I’m thinking of restarting my green bean with straightness training. I’ve already began the exercises in the free ebook and was blown away by the results I’m seeing so far.
The home study course is quite expensive so I wanted to check with you all to see if you are using it and if it’s worth the money:
I opened the site.
Some of the things mentioned in there INMHO, have little to do with straightness of the horse. Other things are part of horse life.–Horses, like people start out one sided or another. Over reaching has more to do with how the horse is shod or trimmed, or how well the rider is sending them forward.
So the author is simply reinventing the wheel. For the price she is charging you can take many lessons with good instructors, and learn what is basically common sense and basic dressage.
Perhaps I’ve been doing this too long. :lol::lol:
I have had great results incorporating some of her and Bent Branderrup’s ideas into my in-hand / ground work that is also greatly influenced by Manolo Mendez.
Even though it is ‘reinventing the wheel’ what dressage training isn’t using old ideas? These methods are particularly helpful with rehab horses and showing riders who think their horse is “resisting” the bit that they are often crooked due to many influences.
I base my opinion on the fact that the info there is available at far less expense elsewhere.
Oooo! I’ve just started! It’s too soon for me to give you a review, but I am really excited about this. Come to my FB page, and you can see what I’ve done so far. 
If you have a specific question as to what’s in the member area, I’ll answer it if I can.
High hopes!
Surely not worth it.
This is all basics stuff you should learn from a real (meaning in real life) professional. Not that what this trainer is saying is wrong, bad or inadequate but because your money will be better spend on someone that will teach and correct you.
Buy books from the master, watch videos of great riders, but take real lessons. Millions of real lessons. On your horse, on your friends horse, on school horses.
Someone should help Marijke with basic math:
The value of this Home Study Course is 597 euro, but I will give you 50% discount today:
.
Normal price: € 597
50% discount:
Your price € 297
:lol:
I really like a step-by-step program. I really like a long-term goal with a clear path.
I really prefer to work on my own, at my own pace, which is very slow. I do not make a very good client for serious trainers, and the casual trainers, well, sometimes they get some funny ideas about how training is to be done. For all these reasons, a boxed program like this appeals to me very much. We’ll see how it goes.
Maybe this could be of better value? The whole straightness training thing does seem to be blown out of proportion for me. But maybe that’s just me (=
I read the free article and thought it was interesting, although nothing new and certainly not enticing enough to separate me from my money. But I’m a very hands-on learner and reading doesn’t do much for me - I’m much more suited to having lessons and a person on the ground.
Having said that, though, one thing the article did mention about saddle fit and saddle sliding did sort of give me this “ding ding ding!” moment. Since then I’ve only been trail riding but there are a lot of long, straight, wide paths on the trail I mainly ride on so I can practice lateral work and I have a “fenceline” of trees/bushes to provide a straight boundary. Mac and I usually do a lot of meandering on the trail and he generally tends to look off toward the left and so always has a slight left curve in his body. Hence, my saddle always feels like it is a little off to the right side and as a result I tend to have lower back pain on my left side from contracting that area of my body.
So since reading the article I’ve been very focused on keeping his head and neck straight coming out of his shoulders, and I’ve also been noticing what happens to his ribcage and hind end. I’ve been working on feeling what happens to the saddle - and me in it - when I ask him to do certain lateral movements or move his haunches in a different direction, and I have to say it has helped with the saddle rolling issue.
I am quite liking it. Could this be done by taking lessons from a pro? Sure - if you happen to have a pro in your area who is familiar w/ in-hand training. I don’t.
My horse is a LOT stronger and more even since we’ve started doing this. And “explaining” difficult movements to him on the ground is much easier for ME, because I’m not always even ‘serviceably sound’.
And no, I didn’t find NEARLY the value in the ‘straighten your horse’ book.
YMMV.
Yeah, I was looking at it from a cost/opportunity perspective as well. There is only one good RI in my area and she charges $65 per lesson so it would probably take at least 10 lessons to cover everything that is included in the straightness training program which would come to at least $650. The actual program is less than that, so I would actually save money by doing the straightness training program. I also like that I can do it myself on my schedule and don’t have to hassle with scheduling a lesson with the RI.
The “straightening your horse” book got some bad reviews because it doesn’t give enough info on HOW to straighten your own horse.
[QUOTE=Scandias;7971684]
Yeah, I was looking at it from a cost/opportunity perspective as well. There is only one good RI in my area and she charges $65 per lesson so it would probably take at least 10 lessons to cover everything that is included in the straightness training program which would come to at least $650. The actual program is less than that, so I would actually save money by doing the straightness training program. I also like that I can do it myself on my schedule and don’t have to hassle with scheduling a lesson with the RI.[/QUOTE]
If it was that easy, we’ll all be just reading books. Riding doesn’t work that way. Lessons with a real person, explaining you stuff before/during/after your ride is just much more valuable than any book you could pick.
What is important to understand and learn first are the basics. Basics can’t be taught in books or videos. You need someone on the ground to correct your riding. Books and theories should come after a rider understand the basics, not before.
10 lessons to cover straightness? Talk about 100…
How are you going to know if what you do is right? (’‘feeling’’ right isn’t good enough - what you might feel as ‘‘straight’’ could totally be incorrect in many other riding aspects. And if you knew what a straight horse was/how to get it, you wouldn’t need a book nor much of a trainer.)
How long is it going to take you to understand how to make your horse straight (from every possible situation)?
Even a monthly lesson with the right instructor could improve your riding in no time, set you realistic and fun goals and make you a good weekly based training program so you would have precise stuff to practice.
The “straightening your horse” book got some bad reviews because it doesn’t give enough info on HOW to straighten your own horse.
The book got bad reviews because most people who buy it aren’t ready to understand what’s written. They don’t know their basics.
I TOTALLY understand that not everyone have competitive / high level goals and/or same perspectives about how learning/training should be. That’s fine.
I just find it weird that you believe you will save money. Never heard someone saving money with horses… 
I have indeed had great success training my horses to go straight. I did it by taking lessons with qualified instructors on a regular basis, and by occasionally reading books and articles written by people who have actually accomplished something with their riding careers, as a supplement to those lessons. :yes:
[QUOTE=alibi_18;7972675]
Never heard someone saving money with horses… ;)[/QUOTE]
ROFL - couldn’t agree more 
Scandias, how is it going? I’ve recently started the course with my guy. We are both learning new things about how his body works
Curious as to what everyone thinks, four years after this was originally posted? Anyone dive into the program - good results? Or no difference?
Right now she is running a free 5 day course. First session was 3+ hours (after technical difficulties on first day when broadcast failed.). I caught a lot of it and you can watch the whole thing on replay.
I liked A lot of things about it. She emphasized rider fitness, “appreciation over expectation” and covered a lot of basics that might be new to a lot of people. If you are interested I suggest you sign up for the free five day course and get a good idea of what it’s about. I don’t think it’ll be a waste of your time.
I have currently been studying clicker training and I could see how this could fold into the clicker training very well.
Also when you sign up for free course you can join the FB group and get more information there from people already into the program.
I am in the free course! I have been lucky enough to have my horse in training with my barn manager, who has been an ST student for the last 2.5 years, and he was one of the demo horses when Dora Hebrock came for a clinic.
Unfortunately BM has abandoned the frosty Midwest for sunny Florida, and I was considering whether I might have enough basis to dive into the paid program myself. Hopefully I will have a better sense of that once I am done with the free 5-day course.
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