• Choose someone you consider to be a success at what you want to be a success at, and duplicate exactly what they do. Choose Carefully. You can do anything you want to do if you want it bad enough and are willing to pay the price and make the commitment.

• Success is in the Details
- A million minor details is the only thing that separates Magnificent from mediocre.

• Perfect practice makes perfect.
- Practice DOESN’T make perfect.

• You must maintain a fluid frame.
- Ride with rhythm in your legs at all times. A rigid rider promotes a rigid horse. A rider in rhythm with his horse is poetry in motion.

• Forget about "riding" your horse and learn to "dance" with your horse. Take responsibility for Leading the Dance by learning to control your own body and move in rhythm with your horse, using his natural cadence to your advantage…building frame and grace.

• If you expect your horse to be "willingly dictated too"…you’d better be riding him and dictating to him every stride… just like a good leader does when dancing. He dances and dictates the direction throughout the entire song. Never leave your horse "hanging" and wondering where we’re going next.

• Visualize a boxer’s body position when taking a punch to the belly. His shoulders are rolled forward and his abdominal muscles are tight. Use your legs in the same manner to "make" your horse tighten his abdomen and lift his back. Then as you your horse become a more "finished product," you must "remind" your horse to keep his belly tight and his back lifted by bumping in rhythm with your legs.

• It’s all about Body Alignment and Rhythm, Timing and Feel… yours and your horses

• Train your eye to "see it." Train your mind to "see it." If you can "see it" clearly in your minds eye, you can achieve it.

• Soft mouths aren’t "born." They are developed by properly applying slow, but firm, rhythmic, deliberate hands. Good hands are communicative. Good Hands are ready to give praise and a reassuring touch. Good hands show the horse where his head and neck should be…and good hands leave his face alone when he’s correct. Good hands never hang on a horses face as this promotes heaviness and rigidity.

• "Balance" your horse on the bit with your hands wide like a Tight Rope Walker on a high line holds his balance bar. Give your horse a"middle"… "a point of reference" from which to balance and learn from. As your horse progresses through our program your goal is that your horse will end up as "Light" on your rein and the bit as the tight rope walker handles his balance bar. As you close the distance between your hands and go one handed, your horse will remain in the "middle" on a drape rein. Riding with your hands wide should help to keep you in the center of your saddle and your horses back. It should also keep you "weak." It’s not about strength. It’s about balance and rhythm, timing and feel…finesse.

• Demonstrate good leadership skills for your horse to follow. Stay calm. Stay focused. Stay on task. Be consistent. Be fair. Be patient. Praise him for things done right. Teach him to be a thinker. Teach him to respond appropriately, rather than react. Preserve your horses self esteem. Help him be confident in his job.

• The very essence of my program and the strong foundation on which it is built is "FRAME." You must have horizontal frame to make the rest of it work.

• Horizontal Collection comes from Lateral Flexion. (This is the million dollar secret!) Get it and commit it.

Vocabulary Skill # 1: Push the hip around the front end. Walking the circle, with the horses head looking to the inside slightly, reach your inside leg back toward his flank and push/bump the hip all the way around the front end.

Vocabulary skill # 2: Move the shoulder out of the circle. Walking the horse around the circle, with his body in frame and following the circumfrance of the circle, turn your toe out on your inside leg and bump your heel right behind your horses shoulder, just behind your cinch until he moves off the circle through his shoulder.

Vocabulary skill #3: Turn the head and neck to the inside of the circle, while keeping the body on the circle. Walking the horse around the circle, keeping your hands wide; as if the handle bars of a bike, turn in your waistline to the inside of the circle; while continuing to bump with both legs, but a bit more inside leg than outside, which keeps the horse from following his nose to the inside of the circle…keep the horses body on the circle. In this exercise your hands control his head and neck…and your legs control his body and the placement of his feet on the circle.

Vocabulary skill #4: Reverse Arch. Walking the circle, bumping both legs every stride, hands wide…turn in your waist line to the outside of the circle, which turns the horses head and neck to the outside of the circle. Take your inside leg off and get your outside leg busy bumping the horse just behind his shoulder at the cinch. Send the horses shoulder around the circle with his head turned to the outside. Over time, using a progressive "building block" mind set, continue to spiral it down, smaller and smaller, putting the foot work in place for the turn around.

Vocabulary skill #5: Introduction of the neck rein.
Lay the neck rein against the neck, with no contact on his mouth. Give him an opportunity…a moment…to respond. Pull the nose.

Vocabulary skill #6: The "C" arch. Supple the horses loin. Teach him to wrap his rib cage around your leg and hinge in his loin…NOT AT HIS WITHERS!

Vocabulary skill #7: Whoa. Teach horse to Whoa from a walk off "the word" and your body position. DO NOT PULL! Prepare to stop, putting your body in position, and saying " the word" at the same time. Pull ONLY if your horse does not honor you request…then pull firmly on his face, repeating the word as you back up. Back up after every "Whoa."

Home work:
• Soften Chin.
• Soften Ribs and entire body through lateral flexion…working toward Horizontal Collection.
• Circle Drill -keep horses feet on the circle while taking his head to the inside of the circle and then to the outside of the circle. HANDS WIDE! SEAT CENTERED!
• Teach horse to "bridle" with your legs.
• Break hips free at the loin…left and right.