Quiet Riding

Horses and Riders Working in Harmony


Horses in the Fog

Relaxation

[As additional resources, links to book reviews and book purchasing information can be found beneath the quotations when this information is available.]

Relaxation – General

"In equestrian art the rider and the horse must have reached a state where all tension and contraction are eliminated, thereby establishing a deep communion by which a spectator, ignorant or not of the subtleties involved in the Art, but having a deep sensitivity, can appreciate this sublime beauty, in the same way he appreciates great moments in any artistic production of ballet, concert or theatre."

Nuno Oliveira (translated by Phyllis Field), Reflections on Equestrian Art
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"You can breathe a horse to quietness."

Sally Swift, Centered Riding
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"Improving your horse's comfort can improve yours as well!"

Joyce Harman, DVM, MRCVS, The Horse's Pain-Free Back and Saddle-Fit Book
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"No mater what your riding discipline, in order to do productive and rewarding work you want a relaxed, calm horse. Relaxation should be a priority because for the most part, attempting to train a tense horse is a waste of time and not very pleasant for either one of you."

Jane Savoie, Cross-Train Your Horse, Simple Dressage for Every Sport
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"Especially under highly goal-oriented conditions, we can lose track of how fundamentally success depends on ease and freedom."

Kathleen Schmitt, The Seamless Seat
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"Whoever causes constant tension and pressure on the horse's back and in the rein contact, cannot relax a horse."

Dr. Gerd Heuschmann, Balancing Act
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"Only musculature that is able to relax will lead to a beautiful and harmonious way of going."

Dr. Gerd Heuschmann, Balancing Act
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"Relaxation, however, does not mean limpness. Muscles must be engaged but not tense."

Mary Twelveponies, Everyday Training: Backyard Dressage
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"Just being relaxed in the waist encourages the horse to go forward."

Mary Twelveponies, Everyday Training: Backyard Dressage
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"...no athlete can perform well with tense, jerky movements."

Mary Twelveponies, Everyday Training: Backyard Dressage
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"Relaxed muscles — both his [the horse's] and yours — do not load up with poisonous wastes that cause both fatigue and tying up."

Mary Twelveponies, Everyday Training: Backyard Dressage
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"I often use breathing to relax both the horse and myself, and to help develop concentration."

Magali Delgado & Frédéric Pignon, Gallop to Freedom
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Relaxation – Horse

"Only with a relaxed swinging back is the horse able to utilize the full potential of his locomotive system."

Eitan Beth-Halachmy, Cowboy Dressage
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"The horses can get real bothered about what's taking place when they don't understand it. So we need to spend quite a bit of time with these horses and help them get relaxed."

Bill Dorrance and Leslie Desmond, True Horsemanship Through Feel
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"After I got onto better posture and the timing of the feet, I found it was important to get a horse to mellow up..... That mellow feel is really more about the way his mood and his mind are, but there's a place in there where his body takes part in his understanding of this mellow feel. It's when he isn't pushing on you at all. His head doesn't come up and it takes a normal position."

Bill Dorrance and Leslie Desmond, True Horsemanship Through Feel
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"...the more these horses get so they feel of you, why the security they need comes from you, and that gives you more control. The horse will really take something good from a rider who's able to reassure them."

Bill Dorrance and Leslie Desmond, True Horsemanship Through Feel
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"...we're in hopes of keeping that horse nice and relaxed no matter what we want him to do."

Bill Dorrance and Leslie Desmond, True Horsemanship Through Feel
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"A horse needs to stay confident and relaxed about what you expect, and that's most important."

Bill Dorrance and Leslie Desmond, True Horsemanship Through Feel
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"I like to keep the horse feeling settled and pretty soft in my hands, but still completely attentive and responsive to me throughout his whole body."

Bill Dorrance and Leslie Desmond, True Horsemanship Through Feel
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"Equestrian art is the perfect understanding between the rider and his horse. This harmony allows the horse to work without any contraction in his joints or in his muscles, permitting him to carry out all movements with mental and physical enjoyment as well as with suppleness and rhythm. The horses is then a partner, rather than a slave who is enforced to obey a rigid master by constraint."

Nuno Oliveira (translated by Phyllis Field), Reflections on Equestrian Art
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"In order to work the horse as he should be worked, with suppleness and lack of contraction, his spinal column muscles must not be over tense."

Nuno Oliveira (translated by Phyllis Field), Reflections on Equestrian Art
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"The horse must be taught to piaffer, by calming him, and not by exciting him."

Nuno Oliveira (translated by Phyllis Field), Reflections on Equestrian Art
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"...a horse who keeps his back muscles tense when saddled will experience a restricted range of motion. He will also suffer from degenerative, career-impeding issues far earlier than will the horse who is enabled — through correct training and saddle fit — to carry a rider on his back with muscles that are flexible and elastic."

Donna Snyder–Smith, The Classic Western Rider
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"A confident and relaxed horse performs better and learns better.

