Tips On Lunging: Part 1

26th July

Hi this is Will Faerber from Art2Ride and I am here with Dave Murphy and he is lunging his horse Zoe. We have had quite a few questions come in on the internet asking about lunging and how to start their horses, so I thought this would be a good opportunity. You can watch Dave who is still learning himself and we can talk about what he is doing right and what he is doing wrong.

As I have stated before in some of my answers to some of you, the most important thing you have to establish when you are lunging a horse is the horse staying out at the end of the line. Don’t worry about if the horse is trotting or walking and especially whoa. Most people worry about whoa, when in fact you need to worry about …



Will Faeber’s Book Club 2

19th July

Hi this is Will Faerber from Art2Ride once again and thank you for joining me for my book club! Today we want to talk about a book that I’m very excited about called “Thirty Years with Master Nuno Oliveira” by Michel Henriquet.

This is so exciting for me because it was Michel Henriquet who helped me understand what it was that Nuno was trying to do. When I was 23 in 1976, I was studying with Nuno for the first time. When I went there he had just come out of retirement after about 10 years and had nothing but young horses that he was working and all his old horses and exhibition horses were all school horses. While they were good and you could learn a lot from them, they weren’t mature horses in their prime able to do everything that they were capable …



Work In Hand

14th July

Hi this is Will Faerber from Art2Ride and we had a request for some information for work in hand so I am going to try and give you a few points about that today!

This is our new horse Zoolander and if you come and take a close look here, both of my hands are going to be up (as shown in video) as I take the rein contact a little bit from the bit here and the other hand going up here (as shown in video) with the whip in my hand at the same time on this side. The most important thing to remember when you are doing work in hand is you’re wanting the horse to move ahead of you. Just like when you lunge you don’t stand around backwards, you stand to the front so when you …



New Project: Zoolander 30 Days

14th July

This is Will Faerber from Art2Ride and I am here with my lovely wife Karen Loshbaugh riding our new project horse who we have named Zoolander! Thanks again to all of you who sent in names for him! We wanted to give you another update. This is 30 days in and we have corrected his shoeing and saddle fit and he has had 30 days of working over his back.

We think you will see a big difference! As Karen takes him down the long side, look how nicely this horse is beginning to swing through his back. He has a lovely big stride! Now that he is beginning to engage, we see how beautiful this horse is capable of moving. Remember folks, this was basically a rescue horse! Look how beautiful he is capable of moving!

Warmbloods are almost becoming like …



The Rising Trot Part 2

14th July

Hi this is Will Faerber from Art2Ride with Karen Loshbaugh and our horse Zoolander. We have just given you a little dissertation on the rising trot and we have shown you what it looks like when its correct and you have a horse that is working through the back. The main point being is the horse working through the back is the main thing that lets you sit to the trot or rise to the trot correctly.

So what we are going to show you now is what happens when things aren’t going correctly. Karen is going to slow the horse down to where he is not really in a working trot anymore and the horse loses that rhythm. Watch what that does to her rising trot,  she has to labor and push her shoulders up and lift herself out of …



Correct Rising Trot Part 1

14th July

Hi and thank you for joining us. This is Will Faerber from Art2Ride with my lovely wife Karen Loshbaugh riding our new project horse Zoolander. We had a request for a video about the rising trot, so I thought we would talk about that for a little bit.

The main point I want to make is that the rising trot is never going to feel right until you get the horse working through the back, because that is really what the rising trot depends upon. Now if you watch Karen riding here, if you watch how when the horse’s back is springing how she sits in the saddle for just one second and the spring of the horse’s back pushes her right back up. When she comes out of the saddle that hind leg is pushing forward and pushing up underneath …



Learning To Develop The Stretch

14th July

This is Will Faerber from Art2Ride and I am here once again with Dave Murphy. On Wednesday we showed you him working in the walk and now we are working in the trot for one of the first times under saddle.

Notice the horse’s mouth is still a little busy there, so we are working on getting her to quiet that down. Dave is letting her into a real working trot and if she has a little problem, he is just going to stretch up and then let her stretch and get longer. Dave is doing a great job there with not pulling the mouth of the horse. Notice if she comes up, he follows up with his hands to follow up the motion of the horse and then as she stretches down, he just lets her back down again.

One of …



Dave Murphy and Zoey

12th July

This is Will Faerber from Art2Ride and I am here today with Dave Murphy and his horse Zoey. Dave started with me a few months back because both of his horses had become very very nervous (they are Arabs) and a little uncontrollable. We have an earlier video where we were in the first stages of lunging his horses and he has done that process very nicely and is now beginning to ride them.

When we started training Zoey the first time I saw Dave, every car that went by and every bird that flew out of a bush would send her into a fit of histeria, so she has come a long long way and is starting to work very nicely! As you can see in the video she has a nice working walk and he shows us a stretch …



Will Faeber’s Introduction

3rd July

What I would like to start off with is a little thing I call, what are we trying to do? Which is something I ask people all the time who are riding horses. What are you trying to do? and what are you trying to accomplish? I am amazed at how many people can’t answer that question. Another one I get in dressage is, what is collection? I am amazed at how many people can’t answer that question as well, especially when they are supposed to be a dressage rider.

What we are going to start out with today is trying to learn what working gaits are. Working gaits mean the point at which you are working through the back and the horse is working it’s topline. The point at which you are working the topline is where you are in …




From the Blog!

Join me as I post weekly blogs covering many topics relating to Classical Foundation Training. I have intentionally left out the word "dressage" because many people have a negative association with the prevalent "crank and spank" approach or that it is a sport for only those who are afraid to jump.

Dressage as it is meant to be is an understanding of how to best optimize a horse's movement and ability to carry a rider, surely a benefit for any horse, any discipline. It is also important in maintaining your horse's safety, soundness and sanity.

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