Clinic with John Abbott

09/02/2026

Please check my web site: Boysonhill.com

It has information about training and riding to share and comment on it you SUBSCRIBE. Interaction is a great way to learn. I am teaching more and more clinics lately and am having a great time helping riders learn and grow. The site has blog posts of information, photos, and a mailing list for those interested.

08/23/2026

https://wix.to/49PPejt Come join us at Centurion Farm in Milton, Georgia August 29 & 30th for a 2 day intensive clinic for Hunter, Hunter Equitation and jumper riders. Slots may still be available, and also auditor spaces are there as well. Please call Karen Boyson for detail and information about clinic times, parking, stabling, etc. 440-343-3321

At Boys On Hill, LLC, we are dedicated to the art of sport horse training. Our focus is on providing quality training that prepares each horse either under saddle or for their first rider. We offer private training sessions and riding lessons, clinics and virtual training, as well as, equine care an...

06/29/2026

06/28/2026

June 27th High Standards Farm. Catherine Tucker always has a great group of clients that I had the pleasure to teach. Quality horses too! Thank you Erin Schotthoefer for the photos.

06/26/2026

"The better riders stay close to the horse’s center of gravity, the better a package they are for the horse to carry, the less they are affecting the horse’s balance in a negative manner, and the more they are able to affect the horse’s balance in a positive manner."
~Rider biomechanics expert Stephany Fish Crossman on the horse and rider as a balanced pair

Coordinating all the moving parts of yourself and your horse is not easy! But Stephany Fish Crossman of Serendipity Dressage described how the horse’s thirds (front, middle and back) can be managed and how the rider affects the horse's balance during our recent Practical Horseman+ Members-Only VIP Webinar.

Click the link in the Comments section below to find out how you can positively influence your horse with your position. ⬇️

📷 AK Dragoo Photography

06/24/2026

I learned dressage in one of the old saddles. They taught you balance and leg control.

Today's dressage riders say that the new saddles are more comfortable for the horse. With the advances in saddle design and flocking, this might be true. However, while their tree design is probably more physically comfortable, these saddles enable a new and different kind of discomfort for horses in how they encourage riders to use these saddles to inflict pain.

Current dressage riders regularly demonstrate one of the most egregious changes in dressage over the past several decades. While more vertical riders from the past rode balanced in shared unity of motion with their horses, their saddles were minimal and neutral. Those saddles didn't aid or restrict a rider's position. By contrast, the modern dressage riders are often unbalanced and restricted by their saddles with high cantles and huge thigh blocks or knee rolls that allow riders to lean back and use her body weight to increase their ability to apply intense rein pressure.

The visual difference between the old and new riders is inescapable. The older riders are relaxed and balanced while the modern ones are unbalanced as if "water skiing" off their horse's mouth with the help of a saddle that contains their imbalance. The older riders work with their horse's energy while the others regularly oppose their horse's energy with significant force.

The high cantles and the huge knee rolls/thigh blocks allow a rider to multiply their strength with their hands to the bit. Modern dressage riders can easily lean back past the traditional 5 degree limit against the high cantle without unseating themselves. The lower right rider is leaning back almost 20 degrees using much of their body weight to apply inexcusable rein pressure.

The big thigh blocks facilitate riders leaning back by stopping the rider's legs from launching forward beyond the saddle flap when they apply their multiplied body weight to the bit. Imagine trying to apply your leaning back body weight to the reins when riding in a traditional dressage saddle like the pictured Stubben Tristan dressage saddle on the left. You'd fall off the back of your horse.

The older minimal saddles provide better balance and a great deal more communication between the horse and rider. This is important because horses as herd animals need constant communication with their herd, which is the rider when a horse is being ridden. Without real connection stress from separation and isolation increases. This opposes the horse's need for unity of balance and movement with the rider.

Riders can improve their communication skills with their horses by riding in a simpler, more communicative saddle. However in our new commercial era of modern riding, each discipline has more or less created their own separate "horsemanship" with their own set of rules and standards. Many of these separate "horsemanships" have subordinated or abandoned the protection of the horse in favor of fulfilling the expectations and desires of the riders to win with their forced "frames".

Well meaning advocates for the protection of horses are often not educated enough to address the causes of abuse that come from these saddles. Instead they address the symptoms related to equipment like blue tongues or bleeding from the mouth. They blame bits as too harsh when it is these new saddles that allow the riders to abuse horses with intense bit pressure.

Henry Whynmalen said it best, "Let the horse move you." but a horse can't move you sympathetically when your lower body is locked and jammed between a high cantle and giant knee rolls.

06/22/2026

It was a pleasure instructing at Ashley Peters' farm on June 13-14. The groups of riders from several local training facilities were excellent. Thank you to AAHJA for organizing also, Jessica Thaxton Deanna and Alex Thaxton (High Point Farm) for inviting me to teach the clinic.

06/08/2026

07/01/2023

Great article for simple effective homework.

Elizabeth Gingras, a grand prix jumper rider, shares a simple exercise for mastering different types of canters.