Rating: 
Summary: Visualization is the trick
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Visualization is the trick
Review: Sally Swift encourages you to visualize your riding by thinking of cartoons 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 hear 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.
Rating:
Summary: Unparralled insight into the mind of the equestrian rider
Review: Sally Swift had to overcome major physical handicaps in order to realize her dream of riding. In order to do this she had to look deep inside herself and develop techniques that would work for herself as well as for others. Being an instructor myself I understand how difficult it is sometimes to express yourself in a manner which even the true beginner is able to grasp. Ms. Swift incorporates tremendous visual imagery into her explanations so that one may understand her point better. I have the upmost respect for this woman and her accomplishments.
Rating:
Summary: A book for every rider and trainer
Review: Sally Swift has an amazing way of describing those feelings and ideas that some instructors and books just can't. Her imagery and ballance techniques helped me to center my weight properly as well as teach others to do the same. Wonderful for any rider or coach who wants to be ballanced with the horse and to give clear, consice aids. This book is a relly great companion to the Pony Club methodsand to the United States Pony Club Manuals (D, C and A/B levels).
Rating:
Summary: Probably the most helpful book on riding available.
Review: Sally Swift has the unique gift of being able to transmit complex and abstract information into the written word in a simple and usable manner. I have instumented her teaching into my riding and have found that "centering" has not only calmed and improved my riding and jumping but also greatly enhanced the perfomance of my horse. My personal experience has been to relax a very "touchy" 16-3 thoroughbred to a point where she will now trot or canter with her nose on the ground when allowed. Congratulations Sally Swift, you have written an ageless and wonderful book that can only help those that read it. My hat is off to you. Robert W. Key
Rating:
Summary: A must-have text for riders in any discipline
Review: Sally Swift's book asks riders to visualize their way to a balanced, fluid, and confident riding style through targeted excercises which are easy to follow and bring immediate results. My copy is dog-eared and stained and only a year old! I use Swift's methods to help me ride beginning dressage, hunt seat, and western reining horses, and my form has improved greatly in all three. Get into the zen of riding, and get this book!
Rating:
Summary: Amazing visualisation techniques.
Review: Sally Swift's makes it easier for the rider (me) to find the correct way of riding through visualisation . Pretending to be a tree (example!) works much better then being told to sit up strait. Clear drawings, easy to read, it helped me a great deal in riding dressage.
Rating:
Summary: The images in this book are amazing!
Review: The use of imagery in riding is a wonderful tool for riders and instructors. We use it in Pony Club as well as in regular dressage lessons. The ideas in the book add to our feeling of our horses. Everyone should read this book, or even just look at the pictures (if you aren't the reading type!) A great book for any rider!
Rating:
Summary: Indispensible!
Review: This book alone can help you connect with your horse in a way most people don't. Sally Swift's gift is not only with horses but with people as well. It is my bible and I make sure to give it to every one of my students. I am a dressage rider and find in these pages more common sense then in most other books combined.
Rating: 
Summary: Descriptive but hardly practical
Review: This book explains balanced riding through imagery and visualization. I think it may be handy for the novice rider, but there are many better books for the more experienced rider. It only goes as far as Novice or Elementary level dressage and covers some jumping techniques. It's a book about the basics to help build some foundations, but if you already know your foundations, then find another book. There are also lots of helpful illustrations and b/w photographs to back up the explanations. If you are a novice or you have specific riding problems, you will find this book quite handy. Even if you are experienced, you could find a few useful tips - but don't expect more. I also feel it's a little outdated.
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