http://www.triplecreekfarmpa.com/

Bob Wood Horses For Life, Clinics, Remote Pivo Lessons, Video Evaluations, York, PA (2025)

04/26/2025

The left image is Col. John Wofford US Cavalry, a member of the Fort Riley US Equestrian Team that competed in the 1932 Olympics. The middle image is of his son Jimmy Wofford at Culver Military Academy riding in the Black Horse Troop. Generational horsemanship in a family is so important. Jim Wofford's two uncles, Jeb and Warren Wofford also rode internationally for the U.S. Team.

Jim Wofford's recent passing, after giving his huge contribution to US horsemanship, was a great loss to American equestrians. He competed in the 1968 Mexico City and 1972 Munich Olympics among many other equestrian successes, teaching and books.

Generational teaching and learning are the most important in my view. This provides a direct chain of understanding that is hard to find anywhere else but in a family. The results speak for themselves.

I began to see a decline in family generational horsemanship beginning in the 1990s and it concerned me. However, recently I see a trend of mothers talking about teaching their children on social media. This is a great trend. I hope it grows.

I believe that generational horsemanship not only offers continuity and deeper understanding of skills in riding, training and caring for horses but also of character. Keep it up moms. It is important work you are doing.

04/25/2025

I began riding in 1953 under the instruction of a former US Cavalry rider. Some of my teachers grew up when horses were still an important form of transportation. Riders today have not had the experience of riding with horsemen like this. Today's riders' education in school has also been different from mine. This is because in the post WW2 world everything became industrialized including public schools.

Most riders today experienced large education factory central schools with their huge fleets of buses feeding the education assembly line with students. This is one reason we now regularly see high school graduates rolling off the assembly line who read on a 4th or 5th grade level. These are students missing parts in need of a recall.

My education was not linear. Instead of having quiz and test answers attached to me on an educational factory assembly line, I was fortunate to have been taught in small classrooms to ask questions, not to regurgitate programmed answers.

When young people, and that is almost everyone compared to me, disagree with the answers I post here, I often think that I am encountering their education more than their thoughts or individual conclusions. I can feel how their learning process is very different from my own in how they have approached their comments.

I therefore wonder if this industrialized education mindset has contributed to the decline in horsemanship education. The upper right image is me teaching a beginner class. The riding lesson beneath my picture is the most common beginner class today. I am not saying that teaching riding in a line is wrong. We all do it, but it should not be the only way we teach riding because learning to ride is not a linear process. It is an individual discovery process of things like balance and shared motion with a horse.

I think it is best if instructors ride in lessons with their students. One reason for this is that teachers can then demonstrate for students, and that helps students visualize how to improve. Riding in a class also provides the opportunity to ride up next to a student in a group and have a quiet personal discussion without stopping the lesson (helpful with teary eyed students). And riding lesson horses in lessons tunes them up and keeps them from going sour from repeated confusing rides with students.

Teachers need to give better lessons. For me that means giving up the linear programed step by step curriculum like they learned in school. It means changing to a more of a discovery process that supports students' ability to explore the individual horse they are riding. And students should not ride the same horse in every lesson because discovering the differences between horses is a valuable lesson.

How we think is a product of our experiences. How we teach and how students learn does not have to be only from their experience of industrialized education. Horses are not suited to the industrialized mindset and process. I think this has a lot to do with how horse people today do not relate to horses as horses truly are.

04/24/2025

The horse world has changed more in the past 20 years than it did during the previous 40 years. The general focus on horsemanship has diminished while the focus on the riders and the disciplines has increased. The shift in focus away for the horse and onto the riders has not been good for horses.

Horsemanship, the training, riding and care for horses, has been declining not because of rule changes or misunderstandings. Many of the harmful "innovations" that have proved to be abusive of horses or dangerous for riders have come from individuals who, by leveraging their fame or success, spread flawed ideas and became rich.

We need to understand how this happens for two reasons. One is that by understanding equestrian history we gain context from which we can judge present and new methods. Many of these present methods are flawed. Another reason is so we can spot frauds, fakes and manipulators who sell bad training.

