Maybe posting it over on the dressage forum, where more people have likely seen this clinician and can comment on the nature and execution of the exercise, would be way to have this explained in a way that doesn’t sound like it came off of a Clinton Anderson DVD.
Lol. I’ve described it to the best of my ability. I was offering a suggestion specifically to Seagram, in this thread. You are the one who made it your mission to beat the suggestion into the ground, and it wasn’t even directed at you.
Not really sure why you are now assigning me to additionally post the idea- which you clearly hate- in the dressage forum.
Anyone who wants to learn more about it is more than welcome to show up at the guy’s farm for a lesson. I’m done trying to paraphrase several hundred dollars of multiple clinic days along with several hours of attentive watching for others to try out for free, and bestow their comments on the nature of the exercise. Go to the clinic yourself if you want to see it explained better.
Seagram, hopefully it helps a bit, and if you have any follow up questions, PM me.
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Thank you! I will be riding the beast tomorrow, we shall see how it goes! Looking forward to trying this technique out and see what he has to say!
@meupatdoes , thanks for taking the time to type out the exercise a couple of times. I read your posts several times, and then implemented my understanding of it on my ride today. I’m riding a borrowed, young draft type while my horse has time off for injury. My borrowed horse, his natural tendency is to be heavy on the aids, and most definitely not straight. We made a lot of progress in one ride. By the end of the ride he was doing more listening and responding to much lighter aids than we’ve ever accomplished. I never felt like I was jerking my horse around, but it really made me step back and see that for where we are at the moment, straight lines (that we couldn’t do well because there was no evenness on the aids) and perfect circles (that we were working too hard on) weren’t the solution. Thank you SO MUCH for sharing!!
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@meupatdoes So I tried to implement this technique with my understanding of it, on my ride today, and what a difference it made. I had the arena to myself, so not only used it on the centerline, but all over the place. I never felt like i was hauling him around, and he was so much more attentive to me! Thank you so much for your suggestion, we weren’t just going in boring circles trying to slow him down, nor motoring around in straight lines. sometimes I am too much of a soft rider, not demanding enough, and this was a little wake up call for me. Sometimes you gotta say 'Hey bud, this is what I want. Do it."
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Yay! I’m so glad it was helpful!
I was pretty stumped by the guy I’m riding now, who is an ottb that was used in a lesson program and developed a 2x4 approach to the contact, to the point that I showed up at the dressage clinic, without shame, in black dressage tack and a brown standing martingale and said “Halp.”
We were able to put the martingale away again after ride #1, and now after four or five months tinkering away he is so improved. He still likes to lean on the left rein, especially when circling to the right, so I just turn quickly left 90 degrees out of the circle for two steps and then back onto it. Lately I’ve been working on bigger steps/smaller steps on the circle, and just turning out and back on if he braces, and then trying the half halt again.
“Squiggles”, as Leif calls them, were so helpful for me, and I don’t see a lot of people familiar with the idea, much less teaching it with the clarity and effectiveness Leif brings to the conversation, so it’s nice to see that an awkward text description was able to be put to good use by others.
I also, btw, can not recommend Leif highly enough. If you look at his fb, there are videos of him lessoning on the stallion while his corgis wander the ring, casually doing a join up game with a horse in the paddock, a fun gallop down the side of the road, etc etc. The riding is so excellent and so kind, and his teaching is so clear, but if you see all the videos together it’s clear he just really loves horses and they really love him. If anyone gets a chance to lesson at his farm in Wellington or attend a clinic, definitely go!!
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