TFD Coaching

Riding in Your 60s, 70s… and Beyond

There is a particular look people give you when you tell them you still ride. It’s subtle, but it’s there. A slight tilt of the head. A small pause before they answer. “Oh… that’s wonderful,” they say, with that careful tone people use when they’re trying to be encouraging but also quietly calculating your age. Wonderful. As if riding past sixty is some charming hobby like knitting or watercolor, rather than the deeply physical, deeply emotional, occasionally humbling pursuit it has always been.

Let me tell you something honestly. You are not too old to ride. You are simply too wise to ride the way you did at twenty-five. And that is not a limitation — it is an evolution.

When I was younger, falling off was practically part of the curriculum. You bounced. You brushed the dirt off. You got back on before anyone could form an opinion. Your body forgave you in ways you didn’t even notice. In your thirties, you might evaluate the dirt before remounting. In your forties, you checked alignment. By your fifties, you checked your insurance. And somewhere in your sixties, you realize that falling off is no longer a casual inconvenience; it’s a negotiation with gravity that carries consequences.

That awareness changes how you ride — and, quite frankly, it makes you better.

In your twenties, you ride to prove something. You want to prove you’re brave, talented, competitive, and capable. There’s an edge to it. A drive. In your sixties and seventies, that edge softens into something far more powerful: intention. You no longer need to win arguments with your horse. You want to understand them. You don’t need to demonstrate toughness. You want harmony. That shift from proving to partnering is subtle, but READ ON - On the Ranch With LInda https://members.happyhorsehappylife.com/posts/on-the-ranch-with-linda-riding-in-your-60s-70s…-and-beyond

Such a good explanation

Sometimes the most radical act of self-care is simply… letting it go.

The comment.
The awkward moment.
The thing you replayed in the shower six hours later.
The situation that is absolutely not worth the energy it’s currently renting in your head.

Take a note from the horse.

They don’t spiral about what happened yesterday.
They don’t overanalyse the look someone gave them.
They don’t lie awake at 3am reliving a spook from 2014.

They shake.
They breathe.
They carry on eating grass like nothing happened.

So if today feels heavy, annoying, or mildly unhinged
pause, breathe, unclench your jaw,
and channel some calm, cross-legged horse energy.

You don’t need to fix everything.
You don’t need the last word.
You don’t need to carry it all.

Just… let that sh*t go 🐴🧘‍♀️✨

This is a really well written post and worth a read.

An open letter to riding school riders and parents.

We know that the vast majority of riders and parents of riders have a deep respect for horses and care for their wellbeing.

We also understand that paying for riding lessons is a considerable expense, especially when compared to some other activities which don’t involve partnering with a 1/2 tonne of sensitive prey animal.

We also understand that riders and parents want to feel that their time and money is resulting in tangible ’progress’. We desperately want that too. One of the biggest welfare ‘wins’ for our horses is to get riders as quickly as possible to the point where they can move with the horse in balance whilst giving clear, light cues (signals to the horse sometimes referred to as aids). The reality is that, whilst riders are still in the ‘messy middle’ of developing balance, body awareness and understanding, the experience for the horse can be mentally and physically challenging. Add in the additional challenge of carrying multiple riders per week who are all at different stages and applying cues differently and it becomes very easy for horses to have a negative experience of being ridden. We know that you don’t want this and neither do we!

The reality is that getting to the stage where riders can ride independently, with understanding and softness takes a significant amount of time for the vast majority. Riding is:
A sport (the physicality of balance and suppleness)
A science (understanding how horses learn and the biomechanics of horse and rider)
An art (uniting in harmony with the horse to create beautiful movement)
A responsibility (ensuring that the horse’s experience of being ridden comes ahead of the rider’s experience of riding)
A commitment (riding is a lifelong learning journey which has no end point)

Our coaches are balancing the sometimes conflicting needs of ensuring lessons are safe for riders, avoiding as much discomfort for horses as possible AND making lessons fun, challenging and tailored to individual needs. Safety and horse comfort HAVE to be the number 1 priority (an uncomfortable horse is an unsafe horse).

You can accelerate progress between lessons by:
Learning anything and everything you can about horses. The more you understand them the better partner you will be.
Spend time preparing your body for riding. Yoga is brilliant for developing balance, suppleness and body awareness.
Utilise mechanical horse lessons. They are the ideal way to develop correct movement patterns in a welfare positive way.

