Where The Heart Is Ranch

12/23/2025

A common fault when performing shoulder-in is that riders try to drag their horse’s shoulders onto an inside track using only their inside rein.

Instead, ride a 10-meter circle or use a corner to help you establish the required bend and get your aids in position.

Then, half-halt down your outside rein, look down the outside track, and use your inside leg to push your horse off the circle and down the long side, maintaining the shoulder-in positioning.

Think of your inside leg and seat as rhythmically encouraging your horse upwards and into your outside rein.

Ironically, out of all your aids, the inside rein is the one you should be using the least.

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We have a more detailed step-by-step guide on how to position your horse for shoulder-in and how to ride it (including a list of all the individual aids) in our latest book. Link in the comments.)

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Illustration created and copyrighted by HowToDressage

12/21/2025

12/21/2025

True! 🐎

12/20/2025

This is true - the rein contact can elevate your connection and refine the horse’s balance and responsiveness

Why contact?

Years ago, I was bought into the notion that anything worth doing should be done on a loose rein. I really struggled in my lessons to hear about contact because I had poor associations with it - people telling rider's to hold against the horse, like fighting a big fish on a line into a boat. It appeared to me a contest of wills, and I was completely uninterested in that feeling.

My teacher often talked about the connection being like dancing, but I had never felt anything like this. She talked about funneling the hind leg without ever trapping it, and keeping the full length of the neck intact in the contact. "Hold the horse's hand, but don't ever restrict the movement," she'd say.

It all sounded good, but every time I picked up the reins I just felt heaviness, resistance, or my horses hid from my hand. She would bring my awareness back to my seat every time and away from my hands.

"The fingers just capture what the seat creates" she would say -

But it was years of practicing with my seat before I would understand the contact.
A following seat, a directing seat, a seat that was soft but very stable: my teacher had this, and I spent years and years working toward it, understanding finally just what it meant to feel the hind leg through my seat but not always able to stay with it, and often blocking it.

But those times when the contact feels good is magical - unlike anything I've ever achieved on a loose rein. It was like being in close with someone you love very much - taking their hand and swinging in a dance. Feeling everything there is to know about them through your hand: their thoughts, their breathing, the way they feel about you and eveyrthing to do with you. There is no hiding from each other on the contact.

Exactly where the hind leg is in what phase of each stride - where it's going and how that connects to how they're feeling inside. Recieving the fullness of their trust from hind leg all the way into my hand.

You don't NEED contact for riding - you can walk trot and canter on a loose rein. But it's like any relationship - it can go as deep as you want it to go, as intricate, nuanced and beatiful as you'd imagine and more.

And like anything else, it can be poisoned. Like all tools, it can be flatted and cheapened, and downright misused. It can be weaponized against the horse or even against a student -

But it also bridges us into a flow, a beauty, a magic, available for anyone with the discipline to work toward this kind accurary - available to anyone who can be trusted with the power of having thr entirety of a horse's body in your hand and use it only to create art.e

12/20/2025

Oh yes, we do celebrate the minutes!!

✨ Winter Solstice Eve ✨

Arguably more exciting than Christmas Eve.
If you’re an equestrian. 🐴

Not because life suddenly gets easier. Absolutely not.
But because tonight is when winter officially stops escalating , in darkness terms. ❄️

The longest night.
Peak darkness.
The final boss level of “why am I doing this hobby”. 🥲

From tomorrow, the days get longer.
By seconds. Literal crumbs of daylight.
But crumbs matter when you’ve been doing the yard in the dark since about 3:47pm. 🔦

Let’s be clear.
This does not mean winter is over. Oh no , no.... dont be fooled.
January and February are still sharpening their knives. 🗡️

Mud will continue to ignore gravity and climb your trousers.
Frozen taps will remain a personality test.
Your horse will still roll in the muddiest , wettest patch. 🙃

Now, facts for you....
Horses are conserving energy in winter.
Not in a wise, ceremonial way.
More in a “stand by the hay net, eat constantly, don’t waste calories unless chaos is required” way. 🌾

Short days trigger seasonal changes.
Thicker coats. Bigger appetites.
More standing. Less unnecessary movement.
Efficient? Yes.
Dignified? Absolutely not.

And yes, the solstice is festive....

Just not tinsel-and-Mar­iah festive. 🎄
It’s ancient, practical festivity.
“We survived the worst of the dark and the light is technically coming back” festive. 🔥

Which feels very on brand for equestrians

Christmas can keep the chaos and the forced cheer. 🎄

Solstice belongs to the head-torch crew.
The mud-booted.
The people who celebrate progress in minutes of daylight and call that a win. 🏆

If you know, you know. 🖤✨

12/08/2025

You should never ride a downward transition by pulling back on the reins. Instead, you should ride them using your seat.

