I taught a young girl on a very nice mare, newly purchased. I rode the horse several times over several lessons and found her a sensitive but very responsive and easy ride. The girl sat nicely but her experience was via a not-very-good riding school and she wasn't the most educated or thoughtful rider.
As the weeks went by, the combination got gradually worse. The horse started to show some strange and slightly worrying behaviours, such as becoming hard to catch, pinning her ears back during grooming and tacking up, and an erratic unwillingness to go forward under saddle. My immediate thought was that there was some physical cause for these behavioural changes - a sore back, perhaps. The saddle fitter, the masseur and finally the vet were called and the horse was given several weeks off. When she resumed work, she continued to exhibit some fairly angry behaviours and reactions. I and the mare's young owner, and her parents, were baffled. Low-level lameness was suspected but tests were coming back clear and the vet's advice was to work her harder and see if there was any change.
The answer came one day when I arrived for a lesson and the girl was already on and already struggling - the mare was napping to the gate, 'jacking up' and threatening to rear, whipping around unexpectedly and basically being really very difficult. I decided to lunge the horse to see if there was any lameness or irregularity in the gait evident. As soon as the rider dismounted, the horse relaxed. I lunged her in walk, trot and canter on both reins and she went perfectly. Foot-perfect, in fact. No tension, no nappiness, no cranky faces or unwillingness to go forward. Smooth, relaxed, supple.
Then I put the rider back on but continued to lunge the horse. As before, she went beautifully.
Finally, I took the lunge off and left the rider in charge... and that's when the lightbulb flashed. It was the rider. This perfectly decent young rider was doing *something* that the horse HATED. I think it was a slightly busy lower leg; I think the rider was trying to manoeuvre/position the relatively green horse with her legs before the horse had any idea of what a lateral leg aid was. So, from the perspective of the horse, there were lots of arbitrary individual leg aids going on, when all she'd ever been used to was single, soft leg aids that meant, go forward.
It was so interesting that this rider issue presented so much like an unsoundness issue. Not long after this the horse started unceremoniously dumping the rider and was sold. She has since been very successful with her new owner and the previous owner has found a new horse that she clicks very well with.
Tuesday, May 31, 2016
Sunday, May 29, 2016
Lazy Horse Rules
I'm following up my post on hot horses by writing one about their opposite number: the lazy ones! I've been schooling a few of these challenging steeds lately, and one of my regular adult students is adjusting to life with a lazy horse after retiring her whizzy one and is finding it a bit of a challenge. As with most horse training, the key to riding lazy horses effectively is to keep things super simple.
RULE NUMBER ONE: USE SOFT LEG AIDS
It may seem counter-intuitive but lazy horses need light, focussed aids with clear expectations. You need to let go of 'what usually happens' and ask yourself what you WANT to happen, my phrase is, use the aid you wish would work! So if it generally takes three or four hard nudges to move your lazy horse from a halt to an unwilling walk, you need to let go of that and use one light aid... then be prepared to back it up! It will depend on the horse how you go about the escalation of pressure. A lazy but sensitive soul might be terribly upset if you use a crop hard behind your leg, where a more phlegmatic specimen might need several wallops to get the message. You might need to give several hard 'pony club kicks' to get to the point that the horse is properly going forward. Whatever your escalation is, it has to be something the horse wants to avoid in the future, by that I mean, the horse has to be motivated by it. I often have a good response from simply swishing a whip loudly around the hind quarters, with the added bonus that a smack can be reserved for when you really need to get some forward.
I also like to use my numerical scoring system to quantify and monitor the strength of the aids. Using the 0-10 scale, with 0 being no pressure and 10 being 'the hardest kick you can do' it's a good tool to monitor what feels 'normal' to both horse and rider. Generally I like lazy horses to be sensitised to the point that a light touch of both legs (=2) gets an energetic upwards transition, every single time.
But how to make that happen?!