Many of these frauds and manipulators focus on reaching guru or elite influencer status on social media or with clinics. Others use their competition high profiles, and some are simply marketing geniuses. They all pretty much follow the same pattern of promoting "something new" that almost always is a shortcut to achieve something that otherwise requires a great deal of time to accomplish.

Recently I have put up two posts on flawed, once "new" innovations that caught on with the riding public and that increased their promoters' profile and wealth. Both of these innovations, the crest release and the forced frame of self carriage have big names behind them. These destructive shortcuts were promoted by individuals with enough fame to make people believe they were improvements to correct, time tested methods.

At left we see George Morris next to an image of a very restrictive crest release that impedes the horse's balance and movement. At right we see the Anky van Grunsven, author of the hyperflexion idea that has crushed free movement and interferes with a horse's balance and wellbeing.

I am warning new riders and horse owners that a substantial number of techniques and methods taught today come from flawed ideas of horsemanship. Some are dangerous to riders, and most are detrimental to horses.

These flaws catch on as riders demand to be taught these bad ideas because they are "easier" than the proper process of learning to ride. Because "easier sells" better than hard work, and because too many instructors are in it primarily for the money, riders must be careful and use critical thinking when exploring riding instruction programs.

A big red flag is promises of quick progress like, "You'll be showing within a year". Another is telling you that you should buy or lease a horse after a few lessons. Be suspicious of anything that speeds up what is a slow learning process or feels like it exploits your lack of experience. New riders are getting hurt and horses are being used up in the name of increased profits. Riding is a great pursuit but only when done correctly.

Morris innovation post link -

www.facebook.com/BobWoodHorsesForLife/posts/pfbid036661bPdsebxmL9M9H6bB2qK96Hy4zzjm1HhVAsMeW5mMJjv7JK2khmi8zVUi4977l

Anky innovation post link -
www.facebook.com/BobWoodHorsesForLife/posts/pfbid0vYwRA6oYtbMub7Zh7Vgyyvj4SHBWZnCtghySrMSFoA8UGYT1b2PxJpGCQBxbYPKul

04/23/2025

Horsemanship often comes down to the details. The image is a detail of a larger picture of a rider just riding along, not appearing to cue their horse for any purpose. The detail is of their foot position that is at an angle, not parallel to the horse's spine, which would be correct.

When I saw this rider's picture, the foot position stuck out because I constantly deal with the shoeless, bitless, bridleless folks who want to ban equipment as a solution to today's common quine abuse. As anyone who reads my page knows, I believe the solution is better horsemanship education. I have heard all the excuses, "There isn't time", "Competitors don't care about their horses, only about winning" and so on. But I blame the instructors or trainers who let the details slide. Correct foot position starts in a new rider's first lesson.

Even without spurs, a turned out toe puts the edge of the boot heel into a horse's side. This can create unwanted behaviors and if done constantly, you get a dead sided horse. Either way the horse suffers. Banning equipment will not overcome the problems of poor riding instruction. The decline of horsemanship will continue until riding instructors start doing a better job of teaching. It is really that simple.

04/21/2025

The left image is from an old dressage book and the right is a top modern dressage rider. Both images are supposed to be what is called "in a frame of self carriage". Self carriage is when a horse is carrying itself without significant intervention of the rider and the aids in an equilibrium of balanced movement. But are they both in self carriage?

I think not. Look at the hind quarters in the older image and then look at the modern dressage rider. The left horse's hind is under himself and engaged. The back is straight, not hollowed. The poll is the highest point of the left horse, while the modern horse is being ridden with the crest of the neck as the highest point.

The older image shows a vibrant horse that has rebalanced itself into self carriage under the rider's direction. The illustrator shows us four steps to getting there. The modern rider has cranked down her horse's forehand into a false frame with the pressure of a trash compactor. She is using her body weight to force her horse, as demonstrated by her shoulders leaned back beyond the saddle's cantle. The authentic dressage rider maintains his upper body within the traditional five degree horizontal limit, which does not affect the horse's balance.

These two riders could not be more different. One rider is working with their horse, the other is working against their horse. One horse is raising its center of balance to meet and join the rider's center of balance, while the other hollows his back away from the rider.

