There are many books and DVDs devoted to the technical training of horse and rider - how to perform movements correctly, clear obstacles, communicate efficiently, and in other ways attain the idealised image of an athletic partnership that results in competitive success. But this book is different: its focus is how the rider and trainer can make it easier for the horse to perform optimally. This includes improved understanding of what are reasonable expectations for a particular horse at a certain level of schooling, how to improve his fitness (including strength and conditioning), as well as background on how injuries may develop as a result of interaction between internal and external factors, such as genetics, conformation, management, and training.

Relying on her veterinary background, in-depth research, and dozens of interviews with top riders and trainers from around the world - including Beezie Madden, Carl Hester, and Pippa Funnell, to name just a few - Lonnell provides guidelines for nurturing a happy, healthy equine athlete. With special focus on conscientious pacing when building the horse's physical capability over time, diversification of schooling practices, detail-oriented management and care, and putting the horse's needs above competitive ambition, readers are given a solid grasp of what it takes to truly reach the pinnacle of equestrian sport - and remain there - on a consistent basis. Throughout, gorgeous colour photographs of world-class horses and the people who work with them visually demonstrate the success of these methods.

Take a fresh look at equine anatomy and biomechanics with this graphic guide to how horses move, presented from the inside out. Commissioned by the leading publishers David and Charles and written by popular request from riders, coaches, students and lecturers.

Gain insight into how your horse works:

• Understand how bones and muscles work together to produce movement by seeing the musculoskeletal system painted on Freddie, Henry and friends.
• Discover how correct riding and training can bring out the best in your horse – by seeing exactly what happens as he moves.
• Learn how to increase fitness, strength and balance.
• Practical exercises and stretches demonstrate how you can improve suppleness, reduce the risk of injury develop a deeper rapport with your horse.

Every horse person strives to grow in ability and understanding over time whether in the saddle, on the ground, or in the stable; whether in ways that are small or those that are significant. This effort, when done right, lasts a lifetime, and along the way requires the addition of knowledge and experience gleaned from numerous others. Where does one find leadership within the equine industry? How does one know to whom to turn for information? Does riding require an instructor, a trainer, a coach? Can you get by with part-time guidance? Can you effectively learn on your own, with just the occasional directive, and still find personal or competitive success?

With this book, renowned clinician and international team coach Eric Smiley intends to fill the gap when it comes to these questions and others, providing a reliable resource and educational companion for any aspiring equestrian. Smiley addresses fundamental topics pertinent to riders, with philosophical discussion and practical exercises applicable to all levels. Along the way he strives to educate them on being taught, and perhaps, one day, becoming the teachers. His aim is to bring together the mind of the rider with the mind of the horse, while highlighting the key component in their synergy: understanding. How that understanding is acquired, retained, and put to use is the key to success.

A vital book for equine coaches. Drawing on tried-and-tested coaching practices used successfully in other sports, this book provides an introduction to coaching specific to the equine environment. The coaching process as a whole is addressed for both the horse and rider.

The UK Government Coaching Task Force highlighted the need for the development of coaching across all sports, which led to the introduction of the UK Coaching Certificate (UKCC). Soon any coaching of horses and riders will need to be done by qualified individuals only. Equine Sports Coaching is ideal for those studying for the UKCC or other qualifications in equine sports and leisure coaching.

Key features:

• Inline with UK Coaching Certificate qualifications.
• Covers performance analysis, periodisation of training programmes, sports psychology, and communication skills.
• Advises on the personal development of the coach to support career development in this field.

Possessing the right mind-set and relevant mental skills has long been considered vital in achieving top performances in all sports. And yet, to many riders mental fitness still remains something of an afterthought.

In Perfect Mind: Perfect Ride, the author demonstrates how to develop and achieve the right kind of attitude, motivation and mental skills to make the most of the rider’s abilities whether it be riding as a recreation or as a competitive sport. Horses are highly sensitive flight animals - they’ll react first and ask questions, well, never...! In essence, this means that every time riders get on their horse, they need to be fully committed, aware and in control of their body, their thoughts and their emotions, in order to communicate with their horse in precisely the right kind of manner.

The combination of research in the field of sport and performance psychology and real-life examples contained in this book will help readers identify with and understand different topics.

Current scientific theories surrounding sport and performance psychology are translated into practice, allowing readers to fully understand why they think, feel and act the way they do – and what they need to do to change it. Hands-on advice on how to develop relevant attitudes and mental skills will make Perfect Mind: Perfect Ride an essential companion for the rider wanting to get more out of the sport.

Merging the knowledge of equestrian sport with commercial business management, this innovative book teaches how to unlock the potential in equestrian athletes, enabling riders to become 'the best they can be'. Exploring such subjects as: self-awareness, emotional resilience, mindset affecting performance and self reflection. Useful case studies are included along with full colour photography and a foreword by Olympian, Carl Hester MBE.