RULE NUMBER TWO: USE FEWER LEG AIDS
To begin with, I like to school lazy horses using 'whole transitions' - moving between the paces rather than within them. This adds a nice clarity to the aids - lazy horses are often so desensitised to their nagging rider that the aids' meanings need re-schooling. So, applying a leg aid with the value of two while the horse is walking will achieve a trot transition (or else the aid will be quickly and meaningfully escalated). A few steps of trot later, the rider brings the horse back to walk, not asking him to maintain or energise his trot at this point - this will blur the meaning of the leg aids. Once the horse is bouncing into trot on a light aid, it's time to build in the 'cruise control...'
RULE NUMBER THREE: MAINTAINING THE PACE IS THE HORSE'S JOB
It is such a dis-spiriting feeling, getting halfway around a circle or up the long side and the pace dwindling underneath you. Riders generally 'chase' the horse at this point, giving a few random leg aids and being satisfied if the horse doesn't drop down out of pace he's in. But over time, horses need more and more 'chasing' and all those leg aids confuse things. Is the rider, who is using their legs vigorously in the trot, wanting to maintain the trot, increase the trot, canter on? Remember Rule Number Two: fewer aids!
After a successful upwards transition, the rider's job is to monitor the pace. You can feel when the energy drops - when the steps become shorter or lower or slower. Precisely at that point, I like to give the horse a soft vocal reminder (a click or hiss) and if no forward is achieved by that, a sharp smack with a whip. Note that I DO NOT use the leg at this point, for reasons of clarity. The horse may be a bit upset about getting a smack but this will actually work to your advantage in the long run. Next time he hears your vocal reminder, he will remember what followed it. With consistency, the horse will learn that dropping his energy has consequences. Of course, the fitness level of the horse should be considered while training this.
RULE NUMBER FOUR: HAVE DIFFERENT AIDS FOR DIFFERENT RESPONSES
A different aid to "go forward within the pace" or "move up a pace" can make a massive difference in the responsiveness and rideability of lazy horses. Expecting a horse to interpret what its rider is asking for when two aids are identical and two responses are totally different is unfair, and the antithesis of good training. A definite nudge of the lower legs is good for a clear transition while a slower 'push' of the whole leg for 'more' is a good differentiation for most horses and riders but you can use any two differing leg aids you like.
RULE NUMBER FIVE: ONE LEG NEVER MEANS GO FASTER
Training lateral steps with lazy horses often has a remarkable effect on their forward-ness. It's like you can 'wake up' their sides by tuning the lateral response. Be careful, though. If the horse responds to a lateral aid by quickening or energising (even though that's what you might ultimately want) again, it blurs the true meaning of the aid. I'll do another post soon about starting and refining lateral leg aids.
RULE NUMBER SIX: DON'T FORGET YOUR SEAT
Sometimes if a lazy horse is tired, uncooperative or confused, it's very tempting to give them a chase up with the legs. Be warned though, and remember Rule Number Two. The more leg you use the more the horse is going to tune you out. There are a few occasions when using your seat to create or maintain energy can work really well, such as a horse who struggles to maintain the canter or who loses forward during lateral movements. We don't want the horse to rely on the rider to push him along but by giving a little 'buzz' with an energetic, animating seat, you can often get the horse to lift and swing his back more and maintain his own impulsion. So if your horse feels like he's about to drop out of canter, instead of using a leg aid, use an elevating, lifting action of your seat in rhythm with the pace to maintain the tempo. Even very green horses can be trained in this way as they seem to instinctively follow the rider's activating (or resisting/collecting) seat. More on this in a later post too!
RULE NUMBER SEVEN: SCHOOL THE DOWNWARDS TRANSITIONS TOO
Just because your horse is lazy and stops when you stop actively riding, doesn't mean it has a full understanding of what the rein means. And there may come a point that this training will be put to the test and the horse that is normally so willing to stop becomes a war horse charging into battle and ignoring his rider's aids altogether. The 3-2-1 exercise teaches the horse how to fold the hind legs and lower and engage the hindquarters in preparation for the downwards transition which occurs strictly in the rider's given timing. This creates a really effective half-halt which is very useful once the motivating aids have been properly established.
Good luck with your lazy horses!
