YOUR HORSE'S TRAINING INASSOCIATIONWITH CONFIDENCE | CONTACT THE WESTERN WAY
ANYONE PICTURING WESTERN riding in their mind no doubt sees an image of a cowboy or cowgirl sitting deep into a saddle, their horse's head long and low and with little in the way of how an English rider would interpret the term‘contact’.
“One of the main differences between English and Western is that you want an English horse to come up into the contact, whereas in Western we want to pick up the reins and the horse should soften,” explains Western rider and trainer Emma Chapman. “It should feel like a hot knife gliding through butter.”
Riding on a long, loose rein can feel like letting go of a safety blanket for anyone experiencing a crisis of