In those lessons where you may feel not much progress is being made, consider this: the rider is learning to respect the needs of their partner and put their needs first. They are learning patience. They are learning kindness. They are learning to be a trusted partner and friend. Surely that’s worth investing in?

A must read!

This is worth a read

Why Isn’t Your Horse on the Bit?

Here’s another common and misunderstood questions in riding: why isn’t your horse on the bit?

If I’m honest, it’s also a question that once held me back from exploring French classical training. I was uninformed and, truthfully, a little judgmental about what I was seeing until I took the time to read and understand the theory behind why we should wait before asking for poll flexion.

Even now, it’s a question that can make me feel a bit exposed when I’m working through those early, messy stages of helping a horse find balance.

In the School of Légèreté, we don’t start by putting the horse “on the bit” by asking for poll flexion. We start by educating the mouth.

Before a horse can seek contact, he must first learn to accept it; with confidence, not tension. That begins with a soft, mobile jaw. When the jaw is relaxed, the poll and neck can follow, and the topline opens up. Without that first conversation in the mouth, any contact risks becoming a constraint rather than a communication.

From there, we focus on bending and extending the neck, left and right, forward and out. This isn’t just about stretch; it’s about symmetry. By gymnasticising the neck, we free and lengthen the spine so the horse can move straight and without contraction. Only once the body is supple, balanced, and aligned do we add the final piece; poll flexion, the cherry on the cake.

I often think about this through my own body. I’m tall, with a long neck, and I struggle with neck and shoulder pain. To avoid strain, I need to tuck my chin slightly toward my neck; a small flexion at the atlanto-occipital joint, the human equivalent of the horse’s poll. It helps enormously, but only if I’ve first lengthened and aligned my spine. If I try it from a collapsed posture, the discomfort multiplies.

Try it yourself; it’s a simple but powerful way to feel why a horse needs a long, symmetrical neck before you think about flexing the poll.

So, if you see a horse being ridden with their head ahead of the vertical, it might not be because the rider doesn’t know how to “get him on the bit.” They may simply be taking the slower, more thoughtful route; ensuring every piece of the puzzle is in place so that, when flexion comes, it creates lightness and stability, not restriction.

Most horses pass from one human to another - some horsemen and women are patient and forgiving, others are rigorous and demanding, others are cruel, others are ignorant.

Horses have to learn how to, at the minimum, walk, trot, canter, gallop, go on trails and maybe jump, to be treated by the vet, all with sense and good manners.

Talented Thoroughbreds must learn how to win races, and if they can't do that, they must learn how to negotiate courses and jump over strange obstacles without touching them, or do complicated dance like movements or control cattle or accommodate children and adults in therapy work.

Many horses learn all of these things in the course of a single lifetime. Besides this, they learn to understand and fit into the successive social systems of other horses they meet along the way.

A horse's life is rather like twenty years in foster care, or in and out of prison, while at the same time changing schools over and over and discovering that not only do the other students already have their own social groups, but that what you learned at the old school hasn't much application at the new one.

We do not require as much of any other species, including humans.

That horses frequently excel, that they exceed the expectations of their owners and trainers in such circumstances, is as much a testament to their intelligence and adaptability as to their relationship skills or their natural generosity or their inborn nature. That they sometimes manifest the same symptoms as abandoned orphans - distress, strange behaviors, anger, fear - is less surprising than that they usually don't.

No one expects a child, or even a dog to develop its intellectual capacities living in a box 23 hours a day and then doing controlled exercises the remaining one.

Mammal minds develop through social interaction and stimulation.

A horse that seems "stupid", "slow", "stubborn", etc. might just have not gotten the chance to learn!

Take care of your horses and treasure them.

𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐃𝐨𝐧’𝐭 𝐁𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐝 𝐚 𝐇𝐨𝐫𝐬𝐞 𝐎𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐅𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐬

Polework is the most undervalued training tool we have and it shows. Everyone says they want a sound, confident, long lasting horse. But then you see ponies Grade A at seven years old, and you can’t help but wonder, how much jumping did that take? How many schooling rounds? How many miles on joints that aren’t even fully developed until they’re eight?

𝐒𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐜𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 “𝐭𝐚𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐭.” 𝐈 𝐜𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐢𝐭 𝐮𝐧𝐬𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐡𝐨𝐫𝐬𝐞𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐩.

At six and seven, horses should still be learning how to use their body, not hammering around 1.20m tracks twice a weekend. By rights, their job at that age should be rhythm, straightness, balance not chasing points.