RULE NUMBER ONE: USE SOFT LEG AIDS
It may seem counter-intuitive but lazy horses need light, focussed aids with clear expectations. You need to let go of 'what usually happens' and ask yourself what you WANT to happen, my phrase is, use the aid you wish would work! So if it generally takes three or four hard nudges to move your lazy horse from a halt to an unwilling walk, you need to let go of that and use one light aid... then be prepared to back it up! It will depend on the horse how you go about the escalation of pressure. A lazy but sensitive soul might be terribly upset if you use a crop hard behind your leg, where a more phlegmatic specimen might need several wallops to get the message. You might need to give several hard 'pony club kicks' to get to the point that the horse is properly going forward. Whatever your escalation is, it has to be something the horse wants to avoid in the future, by that I mean, the horse has to be motivated by it. I often have a good response from simply swishing a whip loudly around the hind quarters, with the added bonus that a smack can be reserved for when you really need to get some forward.
I also like to use my numerical scoring system to quantify and monitor the strength of the aids. Using the 0-10 scale, with 0 being no pressure and 10 being 'the hardest kick you can do' it's a good tool to monitor what feels 'normal' to both horse and rider. Generally I like lazy horses to be sensitised to the point that a light touch of both legs (=2) gets an energetic upwards transition, every single time.
But how to make that happen?!
RULE NUMBER TWO: USE FEWER LEG AIDS
To begin with, I like to school lazy horses using 'whole transitions' - moving between the paces rather than within them. This adds a nice clarity to the aids - lazy horses are often so desensitised to their nagging rider that the aids' meanings need re-schooling. So, applying a leg aid with the value of two while the horse is walking will achieve a trot transition (or else the aid will be quickly and meaningfully escalated). A few steps of trot later, the rider brings the horse back to walk, not asking him to maintain or energise his trot at this point - this will blur the meaning of the leg aids. Once the horse is bouncing into trot on a light aid, it's time to build in the 'cruise control...'
RULE NUMBER THREE: MAINTAINING THE PACE IS THE HORSE'S JOB
It is such a dis-spiriting feeling, getting halfway around a circle or up the long side and the pace dwindling underneath you. Riders generally 'chase' the horse at this point, giving a few random leg aids and being satisfied if the horse doesn't drop down out of pace he's in. But over time, horses need more and more 'chasing' and all those leg aids confuse things. Is the rider, who is using their legs vigorously in the trot, wanting to maintain the trot, increase the trot, canter on? Remember Rule Number Two: fewer aids!
After a successful upwards transition, the rider's job is to monitor the pace. You can feel when the energy drops - when the steps become shorter or lower or slower. Precisely at that point, I like to give the horse a soft vocal reminder (a click or hiss) and if no forward is achieved by that, a sharp smack with a whip. Note that I DO NOT use the leg at this point, for reasons of clarity. The horse may be a bit upset about getting a smack but this will actually work to your advantage in the long run. Next time he hears your vocal reminder, he will remember what followed it. With consistency, the horse will learn that dropping his energy has consequences. Of course, the fitness level of the horse should be considered while training this.
RULE NUMBER FOUR: HAVE DIFFERENT AIDS FOR DIFFERENT RESPONSES
A different aid to "go forward within the pace" or "move up a pace" can make a massive difference in the responsiveness and rideability of lazy horses. Expecting a horse to interpret what its rider is asking for when two aids are identical and two responses are totally different is unfair, and the antithesis of good training. A definite nudge of the lower legs is good for a clear transition while a slower 'push' of the whole leg for 'more' is a good differentiation for most horses and riders but you can use any two differing leg aids you like.
RULE NUMBER FIVE: ONE LEG NEVER MEANS GO FASTER
Training lateral steps with lazy horses often has a remarkable effect on their forward-ness. It's like you can 'wake up' their sides by tuning the lateral response. Be careful, though. If the horse responds to a lateral aid by quickening or energising (even though that's what you might ultimately want) again, it blurs the true meaning of the aid. I'll do another post soon about starting and refining lateral leg aids.
