First Session with a Hot Horse January 19, 2012
Posted by mikeschaffer in dressage, training, Natural Horsemanship, The Training Pyramid, calmness, balance, looseness, contact.add a comment
My first session working with a very nice horse that had some fear issues.
On a students horse January 6, 2012
Posted by mikeschaffer in dressage, training, Behind the bit, Riding, corrections, The Training Pyramid, calmness, balance, looseness, contact.4 comments
A while back a student videoed me schooling her horse in a lesson. It’s a pretty good example of taking your time, working slowly and helping the horse to understand what you want. Share your comments…
Having fun with this… December 27, 2011
Posted by mikeschaffer in balance, calmness, contact, dressage, looseness, Riding, training.Tags: video camera software
2 comments
With all the details and rules, arguments and schools of thought, it’s easy to forget that training your horse is supposed to be fun. I’ll go one more and say if you’re not having fun with it, neither is your horse and chances are there is no progress being made. Well, I’m having fun with my horse and with my new video camera, software, and computer upgrade. This video shows all 3 in action.
First you can see how nicely my horse is warming up in the long unedited stretch at the beginning. Putting up a “warm-up” is unusual to say the least, but the absence of good warm-up videos has resulted in an absence of good warm-up strategies. That’s really a shame as the science of the warm-up is key to being able to get on to the training. Now I understand that many people will say I warm up my horse all wrong – well that’s great! Let’s see how they go about it and everybody benefits in the end.
You also see what the camera “sees” in the first minute or so. After that, you see what I’m doing with the new software and why I needed a computer upgrade (and hi-def camera) to render the final video I put up on youtube – it’s pretty awesome since the ability to pan and zoom after the fact means I can set up the camera on a tripod on any day and time I want, ride in front of it and make it what you see later that night, at home in front of the computer. I’ve been wanting a system like this for 35 years or so – however long it’s been since I bought my first shoebox size VCR and realized that now all I needed was someone to operate it while I rode in front of it. Now the wait is over, I have the ultimate mirror and I get to set it to music of my choice – cool.
In the first section you see my horse working long and “low” in frame and energy, although it looks more energetic on the screen than it felt when riding – very useful to be able to see that. The second part is the 2nd stage of warm-up, more energy but not all the pieces are there yet. Looking at it, I sometimes see moments of an increase in tension along with the increase in energy, and I also see moments of brilliance – especially in the shoulder-in at the 4:50 mark. It’s wonderful to be able to see this, it tells me I have to continue to ask for the relaxation and the energy in ways that don’t make him lazy or tight. This is the challenge we all face all the time with all the elements of making our horses.
Enjoy,
Easier to ride… December 21, 2011
Posted by mikeschaffer in balance, calmness, contact, dressage, half-halts, looseness, Riding, training.add a comment
I had a very relaxing ride on Deedles today – no video, no training schedule,just got a ride in before the rain. So, there we were, up to the ring plopping around for a while when it hit me – we were just plopping around.
I realize that sounds so ordinary – what’s the big deal? Well, with Indeed, getting to the point where we could just plop around is a milestone. He didn’t come with a “plop around” gear. He didn’t come with a “relaxed ride” mind set. He came with a “life is a continuous struggle” outlook.
However, in looking back at the more recent videos I just put up (making excellent use of new camera, software, and computer upgrade to produce them primarily as a mirror for me and training aid for any who wish to look in) I realized that at some point Indeed stopped arguing and trying to figure a way out, and now he’s just trying to figure me out. About bloody time! Usually it
takes days or weeks, he took years!
All the same, I think it’s obvious that although much of the work is still far from perfect, it has all become fun and easy for him and me. So, in a head slapping isn’t it obvious moment it has occurred to me that a primary goal and test of training is that the horse becomes easier to ride. Well, duh!
Here’s the latest video from a couple of days ago – in this tape I’m just checking out his new “up” frame – he doesn’t look too bad if I say so myself. I’m also looking at his change from left to right which is improved from the last video.
You see, the work isn’t perfect by any means but it’s all fairly easy.
In this tape from a few days before that, I just look at the changes in a variety of different ways. I used the software to zoom in on the action and put everything in slow motion (ya know, sometimes being geek IS cool!) See if you can see what I learned by watching this tape and put to use in the video from the 18′th above.
(Oh – and they’re in hi-def )
Mike
Poor Toti.. August 22, 2011
Posted by mikeschaffer in Behind the bit, competition, contact, dressage.4 comments
I look at him riding this horse and want to yell through the screen, “LET GO of his mouth Mathius!”
3′rd place August 22, 2011
Posted by mikeschaffer in calmness, competition, dressage, half-halts, looseness, Riding, training.1 comment so far
I love this horse and he keeps getting better!
Adelinde Cornelissen *NED* Rotterdam 2011 Dressage August 22, 2011
Posted by mikeschaffer in calmness, competition, dressage, Riding, training.1 comment so far
Unbelievable!
