06/06/2025
🌿 The Steady Exercise: Building a Thinking Partnership 🌿
Steady pressure is our legs, our hands on the reins, our seat, the halter, etc… If our equines understand how to give to steady pressure anywhere on their bodies we have successfully accessed their minds. It’s not a natural response. Many equines have to really think through this and it pays dividends later.
An equine moving off a rider’s seat is responding to steady pressure. An equine understanding contact through the reins is responding to steady pressure.
This simple yet profound exercise teaches your horse to think through steady pressure—not to submit, but to understand. It’s the quiet foundation behind every rein, leg, and seat aid you’ll ever use.
✨ When your horse truly understands steady pressure:
• Your reins become whisper-soft
• Legs invite forward, rather than tension
• Groundwork becomes a dance, not a debate
• Pressure becomes a question, not a threat
Unlike movement-based exercises, this one invites stillness and thought. It rewires the conversation: Pressure means “consider this.” Release means “yes, that’s it.”
🤍 Be patient. Some horses get it quickly, others take time. What matters is clarity, consistency, and kindness.
Trust the process.
Relaxation → Balance → Willingness.
This is where it all begins.
The first video is the beginning stages of introducing steady pressure with Drover, the second video is more refining with Ridge.