RULE NUMBER SIX: DON'T FORGET YOUR SEAT
Sometimes if a lazy horse is tired, uncooperative or confused, it's very tempting to give them a chase up with the legs. Be warned though, and remember Rule Number Two. The more leg you use the more the horse is going to tune you out. There are a few occasions when using your seat to create or maintain energy can work really well, such as a horse who struggles to maintain the canter or who loses forward during lateral movements. We don't want the horse to rely on the rider to push him along but by giving a little 'buzz' with an energetic, animating seat, you can often get the horse to lift and swing his back more and maintain his own impulsion. So if your horse feels like he's about to drop out of canter, instead of using a leg aid, use an elevating, lifting action of your seat in rhythm with the pace to maintain the tempo. Even very green horses can be trained in this way as they seem to instinctively follow the rider's activating (or resisting/collecting) seat. More on this in a later post too!
RULE NUMBER SEVEN: SCHOOL THE DOWNWARDS TRANSITIONS TOO
Just because your horse is lazy and stops when you stop actively riding, doesn't mean it has a full understanding of what the rein means. And there may come a point that this training will be put to the test and the horse that is normally so willing to stop becomes a war horse charging into battle and ignoring his rider's aids altogether. The 3-2-1 exercise teaches the horse how to fold the hind legs and lower and engage the hindquarters in preparation for the downwards transition which occurs strictly in the rider's given timing. This creates a really effective half-halt which is very useful once the motivating aids have been properly established.
Good luck with your lazy horses!
Thursday, April 14, 2016
The day I decided to stop steering with my legs
Slightly controversially, I believe all basic steering of the green horse should be done with the reins. I clearly remember the day I came to this conclusion.
I was working for a very famous event rider. Her horses were very large, very fit and very well schooled. I was not especially fit, having had some time away from horses, but was (and am) a pretty long-legged, muscular rider. But I was struggling.
The arena we rode in was un-fenced and dug out of the side of a hill. I was riding a truly enormous TBx who was 17.2hh at least and broad with it. He was working at Medium level, apparently, but the most basic of movements was eluding me for one reason. I just didn't have the leg strength to shove him around the arena!
I remember the horse falling out of a 15m trot circle and actually starting to go up the side of the 'cliff' as my outside leg (WITH SPUR!) pushed and pushed against his 700 or so kilograms. He went through the aid as though I wasn't there and I thought, "There has to be a better way!"
I think the better way is to make sure the horse knows about a blocking outside rein. Opening the reins to move the shoulders is EASY and it refines down to the point you can hardly see the movements. It is POWERFUL - a horse going through an outside blocking rein can be given a clear inside opening rein to direct the shoulders back to where they need to be. Moving the forelegs with the reins gives the rider precise control over the placement, which, as I've blogged about before, is a powerful leadership tool that riders can harness. It also tunes-in the horse to feel and follow the position of the rider's shoulders, which is very helpful at Elementary level when shoulder-in, travers and renvers are introduced.
Careful use of opening and blocking reins teach the horse that "his nose is not connected to his forefeet" which can be the case in some green horses who struggle to move in counter-flexion and who habitually need to be pulled back to the outside track with a backwards-acting outside rein; this is seen all too often with riding school and pony club ponies. Horses who are too green, too desensitised, too hot or too pushy to go sensibly off an inside leg cue can do a credible Preliminary test all by steering the shoulders with the reins. After all, 20m circles barely require any bend at all!
It's only after the precise control of the shoulders is well established by horse and rider that I start to introduce bend around the inside leg. And I never (or very rarely) talk about a "blocking" outside leg. How can the horse differentiate between a leg aid that means 'go laterally away from this pressure' and 'continue on the line you are on without moving your hindquarters'? Seems counter intuitive to me!
More on bend in later posts, I think!
