I went to the Equine Affaire this year again. There were a lot of different presenters but one of the things that stood out to me is not what a presenter said but instead what a vendor told me. There are six hundred male eventers in the United States. (Not very many) That blew me away. However, I am not going to focus on that, it was just an interesting little bit of information I picked up.
I watched Philip Dutton teach some group lessons. One of his themes was that he thought eventers should warm up the same way for all of the phases. He wanted the riders to get their horses listening to the riders’ legs and he wanted the horses connected and forward.
I learned a lot about what I need to do with Hammie for exercises. Philip did a lot of gymnastics, mainly to teach the horse. He said that if you save the horse all the time, the horse won’t learn to save itself. He also did a lot of bending lines, changing the strides to make the horses more adjustable and to get the rider to use their legs and seat to make the horse be more forward or less forward but balanced.
I need to do gymnastics to improve my use of my legs rather than my hands which is what I have the most trouble with. I have to utilize my legs effectively. I generally rely too much on my hands and I need to focus more on moving Hammie off my leg. I will achieve what is needed by training with the exercises he provided. Many of them included bending lines and turns that you cannot make with your hands. It requires a very balanced combination of legs and seat.
This is one of the exercises he did which was effective for teaching only to use legs to steer, rather than hands. It worked because it made the horse bend around the leg. This helped the rider to balance the horse effectively, around turns. I have thought about this as I have been riding Hammie. He shares characteristics with the one hunter horse that was present at one of his demos. This horse was, according to Philip, not connected and very behind the leg. Philip got on the horse to show the rider and all of us the difference it makes when you connect and use your legs. I can relate to that.
I need to work on that with Hammie more than I would have thought. It opened my eyes to a whole new realm of possibility. I know now that I need to work with my legs more moving him out with them or pulling him in. It is difficult for me but I see now how to do it. That is what I was struggling with. I knew I had to do it but I wasn’t sure quite how to. Seeing it utilized effectively, really helped me to put it all together.