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The Art of Riding
Horsemanship Through Feel and Release

NEW: DESIGN YOUR OWN Clinic or Workshop!

See below for Karen's most popular Focus Sessions (FS). Contact Karen about the ones that interest you the most and plan a coaching session, workshop or clinic to suit your needs and budget. You can also just sign up for a clinic or coaching.

Many other topics available!
If you do not see a topic you hoped to cover, request it :)
(Click on arrows for more detailed descriptions)

FS0: Riding Through Feel: what is "feel and release"?

FS1: Riding Through Feel: get with your horse!

FS2: Riding Through Feel: left, right, STRAIGHT -
        direction through feel, not micromanagement!

FS3: Riding Through Feel: accessing all four quarters of
        your horse through feel. Now we're talking!

FS4: Riding Through Feel: the best kept secret of a
        fabulous ride...freeing up your horse's shoulders.

FS5: Riding Through Feel: build in a great stop and
        backup on a float

Focus: Teach your horse to back up, stop on a float and stand still for mounting and dismounting (even when unexpected...)

Backing your horse up on a float (with slack in the reins) How does it feel to the horse when he is stepping backwards? What does he do exactly? Connect your foundation to what the maneuver feels like to your horse.
Stopping in one stride Discover the stop you just built in, when you set your reins down.
Standing still for mounting How to use the above foundation for mounting and a few other tips for this common challenge.
The critical one that may save your life Your horse and the foundation to stop in his tracks if you ever come off.

"I knew he could just stop any place he wanted to, just by doing it. I knew that. And I knew that he could do better for me, if he only understood what I needed him to do.If I'd been able to get my idea across to him, why he could just slow those feet down one at a trim, or all of a sudden too, and when one of them finally didn't come up, then none of them would, and you'd call that a stop. A horse can do that right when you want him to if you know how to get him prepared to understand you. (...) The time between when you decide you want those feet to stop, and when they atually do stop, can be just the time it takes to have that thought - when you've got feel working for you." Bill Dorrance, in "True Horsemanship Through Feel", page 49.

“Make it his idea: Say instead, ‘help it to become his idea through feel.’ No talking about ‘make’ the horse do anything. That’s out.” Bill Dorrance, in "True Horsemanship Through Feel", page 339.

FS6: Riding Through Feel: trouble-shooting

 

Details of session content are customized to the particular rider/horse combinations in any given coaching session.

Many other topics available!
If you do not see a topic you hoped to cover, request it :)
 

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