Getting your ducks in a row
I have been musing on the importance of what I call 'alignment' while schooling horses. I'm talking about a straight neck between the reins including being straight in relation to the shoulders, that is, forming a 90° angle across the withers. Then, inside flexion of the poll brings the inside eye into the rider's view but a receiving outside hand gently prevents the neck from leaving it's straight position. Even on a 20m circle, the neck should be carried straight. (This is another controversial topic for some trainers.) The flexion of the poll flips the crest muscle to the inside of the circle, which helps release the lower neck muscles, in turn, these soft neck muscles allow the shoulder to swing in a loose arc with no tension. Changing the flexion flips the crest over the nuchal ligament and is a fun 'twang' to watch for!
Most of the green horses I ride need a fair bit of work to maintain these parameters. But when they do it, that's when they suddenly learn to use their bodies.
Similarly, flexing at the poll, truly giving the rider the authority to move their heads independent of their necks, is like physiotherapy for horses. I rode a thoroughbred the other day whose neck was almost a zig-zag it was so crooked. This also caused a lot of tension in the contact. I forgot about alignment and even placement (for a little while!) and JUST worked on getting him to flex laterally at the poll. It took ages of trotting about and changing the rein and holding the inside rein very short and gently and gradually rocking the neck back straight again with the outside rein. But when I got it, the horse unlocked! His trot stride length tripled! He sighed a big sigh and snorted and loosened and it was just magic.
Most of the green horses I ride need a fair bit of work to maintain these parameters. But when they do it, that's when they suddenly learn to use their bodies.
Similarly, flexing at the poll, truly giving the rider the authority to move their heads independent of their necks, is like physiotherapy for horses. I rode a thoroughbred the other day whose neck was almost a zig-zag it was so crooked. This also caused a lot of tension in the contact. I forgot about alignment and even placement (for a little while!) and JUST worked on getting him to flex laterally at the poll. It took ages of trotting about and changing the rein and holding the inside rein very short and gently and gradually rocking the neck back straight again with the outside rein. But when I got it, the horse unlocked! His trot stride length tripled! He sighed a big sigh and snorted and loosened and it was just magic.
Schooling through a dressage test
With lots of students preparing for competitions, some of them are identifying a new challenge in learning to ride a dressage test. But not just RIDING it, schooling it. It's hard enough remembering the movements, the order, the reference points for the circles, etc. It's even harder to remember that your task is to show the judge how well your horse can go. There's no point getting brilliant work at home when you can take six trot circles to prepare for every canter and there's no pressure and no atmosphere. The basic work has to be reproducible under tension-inducing conditions. And you, as a rider, need to plan for this in your schooling. Identify the exercises that create the softness and achieve and maintain attention and rideability that you need for riding a test.
Horses and riders who are only beginning to learn about contact need to look for opportunities to create submission and softness in the jaw. So, as you're riding up the centre line and straightening the horse using the reins, pay attention to how the horse's mouth feels as you make the correction and give a corresponding release for any tiny softening you feel. Find a hundred reasons to soften your hands - every correction or flexion aid is an opportunity to check the submission and encourage lightness in your horse. Before corners, through corners, after corners, before transitions, through transitions, after transitions, keep that jaw mobile, keep the neck straight and the poll flexing in, then reward with soft and still hands.
RIDING the test will give the horse the best opportunity to display the qualities of rhythm, suppleness, impulsion, straightness and collection - the training pyramid against which all of the dressage tests are written and judged.
Horses and riders who are only beginning to learn about contact need to look for opportunities to create submission and softness in the jaw. So, as you're riding up the centre line and straightening the horse using the reins, pay attention to how the horse's mouth feels as you make the correction and give a corresponding release for any tiny softening you feel. Find a hundred reasons to soften your hands - every correction or flexion aid is an opportunity to check the submission and encourage lightness in your horse. Before corners, through corners, after corners, before transitions, through transitions, after transitions, keep that jaw mobile, keep the neck straight and the poll flexing in, then reward with soft and still hands.
RIDING the test will give the horse the best opportunity to display the qualities of rhythm, suppleness, impulsion, straightness and collection - the training pyramid against which all of the dressage tests are written and judged.