Since the first edition of Equine Nutrition and Feeding was published in 1986, it has become the seminal work on the subject. It covers all the key topics that you need to know for your equine nutrition degree course.

This comprehensive and clearly evidenced textbook covers how food is digested and nutrients are used in growing, working and breeding horses. It also explains the scientific basis for calculating nutrient and dietary requirements in an understandable manner, and shows you how to do these calculations. Special attention is also given to grassland and pasture, and to housing and diet-related diseases.

Changes to the fourth edition include: 646 new research reports and papers included, extensively revised to make navigation easier, and a new section dedicated to the weaning and growth of the foal.

Through Rider Biomechanics, one gains a complete understanding of the biomechanics of the rider via a new understanding of fascia, the fabric of the body that links muscles into functional chains, rather like strings of sausages. Within both human and equine bodies these form lines of pull, affecting posture, movement, stability and mobility.

Through clear how to descriptions, coupled with copious illustrations, the reader learns how to rebalance the tension within and between one's own lines of pull. The ultimate task is to use this developing awareness to rebalance the tension in the horse's line of pull, gaining much more influence over his carriage and movement. The secrets of talented riders are laid bare.

Mary Wanless BSc BHSI developed an effective method of teaching, based on an understanding of the biomechanical demands of riding and the communication styles that make riding skills easy to learn. She coaches riders at all levels, from relative novices to elite riders, including some who have competed at the highest levels of international competition.

She is the author of the highly successful Ride With Your Mind, For the Good of the Rider, For the Good of the Horse and Ride With Your Mind Essentials.

It is no secret that speed, stamina, jumping ability, and athletic prowess depend on the horse's physical ability to perform. However, the world has seen many 'great' athletic bodies, human and horse, fail to reach their true potential, while others, perhaps thought to be less great in form and function, reach the pinnacle of their sport or discipline. In the world of human athletes, we might claim hard work, 'grit', or 'heart' as the force greater than muscle that propels them to the top. But the horse doesn't have performance goals in the way we do, so what is it that motivates one racehorse to leave the rest of the field behind to cross the finish line first?

In these pages, Kerry explains how it is possible - initially by using an Emotional Conformation Profile - to determine if a horse has what it takes inside him to make what he has on the outside great. Can your racing prospect handle distance? Does your event horse have the 'finish' to clear that last enormous cross-country obstacle when his legs are tired? Is your horse capable of maintaining focus in the face of large crowds and multiple distractions? More importantly, he tells you how to develop specific training protocols towards given goals, thus enabling a horse to perform at his very best.

Equine exercise physiology is an area that has been subject to major scientific advances over the last 30 years, largely due to the increased availability of high-speed treadmills and techniques for recording physiological function during exercise. Despite the scientific advances, many riders and trainers are still using little more than experience and intuition to train their horses.

The aim of this book is to sort the fact from the fiction for the benefit of those involved in training, managing or working with horses, and to provide an up-to-date summary of the state of play in equine exercise physiology. Scientific theories are explained from first principles, with the assumption that the reader has no previous scientific background. The book is designed to save competitors and trainers a lot of time and effort trying to extract information in piecemeal fashion from a host of reference sources. For the first time, everything you need to know about exercising and training horses is here in one text.

Whatever level you ride at, the inability to solve a ridden, groundwork or behavioural problem causes frustration. The author reveals how you can determine whether your horse's performance is affected by his behaviour (brain), health (pain) or training, and explains how to overcome difficulties through tried and tested techniques.

Veterinarian, judge, and sport horse breeding authority Christian Schacht presents a new and easy-to-use system for evaluating the conformation of the sport horse, with special attention on dressage, jumping, and eventing prospects.

The way a horse is physically built - his conformation - tells you a lot about the riding sport or discipline for which he is best suited. With a welltrained eye, you can see his strengths and his weaknesses, and therefore determine how you train him, on which areas to focus, the techniques best chosen to improve his skills, and methods that should be used (or avoided) in order to maintain the horse's health and soundness.

Whilst the horse world is rich in descriptions that tell us what horse and rider should look like, we lack good information about exactly how to produce the desired results. Good horsemen ride well without knowing how they do it, and without understanding why you are not like them and cannot do it too. During 23 years of research it has been Mary Wanless's personal mission to expose the secrets of horsemanship, breaking down riding skills into 'bite-size chunks' and finding ways of describing them that work for average riders. By using the learning strategies given here the rider should discover how to connect with the horse in a way that makes sense to him and enables him to carry himself well, in self-carriage.

