Why You Should Be Softening Your Horse’s Ribcage

For many years in my training career, I only focused on training the parts of the horse’s body that I could see. I focused on creating softness in their face, neck, and shoulders, but I never worked on controlling anything behind the saddle horn. Over the years, I have learned that there are five main parts of a horse’s body that are all interconnected: head, neck, shoulders, ribcage, and hindquarters.

Each of these body parts work with one another to create proper, fluid movements throughout the horse’s body. If one of these five areas becomes stiff or hard to control, that is usually an indication that I do not have proper control of one or more of the other areas.

In this episode, I'm sharing my methods for creating softness in your horse's ribcage and why this exercise is so important for performance events, such as barrel racing and roping.

To learn more about the exercises discussed in the episode, enroll in my Foundation to Finish course.