Tuesday, February 16, 2016
Riding in Denial
I see many riders who don’t see, don’t acknowledge, don’t
realise or don’t believe that their schooling problems are their own
fault. From the nagger whose busy legs
desensitise and switch off their so-called “lazy” horse, to the grabby, nervous
show jumper whose horse rushes around the course from “keenness” (actually
fear) - I wonder how deluded these
riders really are? Is it easier to blame
their horse than to look inwards?
HOWEVER, we also need to be able to look the other way. I teach many adult riders, particularly if
they have come late to riding, who blame themselves entirely. Who are convinced (usually by their coaches!)
that if they sat ‘correctly’ and used their aids ‘correctly’ that their horse
would perform ‘correctly.’ I think this
is nearly as damaging and nearly as great a folly as the other extreme. Expecting perfection is unrealistic and
expecting our horses to respond to perfection when we have trained them to
ignore us is folly!
Last
week I was teaching a very nice woman who has finally,
at the age of 36, bought herself a schoolmaster. Her story is
surprisingly typical. She’s had greenies and breakers and OTTBs and
done reasonably well with them but in order to “learn more” she’s bought
a
horse with a good standard of education, working medium/advanced
dressage and
with good scores on the board at elementary. The problem?
After two weeks of trying, she could barely ride him. At the start of
the lesson on the green grass
of a local showground, he was excited to be in a new environment and she
couldn't
make him walk. His trot work was passable,
but once he started cantering she couldn't make him stop. Round and
round and round they went while I
pondered how to break it to her: applying correct aids to a
correctly-trained
horse doesn’t mean the horse will respond correctly every time. Put
simply, the horse was absolutely taking
the mickey.
Of course he – a beautifully trained dressage horse – “understood” her aid to perform the downwards transition from canter to trot. He just didn't feel like complying with it. And she’d spent two weeks teaching him that he could ignore her aids if he wanted to. Her own insecurity about how to ride a trained horse (trained by someone that wasn't her) had caused the whole relationship to start off on the wrong foot. Happily, after a stern talking-to (to the rider) and some short sharp downwards transitions (to the horse), they are back on track. But it is worth considering in your riding relationships: who is ignoring whom?
Why the horse you have is a great horse for you
In general, if your current horse is not actually unsound or
dangerous, improving that horse will teach you more about riding and
schooling than going down the slippery slope of trying to find another,
'more suitable' horse.
When I hear that coaches (particularly visiting coaches from interstate) have advised people to 'get rid' it sets off a couple of alarm bells. Firstly, I cynically wonder if the coach has a has a suitable horse for sale or on commission from another student. I also wonder if the coach is lacking in the skills and imagination (or powers of persuasion) to tell the student that they need to go back to basics and re-school the horse. It's not a popular piece of advice, usually, that the so-called 'Elementary' level horse needs to re-learn go and stop and that until the basics are correctly established, progress will be limited.
Correct basics are so often un-taught, badly taught or gradually forgotten that revisiting them can often bring about remarkable progress in students. I'm teaching a lady whose 11 year old mare has had several breaks in her training from injuries and to have a few foals. The rider is quite competitive and wants the horse in winning form as quickly as possible, but after a couple of lessons, it's obvious to me that there's a big gap in the horse's education.
Being a naturally lazy horse, her downwards transitions have always been easy to achieve. Stop riding, stop actively telling the horse to go, and it wants to stop. However, since the horse has not had the schooling a more forward-thinking horse would need to perform the same sort of transitions, she also hasn't learned to engage her hind legs and perform a balanced down transition. This mare's idea of a downwards transition is to flop onto the forehand, bore on the rider's hand, open her mouth, tilt her head and sprawl to a stop. True, she does do it quite quickly! But the quality of the transition is poor and usually ends with the rider shaking the horse off the contact before releasing the rein under the mistaken impression that this will, in time, teach the horse to be lighter in the transition. She has never learned to bring her hind legs under her in response to the rein pressure. The 3-2-1 exercise is having a remarkable effect!
Lazy horses need the same depth of training as fast ones, and improving the downwards transitions also paves the way to improving the upwards transitions.