👉 Before the transition, your seat should passively follow your horse's movement.
👉 To ask for the transition, you stop your seat.
👉 Once your horse has transitioned, you allow your hips to follow your horse's movement once again.

You can give a rein aid by closing your fingers around the reins (not pulling back), but downward transitions should always be ridden more from the seat than from the reins.

Illustration created and copyrighted by HowToDressage

12/04/2025

This is a long one so buckle up and grab a cuppa.
Being a horse riding coach can be incredibly rewarding, but it comes with its fair share of challenges. Here are some common struggles:

1. Managing learning styles and levels
- Skill Levels: Balancing lessons for beginners, intermediate, and advanced riders is challenging, especially when students progress at different paces. We all learn at different speeds and styles so we need to adapt every lesson for each horse and rider.

2. Handling Difficult Horses
- Coaches often work with horses that aren’t perfect schoolmasters, which can complicate lessons. Teaching students how to ride challenging horses without creating fear or frustration is a fine line to walk.

3. Physical and Mental Demands
- Horse riding is physically taxing, and demonstrating techniques or riding for hours takes a toll. Additionally, staying patient, calm, and encouraging while teaching can be mentally exhausting.

4. Weather Challenges
- Working outdoors means dealing with unpredictable weather, from scorching heat to freezing cold or rain, which can impact both rider and horse performance, and it seems to always be cold and wet.

5. Safety Concerns
- Riding is inherently risky. Ensuring the safety of students and horses while teaching proper techniques requires constant vigilance and quick reactions to prevent accidents.

6. Financial Struggles
- Riding lessons often don’t generate significant income. Covering the costs of fuel, equipment, and insurance can make profitability difficult. For a lot of us, coaching isn’t our full time job, putting all hours to see you and your horses happy.

7. Burnout
- The job requires passion, but the long hours, physical strain, and emotional investment in both students and horses can lead to burnout over time.

8. Client Expectations
- Managing unrealistic clients who expect rapid progress, can create stress and strain relationships.

9. Balancing Education with Fun
- Striking the right balance between teaching correct techniques and ensuring students enjoy themselves can be tricky. Too much focus on either aspect can lead to frustration or lack of progress.

10. Competition Preparation
- Preparing students and horses for competitions involves a lot of extra effort, including fine-tuning skills, managing show nerves, and dealing with the logistics of getting to events.

Despite the challenges, most horse riding coaches pursue the job because of their love for horses, teaching, and helping others grow, seeing partnerships bloom. So my ask if that your appreciate your coach, give them a cuppa, at Xmas think of them out there late at night. Most of us always move our diary around to accommodate changes. We love what we do and we love seeing happy horses and happy riders.

Please share and tag your coach/trainer

12/02/2025

THE COLD WEATHER IS UPON US! ❄️

Are you familiar with the many adaptations that help your horse stay warm during the cold winter months?

🌾 Hindgut digestion of hay produces the most heat, acting as a small furnace inside of the horse. This is why free choice; good quality hay is so important in the winter.

💪 Horses have a huge muscle mass and muscle activity produces heat. This includes running and playing and even shivering if their body temperature starts to drop. It is important to remember that these activities also will result in a bigger caloric demand so free choice hay and in some cases, grain, is often needed.

🧥 To blanket or not to blanket is a constant debate but either way, as it starts to get cold your horse will grow a thicker coat. If you decide to leave your horse unblanketed you may notice that they look “fluffy”. This is due to a phenomenon called piloerection where the hair stands up to better trap air within. Two layers of the coat also help with warmth. The inner layer is softer and has air pockets to create an insulating layer. The outer layer is coarse and has oils that keep moisture from penetrating the insulating layer and keep the horse warm.

⚖️ Wild horses go into the winter heavier than ideal, and the fat serves as an extra layer of insulation. However, if a horse is going to be kept heavily blanketed and in a barn during the cold weather months this is unnecessary and can lead to obesity related issues.

🦵Their distal limbs (below the knees and hocks) are made of mostly bones and tendons, tissues that are resistant to the cold temperatures.

🦶The hooves have an alternative route of blood circulation through larger vessels that can be used in low temperatures. This is why horses can stand in snow without detrimental effects.

👃A horse’s nose has a robust blood supply and is rounded so that it is less susceptible to frostbite than a human’s nose.
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Courtesy of the AAEP Horse Owner Education Committee