Featured Articles

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OAR (Off-Arena-Riding) 

By: Istvan Hernek 

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The Magnificence of Riding Your Horse Outside the Arena 

Riding outside of the traditional ring offers a transformative experience for both horse and rider, unlocking potential that is hard to achieve in a controlled, predictable environment. Whether in paddocks, forests, or vast open fields, the unique terrain challenges riders and horses in ways that significantly enhance their development. Here's why stepping outside the ring can accelerate your progress exponentially.

 

1. Reactivating the Horse’s Brain and Coordination

When a horse is ridden on unlevel or uneven surfaces, such as paddocks, woodlands, or expansive fields, its brain is reactivated at a deep level. Unlike the ring, where the footing remains constant, natural terrain forces the horse to make subtle adjustments with every step. This dynamic environment challenges the horse’s coordination, instincts, and retroactive skills, which can lead to exponential growth in its overall development. A horse ridden solely in the ring never experiences this level of mental and physical engagement, which limits its progress.

 

2. The Rider’s Experience of the Terrain

When a rider moves outside the ring, they are also exposed to the fluctuating sensations of the terrain beneath them. As the horse adjusts to sudden shifts in the ground, the rider must adapt simultaneously, feeling the horse’s every move as it reacts to the changing environment. This interplay forces the rider to engage more deeply with their mount, creating a bond that is harder to achieve within the confines of a predictable, consistent arena. The heightened responsiveness between horse and rider improves their overall coordination and telepathic communication, making both more attuned to each other’s movements and intent.

 

3. Accelerating the Learning Process for Both Horse and Rider

As I’ve discussed in previous articles that will be part of my upcoming book, “To Dream a Horse” the relationship between horse and rider goes beyond simple communication—it’s a dynamic exchange of energy and learning. The rider’s mind, with heightened intelligence and creativity over the horse, provides a source of psychological and retroactive energy that the horse absorbs in great magnitude. This accelerates the horse’s learning process far beyond what it would experience if it were not under saddle. The horse is now learning at a hyper-speed rate because it is influenced not only by the terrain but also by the rider’s creative thought process, input and guidance.

 

4. Developing Retroactive Skills in the Rider

In today’s world, where most transportation and activities are predictable and mechanized, retroactive skills are increasingly rare. However, in riding, these skills are critical. The rider must constantly react, anticipate, and adjust to the horse’s movements, as well as the variations in the terrain. Riding outside of the ring exponentially increases this process, as both the horse and rider are now responding to two dynamic forces: each other and the ever-changing environment beneath them. The result is a heightened level of engagement and skill development for both parties.

 

5. Building Creativity and Adaptability

As a trainer, I always emphasize the importance of creativity in riders. To be truly effective, a rider must approach the horse not just as an operator but as an architect—actively designing the flow of the ride while simultaneously reacting to the horse’s movements. In natural, unlevel terrain, this becomes even more critical. The rider must think creatively, adapting to the unique challenges posed by the terrain and the horse’s response. This fosters an incredible sense of proactive and retroactive thinking, allowing both horse and rider to operate as a unified, intelligent mechanism.

 

6. Synchronization Between Rider and Horse

As the horse navigates the varied terrain, both it and the rider undergo a series of synchronized responses. The horse’s movements are shaped by the terrain and its rider, while the rider is constantly reacting to those changes. This creates an extraordinary link between horse and rider, transforming them into a seamless team that can move through their environment with fluidity and confidence. The continuous challenge of the terrain, coupled with the rider’s creative input, strengthens this bond and enhances both the horse's and rider's overall performance.

 

7. The Powerful Fruits of Bareback Riding in Unfamiliar Terrain

One key practice that significantly contributes to the accelerated progress of our riders is encouraging them to ride outside the ring, often bareback. Riding bareback fosters a deeper connection with the horse, as the rider must rely more on their balance and body position to communicate with the horse. This closeness creates a more intuitive and responsive partnership, enabling the rider to feel and react to the horse's every move in a way that is often hard to achieve with a saddle. Riding in such an intimate manner outside the ring increases the rider’s awareness and sensitivity, leading to faster, more profound progress.

 

In Conclusion

The benefits of riding outside the traditional ring are immense. The combination of unlevel terrain, the rider’s creative input, and the increased connection between horse and rider creates an environment ripe for exponential growth. Both the horse’s physical coordination and the rider’s mental and retroactive skills are enhanced, leading to a more intuitive, creative, and synchronized partnership. The results speak for themselves—riders who engage with their horses in these dynamic environments often experience four times the progress compared to traditional ring work. It’s time to step outside the box (or ring) and let the power of the natural world take your riding to new heights!

