We can't deny there's a dressage look. You can look at a tall, lean girl and say "oh, that's a dressage rider".

But that look doesn't represent a lot of us. I learned to stop looking at it years ago. I will never look like that.

So when asked by a student, will I ever look like that? I say no sorry. The angle of the leg that comes down around the body is a hip joint shape that you don't have. Your leg is going to draw forward because that's the natural angle of you body. So you are going to have to work hard with your body to get the leg to look like that naturally.

But it's doable, if you focus on functional movement and organising your balance first. Your balance will fall into its on natural lines and we will form a new beautiful riding posture that is your perfect balance and movement.

The privilege that we have as horse owners is that you get to exchange love for love.

The trouble being a horse trainer is that you don't have that luxury because you never know what's going to happen to them and your just trying to give them the best head start you can.

The trouble with being a horse trainer is that you feel the pressure to succeed. And you enviably put that pressure on your horse and they respond as such.

The question is not what can you make a horse do...

The question is how can this exercise or how can riding allow me to feel more love for this horse? How can this exercise or ride create an environment that creates more love for me from my horse

Not in a manipulative way but in a truly connected way.

The answer often is by loving ourselves more deeply first and our horses even deeper after that.