This book is great for riders who can easily walk trot and lope/canter and depart on a correct lead.

This is somewhat of a "crossover" book--dressage and western with exercises that are great for horse and rider, but which my not be popular with di-hard dressage or western only trainers. The exercises would be difficult in many cases for the rider using a true forward seat hunt saddle unless the stirrups were legthened A LOT.

Very handy for a rider working at home without regular lessons.

Cherry Hill has come up with some neat little exercise books to offer you training ideas. But she has some outdated ideas on horse training. Compare the advice you get in her book "The Formative Years" with some of the more enlightened trainers published in the last 20 years.

The number of excellent reviews for this book reflect the application to riders of all levels and disciplines. The most valuable aspect of this book is that it encourages the rider to formulate a plan for their schooling sessions and make a conscious decision not to do the same thing day in day out - something we are all guilty of on occasion. Make your schooling sessions more fun for you and your horse with this informative guide.

We love this book! Cherry Hill is such a good author, she explains things in such a way that they are understandable and useful, not just a concept that you might not be able to use. This book will give you and your horse a chance to practice different exercises and break out of the old walk-trot-canter-one-way-around the ring rut. I think this has helped myself and our two horses greatly in our training process.

I really like this book, and so does my trainer (in fact, I'm giving it to her for her birthday!) Strictly speaking, it's almost more of a manual than a book. As the title indicates, it contains 101 exercises for you to use in an arena with your horse. All the exercises shown are maneuvers to be done while mounted, none are in-hand work. Most work with either English or Western styles of riding, although some are slanted more one way than another. Dressage enthusiasts will recognize much of the work here, as will some of the Western specialists.

There are five main sections in the book: Gaits; Transitions; Circles; Lateral Work; and Mini-Patterns. Each exercise covers two pages, with an overhead diagram showing the pattern created in the arena, as well as a drawing showing the desired effect in the horse. Each page has a step-by-step description of how to ride the exercise, a list of benefits, cautions to consider while doing it, and occasionally, extra notes. All the illustrations are pen and ink drawings; there are no photographs.

Some of the exercises are a little the same, I will agree with a previous reviewer on that point. But all are worth working on and getting right. The format of the book encourages you to take it to the arena with you, with a spiral binding that allows the pages to lay flat. The only thing I'd like to see is to have the pages all laminated, but that surely would have increased the cost, so I'll live with it the way it is. All in all this book is well worth owning, whether you're an Dressage rider, barrel racer, or simply a riding enthusiast who wants to increase the skill set of themselves and their horse. Don't hesitate to buy it, it's well worth the price.