exploded or what.
Just what I know, Jen West has been on a few boards and professed to not riding dressage, but still insists on clearly being better than everyone… but heck I ain’t getting into discussing individuals.
Anyway, this weekend was the first weekend in a long long time that I have actually seen someone ‘try’ to teach deep to someone.
I must say that I was apalled. These people basically paid for one hour of stories. I asked questions and was told (in a certain tone…)‘well I’ve just gotten back from such and such a place where the 6 masters of dressage were giving speeches about each of their ‘systems’… and they all use their own variation of deep, this is how everyone warms their horses up’, okay I say but the student you have right now is v v green and the horse is also v v green. So why are you teaching this to someone that has trouble keeping a contact and their seat (but is getting so much better at everything), why are you putting that horse so deep right now? The reply, well they all do it, so this is how we will do it… hummm okay if you were secure in your teaching why are you suddenly changing your whole system to doing it this way? Well I didn’t really have the guts to ask the last one.
Okay so how were they teaching it?? Well not like I was taught, and we have this on video. She took hold of the reins down near the bit at a halt and pulled down to the chest. Pulled down so hard that said horse opened mouth (personally I would have bitten them), and resisted, still halted, pulled harder, well said horse reasoned with themselves and dropped head… I was never the less disgusted. Oh and pulled the rider out of their seat they had pulled so strongly, now this rider is a fairly strong person themselves (not saying that you need to be strong to ride… but heck you know what I mean), so to see them getting pulled forward I know that there was a lot of pressure on that poor horses mouth. At a halt, no forward movement… okay whats wrong with this picture? Anyway, said horse and said rider go round for the next hour, listening to stories, and being told to ride more forward (granted that is sometimes an issue), but you ride more foreward but keep that contact. Said horse on video goes round for an hour with ears flat back against neck, said horse is grinding teeth, said horse has this nasty nasty look in its eyes…
Okay end of lesson, we say thanks watch said trainer school another horse, well that was ugly too.
Now said student and said horse have been to this trainer before, and they have always done really well under trainers instruction. Been deep, but getting it there differently, much nicer and much more asking rather than telling.
Hummm, I was appalled at how this was handled and how this was taught… please someone tell me that there are still trainers out there that will help a student to encourage a horse down not just haul it in. I was so under the impression that everyone rode it like I was trained, but after seeing this display I was so angry that I couldn’t talk to this person. I then watched the video and said okay this is what I see and you people tell me how it is different to the way this horse usually goes…
Unfortunately there was another person there that witnessed this, and although I cannot tell you what they were thinking, I could almost see that they may think it may work for their horse. So next lesson, I showed her how what would happen if we did it that way, and then showed her how we had been asking… never the less, the horse was happier with influences from the rider position and light elastic band rein pressure, was happier to stay there, and knew when they had done right…
Please someone tell me that I have not been going round thinking that everyone doesnot just pull their head down to get this way of going for warm up… it was so sad to see.
The point of this very long post… well really to say if you want to ride deep good, but please make sure that your trainer is not just having you pull your horses head down. You guys out there know that no one trainer is god, use many different methods and make up a system of your own, and go with it. But keep learning and amending your own training processes.
No one person is right, no one person is perfect.
Cosmo
(who really likes Peron the best!!)
“Acceptance of the bit happens in the haunches, not in the mouth.”
Dr. Thomas Ritter
www.geocities.com/bluejaystables
cool.
. He has even gotten to the point of doing raised trot poles and his topline and strength of movement has changed dramatically.
