Rs horse plods for me but I know he can go better

pepsimaxrock

pepsimaxrock

Active Member
Sep 29, 2004
2,428
0
36
Visit site
Hi everyone

Since returning to riding following my injury on of my RIs has decided I should ride B in my private lessons. I would really prefer to ride P all the time but do understand that I should ride different horses.

You should see them - many people can't tell them apart - but they ride so differently!

B is a bit of a plod ( I know when he gets going he can go quite quickly ) but I can't make it happen....... any tips?
 
I assume this is in private lessons so your instructor should be helping you.

I have a very simplistic approach to riding
.. first comes forward and to be honest I would leave the front end alone and go for speed with the average RS cob!

...next comes lateral flexion, take up the reins and work the horse out into each corner and round your inside leg, spiralling in and leg yieling out comes in useful with lots of horses here

....then get the hind legs underneath the horse, lots of transitions, particularly halt/trot and walk /canter

...last of all start containing the energy in your hand with lots of half halts to start the horse working in better form

If the horse does a lot of beginner lessons make sure every time you give an aid you get a response even if you have to use your stick initially to make him/her move off your leg and work forward., but do a carry on making the work 'interesting' for you and horse so lots of transitions and changes of rein

Hope this helps.
 
From the RS riders end I would agree totally with eml.
I know (the RIs tell me) that I hack two of the SLOOOWEST horses in the school. For me they go fast.
I like them to know as soon as possible in the hack that it is me on their back and I like fast - plus teeny weeny light aids. Never never kick. If you need to use the whip to touch a horse to remind it you are serious, do. Just once, lightly but mean it.
To be honest, I find it can be quite hard to get a slow horse walking actively forward. Trot is better. I suspect one reason that slow horses go well for me is that I have an elderly back and often tell the person I am with that I need to trot a bit to loosen me up. I guess that loosens the horses too. Some horses you can ask and get a nice walk from the word go - but a little bit of trotting gets the message across.

But you have to mean it. And want it. And do it pretty soon in the lesson or ride. Promptness is everything.
If you are with an RI giving you a lesson and the teacher is not wanting you to trot, a lot of halt walk transitions is a sort of substitute.
Above all don't let the horse know that you don't want to ride it and are fed up and defeated.
One thing Perry Wood suggests in his book Real Riding is to pretend to be someone else? I bet if you pretend to be your RI or Pippa Funnel the idlest RS horse will go for you.
Or pretend to ride like a man? I once pretended to be a very rich young male livery owner who had been about the yard. I'd watched his dressage lesson and i wondered if men rode differently from women.
Anyway I rode like this bloke and the horse shot round the school, cantered immediately I asked and quite fast. The RI I had at the time was dead scared and stopped the lesson.
For a long time, for about three years, if I had a difference of opinion with a horse out hacking I would do my Pippa Funnell Act. It always worked. And when the girls asked me what I had done, I used to say, I didn't know. All I knew was it was my Pippa Funnel act. But my RI said it was "intention".

I must have developed intention of my own now because it is a long time since I pretended to ride like anyone else. But if you are feeling crushed by the caution of the school RIs and your falls and this horse in particular, the answer might be to go out there and for five minutes or so ride as if you were someone else. Have some fun.
 
Skib said:
From the RS riders end I would agree totally with eml.
Click to expand...

Yes I do too, rather than going with his really slow rhythm. G from my Leicestershire school (eml will know who I mean) used to say that free forward motion is the first priority. And asked us all about it at the end of the warm up
Skib said:
To be honest, I find it can be quite hard to get a slow horse walking actively forward. Trot is better. ..... (I) often tell the person I am with that I need to trot a bit to loosen me up. I guess that loosens the horses too.
Click to expand...

how I agree with that. And I have just decided to put B into trot after just one school circuit in walk - even if only for a few paces, so that his walk warm up will be easier - for me and him - he'll be more active and I wont be feeling like pushing - with seat, knees, ankles, anything available.....

I just love the idea of pretending that I am the best rider I could imagine - I would love to be Tim Stockdale over showjumps, or Pippa Funnel over xc fences, don't have a dressage hero(ine) but am getting quite interested in being Steph Croxford.

Next time, that's me! Thanks for your help, great stuff, as ever, from you two, Skib and E.
 
Hi,

I have been riding Cleo - a very eager to please mare who only needs the lightest of squeezes to walk, trot and halt.

Last lesson I rode Tetley and was a bit concerned as he had been plodding around in front on the previous lesson with another rider and pretty well refusing to listen to the aids.

However, I found that just asking once was useless - he had to be asked several times and with a fairly hefty thump of the calf. The RI explained that he had to be convinced that you actually wanted to go so three good thumps to say trot on and then two more to say "I mean now!" Once he had caught on that I actually wanted to go faster and that I could cope with going faster - he went! And once I had the knack of rising and thumping he went really fast.

In fact at one point he was having such a good time he didn't want to stop!
 
newrider.com
Top Bottom
Back