First things first, I’d like to invite you to our Free “Thinking Riders Challenge” starting on August 29th. You will learn the three “Toolboxes” (a.k.a. skill sets) you must know how to use effectively in order to train your horse intelligently. Sign up here - https://courses.artisticdressage.com/2022-thinking-riders-challenge
Introduction
The Prussian cavalry officer and book author Otto von Monteton wrote in 1877: “After having trained a charger for five years during my turn of duty, who ended up going so well that I have not sat on a better trained horse in ten years, I have come to the realization that if I had to train the same horse again, I would do it completely differently, because with the clarity of hindsight, you see all the detours you took temporarily. The farther one advances, the more one realizes how little one knows.” We are probably all familiar with this feeling because we learn from every horse we get to work with, and from every training session.
Problem Solving Strategy
Every horse and every training situation presents us with challenges and problems that we need to solve because no horse and no rider is ever perfect. There is always something that can be improved. In a sense, these imperfections and shortcomings give us a job. Without them, we would have nothing to do.
In order to decide what topic to work on, which exercise to choose, or which aid to give, we have to analyse the horse and the training situation. We normally notice surface-level symptoms first, such as a rein contact that is too heavy, or too hard, or uneven, or a stiffness in the hindquarters, shoulders, or rib cage, or an issue with a turn, transition, or movement.
When a specific issue has caught our attention, we need to find the root cause of the symptoms with the help of our theoretical understanding. As soon as we have an idea, we formulate a working hypothesis which we then test by riding an exercise or by applying certain aids that should improve the situation if our diagnosis was correct. If the surface level symptoms remain the same or get worse, our working hypothesis was probably wrong. If the symptoms improve or disappear, our working hypothesis was probably correct. In other words, the horse’s response will tell us whether our diagnosis was correct or incorrect. If it was wrong, we cross this possibility off the list and look for a different potential cause and repeat the diagnostic cycle.
Gathering Relevant Data
In order to evaluate a situation and make decisions, we need data. Luckily, there is a constant stream of data and information coming from the horse that essentially tells us everything we need to know. We receive this information through our hands, thighs, knees, calves, and pelvis. (The idea that the solution was always right under my nose, and I just couldn’t see it, used to drive me nuts). The challenge is to learn what to focus our attention on, how to filter the information, which pieces of data are relevant, which ones are irrelevant, how to interpret them correctly, and how to ask the right questions that lead to additional data that fills in the remaining blanks.
The horse responds to each and every change in our seat and to every aid that we give: he will either get better or worse. In some cases, a horse may ignore an aid and nothing changes. That’s an important piece of information as well. By paying close attention to the horse’s responses to our aids and changes in our seat, we can build a database of “things that make our horse better”, and “things that make our horse worse”. Once the database has reached a certain size, we can try to do more of the things that make our horse better and avoid those things that make our horse worse.
In addition, the way in which the horse performs any turn, transition, or movement, or exercise that combines several elements, gives you lots of interesting and important data about the horse’s training level. It tells you which areas of the body are stiff, which parts are hypermobile, which muscles are strong, which muscles are weak, how balanced he is, how straight he is, how coordinated he is, how good his body awareness is, etc.
When you observe something interesting, such as the horse making a mistake or resisting against a certain aid, you may have to investigate the issue further in order to get more data in the hopes that a certain pattern will emerge. You can do this by repeating the same exercise with different aids combinations, and different seat variations, or you can design additional exercises that present the same information from different angles, or that address different parts of the body. This helps you to identify exactly where the problem is located. That means that sometimes we have to resist the urge to fix a problem right away, but to take some time to research the underlying cause thoroughly because this will save us time in the long run.
Diagnostic Questions
As part of this research, you can ask questions such as:
- Under which circumstances does the mistake occur?
- Does it always happen in the same spot of an exercise?
- What is asked of the horse at that moment in terms of biomechanics (e.g. shifting the weight from one side to the other, turning the shoulders, changing the bend, moving the rib cage, sidestepping with the hindquarters, flexing the hind legs more, pushing more)?
- Does the same problem occur in both directions, or just in one?
- Does the same problem occur each time you pass the same spot of the arena?
- Is the horse changing any of the parameters of the gait without authorisation (tempo, alignment, weight distribution)? Does he speed up or slow down? Does he leave the line of travel? Do the shoulders drift in or out? Do the hindquarters drift in or out? Does the distance between hind legs and front legs increase?
These questions show you what is relevant and what you need to pay attention to. The answers to these questions will lead you to the correct diagnosis of the underlying root cause.
A good example that probably every rider experiences – especially during the early phases of their education – are the moments when horses suddenly invert, especially during transitions. At first, this seems to happen for no reason at all. But the same mistake usually keeps happening under the same circumstances, or in the same spot in the arena, which provides the rider with ample opportunity for observation. A good starting point is to ask yourself: What did I do to cause this? If we look closely enough, we will often find something that changed in our body. A very common scenario is that the rider loses stability in the lumbar spine, locks up in her hips, tips forward a little bit (which pushes the horse onto the forehand), and starts gripping with her hands (which blocks the horse’s back and hind legs). Once we have identified our share in the mistake that occurred, then we can start to prevent it the next time we ride the same transition or pass the same spot in the arena. Once we have checked our seat and aids, we can continue our troubleshooting process by scanning the horse, using the questions I listed above. The list is open-ended of course. You can always add more questions. A very common cause for inversion is a loss of balance that is brought about by a slight change in the tempo or a loss of the alignment of the horse’s hips and shoulders. Some horses are so sensitive to this, that even if the shoulder drifts only a fraction of an inch to the side, the horse inverts.
Conclusion
One of the most important tasks for the rider is to pay the closest attention to her seat and her horse, every step of the way, and to reflect on each work session afterwards in order to identify what went well, what didn’t go well, what needs to be modified or abandoned, and what can be continued and built upon.
By proceeding in this fashion, the horse becomes our teacher and allows us a deeper and more sophisticated understanding of his mind and body. Our theoretical studies give us the understanding of the horse’s psychology and the principles of gymnastic training.
Through observation and reflection, we learn countless lessons, some of a technical nature, some psychological, and some almost spiritual. We learn as much about ourselves on this path as about our horse(s) and about Dressage.
P.S. Do you consider yourself to be a “Thinking Rider” or do you aspire to become one? Then we have something coming up you will LOVE. On August 29th we begin our next free challenge called “The Thinking Riders Challenge. You will learn the three “Toolboxes” (a.k.a. skill sets) you must know how to use effectively in order to train your horse intelligently.
Sign up here - https://courses.artisticdressage.com/2022-thinking-riders-challenge
Shana and I’ll be going LIVE every day. There will be exercises you can do, a workbook, prizes, and Q&A sessions. See you there!
