This is a follow up with the horse Karen rode in the video: Riding Through Brace. The owner and her horse made a lot of progress since June, but they still had some residual bracing in the contact. Since the balance and communication in general was good, Karen shows them a rein technique that spe...

Karen helps a student with her athletic, sensitive, and flexible horse. This type of horse can be challenging to organize, but Karen helps her through several different exercises to help them untangle themselves and find a sweet spot for the working gaits.

Karen plays on line with the same horse as in this month's Sweet Spot With A Tense, Crooked Horse video. This video is non-dramatic in some ways, but his body type makes it so easy to see the difference in how the muscles of the neck work in different postures, so we thought it would be interesti...

Karen plays with Solana in the Long Lines to show you some basic exercises and to set her up for more collectibility exercises later. Karen will show her playing on straight lines, leg yields, beginning of shoulder in, and transitions.

Karen plays with three horses to demonstrate ways to think about better posture and 'throughness' when playing on long lines.

In this video, Karen coaches a student to understand and identify their Working Gaits and to take the first steps towards Collecting. This is a rider with no previous dressage experience, so this is a great lesson for anyone who has a lot of the pieces buts wants to be more confident in understan...

Karen coaches a student who is preparing for First Level dressage tests. They have trouble with energy at the canter, and keeping balance on 15 meter circles. Karen traces it to a fundamental imbalance in the shoulders (the horse leans on his inside shoulder when on the left lead). By focusing on...

Karen coaches a student with her horse on line to find more cadence, power, and elasticity of his stride. He has a rather short, tight stride and you will see how Karen suggests they play with finding a new balance at a higher energy - in order to tempt him to use his body better! This videos is ...

Karen coaches the student through spiraling in and out to help change the horse's balance, cadence, and power. This video is excellent for anyone looking to improve the quality of their horse’s gaits.

Justyna Rucinska from Poland, joins us to share one of her favorite exercises to increase your horse's flexibility from the ground. This is a simple but very powerful exercise that will require great trust and feel, as it helps the horse to relax through the very sensitive poll area. This exercis...

The back up is often one of the most difficult movements to ride in engagement, but it is such an important gymnastic exercise! Karen will demonstrate what it can look like and narrates what she is doing while riding two of her horses. Then she shows you another horse and student learning to do i...

Karen coaches Heidi to improve her horse’s collectibility. You will see lovely examples of lateral work and transition exercises. Heidi is a rider with a lot of feel and timing, and great communication with her horse. You will see a nice example of how to maximize your horse's gaits and balance. ...

Karen helps student Vicky and her horse Bogie to find a steadier, more engaged connection through their bodies. Vicky has done a great job creating a happy, forward, and loose horse, but now it is time for them both to become more consistent in their engagement and connection within their bodies ...

Karen rides her almost 5-year-old and narrates what she is thinking about to find her sweet spot of her working gaits.
This video is great for anyone who wants to see the finer points of finding the sweet spot

Karen rides her 5.5 yr old in a way that will solidify the concept of 'freestyle inside the finesse' or feeling like you're riding without the reins, even when the reins are there. Natilla can do both connected and loose reins very well, but the focus is to be able to flow from one to the other i...

Karen rides a student's horse at a clinic. The owner has said she wanted Linus to feel 'Less like a Mac truck"! He was not really light in his responses, and he doesn't like wearing a bit, so made the connection more difficult to find. Karen rode him on a day where he was a bit distracted, so you...

Karen teaches a student who has a lovely connection with her horse, but she loves the stretch and gets a bit low in her working gaits. In this video you will get some great theory, and will see the student quickly put it into practice!
This is a great video for anyone who wants to understand how ...

This is a recording of part of a Q & A webinar that is included in the Virtual Arena Sweet Spot course where Karen talks about neck and poll position. Karen wanted to share this excerpt because it had such great information about a common area of confusion when riding.
This video is great for any...

Karen teaches a student, Linda, on her big moving, sensitive Swedish Warmblood, Ressac. Ressac can get tight and tense, especially in the canter. He also can get strung out in his body, yet curled up and 'too light' in the contact, making it difficult for Linda to solve on her own. Watch as Karen...

In this video, Karen helps a student who is having trouble with her horse bulging out around the circle. She rides the horse to help them break the cycle of brace and crookedness. She uses the idea of Basic Alignment Exercise to reset their middle. You will see how this one session makes a change...

In this video, Karen teaches a dressage student with a beautiful warmblood how to create a more balanced posture and positive connection by focusing on Poll High and Self Carriage. This video will show the power of these priorities, and will give you a very beautiful horse to watch

Karen teaches a lesson to help a 4-year-old horse be less bracey about the contact. The horse feels blocked by the reins and we help her to be more open and to find the freedom inside her body. In this video, you will see how much of an effect even a small resistance can have on the quality of th...

In this discussion, Karen describes 4 of the basic postures you and your horse can be in. The more you understand the difference, the clearer your intention and your horse's success will be. You will also learn how to combine 2 of the postures to create the Working Gaits!

This video is great for...

In this video, Karen helps a student to find her working posture. It shows how quickly you can make a big change when you have the ingredients in place and you play with confidence. Pay attention to the questions I ask Ellie and you can ask the same questions to yourself as you ride!

This video ...