Enlightened Equitation: Riding in True Harmony With Your Horse

by Heather Moffett

30 color illustrations & 145 b/w illustrations! Get back in the saddle again and achieve total harmony with your horse with these revolutionary, non-confrontational training methods. Rich with photographs and diagrams that clarify instructions, Enlightened Equitation makes riding a totally rewarding experience through the use of simple, logical, achievable, and humane exercises. Expert advice helps you establish a partnership with your horse and mirror his every movement to alleviate a wide range of animal behavior and riding problems. Trim 7 1/2 x 10 1/4.

Genres: Horses, Nonfiction

158 pages, Hardcover

First published September 15, 1999

Reviews

[Dark-Draco · Rating 4 out of 5]

I first read this (or partly read) this book as a teenager, and I distinctly remember the light bulb moment I had as I was reading the parts on developing 'feel' and knowing what the horse is doing underneath you. I'm pretty sure that I learnt how to do a good sitting trot, just be reading this book.

More than a few years later and it doesn't have the same impact that it did back then. I never did finish it, so some of it was a new read for me, but there wasn't quite as much that I didn't know. Things have moved on a bit since this was published and a lot of what she advocates is now widely taught (or something similar).

What stopped this getting top rating was just the way that the author digresses to attack other teachers and methods. Like when I hear a politician slandering an opponent rather than expounding their own policies, I tended to switch off and my opinion dipped. Her methods should stand on their own and there is no need to continually harp on about how she sees the current methods of teaching.

But, of all the equitation books that I have read over the years, this is one of the best and I will probably refer to it more than once in the future.

[Misbah · Rating 2 out of 5]

Really useful techniques and information, however way too much ranting and side-points make this a chore to read. Many photos are not relevant in that they don't provide a useful teaching point. More illustrated diagrams would have been helpful.