Internationally acclaimed clinician Wendy Murdoch offers step-by-step techniques to improve your riding skills.

Dedicated horse riders of all disciplines, from beginners to those who compete at the highest level, share the desire to achieve personal excellence. In this book, Wendy shows riders of all skill levels how to eliminate unconscious restrictions and use their bodies to achieve a higher level of performance with their horses.

Featuring more than 200 step-by-step color photos, Simplify Your Riding breaks down the components of balance in the saddle, timing of your aids, riding with a deep seat, and moving in concert with your horse into easy-to-grasp building blocks from improvement. Wendy presents these concepts in a series of illustrated lessons that allow riders of all disciplines to bring her expertise and guidance right into their own riding ring.

(softcover, 170 pages, color photos and illustrations)

Excerpt from the book:

One of the most important attributes to any good rider is a secure, independent seat. This good seat needs to stay "glued" to the saddle should the horse pull any unexpected moves such as shying, bucking, or fast turns. A secure seat is particularly important when riding young horses. The young horse lacks experience which often leads to unexpected rapid movements. Lurking critters like wheelbarrows or a cat in the bushes are sure to get a reaction. The last thing a young horse needs is for you to become a projectile missile.

I am sure that a flying Karamozov rider is far more upsetting to the horse than we can imagine. Just think about it for a second. The horse has entrusted himself to you and yet you abandon him in his moment of need! Or worse yet, what he needs is reassurance but what he gets is the rider pounding on his back every time he jumps a little. All of a sudden the scary thing the horse spooked at in the first place isn't his only problem. Now that scary thing has somehow mysteriously gotten on his back and is attacking! How did this happen? What should the horse do about it? If I were a horse, I would try to remove it as quickly as possible, wouldn't you?

There are a number of reasons why the rider with the less educated seat is more likely to come to a bad end than the experience rider. First, the experienced rider can evaluate the situation and either prevent or defuse the problem before it ever gets out of control. Second, the experienced rider generally has an independent seat that is more capable of riding out a buck or sideways spook by remaining relaxed and therefore causing less distress to the horse. Third, since there is less pounding on the horse's back, the horse is likely to decrease the degree of reaction because the rider is not contributing to the horse's pain and fear.