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Tuesday, 13 May 2008
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FEBRUARY 2006 • VOLUME 6 • HORSES For LIFE™ Magazine
While there may be no one way to train the rider to find the complete following of the horse, there are some key points that seem to help the majority of riders.
Correct implementation of these first five is required for the rider to have a truly educated hand and be able to have the base function of being able to find complete following of the rider to the horse through this area of his body.
It
is from this base that the rider then imposes his requests, that he
learns to use his rein aids in such a way that communication is clear
without let or hindrance or interference, while at the same time these
rein aids do not interfere with the horse's movement.
"Whether I ride a green horse, a horse that has been in training for some time, or a horse that has learned to dance with me off the weight of the rein alone, I feel basically the same thing in my hand. The difference is that with the green horse, or even with the horse that has been in training for some time, I become the responsible partner for maintaining that feel. It is only when the horse truly achieves the higher levels of collection that he becomes an active participant in creating the connection, in that line of hand to mouth. Until then it is my responsibility."
"And if I don't show the horse "throughout" his training that it is through the weight of the rein and through our yield together that we can work, how will he ever know?"
This very much agrees with the thought that: "In order to complete this chapter, I will tell you of an episode I saw a few months ago. I was in a corner of a well known manege watching a Horse Master (and Ecuyer) work. The latter stopped near me and gave me in the beautiful French language, academic French, an extremely knowledgeable and detailed explanation of the difficulties in the mechanics of the movements of his horse. He invited me to sit on the horse. I did and, at the end, finding I had obtained results, he expected a long and detailed knowledgeable explanation. I simply said to him to try and relax his hands and have a lighter contact. I have been giving riding lessons for more than 40 years and it is this I repeat incessantly to all students and pupils who show me their difficulties in all corners of the world. Think of this and all will be easier and, what is more important, the horse will thank you." from Nuno Oliveira "No contact is an ideal that
only very few people attain. I have known perhaps five people who have
achieved this unity with the horse. It is distressing to say, but I
have never seen it in competition, not even in Grand Prix or in the
Kur." Once we accept that lightness is something that we must help the horse develop, not just through his participation. but our own, the question then becomes, well how can this truly be achieved? How can we help our riders and our ourselves reach these goals? One of the focuses of our creation of lightness is the complete knowledge of the biomechanics of the horse and how he moves. One of these components is the awareness of the longitudinal component of the walk.
February 2006 • Volume 6 HORSES FOR LIFE™ Please note all resources presented are © copyright protected by the original owners and reprinted with permission OR © Copyright Horses For Life™ 2005 Please write to us! We would love to add your voice. Write to us on our contact page or email your letter to the editor directly at letters@horsesforlife.com
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