Simplify Your Riding: Step-by-Step Techniques to Improve Your Riding Skills

by Wendy Murdoch

Overview

In horseback riding, body alignment and balance is everything.

That's what Wendy Murdoch, an internationally recognized equestrian instructor and clinician, tells readers in this must-have guide. Featuring easy step-by-step instructions, Murdoch takes some of the most important yet basic principles of riding and makes them simple. In this book, riders of all skill levels will learn how to eliminate unconscious restrictions and use their bodies to achieve a higher level of performance with their horses.

Using more than 200 color photographs to provide step-by-step instructions, Simplify Your Riding breaks down various aspects of riding, including the components of balance in the saddle, timing of your aids, riding with a deep seat and moving in sync with your horse.

Whether it's your first ride or you've been in the saddle for years, this book is a must-have for every equestrian.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781635610703
Publisher:	Echo Point Books & Media
Publication date:	08/24/2018
Edition description:	Reprint; Revised ed.
Pages:	190
Product dimensions:	8.50(w) x 11.00(h) x 0.52(d)

About the Author

Wendy Murdoch grew up in Stamford, Connecticut, and has spent her entire life involved with horses. She has ridden since childhood and competed in and been interested in a variety of disciplines, from hunters to dressage, eventing and reining. Wendy holds a B.S. in Animal Science from the University of New Hampshire and an M.S. in Equine Reproductive Physiology from the University of Kentucky. She is constantly expanding her education. Her credentials include being a TT.E.A.M. Practitioner II/Clinician and a Senior Level IV Centered Riding(R) Instructor. She is a Guild Certified Feldenkrais Method(R) Practitioner, and an MBS Academy Master Practitioner having studied with Mia Segal, Dr. Feldenkrais' first assistant and founder of MBS Academy. In addition Wendy studies with holistic veterinarian, saddle-fitting expert, and author Dr. Joyce Harman and Bettina Drummond, the only authorized representative of the Nuno Oliveira School from Portugal. In her clinics over the past 30 years, Wendy has taught riders of all disciplines and skill levels how to use their bodies to achieve a higher level of performance with their horses. Some of her students have never been on a horse before while others compete at the highest levels of their discipline. Her goal is to make riding fundamentally simple by showing riders how to achieve what great riders do naturally. Her clinics are held year round in the United States, Canada, and Europe and have included Africa, Australia, and New Zealand. Visit her website at www.wendymurdoch.com for a clinic schedule and for more information about The Murdoch Method.

Table of Contents

Contents

Acknowledgments...........vii

Foreword by Sally Swift...xi

Preface............................xiii

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER 1 Learning How You Learn...................2

CHAPTER 2 Breathing: The Key to a Deep Seat...6

CHAPTER 3 Balance, Timing, and Feel.................13

PART ONE

ALIGNMENT

CHAPTER 4 Your Head..................17

CHAPTER 5 Your Shoulders..........21

CHAPTER 6 Your Torso.................24

CHAPTER 7 Your Pelvis................27

CHAPTER 8 Your Legs and Feet...30

PART TWO

POSITION

CHAPTER 9 Who Balances Whom?...............................................35

CHAPTER 10 Rebalance Your Riding Image..................................39

CHAPTER 11 How Secure Is Your Seat?........................................46

CHAPTER 12 Hip Joints..................................................................53

CHAPTER 13 Are You Really Sitting Tall in the Saddle?.................59

CHAPTER 14 Supporting Your Horse Through the Leg and Seat...64

CHAPTER 15 The Power Is in the Position......................................68

CHAPTER 16 Lateral Balance in the Saddle....................................73

CHAPTER 17 Two Thumbs Up.........................................................79

PART THREE

TIMING

CHAPTER 18 Knowing When to Ask........................................86

CHAPTER 19 Feeling the Walk.................................................93

CHAPTER 20 Timing the Aids in the Walk................................99

CHAPTER 21 The Aids at the Trot............................................106

CHAPTER 22 The Aids at the Rising Trot.................................112

CHAPTER 23 How the Aids Influence the Quality of the Trot...117

CHAPTER 24 Walk-Trot-Walk Transitions.................................121

CHAPTER 25 The Aids at the Lope or Canter...........................128

CHAPTER 26 Transitions into the Canter..................................134

PART FOUR

LENGTHENING

CHAPTER 27 Rigid Strength vs. Unbendable Strength......141

CHAPTER 28 Applying "Unbendable Strength" to Riding...148

CHAPTER 29 Lengthening Up Through Your Spine............153

CHAPTER 30 Why Is Lengthening the Back so Important...159

CHAPTER 31 The Deep Seat...............................................161

Conclusion............................................................................167

About the Author...................................................................171

Index.....................................................................................173