A quick note on lazy horses: I very often see horses labelled as "lazy" when they simply have a naturally slow rhythm to their paces. In an effort to make them feel 'in front of the leg' they are hurried out of their tempo and subsequently out of balance. This, often coupled with downhill conformation, makes riders feel they need to chase the horse, leading to the horse switching off from the aids and becoming dull. Then the rider puts on some spurs... Educating the rider about the horse's natural tempo is easy (it can be effective to lunge the horse so the rider can see the balance at a slower pace) and often makes a radical difference to how the combination communicates.
Getting a lazy horse 'in front of the leg' is incredibly easy, and takes only one change from the rider. The rider has to commit to using less leg. Yes, LESS leg! The rider needs to give the horse the responsibility of maintaining the forward activity and be utterly consistent in their follow-through. Each time the leg goes on, lightly, the rider must have an expectation of what the response SHOULD be, and be prepared to increase the aid (either by using a stronger leg aid, ie, a hard kick) or a sharp tap with a whip until the horse gives the expected response. It can be helpful to use a 1-10 scale of pressure to help judge the 'right' level of leg pressure and the 'right' response from the horse. I'll talk more about this in another post in future!
When I hear that coaches (particularly visiting coaches from interstate) have advised people to 'get rid' it sets off a couple of alarm bells. Firstly, I cynically wonder if the coach has a has a suitable horse for sale or on commission from another student. I also wonder if the coach is lacking in the skills and imagination (or powers of persuasion) to tell the student that they need to go back to basics and re-school the horse. It's not a popular piece of advice, usually, that the so-called 'Elementary' level horse needs to re-learn go and stop and that until the basics are correctly established, progress will be limited.
Correct basics are so often un-taught, badly taught or gradually forgotten that revisiting them can often bring about remarkable progress in students. I'm teaching a lady whose 11 year old mare has had several breaks in her training from injuries and to have a few foals. The rider is quite competitive and wants the horse in winning form as quickly as possible, but after a couple of lessons, it's obvious to me that there's a big gap in the horse's education.
Being a naturally lazy horse, her downwards transitions have always been easy to achieve. Stop riding, stop actively telling the horse to go, and it wants to stop. However, since the horse has not had the schooling a more forward-thinking horse would need to perform the same sort of transitions, she also hasn't learned to engage her hind legs and perform a balanced down transition. This mare's idea of a downwards transition is to flop onto the forehand, bore on the rider's hand, open her mouth, tilt her head and sprawl to a stop. True, she does do it quite quickly! But the quality of the transition is poor and usually ends with the rider shaking the horse off the contact before releasing the rein under the mistaken impression that this will, in time, teach the horse to be lighter in the transition. She has never learned to bring her hind legs under her in response to the rein pressure. The 3-2-1 exercise is having a remarkable effect!
Lazy horses need the same depth of training as fast ones, and improving the downwards transitions also paves the way to improving the upwards transitions.
A quick note on lazy horses: I very often see horses labelled as "lazy" when they simply have a naturally slow rhythm to their paces. In an effort to make them feel 'in front of the leg' they are hurried out of their tempo and subsequently out of balance. This, often coupled with downhill conformation, makes riders feel they need to chase the horse, leading to the horse switching off from the aids and becoming dull. Then the rider puts on some spurs... Educating the rider about the horse's natural tempo is easy (it can be effective to lunge the horse so the rider can see the balance at a slower pace) and often makes a radical difference to how the combination communicates.
Getting a lazy horse 'in front of the leg' is incredibly easy, and takes only one change from the rider. The rider has to commit to using less leg. Yes, LESS leg! The rider needs to give the horse the responsibility of maintaining the forward activity and be utterly consistent in their follow-through. Each time the leg goes on, lightly, the rider must have an expectation of what the response SHOULD be, and be prepared to increase the aid (either by using a stronger leg aid, ie, a hard kick) or a sharp tap with a whip until the horse gives the expected response. It can be helpful to use a 1-10 scale of pressure to help judge the 'right' level of leg pressure and the 'right' response from the horse. I'll talk more about this in another post in future!
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