The difference here is what many modern riders call "evolution". I call it decline. Horses have not changed. Riders have changed. Today in so many disciplines what matters is "the look", and back when dressage was "the authentic training of the horse and rider" what mattered was shared balance and movement without force.

Today in dressage we see bloody mouths and blue tongues from torturous riding. The way forward out of this abuse is to go back. Some people want to ban equipment or even competitions. The answer is to ban riders like the one on the right for life.

04/20/2025

All I am saying is ...

04/18/2025

You tell me. Which of these two contemporary riders would you like to be? The best answer would be determined by looking at the horses. Emoji rider's horse on the left has a contorted, hyper flexed neck at and below the poll. How do you think this affects the horse's ability to jump? Look at pro Paul Lindsay's horse on the right. Is his horse impeded by a tight hyper flex neck? No.

Second question, how many of each of these kinds of jumps do we see today, the left or the right horses? I see more of the left kind.

General Decarpentry, who rode in the French Cavalry School Cadre Noir at Saumur for fourteen years, eight of which he was the Riding Master. Decarpentry wrote:

"The first aim of academic equation is to restore to the mounted horse the gracefulness of attitudes and movement which he possessed when he was free, but which becomes marred by the weight and interference of the rider."
Which of these riders shows us a jump "marred by the weight and interference of the rider"? Let's look at weight interference. Rider Emoji's weight is far forward of the horse's center of balance.

Rider Lindsay's weight is right over his horse's center of balance, which requires no compensating balance from his horse. This allows, as Decarpentry says, "movement which he (the horse) possessed when he was free".

And what about "interference of the rider"? Which of these riders' reins interfere with the horse in the jump?

If you must use a crest release, at least slip the reins in a jump. Stop restricting your horse's movement in a jump with tight elbows and hands and that off balance forward weight, please. In my view this level of restriction is now normalized equine abuse. I realize the judges reward it but that doesn't make it right. Let your horse be the judge of your riding.

04/17/2025

I can't stand it. Yesterday I posted about getting and keeping a horse's attention as a fundamental of horse training. I basically said that we want the horse paying attention to us, not us paying attention to the horse. A certain type of commenter arrived in numbers attacking me and my post by saying their magical bond was more important and that I don't pay attention to horses and am telling others not to pay attention to their horse.

This kind of Disneyfied thinking and acting has to stop for several reasons. One is anthropomorphizing horses confuses them and that can be stressful for horses. Another reason is the kind of intimacy they promote with horses is twisted. Do we really want to see horses breathing on human breasts, licking butts and rubbing against personal parts? One important reason is that this weird intimacy and false trust is dangerous. It is not safe to have a horse's teeth up against your skin. It is not safe to sit on the ground or lay down with a horse.

I am calling out to riders and horse owners, especially lesson barn owners, to oppose this trend.

My favorite comment was from an instructor who said she had a new student come for a lesson and she instructed the student to use her legs to move the lesson horse forward into a walk. The student responded by saying, "I don't want to force a horse to do anything." This wonderful teacher said OK, and let her sit on the standing horse for the entire lesson, and in the next lesson too.

A new part of this trend is to take a picture of their horse's face and use AI to transform the image into a human face. This is the height of anthropomorphizing. I got trolled big time yesterday by these folks and had to block many of them. First money took over the horse world and ruined it for horses. Now this kind of strangeness is making a move to do the same thing.

04/16/2025

The difference between a professional horse trainer and an amateur is that the pros know the first training fundamental is getting and keeping the horse's attention. Amateurs think the most important thing is to pay attention to the horse.

All the kissy face and snuggling with a horse to let the horse know "you care" and you want to "build a special relationship" is not part of the process. It's just a popular illusion. The real relationship is based on trust and that requires attention.

The two top images are of horses not paying attention to the trainer. One is very actively not paying attention and the other passively. Before you try lunging or otherwise training a prospect, you must first establish that they pay attention to you, not the other way around.

The bottom images are of trainers getting their prospects to pay attention to them. The bottom left image shows a trainer simply walking around a horse at liberty in a pen. For me this is a good way to start. This acts on a horse's curiosity, the most important element of horse training. I'll put a horse like the one rearing while being lunged in a big arena at liberty and walk around in there with him for a long time. When he stops paying attention to me, I will do something like pick up a jump rail, put it on my shoulder and walk around carrying it. That gets a horse paying attention to me.

