GaitAcademy Autumn Festival

A free online event for Icelandic horse riders, open now until Tuesday 10 November

Some days your horse feels soft, willing and free in his body. On others he feels tight and stuck, and you can't say why.

Your horse isn't ignoring you. He's waiting for something that actually means something to him.

What is this really about?

What is causing the problems you feel in the saddle: why your horse responds the way he does, and how you change it from the saddle, step by step.

Most riders who feel their horse tense, hesitate, or lose the gait aren't dealing with disobedience. They're dealing with a communication that never quite landed the way it was meant to. And some of what you feel doesn't show up on an X-ray yet.

The Festival gives you the big picture of why this matters, for your horse and for you, and what it changes in the rides you already do. It starts with your own foundation as a rider: how you ask, and what you feel when he responds. That two-way communication is the cornerstone. From there, you can guide your horse through his training in an order that makes sense to him.

She knew her horse could be better. She just didn't know how to get there. That is where most riders I meet are standing, and the question they ask me is always the same: will this actually work for me and my horse? The Festival is built to answer that honestly.

Inside the Festival: short parts, released one at a time, with small exercises you do on your own, with your own horse. How your horse responds is your feedback, and nobody else is watching: whatever he does counts as information, not as a test.

• A clear answer to why your horse tenses, hesitates, or loses the gait, and why it was never about obedience.
• Small exercises you do at home, within your reach when you give them your full attention.
• A starting point that fits you, wherever you are in your riding: there's no level you have to reach first.

Autumn is the right time for it: as the season winds down, what you build now carries you and your horse into next season. It's completely free, and you go through it in your own time. For riders who want to go further, the Next Step Forward Bootcamp follows in November: consistent training, specifically for Icelandic horses, wherever you live.

Bring a riding friend: it's twice the fun, and you'll have someone to compare notes with. Recommending it to a club or riding group? Here's what you need.

The Festival lives in the Hestamenn Community, my online riding community, so you'll use two places. Here, you sign up and confirm the email I send you. In the community, you create your free account, or sign in if you already have one, and I let you in personally. I'll guide you through each step.

Your horse doesn't give you what you want. He gives you who you are in the saddle. And that's the part you can change.

Bent Rune Skulevold 🐴