Merry Christmas: Bailador 4

26th December

Good afternoon this is Will Faerber from Art2Ride here with my lovely wife Karen Loshbaugh to wish you all a very merry Christmas! We are out here today with Bailador, who we introduced you to a few times earlier. Leslie experienced working over his back yesterday, and today Karen will be working him.

As you can see in the video, he has really begun to swing over his back. Bailador is a very big horse, 17.3 or so, and like we see with so many other horses his size, they have been shut down. They have never really been allowed to go in their full gaits because usually someone gets on them that are afraid of the size of the gait and how big the wave is. This horse has a big push through it’s back. So when you go out …



Frauke Murphy: Update 2

24th December

Good morning this is Will Faerber from Art2Ride here with Frauke Murphy continuing their training. Frauke has been working with this horse for about a month now getting her to stretch on the lunge line and doing the same thing on it’s back, and I wanted you to see how nicely she has developed since then.

When we look at Frauke we can see that she has a very nice leg position, but she needs to just stretch her shoulders back. This will happen over time, this is only her third lesson with me. She will begin to get those things straightened out as she gets her horse straightened out. Every time her horse starts to come up, she needs to be sure that when she softens her a little bit that her shoulders don’t come over with it.

While this horse …



Frauke Murphy: lunging 4th week

24th December

Good afternoon this is Will Faerber from Art2Ride and I am here with Frauke Murphy and her horse. This is the second or third lunging session she has had with us and it has been about four weeks. I have a previous video that you can view to compare, she was very high headed and had a fat belly with no back engagement whatsoever.

Now we can see that she is starting to swing very nicely over her back. Frauke sometimes lets her get a little too close to her, so she is going to move her out on the circle again. We want to keep contact with that line when we are lunging the horse so that we can keep contact with her mouth. Just like riding: the whip is your leg and the line is your rein to the …



Frauke Murphy: First lesson

24th December

Good morning this is Will Faerber from Art2Ride working here with Frauke Murphy for her and her horse’s first lesson with us. I taped a little bit of when we began on the lunge line so you can see what we started with, which you can find under our videos.

This is a horse that has done very well on the western circuit and has had about ten years of training. What we noticed is while she is very obedient, she is working very hollow and pulling her neck over and cranking over in the third vertebrae and not seeking the bit, which is what we see now. They have done a very good job of teaching her how to be a nice quiet horse, but now she will learn how to work over her back and the ride she will give …



Bailador: Update 2

23rd December

Good morning this is Will Faerber from Art2Ride and I am here with Leslie Johnson and her horse Bailador. We introduced you to Bailador about a week ago, and then it rained for an entire week, so this is only the second day we are able to work after that rain. This is the first time Leslie has been able to ride him getting him into the stretch.

We are looking at what a few days of stretching has done for this horse, after teaching him how to lunge correctly which you saw in the previous video. Now Leslie is learning to get him working over his back herself. When he comes up, she sends him forward with her legs before she does anything with her hands, so that it comes from behind. We’ve been discussing the idea of people riding …



Bailador: Update 1, Lunging

12th December

Good morning this is Will Faerber from Art2Ride and we have been introducing you to our new horse in training, Bailador!

This is about the fifth time I’ve lunged him. He is used to having his head tied down and would brace upward and tighten. This is a horse that used to spook at every little sound and would jump out of his skin, and like so many other horses today is only half trained. If everything is perfect, this horse will kind of go along okay but as soon as something goes wrong he was ready to jump out of his skin and buck. After only a few days, he is already starting to relax and stretch into the contact. Notice how long I have the side reins on this horse, just like we have shown you in other videos. …



Bailador: Introduction

12th December

Good morning this is Will Faerber from Art2Ride and I am here with a new horse that has come in for training for about two weeks. I thought it would be a good opportunity for us to see what kind of changes we can make over that kind of time.

This is Bailador who belongs to a woman from Los Angeles. He is a ten year old and a registered Oldenburg and interestingly enough he is actually the son of the stallion we have here named Contigo. As you can see he has a rather long back and is a very large horse and has had quite a few back problems and soreness. His back is looking pretty good today when a week ago he would flinch away from your hand. I have already worked him for a total of five days, three …



Laura Sakakeeny: Student Update 1

3rd December

Good morning this is Will Faerber from Art2Ride and I am here in Poway doing a clinic. We have Laura Sakakeeny in the ring with us this morning and she came to our last clinic that we held here. Her horse was a Hunter before we started this and neither her horse or she had ever done much dressage. I saw her about 6 weeks ago and since then she has put what she has learned into practice.

Look how beautiful her horse looks now!  She has done it all on her own getting her horse stretching. Look how beautifully this horse is working over it’s back now! Once you understand the basic principles that must guide you, you can train your own horses. Laura demonstrates a stretch for us on a circle and this direction is a little more difficult to …




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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