The bottom center image is of someone putting their hand out to offer a smell. This is a good attention getter. I like this image because the person's fingers are not out there asking to be bitten. In fact, with a difficult horse I will hold out my fist for a smell because a fist is harder to bite.

The right bottom image shows someone probably using voice to get that horse's attention. Or maybe she is staring directly into the horse's eyes. That will get their attention but it's risky because that threat is what gets their attention. Notice she is standing to the side, not directly in front of the horse where a striker might rock back and strike her with their forefeet.

There are countless ways to get and keep a horse's attention. We have to be creative. Sounds, movements, positions like crouching down into a small "ball" are a few common ways to get a horse's attention.

Personally, I do not like to use treats or things like flags because very often the horse is not paying attention to me but rather to the treats or the flag, not me. Plus, using these kinds of attention getters can create very specific expectations in a horse focused on these treats, flags etc. The clearest example is the horse that expects a treat at certain times like after mounting because that was when they got the treats during their training.

The last thing I want in a horse I train is to expect something besides a good ride, a good bath, a good grooming and so on. I want the horse to expect good riding, good care and good food at feeding time, nothing more.

If I were a great marketer like Pat Parelli, I would trademark a system of training called "Alert Horse Training" in order to change the current methods that backwardly place all the attention on the horse from the trainer. We'd see a lot more well trained horses if "Alert Horse Training" became a new trend.

04/14/2025

My new YouTube channel www.youtube.com/

04/14/2025

Most riding students today start their lessons at a discipline centered barn. Few of these barns begin with the fundamentals of general riding such as balance. Instead, these discipline focused programs teach the forms and positions of their specific discipline. This leaves voids in their training that they discover many years later when they try to switch to some other discipline or type of riding.

The best way to teach riding begins with teaching the fundamentals of horsemanship. In addition to riding, driving or other activities, authentic horsemanship includes teaching basic elements of horse care and horse training. For example, the first thing I teach new students about horse training is that we are always training or untraining a horse when we ride. Regarding horsemanship horse care, I teach basics like getting a horse out of a pasture, how to safely approach a horse, hoof cleaning, careful saddling and bridling, as well as how to do a simple assessment of a horse's condition and state of mind that they are about to ride.

Effective riding instruction begins with having the student add new skills or tools to the student's equestrian toolbox. Balance comes first. Much later, when a student develops an effective balanced seat, we stop adding tools and refine their use of their acquired tools so as to help them achieve unity of balance and movement with their horse.

Once they achieve a degree of unity, we stop adding new tools unless new tools are required for specific discipline. Much later, when the student learns to ride consistently in unity, we optimize the use of their acquired tools to allow them to do more with less. Optimization of their acquired tools eventually expands the range of some tools' applications such that the applications overlap with other of their tools' uses. This is when we begin to remove tools from their toolbox because they can do more with fewer tools.

I believe that the elevated fear and the many injuries riders experience today are the result of having never learned the fundamentals of balance and shared movement with a horse. Instead, they learned to be a Hunter Jumper, or a Reiner, or some other specialty without ever establishing a solid, effective, balanced seat. They are rightfully fearful and get hurt because balance is essential, and it should be established before learning specialized methods.

basic related post on safely approaching a horse -

www.facebook.com/BobWoodHorsesForLife/posts/pfbid02sP2HpSPwofCPTcoa6J9ziob4Y1dhbvUWpfBiA9bJUZmADwQBqRKn6VjMUjqxtpcYl

related post beginning riders stirrups length -

www.facebook.com/BobWoodHorsesForLife/posts/pfbid02973AXNj7tcRCTrr6s9WQASUtLA3rJSGmSnXc6gwyFasQTtMyQWdivRsd63htxJidl

related post for advanced riders -

www.facebook.com/BobWoodHorsesForLife/posts/pfbid02tfc9K6eQSzFgRzigsGUnvypafbnsFhf4PBNqjrEnFR9eo2daoaMnkbFY1Af9zQBdl

04/11/2025

I visit other social media pages sometimes to get a feel for riders and horse owners who are different from the horse people here on my page. Once in a while I will comment in an effort to teach. For me to do this I have to see someone's post that is dangerous for horses or riders, or it could be general disinformation that increases the misunderstanding or division in the horse world.

