would feel softer. It would sound quieter. And it would be far more beautiful.

Producing a high-level horse is not about simply teaching them the movements required on a score sheet. It’s about cultivating a horse who is sound in body, stable in mind, and joyful in spirit. It’s about shaping one who offers those movements willingly, expressively, even playfully. Not as a result of pressure, punishment, or the clever placement of aids that corner them into compliance but from a place of physical readiness and emotional trust.

And this……….this is where the art comes in!

Imagine dressage as a painting. Each training session is a brushstroke, delicate, deliberate, layered. The impatient artist might throw out the canvas at the first mistake. But the true artist? They work with the paint, blend it, adjust it, stay curious. They know that beauty often lives in the imperfection, in the subtle corrections, in the layers of time and care.

The same is to be said in riding: the art lies not in domination, but in dialogue. Every stride, every transition, every still moment is part of an evolving composition. The rider’s aids are not commands but questions; the horse’s responses are not obedience but answers. Together, you create something greater than the sum of its parts.

The highest levels of dressage are not the goal. They are the byproduct of a thousand conversations, a thousand small moments where the rider listens, adjusts, supports, and receives. When done well, Grand Prix is not a performance. It is the horse’s voice, amplified through movement.

To produce a horse to that level is to understand that their body is not a tool, but a home. Their mind, not a machine, but a mirror. Their spirit, not a resource, but a companion.

This is not just training a horse
It is stewardship.
It is art
And it begins not with ambition,
but with reverence.

24/07/2025

Deep in conversation, although I'm not sure if I'm telling Nikki something, or her horse 🤣. Bonus points for a beautiful view and wonderful weather; coaching in the summer is always a joy.

Livery Nikki on her beautiful horse having a coaching session from James Jackson who is also a livery but also an accredited BHS Senior Coach. It was super to watch their progression during their session 🤩🤩

09/07/2025

Horrible to see this - The Avon Centre (commonly known as Avon RDA) is a brilliant place, and they've lost their winter hay due to an arson attack on their freshly-cut fields. Please consider helping them out:

On July the 8th the Centre was victim to an arson attack. We lost a large amount of freshly cut hay, which would have been used to feed our horses over the winter. We will not be able to use the land for grazing or hacking until it is recovered.

07/07/2025

A lovely afternoon for a stroll through the woods!

After some significant loading blips recently (don't ask about the unplanned night he stayed at the vets due to not getting back on the lorry...), skillfully worked through with Michael Peace - Think Equus, I wanted to give him a nice trip away to rebuild positive associations with travel.

He loaded like a champ at both ends, and we had a lovely mooch in the shady woods. Good day in the saddle!

02/07/2025

I’ve just finished my first schooling session since our lesson and the difference was incredible ... thank you so much