|
Every time the horse stops, he must reorganize himself and
rebuild back to the clickable moment. It is the stopping
and rebuilding that creates the deep understanding of what
is being asked. When you have worked through a piece with
enough resets and restarts, your horse will understand the
balance so well, he will be able to reproduce the totality
of the movement without being micromanaged through it. You
can let go and know your horse's good balance is not going
to disappear out from under you.
The more correct a horse is in his balance, the more correct
I can be in mine. It becomes a cycle. Now when I breathe,
my horse's body is in the perfect place to receive my
suggestion. He shifts his balance ever so slightly, I
recieve it back and we flow together in a harmony of parts.
At this point I won't be clicking after a few strides. I
will let the trot flow on. That is the ultimate reward for
both myself and for my horse. I do believe that horses love
the way their bodies feel when they move with the freedom
and ease that good balance creates. They love the energy,
just as we love the feel in our own bodies when we move with
athletic grace. Good movement becomes self-reinforcing, but
the process of getting to that movement, that's what I want
to reinforce well with the clicker, because the faster my
horse can get "back up on that balance beam" the faster we
can find ourselves back in the flow of a beautiful trot.
And it is much easier to stay in that flow once you've found
it than it is to get there in the first place. So that's
the piece I want my horse to know well. Each time I click
and my horse has to find his way back into the flow of the
movement, I make the getting there more solid.
AK/tctt
Dressage is supposed to be about teaching horses to develop
self carriage which means they need to learn to balance with
their weight back over their hind end, and they need to
develop carrying power. Carrying power in the hind end does
not involve the same muscles as pushing the hind end
forward. Many dressage riders think they can just ride their
horses forward to develop their hind ends. The horses do get
stronger, but they are developing pushing power and not
necessarily carrying power.
The assumption is that if you keep riding the horse forward
into your hand, the horse will learn to recycle that energy
and use his hind end differently. Maybe, maybe not. Why not
just start out teaching the horse to use his hind end
correctly? This means doing lots of correct slow work, with
transitions and bend. You may need to trot forward to keep
her energy up and allow her to stretch, but the slow careful
work is what builds carrying muscles.
KB/tctt
I think it's important to understand that imbalance, or
lesser balance, begins in the horse's body. He uses the
neck and head to correct that lesser balance. Therefore, the
rider must learn to feel it, and help the horse, BEFORE it
travels to the rein and mouth of the horse. By the time
lesser balance manifests itself in the rein and mouth, the
horse is *already* imbalanced, and rider is playing "catch
up". Learning to feel an imbalance, or a possible imbalance
before it travels to the neck and mouth is the essence of
dressage, and the only way to truly help the horse MAINTAIN
a state of preparation, or perfect balance under the rider.
The feel of the mouth is only the final reflection of the
state of the entire horse - the last message to the rider,
not the first.
J-A /CR
|