Yesterday I saw a post on a young woman's page that asserted something so obviously false that I had to comment. It was a limitless generalization about equestrian competition from the page originator who has little or no real competition experience. I competed in several equestrian sports over the course of many decades during my career. I know from experience that competition is an opportunity to measure your ability and the horse's training level by comparison with other horses and riders.

In these kinds of online horse loving lion's dens the people are mostly young females obsessed with banning equipment, having horses go bitless, shoeless, etc., and having a Disney like relationship with horses. I know they don't want to hear what I have to say, and they oppose my comments with their ignorance, misogyny and agism. I don't care, I think if even one or two listen to reason, my time is well spent.

In a hostile discussion of competition about banning equipment and competitions I explained that I began riding over 70 years ago under the instruction of a US Cavalryman and that it has been 57 years since I got my first paid horse training job. One of this page's 91K followers replied to my comment about my experience by saying, "Then most of what you know about horses is outdated."

Imagine that. I was going to write something else today, but I want everyone to know about this youthful female perspective on experience with horses. I don't have much more to say about this. I just want people to know.

04/10/2025

As children riding in toy cars and as adults driving cars we all know what the brake and gas pedals are for and how to use them, as well as the steering wheel. These are the mental structures we bring to riding horses, but they are not transferable to horses. We incorrectly think that bits are brakes, spurs are the gas pedal and the reins are the steering wheel. These are all misconceptions.

Bits are for balancing your horse. Spurs are to increase the precision of our leg cues, and the reins are there to help, along with the other aids, to align the horse's spine straight or in a bend from nose to tail.

Poor riding instruction continues these misconceptions in the horse world by instructing students to "turn their horse", which is saying what to do without instruction in how we do it. "Turn" implies steering like with a car's steering wheel when we should be instructing by saying "bend you horse", which is nothing like a car. The lower right image shows a rider steering their horse, not bending, by throwing the horse's head around. This is like turning a car's steering wheel too quickly.

The lower left image is the all too common, "bits are brakes" mistake. Bits are to help balance your horse. The reins and bit, along with the other aids, allow a skilled rider to balance their horse into a slowing or stopping balance. Hauling on the reins to stop a horse as shown creates countless problems with balance and movement.

The center two images are the common misuse of spurs. We see both an English and a western rider driving their spurs into their horse's sides, using the spurs as a gas pedal, not to increase precision.

One way to teach beginning students that bits are not brakes is to teach them half halts and how they rebalance a horse. Each time the student rebalances, the horse slows and eventually stops without the rider hanging on the reins like the lower left image.

The way to teach riders not to misuse spurs as gas pedals is to not allow them to use spurs, but rather to use their legs followed by a reinforcing tap of a crop as they sit deeply with their eyes up and shoulders open.

We must never allow students to throw their horse's heads to steer them. We must teach them that a turn is a bend that begins with the inside leg pushing against the outside rein and the outside leg pushing into the inside rein, which is how we bend a horse.

New students can learn these correct concepts and applications of the aids. There is no need for "training wheels" kinds of methods that will have to be removed later as they learn more. All of this requires well trained lesson horses.

04/09/2025

The center image is a US Cavalryman from the 1930s. His stirrup length is according to the Fort Riley Cavalry School standard. In the final edition of the Cavalry School's "Horsemanship and Horse Mastership" manual written by Harry Chamberlin, there is no specific stirrup length listed. Instead, the manual addresses stirrup length in terms of comfort and effectiveness.

Specialty discipline stirrup lengths range from jockeys in extra short stirrups and dressage riders in extra long stirrups. There are good reasons for the specialty lengths related to specific requirements like the jockey freeing up the horse's back and the dressage rider sitting as deep as possible to accomplish greater precision in movements. But these extreme lengths are ineffective in general riding and jumping.