And this is where people roll their eyes, because the truth isn’t glamorous, polework is where the real training happens. Not when you’re on top of a fence. Before you ever get there.

A horse that can’t regulate its stride over poles won’t suddenly fix it over a jump. A horse that can’t stay straight on the ground won’t stay straight in the air. If your polework is weak, your jumping is a lie. You’re skipping steps. And skipping steps comes with a bill later usually in the form of lameness or fear.

We don’t have a jumping problem. We have a patience problem. Everyone wants the result, nobody wants to put in the miles. Polework doesn’t “look impressive” on a sales video. It doesn’t get likes online. But you know who did polework religiously? The horses that were still winning in their late teens, the ones who stayed sound long after their peers were “retired due to injury.”

You put a young horse through poles like the set up shown below, and you will learn very quickly if they drift, if they rush, if they lengthen one stride and shorten the next, if they think their way through questions, or panic through them. That’s education.

𝐓𝐡𝐚𝐭’𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐰𝐡𝐨𝐥𝐞 𝐩𝐨𝐢𝐧𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐛𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐨𝐧 𝐚 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐠 𝐡𝐨𝐫𝐬𝐞, 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐨𝐟𝐟 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐚𝐥𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐲 𝐝𝐨, 𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐞𝐚𝐜𝐡 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐦 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐝𝐨𝐧’𝐭 𝐲𝐞𝐭 𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰.

It’s not talent that makes a future horse. It’s time. Time spent in walk over poles. Time spent in trot learning rhythm. Time spent building the brain before asking for the jump. Anyone can point a brave horse at a fence. A horseman builds one from the ground up.

And let’s be honest, this industry has stopped prioritising the horse. It’s not about producing athletes anymore; it’s about producing price tags. Horses are being fast tracked up the levels not because they’re ready, but because someone wants to sell them before the weaknesses start to show. We talk about welfare, but then applaud speed of production. The answer isn’t more jumping. It’s more polework.

𝗕𝗲𝗰𝗮𝘂𝘀𝗲 𝗽𝗼𝗹𝗲𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸 𝗶𝘀𝗻’𝘁 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗶𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝘁’𝘀 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗼𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂’𝗿𝗲 𝗶𝗻 𝗶𝘁 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗵𝗼𝗿𝘀𝗲, 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗺𝗼𝗻𝗲𝘆.

Photo credit: RFS

Hot on the heels of Ros Canter Eventing’s masterclass of a round yesterday, we’re taking a look back to when Sally asked Ros how she mentally prepares for competition. Her absolute focus, skill, and the incredible partnership she shares with Lordships Graffalo never fail to inspire us 🥳 Ros has every element of her performance fine-tuned to the smallest detail — right down to her choice of saddle. She rides in Equipe Saddles, designed for refinement of aids and perfect harmony between horse and rider ♥️ Zebra Products are proud to be the UK distributor of Equipe Saddles — available through your local independent saddle fitter 🦓

If you were to strip away all of the accessories, leaving only the bare minimum, the saddle, a basic saddle pad, a headstall with browband, throat latch and a bit, what truths would you discover?

For every extra piece of tack or equipment, ask not “Do I need this?” but instead, “Why am I using it?”

And when you find that answer, look deeper still.
Is it there to manage behaviour?
To contain a reaction?
To solve a problem?

Now be honest…
Is that behaviour a message of pain?
Is that reaction a cry for help?
Is the problem rooted not in the horse’s will, but in their body and their ability?

Head in the clouds? Perhaps your horse isn't strong enough to carry himself properly and uses his neck to rebalance.

Tongue over the bit? Perhaps the bit doesn't fit, or his teeth are bothering him, or just the placement of the bit in the mouth.

We gag their voices with tight nosebands.
We muffle their movement with layers of gear.

We stack solutions on symptoms without ever asking:
What if the tack is hiding the truth?

You cannot listen with your hands full.
And you cannot see clearly until you’ve stripped away the clutter.

Let your horse speak.
You might be surprised by what they’ve been trying to say.

🐴DRESSAGE SOLUTIONS!🐴 How To Know If Your Inside Leg Is Effective?

To help you determine if your inside leg is effective in sending energy to the outside rein …

Imagine that, as a result of using the inside leg, the outside of your horse’s neck seems like a balloon filling with air and the outside rein feels like a bungee cord with positive tension and an elastic connection.
— Martin Kuhn

🎨 Sandy Rabinowitz