Posted in Gincy's Blog on Jan 6th, 2010
Imagine a cold January day in the snow belt. It’s below freezing, there’s snow on the ground and a brisk wind is blowing. Even indoors, it’s a bit less than tropical, so you’re wearing long pants and a turtleneck and sweater. Then you decide to go for your daily jog. You change to a cotton [...]
Posted in Gincy's Blog on Jan 2nd, 2010
Gincy now has a regular column “Teaching Confidence” in the ARIA’s Riding Instructor magazine. The first appeared in the Fall 2009 issue, and the second has just been published in the Winter 2009-2010 issue.
Here are the titles and a brief excerpt from each column.
Fall 2009: “The Basics Don’t Have to Be Boring”
“When talking about my [...]
Posted in Gincy's Blog on Mar 29th, 2009
Had a post from a reader who was wondering about whether you
should grip with your thighs when riding polo ponies. S/he also wondered about
half-seat and posting and building strength for these activities.
You don’t ride polo ponies any differently than you do any
other horse! They’re still horses, and they walk, trot, canter, turn, stop, and
need to [...]
Posted in Gincy's Blog on Feb 2nd, 2009
Just got back from giving a speech on fear to an instructor forum. This message is for anyone who attended. I don’t want to put a copy of the speech on the open web, because we’re hoping that the video we made will come out, and we can sell copies and make at least [...]
Posted in Gincy's Blog on Nov 30th, 2008
The following is a tale I have heard often, and it disturbs me every time I hear it. A good, caring, pretty experienced, sympathetic horse person buys a young horse. She does all the right ground work with him, gets him caring and obedient and all that good stuff.
Then the time comes to start riding [...]
Posted in Gincy's Blog on Oct 20th, 2008
You read a lot nowadays about ‘bombproofing’ your horse. They have to be kidding! I don’t care what kind of training you give a horse, if you get into a nest of bees your horse is going to react, right?
That’s not to say that ground-training methods for building your horse’s confidence and trust in you [...]
Posted in Gincy's Blog on Aug 23rd, 2008
I have been teaching riding for over 60 years. It is my belief that anybody who wants to can become a good rider! It does take time and patience but if the desire is there it can be done.
The theory–and practice–behind this belief is based on starting out right in the first place. Rather than [...]