Ride Better, Train Better — Especially for Those Who Are Not Youngsters Anymore!
Wondering about Saddle Up Again? Saddle Up Again is the place to share the tips, tricks and techniques that help you become a better rider, on a better trained horse. It’s also about horse care — lessons learned and equipment tried that make it easier to provide better care for your horses.
As you get a older it can be tougher to ride well. I’ve heard Buck Brannaman say at clinics that younger people working with horses using 90% of their physical and 10% of their mental abilities. He went on to say that older folks find they succeed with 10% physical and 90% mental.
At Saddle Up Again, we’re going to be visiting about what works for the mental part of training, riding and caring for horses. But we’ll also talk about what works to make the physical part easier as we get older. Attend a meeting of a group of riders in the United State, and especially a group of non-youngsters, and you’ll see that many are heavier than they probably should be. They’re also not the examples of physical fitness they were in their younger days. I’m also talking about me here.
I’ll be sharing what’s working for me as I try different strategies for losing weight and improving fitness related to riding. Over the years I’ve gained about 40 pounds since my graduation from the U.S. Naval Academy and 30 pounds since retiring from military service. I’ve also been bucked off several times over the last 20 years, suffered broken ribs and a bruised lung, and had several concussions in working with horses.
Many of you have also had injuries that limit your physical abilities in some way. So let’s work together to test and evaluate techniques that make us more effective and safer working with our horses.
Saddle Up Again — What Works from a Variety of Sources
Facebook is full of horse advice from a “natural horsemanship” clinicians and many other sources. What’s different about Saddle Up Again you ask? The difference is that Saddle Up Again isn’t selling one major clinician or method of training.
I read a book recently that credited Tom Dorrance and Ray Hunt with a revolution in riding and training horses. I have great respect for both and for those who teach their methods, but there were great riders and horse trainers before Tom and Ray came along and there are many great ones today who do things differently. You should be more concerned about what works for you and your horse than what clinician you’re following.
Facebook groups for the clinicians are sometimes of the worst bastions of cult-like thinking. Some only allow comments that parrot the clinician. At Saddle Up Again, the best methods for horse and rider might be some mixture of techniques from several different clinicians.
We’ll Evaluate Horse Training Tips and Riding Techniques
We’ll send you a steady stream of information and ideas that you can use to make your groundwork and riding more effective. We’ll help you ride better and more confidently by helping you improve your level of fitness and reduce your level of fear. We’ll offer horse care and horse handling tips to make your experiences with your horses safer and more fun. Please sign up for our newsletter and you’ll be notified of every new article and video we publish.
Why “Saddle Up Again”
Saddle Up Again is the brainchild of Paul Sherland, a past-middle-aged horse owner and rider located in Southeast Texas. Paul started riding as a youngster and for a few years owned a pony and then a horse and rode just about every day. Then a family move and then college and then military service made horses a distant, but pleasant memory.
Nearing military retirement, Paul purchased a horse and started riding again. For another 20 years, Paul rode his Appaloosa mare, Chance, across the hills of Western Virginia and then Southeast Texas. Then a series of mishaps and injuries on other horses eroded his confidence in his ability to ride.
Saddle Up Again is part of that journey back. Paul will share the strategies that are working for him with the hope that they’ll work for you. Hopefully our readers will also share their insights so that all of us can improve our working relationships with our horses and make our horse time more enjoyable.
The tack and the language of the website will be primarily associated with the Western style of riding; however, the ideas should be as applicable to someone riding a dressage horse or someone riding a gaited horse and they would be to a rider in a Western saddle.
Please Share What’s Worked for You to Saddle Up Again
If you have questions or suggestions, please send them to us!