Linda Huck, The Classic Western Rider
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"When a horse uses his back correctly and is free of pain, forward movement becomes effortless and supports the rider."

Joyce Harman, DVM, MRCVS, The Horse's Pain-Free Back and Saddle-Fit Book
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"Little by little my horse learns to stay relaxed as I add activity by increments...."

Jane Savoie, Cross-Train Your Horse, Simple Dressage for Every Sport
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"[John Lyons says,] 'The horse must be calmer at the end of your training session than he was at the beginning.'"

Robert M. Miller, D.V.M. and Rick Lamb, The Revolution in Horsemanship
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"It is very important for the horse's early education to include sensitivity and calm while promoting the horse's self-confidence."

Dr. Gerd Heuschmann, Balancing Act
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"If a horse goes above or below his individual tempo (most horses rush and go far above the appropriate tempo), he can neither relax nor find horizontal balance."

Dr. Gerd Heuschmann, Balancing Act
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"A critical indicator of a correctly trained horse is a back that is supple, carried, positively tense, but relatively relaxed."

Dr. Gerd Heuschmann, Balancing Act
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"The first, and perhaps most important goal, is to relax the horse, after which the objective is to find the rhythm and drive."

Dr. Gerd Heuschmann, Balancing Act
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"The swinging back makes your ride more comfortable besides making the horse's work easier for him."

Mary Twelveponies, Everyday Training: Backyard Dressage
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"By concentrated thought and gentle movements, by seeking perfect balance, I persuade the muscle to release its tension."

Magali Delgado & Frédéric Pignon, Gallop to Freedom
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"...I think it is so important to spend time reassuring a horse and helping him relax rather than treating him with rewards."

Magali Delgado & Frédéric Pignon, Gallop to Freedom
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Relaxation – Rider

"Only the rider who is free from any contraction will have a horse equally free from contraction."

Nuno Oliveira (translated by Phyllis Field), Reflections on Equestrian Art
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"When you hold your breath, you build certain tensions in your body to which a horse will react."

Sally Swift, Centered Riding
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"I see many people who have ridden with locked elbows for some time — even years. The horses they ride usually have shortened strides because they feel that they can't move their heads and necks for balance."

Jane Savoie, Cross-Train Your Horse, Simple Dressage for Every Sport
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"By gracefulness I mean an air of relaxed and easy competency that a rider must be able to maintain with correct posture and an independent seat in all of the movements that a horse is able to make."

François Robichon de la Guérinière, The School of Horsemanship, Part II
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"Relaxation in the saddle is absolutely key to becoming a good rider."

Robert M. Miller, D.V.M. and Rick Lamb, The Revolution in Horsemanship
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"...once the rider is confident that he can stop the horse and get off, come what may, he relaxes and becomes a better rider..."

Robert M. Miller, D.V.M. and Rick Lamb, The Revolution in Horsemanship
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"It is easier to lengthen your legs down horse's sides by releasing muscles around your hips, knees, or ankles so that your weight drops into the stirrups than it is to shove on the stirrups or to reach for them with your toes."

Kathleen Schmitt, The Seamless Seat
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"It is easier to sit taller by releasing the muscles around your gut and rib cage than to hike your chest up again and again."

Kathleen Schmitt, The Seamless Seat
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"Ease and effortlessness come from working with the laws of Nature, especially gravity and balance."

Kathleen Schmitt, The Seamless Seat
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"...you can pull your chest up out of a slump, but it also works very well to release the muscles that were pulling your rib cage down in the first place."

Kathleen Schmitt, The Seamless Seat
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"If the skeleton is aligned with gravity, the bones support each other without much need for muscle action."

Kathleen Schmitt, The Seamless Seat
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"Balance and good posture come at least as much from releasing muscle contractions so bones can line up the way they are designed as from contracting muscles to hold bones in place."

Kathleen Schmitt, The Seamless Seat
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"...you really want to do well and get so tense that the horse doesn't know any more what the person on his back wants him to do because of abnormal pressures and body language."

Dr. Gerd Heuschmann, Balancing Act
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"You concentrate so hard on avoiding errors that you cause exactly the ones you are trying to prevent."

Dr. Gerd Heuschmann, Balancing Act
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"The better command a rider has of her art, the less she works physically."

Dr. Gerd Heuschmann, Balancing Act
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"If you are not relaxed, you cannot apply the aids effectively."

Mary Twelveponies, Everyday Training: Backyard Dressage
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"You must be supple in your back to ride well, so simply stretch upward to straighten up, making your pelvis straight up and down and letting your stomach hang loose so you are relaxed in the waist."

Mary Twelveponies, Everyday Training: Backyard Dressage
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"Do not ever try to force yourself into position since that destroys relaxation."

Mary Twelveponies, Everyday Training: Backyard Dressage
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"Do not try to keep your legs stationary; when they are relaxed and on the horse, they will have some motion corresponding to his motion."

Mary Twelveponies, Everyday Training: Backyard Dressage
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