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Be the Architect of Your Own Significance!
By: Istvan Hernek 

Are You Bigger Than Your Horse? 

It seems simple, right? If you weigh 100 lbs. and your horse weighs 1,000 lbs., then your horse is 10 times your size. However, that’s not how your horse perceives it. In fact, to your horse, you can actually seem much bigger! It’s true — your horse has no concept of your actual size. Even your dog doesn’t fully understand how big or small you are. Most animals lack a clear perception of size. For example, if a bear appears in the woods, a tiny teacup poodle can create enough of a fuss to make the bear run away in fear!


So, how do you leave a “bigger” impression? The answer is simple: groundwork! The key is not just making movements but ensuring that you are the one making the horse move. This action establishes your role as the alpha or leader, which increases your significance in the horse’s eyes. Start by guiding your horse — turn, push, stretch, and confidently move your partner through various exercises. This physical interaction is crucial. By making the horse move around you, you demonstrate leadership and assert your dominance. The best part? You’re building a strong, respectful relationship even before you mount or harness.

 
It’s important to note that, except when training your horse for tack and gear, you should use as little equipment as possible. A rope halter or even a neck strap for a well-behaved horse will suffice. A training baton is an excellent tool for groundwork when used properly, and you’ll need one for the following exercise (or you can use the back end of a lunge whip).


With your training baton in one hand and the lead line in the other, stand in front of your horse and take a moment for a “contemplative gaze.” This involves more than just making eye contact — it’s about connecting with your horse on a deeper, more intuitive level. As you make eye contact, the horse may naturally perceive you as a potential predator, which will raise its defenses slightly. Horses, as prey animals, are instinctively wired to view direct eye contact as a threat, and their sensitivity and perception are exponentially higher than what we experience in human interactions.


However, when you project calmness and kindness, the horse will shift from apprehension or anxiety to feeling safe and connected with you — like warming up by a cozy fire after being out in the cold. This transformation creates a powerful psychological bond. The horse starts to trust you more, reading not just your gaze but the energy behind it. By maintaining this contemplative state, you communicate in a language the horse deeply understands. Over time, this helps transform initial defensiveness into trust and respect — reinforcing your role as the leader and, most importantly, the protector. Remember, a full-grown horse reaches the intellectual capacity of a two- or three-year-old child. You must fulfill its need for a trusted and confident parent. But remember, a horse is a three-year-old child that weighs 1,000 pounds! (A sobering thought indeed.)


Once that connection is established, start backing up, giving a gentle tug on the lead so the horse follows at the length of the line. If your horse moves closer than the length of the lead line, use your training baton to apply gentle pressure against its chest. When you stop, teach your horse to stop immediately by applying a little more pressure or gently tapping its chest with the baton.


Next, move slowly toward your horse with purposeful energy, training it to back away at the same pace while maintaining the distance. Use your baton gently to encourage the horse backward with multiple soft taps or a change in pressure. Remember, when you move toward your horse, it should back up at the same speed and always stop when you do. Throughout this entire session, maintain steady eye contact with your horse — never lose its attention, even for a moment. Stay fully focused and concentrated during the exercise and, before you know it, you won’t need a lead line or a baton! Your horse will know what to do without any physical contact at all. Then, it’s just you and the horse — how cool is that?!


So yes, you CAN be “bigger” than your horse, and you don’t need to gorge on pizza, hot dogs, or cheese to make it happen! 


​​III

The Path to Common Sense on the Back of a Horse
By: Istvan Hernek 

Stop. Watch. Listen.

Three simple yet powerful words—words we should never be without. This compelling mantra invites us to recapture the fundamental principles that brought us to where we are as human beings. More importantly, it re-blends our connection with the creatures we share this planet with.
 
As many of you know, I’m a passionate advocate for human-horse relations. We all have animals we love—pets whose gentle actions and instinctive reactions often seem like poetry in motion, as they respond to the conduits we become in their lives.

But before we really get rolling, let me pose a question:

Did anyone stop, watch, and listen when we transitioned away from using animals—especially horses, mules, and donkeys—for farming and transportation? These were not just tools, but living collaborators in our pursuit of survival, especially in growing the vegetation that sustains us and bringing us from one destination to another. 

Yes, we can live on what the Earth provides—plants, grains, fruits, and vegetables—without relying on carnate substances. But this isn’t a dietary manifesto. I’m not here to convert you to veganism or omnivorism.

This is something deeper.

