feel sorta stupid asking

TrooperLuver

Troopers #1 Fan
Aug 28, 2006
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New York-USA
www.anthonyfanclub.com
alright i feel really dumb asking, when ** RI tells u to give ** horses a squeeze,does that mean literatly squeeze with your tieghs and knees or give a little tapwith your heel? trooper is a bit of a stubborn horse, but always have ridden him from day one,and during my first few lessons i was trying to squeeze to get him to start,and it seemed to be doing no good,so now i jsut resulted in giving him a little tap on the side. is this bad..should i jsut learn how to squeeze harder,and keep clucking till trooper moves
 
Don't feel stupid :) Stupid people don't ask for help!

Squeezing generally means two things.

The first one (the proper one) is to squeeze with your calf muscle in your lower leg, by tensing and relaxing the muscle you're applying pressure to the horse and giving it signals.

The other way is to squeeze with your heels. Your weight should be in your heels (therefore, they should be down) and you give the horse a quick squeeze with your heels when you want to speed up. Be careful not to nag your horse (keep kicking every stride), as he will become "dead to the leg" and will be harder to get going.

:)
 
Sammii said:
Don't feel stupid :) Stupid people don't ask for help!

Squeezing generally means two things.

The first one (the proper one) is to squeeze with your calf muscle in your lower leg, by tensing and relaxing the muscle you're applying pressure to the horse and giving it signals.

The other way is to squeeze with your heels. Your weight should be in your heels (therefore, they should be down) and you give the horse a quick squeeze with your heels when you want to speed up. Be careful not to nag your horse (keep kicking every stride), as he will become "dead to the leg" and will be harder to get going.

:)


thanks-i guess i use the squeeze with my heel more then :D
 
Most beginners do as they are just getting the muscles in their bodies to adjust to the movement of the horse etc...:)
 
Ideally you should only need to tense your calf muscles. You may think the horse won't feel it, but he will! You can test this by placing your hand between your leg and the horse, then tighten your calf muscles.

If the horse will not listen, give an inward squeeze with your calves followed by a tap of the schooling whip. If done properly from the beginning of the horse's training, it should not result in a horse that is 'dead to the leg'--caused by repeatedly thumping and kicking with the heels! (In theory anyway!)

Oh, one thing, don't squeeze with the knees, ever. You'll grip and make a pivot point, and lose your balance, and stirrup.
 
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