I’m the type that thinks too much. It’s getting to the place where I’ll be learning the ones. (Horse has them).
I have twos…I can visualize the timing. But I know it’s very different.
Some have told me “just swing your legs/ hips”
But I know there is a timing component
Can anyone give me something to think about, to visualize, that will help me before I try it on the horse?
From someone who recently learned the ones (horse didn’t have them - we are learning together), I would say it’s the exact same as the twos but WAY faster. I also believed I had visualized the timing until I asked for a back and forth and realized I was way too slow. Like laughably so 
For me, as soon as I ask for one I have to ask immediately for the next change. There is no pause - just keep going. Change-change-change. Just keep that chant going in your mind. I say the best thing you can do it try them, even if it is just a back and forth, and you’ll get a much better sense of the timing and quickness required.
Good luck!
5 Likes
I found that “skipping” on the ground and changing leads helped me NOT to overthink and to just DO it.
I had a very sensitive horse. One time, I’m cantering and I overshot the centerline. When I tried to correct, I got a change. Then tried going back to center line, got another change…boom…boom…boom…I was getting ones down the centerline. BUT…heaven forbid that I tried to do that when I actually wanted them…I was always late and behind the aids. I cannot count and ride. Guaranteed to be late. I have to just “feel” and think, “now…now…now…now.”
Good luck.
5 Likes
I just had to keep doing it. At first I was so focused on being quick that I would get ahead of the timing and cause a mistake. Then I tried to correct it by using a bigger, more clear aid, which resulted in some extra exuberance-caused mistakes. Now I try to think about riding the first change, and then turning my brain off and following the rhythm. However, I’ve been showing them for a year now and my odds of getting a mistake in them in the test are still roughly 50/50.
3 Likes
The most useful advice I ever got with respect to riding one-tempis was: “ride them quicker, not stronger”. Ride the horse’s rhythm, but change quicker, so there is no pause between changes.
8 Likes
This ^^ in spades!!
Once you get 3, it gets easier IME.
2 Likes
Excellent tip!
Believe it or not I’m one of the few who really can’t skip. Well I sort of can but not really. I’ll have to try again.
Thx.
1 Like
I don’t know if anyone else has experienced this but the ones are so individual to the horse. I currently have two GP horses and they are wildly different in how they do their ones and what cues I give for them. That being said one is naturally gifted and the other not so much.
The other struggle I found was I got into my head too much and it became a thing. I ended up hopping on someone else’s horse to reset my brain and timing. I was trying too hard and getting frustrated.
I don’t know if it would help, but maybe find a couple short clips of some pro rides like Carl Hester, Lottie Fry, or Catherine Dufour doing a line a of ones and watch what they do with their legs and hips and hands. Some of them don’t swing their legs much at all. Catherine has a lot of short clips on her Instagram and watching her has helped me visualize because I have a leaning forward problem.
3 Likes
For those of you playing with ones. And yes, I know this is not an FEI movement…
https://www.facebook.com/100006473203741/videos/pcb.3584818291743909/3584813248411080
Enjoy.
4 Likes
Well, it ought to be. 
1 Like
Try to do your changes more from your seat and less from your legs. If you need to ‘scissor’ your legs back and forth for the changes, you wont have time and they can get crooked.
Play with quieter aids sitting in a chair and isolate your left and right seat bones. Just push forward with one hip and then the other.
You cannot think, ah, I have done a change, now for another. You have to just keep going.
The skipping down the aisle is also helpful for timing - i use it to teach people doing tempis.
2 Likes
If I had to think about moving my legs, I was too slow.
What worked for my horse was to think about lifting each seat bone up and a little forward. In my head I would think about it like my hip/seat bone making a little circle on each side - up and forward to allow the hind leg to come through and down and back as the other seat bone came up and forward. For some reason, also thinking about it like a pedal stroke on a bike really worked for me (even though on a bike your seat bones don’t move). The horse will actually help you move your hips and seat bones once they are in the rhythm of the ones.
Also, I spent very little time doing the in/out and 3 ones in a row because I saw several horses never be able to string more than 2 or 3 ones together having spent so much time on the in/out. Once my horse understood doing a 2 ones in a row, I schooled them on the diagonal getting as many as we could. I also started them from his good side until we were able to consistently get 8 ones.
3 Likes
Thanks everyone. Now that I’m
Back from the USDF Convention I’ll have time to think on this ……
1 Like
It’s true about quicker not stronger! It’s challenging to get quicker without getting tense though. I found it helpful to start a line of them and even if I misfired or the horse misfired, just keep going. You can’t be fiddling around making corrections and such. Do your best not to make the ones a Thing.
Are you left handed? It’s not unusual for lefties to not be able to skip.
1 Like
I have two problems - 1. I’m not quick enough and 2. after the first two, I start popping forward and up. I’ve been trying to focus on something on the horizon, but man IT’S HARD!
1 Like
I had to drop my stirrups to fix this.
1 Like
I would pop up because my horse changed the tempo and slowed down. It’s been incredibly hard to correct. I internally yell at myself to sit back/lean back. My horse had gotten better as he has gotten stronger, but it’s still a position I have fallen back to when things start going south. It’s taken two years of working on them where I know they’re reliable and I’m not contorting myself all over the place, and we’re just now getting to the point where I’m improving them so the tempo is being maintained for longer. The tempi’s are not his forte.
1 Like
Well THAT explains a lot…but I always heard that left handed people were in the right minds.
