“Have fun with the young horse classes. But train for the future.”
Also - from a different clinician:
“Your hands belong to the horse. Your elbows belong to you.”
“The best reward you can give your horse is a good ride”
G.M. clinic sometime in the 70s
Since my name here is 4WdNstraight guess what I’m good at? So what my trainer has said about bend is to give a little outside rein so they can get over to the inside. This really resonates with me more than all the other things I’ve been told.
“You need to introduce your ass to the saddle.”
“Who’s smarter, you or the horse? Then stop fighting him!”
Every time I (almost) start fighting one of my horses, I think of this.
[QUOTE=TickleFight;7950436]
“You need to introduce your ass to the saddle.”[/QUOTE]
Haha. That’s awesome. I’d love to know who said that.
Carla Symader: “FORWARD!” and “THAT’S NOT FORWARD!!!” and “FORWARD!!!”
She would get on and show you what forward was (NOT rushing, but forward and over the back). “ohhhhhhhhhh, that’s what forward is” we would all say.
Fred Weber: “while it really doesn’t affect the way your horse goes, it is not considered respectful to come to a dressage clinic with your horse’s tail in a tail bag.” :o
“Release what you want to reward.”
That’s a maxim from WesternWorld. The idea is that the horse will duplicate the last thing he did that earned him a free head (or taking your leg off, or a break or whatever). These puppies look for contrast and live for earning an easier time.
Another nice saying from some western trainer along the same lines: “From the minute I get on, I’m looking for an excuse to get off.” In other words, he wants to get a change that’s so big or a desired performance that’s so great that he rewards that with the end of the training session.
I go a step further: I see horse training as mutual manipulation. The whole time I’m trying to get a horse to respond to me the way I want, he should similarly be trying to get me to give him a softer ride, or to praise him and give him a break. I want a horse to “come to the table”…. to invest himself in trying to figure out what will get him what he wants. That’s a horse who knows how to show up and participate in training.
[QUOTE=SnicklefritzG;7950717]
Haha. That’s awesome. I’d love to know who said that.[/QUOTE]
Bodo Hangen. When I was a kid I lessoned with a couple of his students and audited clinics at his barn. Hilarious guy.
“Your hands belong to the horse. Your elbows belong to you.”
Downyonder, that’s interesting. I do visualize that the elbows buffer the rider’s hips while the hands buffer the horse’s mouth, but lately I have been convinced that there is an opposite truth.
The rider keeps the hands (closed on the reins) but the elbows are weak. When the horse resists, the elbows follow but the rider engages her to core to keep her alignment shoulder-hip-heel, with hands closed, and does not pull back with the arms/elbows. In fact it may help to push the elbow toward the bit. Meanwhile the horse gets a reminder from the leg to rebalance from the hindleg.
This would happen during a momentary loss of balance and/or when the horse goes against the contact.
Actually, there are two:
“Paint a picture in your head of the response you want” (easier said than done with greenies…:lol:), but I think the most practical for me has been and serves me well still today…
“forget the head, ride the shoulders”.
[QUOTE=runnyjump;7950052]
Gen. Jack Burton:
“The more hardware in the horse’s mouth, the less knowledge in the rider’s head.”[/QUOTE]
so i guess double bridles are for ignoramuses?
It takes more than one life time to learn to ride which is why we borrow wisdom from generations before us.
Ride every step.
and: You are a better rider than you believe.
Every step of collection has the possibility of extension, every step of extension has the possibility of collection. Pam Goodrich.
Training piaffe is like tending a garden. You water, weed, make sure there is enough light. You do not pull on the plants as they come up to get them to grow faster. Henk van Bergen.
Your horse should feel like he wants to bubble over into the next gait.
Brilliance comes from riding on the fine edge of control.
Great talents have great egos.
Ride with a Grand Prix attitude. Kathy Connelly.
And again. Roel Theunissen LOL
“Watch the dressage at the Olympics, do you ever see them yanking at the bit with their hands all the time? no. That’s why you need to keep your hands still and hold his head in place.” I might be paraphrasing but I remember my old coach telling me this, I went home and watched all the professionals, I could not keep my eyes of their hands and how still they were.
Elongate the outside neck towards the ear, from the withers.
This helped me create a full outside rein and proper inside bend. I could finally feel how to maintain elasticity but allow for movement.
I could SEE it happening when I did it correctly, as well! AWESOME.
My mare does a funny head tilt with me which I have been fully aware was my fault, but not sure how to permanently fix it. Haunches and shoulder in would often fix it for that ride, but it would appear again next ride.
In my lesson this weekend my trainer explicitly told me what he’d been taking for granted - that I need to use my right leg when she bulges her rib cage that way. My right leg is fairly useless most of the time, and my mare is naturally very forward and responsive, so for whatever reason this knowledge I have on horses who really lean and pull wasn’t connecting on a horse who is much softer and was twisting her head to avoid leaning and pulling. So his advice was “feel it in your hands, fix it with your leg.” So simple.
