Be prepared to get your stirrups back after No Stirrup November. In December we’ll be clearing out all the jumps and focusing on the foundations of horseback riding. Here are some words to learn this month if you don’t know them already! Click on the links to get more information.

Dressage – the art of riding and training a horse, how we communicate what we want to our horses using aids

Aids – different parts of our body and the tools we use to communicate with our horse

Rhythm – the space between each of the beats

Tempo – the speed of the rhythm

Training Scale – how a horse’s training progresses over time

Center Line – straight down the center of the arena, from letter A to letter C

Quarter Line – lines of travel that divide the space between the center line and the rail

Mid Line – separates the arena into two, from letter B to letter E

Long Diagonal – crossing the arena at a diagonal, from letter F to H or M to K

Short Diagonal – crossing the arena at a diagonal on the shorter path, from letters M to E, E to F, K to B and B to H