Customer Reviews

Centered Riding

5 star:		(33)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

My instructor recommended this book a few years ago and it has changed the way I ride and how I look at riding. I come from a hunter/jumper background but I think the ideas could apply to all types of riding. The hot horses go softer with these techniques and the quiet horses become more responsive. This book helps bring the rider's mind into the sport through exercises and diagrams that show new perspectives. Her second book is also excellent. This is one of my favorite books on riding, especially since I also practice yoga and martial arts.

This book is fantastic. Now, it is not a "read this and you'll know how to ride" book. And that is a good thing! Afterall, if that was all it took, the world would be full of professionals! It is also NOT a book on how to train your horse. What this book is, is a great guide to improve your skills, so that you may learn to become a better rider and train your horse more easily.

For instance, most people know that they should sit a certain way and be "glued" to the seat. This book shows and explains how, through anatomy pictures and visualizations. It's kind of like Dressage meets Science meets Meditation. Everything is explained throughly and plainly.

I reccomend that all of my students buy it and read it.

Centered Riding is the quintessential method for today's rider! Sally Swift's forte in the book is her descriptions of the fundamentals on how to get your body to move the way it should - a great read that I've wanted to own for years!

Every rider, English or Western, experienced or novice, professional or pleasure, will benefit from reading this book. Most importantly, your horse will benefit from you reading this book! It has helped me immensely!

As a rider and instructor, this is a great guide to any style of riding. I have given it as a gift to many of my students. Innovative teaching methods that work is what it boils down to. The methods are easy for young children to understand because there are a lot of imaginative descriptions and illustrations, but at the same time, will not dumb down riding for adults. It's not a how-to book, but more of a new way to look at your riding from the horse up. It's been around for years, and it's still on every horsepersons' shelf, and for good reason.

As a trainer, instructor, and breeder, I highly recommend this book for riders and non riders alike. It has become the bible of my teaching philosophy and has influenced my life, posture, and mental preparation in areas far beyond the realm of my horse-related career. I have recommended it to school teachers, and physical therapists (one who is using it to help my mother recover from traumatic brain injury as a result of a horrific car accident.) Easy to read and packed with illustrations, it can be absorbed by different learning types. My students are all advised to own it, and it's a gift I give to dedicated training horse clients. Enjoy!

I've read many of the reviews of "Centered Riding" and I would argue that it is a useful addition to any person's personal riding program if they want to achieve a better seat and better movement from their horses. I do not think that it is an adequate guide for learning how to ride or formulating a complete program, but it is not meant to be. Rather, it is a great addition to other resources including more detailed "how-to" books such as Jane Savoie's "Cross Training" series and one's own trainer. "Centered Riding" bridges the gap between the left-brain learning process, focused on a list of cues and movements, and the right-brain learning process, which provides the muscle memory and relaxation necessary for truly harmonious and graceful riding. I've found the book useful, but as some people have a more difficult time with visualization and much of the work must be personalized, it is best to read the book and find a trainer that can help you refine your seat and riding skills. It is immensely helpful to have someone tell you when something is "right" as part of becoming truly balanced may involve retraining your muscles, which is, at first, often uncomfortable. I have found centered riding has been a great tool to deepen my seat, relax tension, and become more aware of the horse's movement, which has drastically improved the movement of the horse in a short time and allowed me (a very type-A stressed person) to learn to relax and find a greater grace and joy in riding. I highly recommend everyone to check this concept out through the book, videos, or better yet, a trainer- it can make a big difference for a novice and refine those who are more advanced.

I have read book after book hoping to improve my riding. Some were too basic (Riding Essentials and Riding (by Decker) are great for beginners), others too obscure. Since my first time studying this book, my riding has improved immensely and the horses have been grateful! Visualization is so much easier than running thru a laundry list of cues. When I find my calves flailing at the canter, I just think of rooting like a tree and they become still. Examples like this abound, and my instructor has been very impressed as well. A great buy, and possibly the only book you need if your goal is just great daily riding, not to compete.

This is an excellent book if you are a beginner or intermediate level rider. I have rode with many different trainers, but none have helped me as much as this book. I bought it during the winter and read it cover to cover. Armed with this new information, I went out and started doing what the book said. At nights, I would re-read sections of it to make sure I was doing everything correctly. By the time my trainer came back out, I was riding much better. Over bigger fences, I have always tipped too far forward, therefore loosing my balance ending up on the horse's neck and causing the horse to hang. Not any more! My trainer thought I had been using a different trainer because there was such a difference in my seat and leg. The book also helped me produce better transitions because I have learned to create energy and hold it while changing from one gait to the next. I would say that this is an excellent book for anyone wanting to ride correctly. (I do the Hunters and many of the concepts where new to me. However, THEY WORK!!!) In fact, I am only writting this because I am now ordering another of these books for a lady that just bought one of my show horses and wants to learn to ride "as pretty as you do".

Sally Swift encourages you to visualize the cartoons in the book that range from legs looking like fire hoses to hands caressing birds. These pictures really help one's riding.

I love this book, but its even better if you get the accompanying video and here Sally's voice. A rider with back problems she overcame them by learning how to center and balance.

This is a fine book for gaining a really solid seat. It covers the basics of English riding - walk, trot, canter, jumping - but also describes how to do half-halts, circles, turns, leg yielding and more advanced dressage movements.

The book is a classic reference and if you only buy one riding book this might be it. It leads you from head knowledge to the feel of riding.