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How To Improve The Horse’s Straightness In The Shoulder-in

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How To Improve The Horse’s Straightness In The Shoulder-in

This is a great discussion of how a thinking rider can correct the horse’s attempts to evade the demands of the shoulder-in by using the other lateral movements to bring both hind legs underneath the body. This somewhat indirect approach is much more effective than trying to create the correct bend by pulling on the inside rein, or trying to create a contact on the outside rein by using “more inside leg and more outside rein”, which are so often the standard recommendations of trainers. These direct approaches actually only make the problem worse, whereas the indirect approach teaches the horse better body awareness and it makes the hind legs stronger and more supple, so that he is able to perform a correct shoulder-in easily and without feeling the need to evade.

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The 8 Different Types Of Exercises

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The 8 Different Types Of Exercises

You can make the training easier and better understandable for the horse if you try to look at it from the horse’s point of view. Ask yourself what it is you are asking the horse to do in physical, biomechanical terms. Find out which elementary skills your horse needs to possess and which elementary types of movements he has to be able to do in order to perform a certain movement. Then try to build him a ladder of small learning steps that teach him those elementary skills that he is still lacking. Try to utilize the principle of the economy of motion whenever possible, i.e. lead the horse down a path where the movement or transition you want to ride appears to be the most energy conserving thing the horse could do under the circumstances.

 

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Polishing the Pebble

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Polishing the Pebble

Not everything in riding is glamorous. Not everything is special, magical, and brilliant.

Much of the most important work we do, as riders, is work that is simple - even mundane - in its simplicity. But it is where the real treasures lie.

It is one thing to teach a horse a new concept, movement, or skill set. This is important work, too, but at first, it will come with many rough edges. When you introduce it to the horse, you get it in its crude, unpolished form. It is far from “finished” and the real work unfolds from there.

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Some Thoughts About Energy

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Some Thoughts About Energy

Energy is not an official part of the training pyramid. It’s not really a formal category of training, although teachers will sometimes ask students to ride a more energetic walk, trot, or canter. I suspect that when teachers tell the students to “ride more forward” they often mean “create more energy”, but the word “forward” tends to lead to more speed, rather than more energy or more power.

The closest thing in the official terminology is Schwung/Impulsion, but it’s not quite the same as energy.

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What is Collection?

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What is Collection?

Reading the descriptions of the old masters suggests that the features that most people associate with collection, i.e. shorter strides, higher elevation, or a slower tempo, are by-products rather than the essence of collection. They are visible surface-level phenomena, whereas the true nature of collection is functional and can perhaps be felt rather than seen.

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Inclusive Focus. Getting into the Right Frame of Mind

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Inclusive Focus. Getting into the Right Frame of Mind

When I was a teenager, I had no problem getting on any horse, any time, anywhere. Riding a horse was a little bit like riding a bike. Simply get on and go. Over the years, this changed considerably. More and more, I realised that I had to be in the right frame of mind, and the horse had to be in the right frame of mind in order to be able to do productive work. Otherwise, I would rather not ride the horse. This frame of mind is not so easy to describe. It’s something that evolved slowly over many years for me. I need to feel grounded, at peace, with a sense of inner calm, so that I can focus on the horse without being distracted by thoughts about other things. If I am upset or angry, it’s not a good time to ride.

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The Topline

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The Topline

You can tell a lot about the training of a horse by looking at his muscle development, especially the muscles above the spine. Well trained horses have a well developed top line. Poorly trained horses often have a hole in their muscling front of the withers, the thoracic and lumbar spine may stick out, and the points of the hips are pointy. The muscles along the underneck may be hard and lumpy. Their lateral neck muscles may feel stringy and hard, rather than supple. Their hips and shoulders are often difficult to move because the muscles are so contracted that they don’t allow much movement.

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Building a Better Relationship Through Trust and Communication

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Building a Better Relationship Through Trust and Communication

In order for the horse and the rider to become the best versions of themselves and the best possible team they need to have a good relationship. The basis of this friendship between horse and rider is mutual trust, mutual respect, and effective communication. In all three areas, the burden is on the rider to prove herself to the horse, that she can be trusted, that she deserves respect, and she needs to learn to become a good communicator.

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We Don’t Know What We Don’t Know

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We Don’t Know What We Don’t Know

When you are working on your own, you can investigate certain questions together with the horse and let the horse show you how he wants to be ridden. Each horse is different, each situation is different, and the preferences of individual horses change over time, as they develop and move up the levels. That’s why you should investigate these questions again from time to time with your horse in order to be able to adapt your seat and aids to the horse’s changing and evolving needs.

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Why Bother Straightening Your Horse?

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Why Bother Straightening Your Horse?

I’m sure you are all familiar with the concept of Straightness as one of the elements of the German  FN Training Scale. Those of you who are rooted in the French tradition know it as one of Alexis L’Hotte’s three main training principles (Calm, Forward, Straight). You have probably also run into its opposite - crookedness - as a tricky and quite pervasive issue. But has anybody explained to you what straightness is and why it is important? Why should you spend your entire equestrian life correcting the horse’s natural crookedness, as Jacques d’Auvergne wrote? Can’t we just go out and have fun on our horse?

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Mindfulness - Wherever You Go There You Are

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Mindfulness - Wherever You Go There You Are

In practising mindfulness (as with Feldenkrais) you have to bring your whole being into the process. In my opinion, this is exactly what all of us need to do in order to be a true horseman or woman.

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Four reins and two bits… oh my, how do I start?

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Four reins and two bits… oh my, how do I start?

So you have decided to take the leap and start using a double bridle but you want to make sure you do it correctly. We have put our collective years of experience together to give some advice to help you achieve this.

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We Don’t Know What We Don’t Know

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We Don’t Know What We Don’t Know

We don’t know what we don’t know. That can make progress difficult because we may not know what to work on, and we may not be aware of certain mistakes we make.

There are strategies, of course, with which we can discover some of the things we don’t know that we don’t know. The fastest and easiest way is to take lessons from a good teacher on a highly trained school master. Together they will let you know very quickly what is missing and what you need to work on. Unfortunately, this is not an option for most riders.

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Deep Seat - Light Seat

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Deep Seat - Light Seat

You have probably all heard that one of the qualities of a good seat is that it is deep. But what does that mean? For me personally, a deep seat is a seat with a low center of gravity and the largest possible area of support. This lends the seat stability and it allows the rider to feel the horse with her entire body, which is why the old masters used to say that the rider should sit “in” the horse, rather than “on” or “over” the horse. A seat with a high center of gravity and a small support base, on the other hand, is unstable and doesn’t allow the rider to feel the horse very well.

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Dynamic Seat vs. Static Seat

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Dynamic Seat vs. Static Seat

Lately I have been thinking a lot about the fact that traditional seat descriptions and discussions of the seat often seem to treat the seat as something static that doesn’t move. Sitting still, having a quiet seat is often considered to be the ideal. Traditional seat instruction is often rather static as well: always sit on the inside seat bone, always have the inside hip more forward and the outside hip more back….

Unfortunately, the emphasis on stillness and on always sitting exactly the same way - whether the horse needs it or not - can lead to stiffness in the rider’s seat, which will in turn create stiffness in the horse’s body and interfere with the horse’s freedom of movement.

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