On a students horse January 6, 2012
Posted by mikeschaffer in balance, Behind the bit, calmness, contact, corrections, dressage, looseness, Riding, The Training Pyramid, training.trackback
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…
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This video may answer my latest questions, about why my horse is taking successive lateral engaging steps under saddle but the exercise does not seem to be automatically teaching him to bend.
Yes it is a very nice series of teaching moments. Though speaking for myself, i’m not sure i would have your speed of reaction. That may be true for most of us. meaning that its going to take us longer to get our horses to react. But rome weasn’t built in a day.
best wishes
Bruce Peek
Bruce, Good to hear from you after all this while. I think it’s more important for students to develop the confidence than speed. Once you decide you’re going to stop the horse each time it increases the contact in a harsh way, or the horse increases the tempo, and do it for a while, the horse will figure out what’s going on. Please don’t think I’m one of those extra talented riders with super human abilities – I’m not even close. So, if you see me doing something, assume you’ll be able to as well.
So, why did you start out overbending Cherry laterally? I’m still puzzled that you teach it that way for in-hand, but instruct against it under saddle in your latest book. Is it to help Cherry find what it feels like to bend, to help get her started? Or is it a mechanical correction?