(upbeat music) - When you first get a new horse it can be a little bit daunting and scary. Everybody's got a different opinion and it's hard to filter
through the information and know what is the best decision to make and what should I be
doing with my new horse. So today I wanna share
with you five things that have helped me to
make my riding safer and more enjoyable in
my work with my horses. And hopefully they'll be
a help to you as well. (gentle music) (bell dings) Tip number one is finding a good saddle. Your saddle is one of
the most important tools that you use when riding your horse, and it has the power to
be a great help to you or a potential hindrance. I remember when I was a little girl, I got my first pony and I was so excited to
go to my local tack store. I found the saddle that I thought was the perfect one for me. (bell rings)
(door creaks) - Ah, it's so beautiful. Even though I felt like my
first saddle was beautiful and perfect, it probably wasn't
the best fit for my pony. And it wasn't until years later that I started to learn the
importance of saddle fit for improving my riding. If we have a saddle that
doesn't fit our horse, it can cause pain resulting
in behavioral issues like bucking, rearing, spooking,
bolting, and many more. And it can also cause
physical damage to the horse, even resulting in lameness. When it comes to having a saddle
that doesn't fit the rider, it can put the rider ahead of the motion or behind the motion and make it difficult for
that rider to stay in balance and work with the motion of the horse. So to prevent these issues from arising, you want to contact a
professional saddle fitter in your area that can come
out and look at your horse, evaluate their confirmation,
how they're moving and find a saddle that's really gonna be
a great fit for them. A good fitting saddle is gonna distribute the weight of the rider more
evenly over the horse's back, protect his spine and
ligaments from any pressure and is going to allow you guys
to be able to work as a team, together, comfortably and efficiently. It's also gonna help you as a rider to have a good saddle that fits you, to communicate more clearly to your horse and enjoy your riding more. (gentle music) C'mere Crosby. Good boy. Tip number two, is working on the ground. Many of us, when we first get our horse, we're excited to ride, but to me, working on the ground is so important. It's where I really build
a stronger relationship with my horse and get to
know them as an individual. Our horses each have unique personalities and they're different every day. So Crosby, today it's raining outside, and he's a little bit tense and nervous. And if you have a day
like this, for example, with Meg, where they are a
little bit worried and tense, then taking some time to
work the horse on the ground can help to set you up for
a better riding experience and really help your horse
to connect with you mentally and feel more confident in the work. (gentle music) The other area where
groundwork is really important is for our safety. If we have a horse that we're working with and they're tense and nervous, even under saddle sometimes, we have a horse that gets excited, that excitement is escalating, I found it to be helpful,
sometimes, to get off the horse, work with them a little on the ground, get their focus back on me, get them to a relaxed state
and then get back under saddle so I can end on a positive note. (gentle music) Great job Crosby, it
was a really nice ride. So my next tip is having
realistic expectations. When we first get our horses,
we have a lot of goals and a lot of things that
we want to do with them. And those goals may be
something a little bit broad, like having a wonderful
relationship with our horse and enjoying our riding, or they might be really specific
like riding out on trail or cantering by the end of the year. Whatever your goal is, there's a lot of ups
and downs along the way when we're first learning. And when we hit those
patches of frustration or things go kind of south on us, it's important to remember that there's these three
different components to riding with our horses. And that is there's the mental, the physical and the emotional. So to give you an example of this, let's say we have a rider named Susie and Susie has difficulty
slowing her horse down. (horse whinnying) She's seen other riders
slow their horses down and it seems like it
should be pretty easy. So what's going on here with Susie? Susie has a lack of knowledge, which is the mental side, physically she's falling
forward with a lack of strength and that's causing her horse to rush more and emotionally she is anxious or afraid. So all of these things are
contributing to this problem of her horse running off. (gentle music) My next tip is all about
optimizing your riding. And that tip is physical fitness. Many times we think of physical fitness and we think I don't have time for this. Is it really gonna help me in my riding? So I wanna share with you three ways that this has helped me in my riding. Here I have an arched back and inward rotation of the pelvis due to tight hip flexors. And you can see how this is causing me to ride really stiffly. As a result of this, Crosby
is also walking really stiffly and reflecting me. So your horse reflects your body. Here I'm riding in a neutral position, on my pelvis with a nice
relaxed, open hip flexors. And as a result of this,
Crosby is walking more forward. (gentle music) The second reason working out
can help you in your riding is it improves your communication. Your body is your main form of
communication when you ride. Finally, it improves our balance, allowing us to work with
the motion of the horse. (gentle music) So I just finished up at Sand Hill, here, and my final tip for you guys is finding the right people to work with. When we work with horses, there's a lot of different people that help our work with
our horses to be positive and us to be able to
progress towards our goals. When we think about
this, we have our horse and our relationship with
our horse in the center and then we have these
various professionals that support that relationship. People like our vet, our farrier, massage therapist, or chiropractor, our saddle fitter and our
trainer and our barn manager. All of these people are
helping us to further our goals and enrich the riding relationship, or the relationship with our horse. So it's really important when
we look for professionals that we have someone we
can communicate with, that their views and their
philosophies align with ours and we feel like when we
inevitably hit the ups and downs of owning horses, they can help us through some of those rough patches. If you have a professional
that you are working with, that you feel like you
can't communicate with, they're not open to you
or your goals don't align, I found in my journey that
it's really worthwhile to look for someone else to help you. When it comes down to it,
we really wanna make sure we have people surrounding
us that support us and that share our values. I hope these tips were a help you. I know when you first get a new horse, there's a lot of things to take in, and hopefully this gave you some ideas to set you on a path of success and enjoying your horse. Remember, to enjoy the journey. Congratulations and I
look forward to seeing you in the next video. (gentle music)
