Jane posted about the final horse she watched, but for the rest of us there was one more horse to go. By that time my concentration was not so good and my scribbles are hard to decypher but I think it worth adding as there are some interesting observations.
The final horse was a 9 year old mare, a big bay whom the owner had had for 4 months and which needed to be ridden more like a 5 year old.
Mark watched the horse go forward (which the rider had already taught the horse) and then began to work with her on turning.
Mark advised the rider to shorten up her right rein and rest her right hand on her thigh then ride the horse forward into a left turn - letting her move. Placing your hand on the leg prevents the horse moving her head round, so the mare lets go of the rein. We want her body to follow her head into the turn - we dont want the horse to turn its head and then fall out through the shoulder. We need to connect the body and the head. The nose should drop but should not tip sideways, You need to picture the rotation from the neck joint down,both lateral and vertical. If you, the rider, think of the turn, she will sense that and you can refine it once it has started - using both reins, making it easier to align the head with the turn.
He then moved on to the walk trot transition. In the same way you can think trot and then add leg as soon as it is offered.
Animals that learn by watching have their brain activated if they watch another animal doing something and it crosses species. Thus you can transition out of trot just by picturing that and the outside hand, the right hand, coming down. And Halt.
On the second day with this horse Mark talked about the importance of getting the foundations right with any horse. We want to do them as well as a horse can do and sometimes we underestimate the horse.
You will build in a brace if you let the horse stop with its head up - A halt is more than just stopping the feet.
Do not relax your contact with a braced stop. You need to pick the reins up in a halt and get in there or you cant feel the brace.
When her head is up (as in a braced halt) she drops her back and loses her balance. So lower her head a bit.
Ride a figure 8 to see how she balances on the change of direction. You need some rein contact - She can lean on it a bit, at the moment she is using her head to balance and she has to learn to use her core.
Let her trot now with the rein at the buckle and her head down to stretch.
If you keep her head straight in halt, her body is likely to be straight too, (just as what Mark teaches when you are backing up.)
Mark does not want the horse to throw her head up into the transition - he doesnt want her ridden in a frame but he would like her head lower.
He doesnt like the idea that a compliant horse is showing respect for its rider. No, horses do the things we have taught them. The communication needs to come from the inside of me to the inside of the horse.
I probably havent described these two sessions very accurately but they did do something to educate me about the way a horse not used to carrying a rider might use its head for balance both in turns and transitions and ways to progress to what my own RI describes as riding both sides of the horse and from nose to tail. I fear that in having dressage lessons where the emphasis is on peforming a set test, I've somehow lost sight of and undervalued the things our previous RI inculcated in me for years. The ways in which horses rotate into various turns, the lineality of those parallel tracks followed by the inside and outside of the horse's body - Which I had not thought of before in the context of a green horse like this, learning how to balance itself with a rider both when turning and when moving from halt to walk to trot and back again. Being taught to do something in a riding lesson is not the same as understanding as I do now why it is of help to the horse and will help it to balance. Or as shown in these two sessions, why it is the foundation of what follows.
The final horse was a 9 year old mare, a big bay whom the owner had had for 4 months and which needed to be ridden more like a 5 year old.
Mark watched the horse go forward (which the rider had already taught the horse) and then began to work with her on turning.
Mark advised the rider to shorten up her right rein and rest her right hand on her thigh then ride the horse forward into a left turn - letting her move. Placing your hand on the leg prevents the horse moving her head round, so the mare lets go of the rein. We want her body to follow her head into the turn - we dont want the horse to turn its head and then fall out through the shoulder. We need to connect the body and the head. The nose should drop but should not tip sideways, You need to picture the rotation from the neck joint down,both lateral and vertical. If you, the rider, think of the turn, she will sense that and you can refine it once it has started - using both reins, making it easier to align the head with the turn.
He then moved on to the walk trot transition. In the same way you can think trot and then add leg as soon as it is offered.
Animals that learn by watching have their brain activated if they watch another animal doing something and it crosses species. Thus you can transition out of trot just by picturing that and the outside hand, the right hand, coming down. And Halt.
On the second day with this horse Mark talked about the importance of getting the foundations right with any horse. We want to do them as well as a horse can do and sometimes we underestimate the horse.
You will build in a brace if you let the horse stop with its head up - A halt is more than just stopping the feet.
Do not relax your contact with a braced stop. You need to pick the reins up in a halt and get in there or you cant feel the brace.
When her head is up (as in a braced halt) she drops her back and loses her balance. So lower her head a bit.
Ride a figure 8 to see how she balances on the change of direction. You need some rein contact - She can lean on it a bit, at the moment she is using her head to balance and she has to learn to use her core.
Let her trot now with the rein at the buckle and her head down to stretch.
If you keep her head straight in halt, her body is likely to be straight too, (just as what Mark teaches when you are backing up.)
Mark does not want the horse to throw her head up into the transition - he doesnt want her ridden in a frame but he would like her head lower.
He doesnt like the idea that a compliant horse is showing respect for its rider. No, horses do the things we have taught them. The communication needs to come from the inside of me to the inside of the horse.
I probably havent described these two sessions very accurately but they did do something to educate me about the way a horse not used to carrying a rider might use its head for balance both in turns and transitions and ways to progress to what my own RI describes as riding both sides of the horse and from nose to tail. I fear that in having dressage lessons where the emphasis is on peforming a set test, I've somehow lost sight of and undervalued the things our previous RI inculcated in me for years. The ways in which horses rotate into various turns, the lineality of those parallel tracks followed by the inside and outside of the horse's body - Which I had not thought of before in the context of a green horse like this, learning how to balance itself with a rider both when turning and when moving from halt to walk to trot and back again. Being taught to do something in a riding lesson is not the same as understanding as I do now why it is of help to the horse and will help it to balance. Or as shown in these two sessions, why it is the foundation of what follows.
