Helping A Horse Reach Into The Contact - August 2025
The Sweet Spot of Biomechanics
•
31m
In this video Karen coaches a professional (and DN student) with a young horse who shows some anxiety about the contact with the reins. He tends to curl up and lower his neck, while getting ‘balled up’ in his body. She says relaxing and letting the reins go longer hasn’t helped him. He seems to get ‘lost’ in the problem and feels like he gets increasingly anxious. She came to find a way to help him out of this dynamic.
This is not an uncommon problem. The particular technique I am going to show in this video takes excellent feel and timing, especially if the horse has any anxiousness... You will see an excellent example of how well it can work!
Up Next in The Sweet Spot of Biomechanics
-
Spiraling In and Out For Throughness ...
In this video, Karen coaches a student and her new horse to find more alignment on the circle as a way to improve his general thoroughness. The student reports that he can be quite heavy in the contact on one rein. You will see how to apply spiraling in and out in a way that will help the horse b...
-
Teaching Hindquarter Yield In Motion ...
In this video, Karen coaches a student and her new horse to find a better connection from the inside hind to the outside shoulder by using the hindquarter yield in motion. Karen does this exercise with this horse because he is very different one side to the other. This exercise will be the "medic...
-
3 Questions For Shoulder In - Aug 2023
In this video Karen gives you three key questions to ask yourself when riding shoulder-in. These questions will help you achieve a higher quality shoulder in, instead of just ‘getting it done’. This is for riders and horses who are already confident doing a recognizable shoulder in. It will make ...
