International Polocrosse Council

By  Chris Irwin

Have you ever heard the equestrian term of using our riding “aids” when describing the use of the seat, legs, spurs, hands, whip, bridle, etc, etc, with regards to control of the horse? At first, it seems a bit far-fetched, perhaps just another sugar coated contradiction of terms to refer to someone as “aiding” a horse when we see them using various means of “pressure” to control a horse. In fact, whether a rider uses his or her various body parts and tools of the trade as “aids” or as “weapons” depends entirely upon their knowledge and skill with regards to how they “get through” to the horse and what the message truly is that they are sending to the horse. Continue reading »

There’s no shame in solving a problem from the ground.

When a horse reverts to the reactive side of his brain, you can gain control of the situation either on the ground or in the saddle by moving his feet until he starts to use the thinking side. There’s no shame in getting off the horse and working through his fear on the ground, especially if it puts you in a safer position. You can move the horse’s feet forwards, backwards, left and right on the ground just as well as you can from his back. A lot of people are under the impression that you should never get off a horse when you run into trouble because the horse will get away with his bad behavior and think that he won. Continue reading »

Clint Anderson

Buy a horse that will build your confidence when you first get into the horse business. When people who are just getting started end up buying the wrong horse, things go downhill in a hurry. I can’t tell you how many people buy their first horse, get into trouble, get bucked off, fall off, lose their confidence, sell the horse, sell their saddle, sell the trailer and never want to ride a horse again! Let me save you some trouble right now – buy a horse that will give you confidence. Don’t buy a horse based on emotions because all of those emotions aren’t going to mean a thing when you’re getting drug down the road by that shiny Thoroughbred or when that green-broke filly throws you head first into the dirt. Instead, buy a horse that’s seasoned and uses the thinking side of his brain. Remember, horses teach people, and then people teach horses.

By Don Blazer

It’s a shame about dressage. Or at least to me it is.

I always thought of it as such a “pure” thing; such a “beautiful thing; harmony in union.”

For me, Dressage was practiced by those who wanted “art with horses.”

It was for horsemen and women who wanted to take a horse to his maximum performance ability, suppleness, flexibility, balance and grace. It was a work of art between a rider and a horse, and that is all that it had to be.

It was, but it is no more.

Dressage: a noun, French, originally meaning “basic dressing.”

The basic dressing was applied to all horses and at all levels and that was the extent of it. It was done with any horse that a nobleman (and only noblemen could afford both the luxury of a horse and the time to develop its gaits, grace, balance, suppleness and flexibility) saw fit to ride.

The idea originally was not to compare horses, but to enjoy the development of a single horse’s unique talents.

One horse and one rider, being all they could be.

And that was the original goal. Continue reading »

By Chris Irwin
I remember a long time ago in high school seeing a sign behind the desk of my algebra teacher that read: The older we get the more we realize how much we don’t know . I also remember that at the ripe old age of sixteen that I thought this was a stupid statement. I naturally assumed that this was just another example of false humility designed as a politically correct manipulation of young rebellious minds like mine in yet another attempt to coerce us into minding our manners and conforming to the standardized norm of the educational system. That was thirty years ago when I was 16. However, it didn’t take me all these thirty years to realize the profound truth in the statement that I had once assumed in the wisdom of my youth to be so ridiculous. Years later, while coaching in a clinic, I heard myself spontaneously uttering the words the more I work with the horses, the more I realize how much I don’t know. That realization suddenly dawned on me when I was about 40. Continue reading »