This is one of my horse's favorite books; I often work on the visualization techniques while with her. Chapters include anatomy, balance, the gaits, aids, transitions, salf-carriage, forces of energy, and collection/extension. Ms. Swift uses imagery to illustrate her points: like pretending to have a tree for your back in order to "grow" and stetch out the spinal cord. I found the frequent reminders about muscle tension and breathing to also be very beneficial. Working with a flighty mare, I sometimes forgot about the concept of breathing. By doing some of the breathing exercises in this book I learned how to "breath" my way through problems and am seeing remarkable success with calming my horse around pool heaters, chainsaws, and other scary things. I also discovered that this book is a great companion to Col. Alois Podhajsky's "The Complete Training of Horse and Rider." Ms. Swift works wonders for the rider and the colonel trains the horse. When read together the results are truly dynamic. Excellent book Ms. Swift! :)