Let’s take a look back to when our species, Homo sapiens, began to wander off course. We started to lose our intimate connection with other species—and by “intimate,” I mean we depended on them to survive. Not just for consumption. Not simply as anonymous meat packed and wrapped hundreds of miles away, tossed on a stove at a moment’s notice, without a single thought of hunting, planting, or nurturing.

“I believe this loss of connection is a major misstep in our cultural and intellectual evolution.”

Even as we’ve leaned into mechanical and digital solutions, we would have done well to preserve our working relationships with animals—not just as pets, but as partners in transportation, farming, and living.

Here’s the thing: keeping animals only as pets puts both species—human and animal—into a synthetic environment. 

“I’ve spent my life around all kinds of animals, but my deepest insights have come from growing up with horses and working with farm animals.”

I’ve relied on horses to help me manage cattle, move them from one pasture to another, and maintain the health of the land in a cycle of rotation. This isn’t just quaint nostalgia—it’s practical genius rooted in natural law.

Now, to keep this short and sharp, let’s get right to the point:

We’ve lost our edge.

Over the last few generations, we’ve seen a steady erosion in our ability to creatively solve problems. And here comes the eye-opener: this decline is directly linked to our move away from animal partnership—especially in transportation and farming.

Science has shown that firing the synapses in our brain is like mental gymnastics—it keeps us sharp, adaptive, and capable of complex thought. So let’s examine where we may have strayed, using a simple but powerful comparison.

A motorcycle is a mechanical imitation of a horse.
 
A tractor? A mechanical imitation of a draft horse—or better yet, a team of them.

An automobile is simply a mechanical version of a horse-drawn carriage.

Teaching someone to ride a motorcycle and teaching someone to ride a horse share surface similarities: stop, start, steer—what I call the “SSS” method. But here’s where it diverges drastically.

“With a motorcycle, you twist the throttle, hit the brakes, lean into a turn—and the machine responds the same way every time. But with a horse, every input—the reins, the legs, the seat, even your energy—receives a unique response. Every. Single. Time.”

That’s the magic. That’s the challenge. That’s the brain-builder. 

You don’t just operate a horse—you engage in an ongoing, moment-by-moment conversation. The horse reacts, and you must creatively interpret, adjust, recalculate. You’re solving problems in microseconds. It’s fluid, dynamic, and never the same twice. 

And it doesn’t stop there. 

“You also care for the horse. Feed it. Water it. Clean up after it. Maintain its health.” 

This is not a one-button machine. It’s a partnership that builds layers of responsibility, intuition, and connection—skills that form the foundation of a strong, intelligent, and capable human being. 

Now imagine the complexity of managing two or more horses pulling a carriage, or guiding a plow across a field. That takes mental agility and physical awareness on a level that today’s digital systems don’t even come close to tapping.
 
In losing this, we’ve short-circuited our own development.

Where children once rode horses before they could even tie their shoes, solving problems alongside animals from their earliest years, we now see a growing intellectual void. A creative deficit. A slide toward what I call the “primitive human state”—a segregated, disconnected way of living.

So, to sum it up:

Get a horse.

Seriously—park one in your garage if you can.

And if not, find a place where you can spend time with them. Ride them. Care for them. Learn from them.

“They will open up pathways in your mind and heart that you didn’t know were closed. They will make you wiser. Kinder. Smarter. Stronger.”

God bless you all—and go equestrian!

 

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Give Your Horse The Best Gift Ever!
Discover Your Body's Seven Natural Suspension Points (NSP) 
By: Istvan Hernek 
 

Greetings fellow Equestrians!

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Imagine yourself walking, jogging, or running with a bowling ball in a backpack on your back. It sounds like a bad idea, right? Your body would quickly feel the impact on your skeleton, cartilage pads, and tendons. Now, consider this: Are you unknowingly subjecting your horse to a similar experience when you ride? How much thought have you given to it? We often overlook the strain our horses endure when we mount them for a ride, whether it's in the arena or out on a trail.

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Typically, a bowling ball doesn't even weigh 10% of our body weight, while we frequently load up to 20% of a horse's body weight onto its back each time we mount. This weight bears down on the horse's horizontal back, while we carry a much lower percentage of our body’s weight in a backpack on our vertical backs. This discrepancy can significantly impact the health and structural integrity of our beloved four-legged companions. Let's take a moment to delve into this concern and explore the most effective solutions.

 

A poorly trained or inexperienced rider will often bounce around in the saddle as they move from point A to point B on their horse. By riding with poor equitation, the rider compounds the strain and impact on the horse's back exponentially. To address this issue, we must understand how the physics of the human body can be used to alleviate the stress on the horse's structure as a practical solution. This brings us to our body’s architecture and its natural suspension points.