At the same time the techniques aim to offer the rider security, stability and effectiveness in the saddle. This title sets out to simplify Ride With Your Mind methods and to provide a basic tool-kit for the acquisition of a truly independent seat in walk, trot and through transitions, on straight lines, turns and circles - and, importantly, how to make corrections when things don't go exactly to plan. Mary explains how to use the hands, legs and body correctly, and gives the ingredients for perfect contact.

In each section, the instruction is backed up by practical self-tests and exercises to ensure success, and there are ideas for troubleshooting during the learning process and in the future.

Every horse, no matter in what discipline it is ridden, will benefit from working with Cavalletti.

For Olympic champion Ingrid Klimke, riding over Cavalletti is key to success. Cavalletti training improves the horse's basic gaits, develops rhythm, suppleness and cadence and increases fitness and agility. This handbook describes how to work with Cavalletti on the lunge, provides valuable new schooling ideas and inspiration for dressage work, as well as numerous layouts for gymnastic jumping. Over the years Cavalletti has become a standard reference book. This revised edition for 2018 has new photographs and has been updated and extended.

By understanding how the horse's biomechanics works and how to influence it, most of the misunderstanding between horse and rider is avoidable, and the vast majority of schooling problems solvable. Although in its infancy, equine sport science teaches us how a horse's body and mind functions. Through an understanding of this natural science, together with literature left to us by the classical masters, training horses, without the dependence on gadgets, becomes
extremely easy and logical. The knowledge of equine biomechanics turns horse training and riding teaching into a completely logical process.

In this work, Karin Blignault investigates the horse's natural methods of performing movements and compares this with the movements he performs in dressage and jumping. Examining each individual gait and movement - including lateral work, piaffe, passage, flying changes - the author highlights the biomechanical difficulties the horse encounters in his effort to please the rider, gives suggestions to riders and trainers on how to overcome these difficulties, and further gives judges pointers on how to recognize these problems.

A training book dedicated to cobs, a type of horse/pony often overlooked by other writers/trainers. Cobs are generally great all-rounders, usually very reliable and hardy, and with great characters. They remain incredibly popular with the riding public throughout the UK.

Lungeing and Long-Reining, published in association with The British Horse Society, is a step-bystep guide to training, exercising and suppling horses from the ground, written by Britain's leading exponent of the art.

The book begins with advice on handling untrained youngsters and works through a logical training progression, culminating in advanced dressage movements.

Straightforward guidance is given on:

• Training foals and young horses
• Lungeing equipment and technique
• Introducing long-reins and early lateral work
• Backing and riding young horses
• Lungeing over poles and fences
• Advanced long-reining; including cantering, rein-back, shoulder-in, travers, half pirouettes, half-pass, renvers, canter half-pass, canter pirouettes and tempi flying changes.

Piaffe and passage Olympic dressage rider and trainer Jennie Loriston-Clarke has broken and schooled countless dressage and jumping horses, and initially uses lungeing and long-reining to establish the horse's basic education and create mutual respect between horse and handler. The knowledge she has gained over the years while working with novices and older 'difficult' horses sent for retraining, is distilled in this book into simple instructions, so that others can
avoid making costly mistakes when training their horses.

The goal throughout is to produce a horse that is confident, keen and happy in his work — which should be the aim of every trainer.

Illustrated with specially commissioned sequence photographs, this book will prove particularly valuable in the early training of young horses, as well as in improving or retraining older horses, and refining dressage movements in advance horses.

Mary Bromiley’s book remains essential reading for both professionals and the general riding community. This new edition builds on the huge success of the previous editions, first published in 1987. Fully updated to reflect recent technological advances in diagnostic ability, as well as the proven physiological effects of light, magnetic fields and electrical currents on body tissues. This information allows readers to both understand and make an informed choice of appropriate therapy following a diagnosed injury.

The original edition was the first book on the subject and it has continued to be a bestseller. Covers a subject that is of worldwide interest. The author is recognised as a pioneer at the forefront of this type of treatment.

Regardless of discipline, level of expertise, training philosophy, body shape, or fitness level, all riders do better in horse-related activities on the ground and in the saddle when they take care of their bodies and maintain their fitness.

While riding is a great way to enjoy an active lifestyle, on its own it is not enough to condition and tone the body to the degree we need, and then the horse must make up the fitness gap in our physical partnership. If our reflexes are slow, if our bodies fatigue, if our position collapses, if tension patterns appear, then the horse suffers repetitive asymmetrical strain or develops compensatory movement habits. It is for his good, as well as ours, that certified personal trainer and riding coach Heather Sansom has developed an utterly achievable 9-week plan to give every rider the straightness, suppleness, strength, and stamina she needs to rider her best.

With hundreds of one-of-a-kind illustrations depicting accurate musculature on the rider's body, and dozens of proven exercises organised in a progressive fitness program with easy-to-use schedule charts, Sansom’s book is the key to enjoying the ride, being fair to your horse, and getting into fabulous shape in nine weeks!