HorseSense Horsemanship--Bob's comments

Spend time feeling the locomotion of your horse.  At the walk feel what your horse is doing underneath you.  Feel that as one side goes forward the other side goes backward.  As one side goes up the other side goes down.  On our web site http://www.ranch-roper.com/ under the horsemanship page you can scroll down and see the flow chart I developed to help riders understand the footfalls at the walk.  This understanding helps us achieve better feel for and with our horse.  This better feel helps us learn better timing, so we ask our horse for the turn, stop or transition at the optimum time, so that it is easier for the horse to comply with our request.

Good equitation is three little words: Timing, Feel and Balance

Direct the feet.