 

It’s common knowledge to equestrians that our bodies possess three pivotal points of suspension: the ankles, knees, and hips. These are simple and easy to understand. Now, I will take you four revolutionary steps further! The body actually has four more points of suspension that have not been considered in horsemanship! These magical regions are the soles of our feet, our core, our spinal column, and our neck. I refer to these as the “Flex Regions” of our body and they can actually outperform our pivotals.  They function similarly to the amazing sulastic or torsilastic suspension system found on the famous Silver Eagle tour bus, which offers its passengers the most silky, smooth ride in the history of transportation. The Silver Eagle is known as the industry standard in motor coaches. We are born with not only three but seven of these biological miracles! Using them in synchronicity will provide us with a fantastic remedy to counter vertical motion and will give us (and our majestic friends) a future of happy, smooth, and healthy equestrian journeys.

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Here are the two categorized groups:

 

   Pivotal Suspension Points in the Human Body

• Ankles

• Knees

• Hips

Torsilastic (Functionally Sulastic) Suspension Points in the Human Body

• Soles

• Core

• Spine

• Neck

Here's a quick tip on effectively learning to use these seven biological features. Begin at the top of the list with your pivotal suspension points and work your way down the list one by one until you get to the seventh region, which is your neck. After mounting your horse, cue for a walk and rise into a vertical half seat. Use your ankles only and, with an up-and-down motion opposite to the rising and falling of the horse's barrel, try to keep the rest of your body free of vertical motion, so that everything from your ankles up floats forward like a frisbee (with no rise or fall whatsoever). Then, learn to do the same with your knee and hip angles together without the ankle. After you achieve this, combine all three. Next, repeat the whole process as you gradually incorporate this technique into a trot and finally a slow canter.

 

It’s time to start with your flex regions, which are by far the most difficult of all to master but the most effective. Again, in your half seat, go through the same three gates using only the soles of your feet while keeping your hip, knee, and ankle angles fixed. Very difficult! Now it is time to ditch your stirrups and focus on your core, your spine, and your neck, and work them through all three gates.

 

Now for the grand finale! Grab a half seat and ride through your gates using all seven points and regions together. Gradually, day by day, bring your synchronization of all seven to perfection.

 

Good luck! I hope you have a fantastic ride!

 

We'll provide you with amazing techniques and exercises to achieve these goals and, with your diligence and practice, give your remarkable horse the gift it deserves!

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How Is Your Relationship With Your Horse? 
By: Istvan Hernek

Hello again, fellow equestrians!

 

Of course, you want to build great relationships with your horses!

 

Horses have a unique ability to convey messages within their herd without visible or audible communication. Have you ever walked into the barn after a particularly hard day, and had your horse nicker at you through the stall door? Most of us have. It’s almost as if they can sense that you need their support. Our equine friends possess an extraordinary ability to understand the creatures around them. Simply put, it’s part of their survival instinct.

 

A friend of mine once asked why her horses were more receptive to me than to her. It was true — her horses did seem to prefer me. So, I asked her, “Would you sacrifice the life of your favorite horse to save your worst enemy?” She replied without hesitation, “No way!” I explained, “There’s your answer. If your horse senses that you prioritize their well-being over that of another human, they may struggle to trust you completely, as it goes against their natural instincts. Truly gaining their trust and forming a deep bond means you must balance your care for them with the understanding that your species’ survival matters to you too.”

 

Building trust starts within you! It’s up to you to nurture your relationship with your equine family. Avoid barn drama and refrain from speaking poorly of others. Your horse will sense your ethics. Remember, trust is like an avalanche — once it starts, it will grow rapidly. When your fellow farmers trust you impeccably, you create an environment that is both safe and joyful for everyone involved.

 

As a gentle and loving person, remember that your horse relies on you to provide both confidence and leadership. A benevolent leader has no limits. Prioritize your animals by feeding them before you eat your meals. If possible, check on them during the night or board them at a stable with a reliable night-check schedule. Nighttime is when horses are most vulnerable. Life-threatening issues, like casting or colic, can arise unexpectedly.

 

Love your farm family — both the farmers and the animals — without conditions. Just be there for them, and you’ll enjoy a fantastic future with your magnificent horses and the people who help care for them.

 

Keep learning and exploring with your horses and always seek to deepen your understanding of their world. The journey of building trust and camaraderie with these incredible creatures is a lifelong adventure. Always remember that in the world of equestrianism, your journey is your destination!

 

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