When I started lessons with a former US Cavalryman in the early 1950s, he taught us to stand up straight in the stirrups with our feet level in and place our fist between our crotch and the saddle to see if our fist could fit in that space, or if it was too small or too large for our fist. We would then adjust the length so that our fist fit in that space more exactly. From this adjusted length, we could shorten or lengthen our stirrup length by one hole up or down in the stirrup leathers. I have found this to be an excellent measure to determine the best length for riding and jumping.

Another means of measurement is to put your middle finger on the saddle's stirrup hanger and pull the stirrup to your armpit. If it doesn't reach your armpit, you lengthen it until it touches. If the stirrup leather is loose and sagging, you shorten it until it comfortably reaches your armpit. Once mounted you take your feet out of the stirrups to see if the bottom of the stirrup iron bangs against your ankle bone. From this reference length you adjust it longer or shorter depending on the length of your inseam.

Unlike the fist measurement, sometimes with the armpit method stirrup leathers must be lengthened as much as three holes or shortened two holes in my experience. I use the armpit measurement with female students, but I recommend they use the fist method privately for a better baseline.

I recommend that all beginning students learn first to ride in the center image stirrup length as part of the general horsemanship training. With today's trend of starting lessons in a discipline centered program, not in a basic fundamental riding instruction program, I think students are short changed. When a new rider starts in a discipline centered program, they might learn a longer than normal stirrup length at a dressage barn and a shorter than normal at a jumper barn as their norm.

This kind of specialized stirrup length as a rider's baseline stirrup length is not good in terms of a rider's future versatility. Beginning with the general stirrup length using the fist or armpit method puts you more easily into the horse's center of balance where new riders should begin to learn fundamental balance. This should be every rider's baseline, and they can change later from this length for specialized types of riding.

Problems arise when a rider who has learned a specialized stirrup length changes to or adds a new discipline to their riding. They often feel not right or "off" in their leg position coming from a more extreme length, longer or shorter, as their baseline.

You might say that this is irrelevant because few people today change or add a different discipline to their riding. This is largely true, but that is another new horse world problem. I advocate for diversity in what we do with horses. Narrowly focusing horses' lives on a single repetitive activity dulls their mind. Horses are grazing animals, which is a life of constant change moving around in search of new grass. This is the horse's nature as opposed to being fed in a stall the same way day in and day out. We can give horses a break from boring repetition with different kinds of work.

04/08/2025

Lightness in a horse is the best feeling you can have as a rider. To have a unified balance and shared movement with your horse while the horse "floats" through the gaits with you is like nothing else. I wish I saw it more often, but I don't. Instead, I see a lot of heavy on the forehand horses pulling with their shoulders as they drag their butts around behind them.

When I see this, it appears that the riders believe they are riding when they are not. What they do is more like sitting on a bus staring out the window in partial consciousness. They are passengers feeling almost nothing and that is the point, feeling more. We must strive to feel more.

We must feel our horse's balance and the energy of their movement. This is what separates beginners from intermediate riders. In proper riding there are many things we must learn to feel. There are footfalls, the bend in the spine, and the horse coming under their hind to c**k their hocks for a jump, and more. The first thing I ask students to feel is the line of impulsion (yellow arrow).

That line can be horizontal, parallel to the ground. It can be downward into the ground, or it can be elevated as shown in the right image. We begin to feel that line by feeling the energy of a gait. If it is plodding, the line is downward. When it is level, it feels even like riding a bicycle. And when it is upward, we feel lightness and clear power from the hind. When we begin to feel this, we are approaching suspension, which is for me one of the best feelings I experience when riding.

In technical small "d" dressage terms, we call that power from behind engagement that is the primary ingredient of suspension and lightness. My first teacher used to say, "Gather up your horse". That image always reminds me of gathering up a pile of clothes on the floor. We reach around and under the pile in a way that when we lift the pile, no garment falls to the ground. We hold the entire pile securely in our arms.

Feeling more is not simple, but we can learn to gather up the entire horse using the aids, our legs, hands and seat. We begin by gently holding the horse between our legs and our hands. We do not jamb the horse up between spurs buried in the horse's barrel and a cranked down bit. We don't force, we coax. Trotting up and down a hill in a straight line allows us to be gentle while it encourages our horse to engage. The slope can be as little as 10 degrees to access this kind of help from hill work.

Bob Wood Horses For Life

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