Has anyone done any "Straightness Training" (Marijke de Jong)

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wench

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Just wondering has anyone heard of this? Done any of this? Been to a clinic?

Was mentioned by a trainer I had a lesson with on Friday, something I've never heard of. Looked it up on google, and appears to be a system of gymnastic exercises for horses... looks just what I need, but I've not watched all the youtube videos etc!
 
I have heard of it, supposed to be very good, but never got any farther than that!
I think nailing straightness is important before you start introducing harder stuff, and am thinking about starting it with my 8yo who is in fittening after injury, and with my 4yo...
 
Yes I've heard of it, like the idea but haven't felt it necessary to part with my cash yet for one of the courses. I do in hand work anyway and try and work through schooling in a systematic and logical way, my 5 yo was very one sided as a 4 yo but now you would have to really look for it to see it so must be doing ok on our own and with our instructor

I'd love to learn the high school work on hand though so i might well do future courses with marijke or someone with a similar style
 
It's good stuff - but it's basically a clever re-marketing of the work the old masters always did to ensure suppleness, strength and straightness. I find her explanation of crookedness a bit overly complicated (just cus I'm a simple being!) and prefer the Schoneich descriptions ("Correct Movement in Horses") which describes the same thing but worked better for me in terms of actually being able confidently to diagnose a horse's limb dominance - which is typically the initial root of crookedness. Once you know how to diagnose your horse's asymmetries of movement & limb dominance (the Schoneich book will enable you to do this if you don't get there with MDJ's writings), the exercises to help to increase their suppleness and symmetry are essentially common sense for those who have a grasp of dressage and basic biomechanics, and are detailed in lots of books such as those by Phillipe Karl put really simply (ie a horse with x bend / dominance benefits most from SI with lots of bend and not much angle one way, and SI with not much bend but lots of angle the other, kind of thing)... or the excellent in hand work of Manolo Mendez, who has a great Vimeo channel with videos. Though he's so frighteningly, amazingly observant if you see him work in person you do wonder if a mere mortal can ever compare ha ha!
 
philamena said:
or the excellent in hand work of Manolo Mendez, who has a great Vimeo channel with videos. Though he's so frighteningly, amazingly observant if you see him work in person you do wonder if a mere mortal can ever compare ha ha!
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Your comment on Manolo made me laugh as I had the same thought when I first saw him work - amazing and definitely best for me from the 3 mentioned although enjoyed learning from all :)
 
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