Innehållsförteckning för Practical Horseman Extra Volume 16 från Practical Horseman

Healthy hooves are literally the foundation for everything you want to enjoy with your horse. Getting his hooves into top shape and keeping them that way isn’t time-consuming. It’s just a matter of building healthy-hoof practices, like the 10 I’m about to describe, into your daily management routine. 1. Pick out your horse’s feet. This may sound pretty basic, but it’s the single most important thing you can do for his hooves—and I encounter a surprising number of owners who think picking out the feet is the farrier’s job. Your horse gets a head start on healthy hooves, and you get a chance to take early action on many common hoof problems, if you pick out his feet … • before each ride to remove any stones or small objects…

I established an active canter into the compressed two-stride oxerto-oxer line. This will help my horse push off from his hind end with enough energy to jump well and will carry him through the exercise. I’ve contained the energy with light contact, which is also helping my horse to balance. I’m also using slight right rein and left leg pressure to counter the gelding’s tendency to drift left. Jumping the center of the oxer, he reaches deep beneath his body with his hind legs to thrust himself upward, over the jump. Look at his back now! No inversion here. You can see how the oxer’s width is causing him to reach forward and down with his head and neck. He’s doing it all on his own (as you can tell…

A straight approach to the first element of this gymnastic is key. Here, I’ve established a rhythmic, active trot and am using slight right rein and left calf pressure to keep my horse from drifting to the left so he’ll jump straight over the center of the “X”. A crooked horse can’t stay balanced; a straight horse can. My correction worked—my horse is perfectly centered over the X as he leaves the ground. And thanks to our balanced approach, he’s able to use his hind legs fairly effectively. His knees are up, as is his neck. But look at his back: It’s not just flat—it’s inverted. That’s what this exercise and the ones that follow will fix. I remain balanced and centered over my horse as he canters the single…

The ramped oxer is what I call “continuing education.” You get to build from the small verticals in Exercise 1 to the square oxers in Exercise 2 to an oxer that adds the finishing touches to your horse’s jumping form. The oxer’s shape, with the front rail lower than the back one, encourages him to lift his knees and shoulders as he rounds his back and reaches down with his head and neck. Just look at that bascule! To ride the exercise, canter through Exercise 2 first, then loop around to the oxer. Be sure to steady and balance your horse through the turn, then maintain your rhythm on the approach. Enjoy the jump and your improved hunter performance as your horse takes what he’s learned with these exercises and…