When I taught dressage for a living, I had a habit of replaying my lessons as I drove to and from the barn – especially the bits where my students (both two- and four-legged) had difficulty grasping a concept or executing a movement. I would go over the issue again and again, looking for new ways to present things so horse and rider could get from point A to point B with as little stress and as much success as possible. And now that I’m wearing my instructor’s hat again – at least part time – I find the old habit returning.
To recap, in the first lesson, we worked on getting the horses to give to the hand and the riders to address the habit of pulling the reins. I felt that this lesson had gone quite well, but also felt that we needed to spend more time on this issue. At our second lesson, both women reported that they’d been working on their bending and suppling by doing circles and serpentines around trees and other things they encountered on the trail. Both horses were bending with a lot less trouble, though they still wanted to brace and resist occasionally. The halts were another matter, however. Both horses were quite happy to lean on the bit and, as a result, Nancy and Rhonda wanted to fall back into the old habit of pulling on the reins.
So resistance was the issue to address. I wanted to find a way to reinforce the “don’t pull on the reins while stopping” lesson, and continue getting Levi and Riley to give to the hand rather than bracing or leaning.
I started by explaining that getting into a pushing or pulling battle with a horse is a sure-fire lose/lose situation. Horses are stronger than humans, and no matter how much muscle we use, we won’t win – and we’ll reinforce bad behavior by allowing the horse to get away with being heavy and unresponsive. Of course, both women know this, but it’s so very easy to let our horses manipulate us into positions we’d prefer to avoid (been there, done that, got the t-shirt). I likened constant pressure from the rider – whether pulling on the reins or using the leg or seat incessantly – to someone nagging at you: after a while, you learn to ignore it. As riders, we have to learn to be effective with our aids the first time that we apply them so the horse will respond and we won’t have to ask and ask and eventually fall into the role of The Nagger.
We started with the one-rein stop. While it’s not strictly “correct” from a pure dressage point of view, it’s a wonderful thing for a horse to know from a safety standpoint, AND it’s a great training aid for a horse who doesn’t understand how to give to the hand. For the rider, it’s a way to begin understanding the use of bend to slow / stop your horse, and gives an effective alternative to pulling on the reins. I asked both women to bring one hand to the side so that their horse had to give, and to keep the horse bent – as extremely as necessary – until the horse stopped moving. Levi had never encountered the one-rein stop before … so when Rhonda asked for it, he just walked in small circles. Rhonda’s first response was to use the other rein and “pull”, so I asked her to her stick with it and let Levi figure it out. After a minute or so of walking in a tiny circle, he stopped; I had Rhonda release the rein immediately, praise him and let him walk on.
Riley understands the one-rein stop (he and Nancy have spent time working with Edie on just this sort basic training), so his response was instant. However, he leaned on the rein during the halt, and when he stopped, he tried to almost immediately to pull the rein out of her hand and walk away. I asked Nancy to maintain the rein contact until he stopped, stood quietly and then gave to the rein. Only when he was still and soft did she ask him to walk on.
When both horses had done several nice one-rein halts, we worked on some serpentines around cones, rein changes and circles. My most frequent comment was, “Keep your horses going forward so they don’t fall in on the shoulder.” Nancy and Rhonda are developing very nice feel for what’s correct and what isn’t; each could tell me whether their horse was bending correctly and walking actively or falling in on the shoulder. Both were commenting on how tough it is to ride a proper circle or turn, and wondering why it was so. I was thrilled to be able to give them an idea.
I study Koro Ken Karatedo, an eclectic martial art form that draws from many different styles and schools. Recently, we’ve been working on bagua, a Chinese martial art in which “circle walking” is practiced while maintaining various postures with the upper body (you can see a demo of it at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vwvy6WuXU4Y&feature=related – and no, I don’t do it anywhere near that well, believe me). Walking a circle looks pretty simple until you actually try it – so I thought I’d let Nancy and Rhonda get a feel for just how much work their horses were doing. I paced out a circle in the arena and asked them to walk behind me. I managed to lead them through three relatively decent circles (though I’m sure my Sensei would have a differing opinion!) and could clearly see the circle in the arena footing. Then I asked them to walk the circle themselves. They both were amazed at how difficult such a seemingly simple thing is when you’re asked to do it “correctly” – to stay “straight on the circle”, to keep from falling in toward the center without bulging out and turning the circle into an oval or ellipse, and to maintain their balance while walking actively forward. Nancy summed it up nicely: “I can’t believe how hard this is – and we’re only worrying about 2 feet! Our poor horses have to worry about FOUR, and carry us at the same time!”
In our next lesson, we’ll continue addressing the resistance issue and build on the one-rein stop with more bend work and the beginnings of turn on the forehand. Stay tuned!