There are really many good reasons to work the horses in hand.

I would like to tell you when I use work in hand and for what reason

When autumn and thus the rain comes, I can have periods where I only work the horses in walk. The arena can simply get too wet to do much more than walk work. Then I often do work in hand with the horses.

I also work the horses in hand if I'd like to have trained all four horses, but don't have that much time. It's quick to put on a bridle and then go out and get them to work over their back for 4-10 minutes.

Lucky Lady

Whether the horse is on the forehand or carrys the weight on the hind can not be determined from the neck's position. A horse that goes in competition frame, with the neck high and slightly in front of the vertical, can easily still go with the weight on the forehand. So even if everything in front of the saddle looks perfect, that is not necessarily the case. A horse that goes with the head and neck in a deep stretch, even very deep position, may well carry weight on the hind end.

Gitse steps deeply under herself causing the neck to stretch and the back to lift just behind the wither. You get an impression that the horse goes "uphill"

My new saddle

I want to tell you a little bit about my new saddle. For a long time I`ve wanted to get a saddlefitter out, but I couldn't decide for whom to choose. There were no saddlefitters here in Denmark who had the saddle I really wanted, therefore I had postponed it. I ridden as little as possible and instead trained the horses quite a bit from the ground.