Happy Horse Training AudioRide: A First Impression...

The less arched my lower back is the more he steps under the center of gravity with his hind legs

As some of you may know, I am kind of skeptical when it comes to learning to ride on your own even when using modern means like video lessons via the internet – I even wrote some lines on it for a guest post here: http://www.dressagehafl.com/2014/08/learning-to-ride-via-internet-guest.html. Still, I am always open to give new approaches a chance and with my training stay being over last weekend, I was wondering how to keep up the good and consistent work. I am a strongly motivated person but sometimes you simply drag yourself around in endless circles and then you feel your seat being imbalanced or your horse not being connected and you try something else. And there is days when everything goes wrong and you simply want to quit.

Later in February, we won a free copy of Happy Horse Traning’s AudioRide.

Happy Horse training is founded by sisters Camille and Gabrielle Dareau, who live in the beautiful Gascony region of the south of France. (http://www.happy-horse-training.com/about-us.html)

I have been following and reading their articles already on Facebook and their website before and was now super curious on how that should work. Right after being sent the link, I downloaded the package. It is not too big (like hundreds of lessons) and each session is dedicated to a specific topic. Every sessions lasts a couple of minutes and I was enthusiastic about it right away. The advantage is that you can break down your issues in smaller parts and in the guide you get very good hints of how it should feel, what you can do wrong, what is ok to do not a 100% perfect yet and what your horse should do in that particular moment – actually, it really feels like somebody is watching you.

How the sessions are set up makes absolutely sense and each session is long enough to get a proper feeling of the new way you are moving but not too long that you would get tired of it. When I try a new session, I always start with the one before such that I can remember what I have learned the other day. The voice is very calm and pleasant and the explanations are clear and picturesque.

I have only started to use the AudioRide Course but for now I can already say how much I like using it. Having the sessions on my phone I simply attach my head set (I have one like these: they fit perfectly underneath your helmet and stay in place even during your horse spooking around).

I will try to make more before and after pictures, here is a first round of pictures shot during the pelvis rotation session:

Rolling the pelvis backwards - feels easy and right for me and is still so wrong - Hafl's face says it all!

Better but can still be improved

That is pretty downhill - see my tummy sticking out? Say hello to arched lower back!

The less arch in the back the more my legs come forward - need to improve that with my hips being stretched more and more

AudioRide is split into three parts and more information on the content of each part is available here (also with prices and purchase options): http://www.happy-horse-training.com/riding-instructor.html