Enjoy
http://www.dailymotion.com/embed/video/xknfno?width=560
1° Adelinde Cornelissen *NED* Rotterdam 2011... by martinehp
All Hat, No Cattle June 14, 2011
Posted by mikeschaffer in competition, dressage.3 comments
The F.E.I claims it is trying to eliminate any possibility of horses being injured in competition or preparation for it. Towards this end it has taken a pro-active stance in the dressage discipline by (unwisely) limiting the lengths of curb shanks, spur shanks, the time a horse can be worked in a particular frame, and now the total time a horse can be worked in the schooling/warm-up rings at competitions, well the list goes on. Yet in the reining discipline it sanctions events that include sliding stops, western spins, and rollbacks — three “movements” that can only be described as the demolition derby of the horse world.
You simply could not devise any more damaging things to do to a horse. These movements are in direct violation of Article 142 of the FEI General Regulations which states in part:
1. No person may abuse a Horse during an event or at any other time. “Abuse” means an action or omission which causes or is likely to cause pain or unnecessary discomfort to a Horse…
The pain and discomfort these movements cause is unnecessary because they have no purpose. They are completely removed from anything a real working cowboy would ask a real working cow horse to do. The only function of them is to titillate and thrill those who know nothing of horses and have never given a thought to their well being.
There is an expression in the American southwest that describes someone who talks big but cannot back it up, as being “ all hat, no cattle.” The direct analogy to reining is, “all horseshow, no horsemanship.” No real horseman would engage in meaningless competitions that destroy horses just for the ribbons and money to follow.
Yet the F.E.I. is doing just that. In the name of more ticket sales and TV viewers, the F.E.I. has sold it’s soul and turned its principled stand on promoting the welfare of the horse into hypocritical platitudes. It’s a devils deal in which they cannot profit. Just as running professional wrestling exhibitions in the lobby will not save an Opera company, reining will not keep Dressage, Driving, or Eventing in the Olympics or on TV. To the contrary it’s more likely to chase them out and off sooner rather than later.
The F.E.I. should stand for what it stands for, or not at all.
Mike
www.mikeschaffer.com
Lateral Work June 6, 2011
Posted by mikeschaffer in dressage.add a comment
Lateral Work
You can make yourself crazy trying to figure out all the different lateral movements – but you don’t need to bother now. There are actually only two – moving away from the bend as in Shoulder-in (bent left moving right) and moving into the bend as in the half-pass, travers, renvers (bent right, moving right).
These movements can be done parallel to the long sides, on the track, centerline, 1/4 line or any other line or diagonal you choose. The Shoulder- in and haunches – in can also be done on circles – normally and in their inverse forms, shoulder-out and Haunches-out.
Lateral movements can be modified by doing them on a shorter or longer diagonal, or on a larger or smaller circle. You can do them at more or less angle to the line you’re traveling on, with more or less bend through the horses body, and by leading or trailing more or less with the shoulders or haunches. .
Schooling:
My approach to schooling lateral work is to start off with whatever form is easiest for the horse.. As he gets the idea of what is expected and doing that movement becomes easier for him, I modify it in any of the ways mentioned above. When that becomes easy for him, I modify it again to slightly increase the difficulty. Eventually, I want to be able to move my horse laterally into or away from the bend with as much angle, bend crossing, any on any line or diagonal I choose. So when you view lateral work this way, you can see that the so called “formal” movements that require the horse to move into or away from his bend with a particular angle and bend while traveling from one letter to another are just points on a continuum.
Double vs Snaffle bridle May 25, 2011
Posted by mikeschaffer in dressage.add a comment
The problem with this type of discussion is it ignores the idea that any bit can be used as a “control” device, a “communication” device, or some combination of the two.
To the extent that a bit is a communication device (the ideal), the physical effects are not that important – if the rider is competent and the horse well trained, they’ll sort it out in short order. So, it makes almost no difference exactly how and where in the mouth/lower jaw, tongue, corners the horse actually feels the vibration of the rein.
To the extent the bit is being used as a control device, it’s very hard to say how the snaffle bit is applying pressure since that is dependent on the style of snaffle (single jointed, double jointed, loose ring, full cheek, to name but a few) and thickness of the mouth piece. The position of the riders hands relative to the mouth also totally changes the pressure points.
When in the snaffle and things are going well, I try to go by the rule that the corners are for me, the bars for the horse. By this I mean I try to direct my rein aids in a more upward fashion so they work on the soft elastic corners, and I leave it to the horse to figure out how much contact he is comfortable stretching into with his bars.
The curb bit always has the potential (or actual) physical effect of putting the lower jaw in the vise between the curb chain and mouthpiece. Let’s not be coy about this, curb bits were originally designed to do just this to establish actual physical control of the horse. On a horse that has been well started, there is no need to ever use the curb forcefully. Used skillfully on a difficult horse, the horse will quickly figure out that he is “out gunned” physically and then just the “threat” of the physical force is sufficient. At that point the skillful rider need only “jiggle” the rein a little to remind the horse to pay attention.
