oldie48
Well-Known Member
Sadly no longer able to ride myself, kind friends invite me along to lessons and I do a bit of videoing for them. I've always loved watching good trainers and yesterday the lesson was with someone I have watched compete at the highest level but was new to me as a trainer. Friend's horse is huge, rather anxious and inattentive, she rides well but was getting frustrated as he's got good paces, can do the movements and out at medium/ adv medium but he can be very difficult to keep in the right frame for the level, especially away from home, he can drop behind the leg and then become super strong in the hand when asked to go forward. She's been going to the new trainer since beg of the year and this was her 5th lesson. Wow, massive improvement since I last saw the horse in October and IMO the best explanation of how to use transitions to correct the frame and the importance of asking the horse to carry himself once he's in the correct frame that I've heard. (Oh how I wish I was still riding!) Simple instructions, horse loses frame in walk, halt correct frame back into walk and ask horse to carry himself, as soon as he loses frame back to halt and start again. Trot work, horse loses frame, back to walk rebalance and back up to trot, rinse and repeat never accepting an incorrect frame or allowing the horse to use any of the usual stuff to avoid self carriage, canter (which they have recently started to work on) exactly the same canter to walk transition, rebalance the frame and back to canter. It's such a quiet but disciplined way of training. Absolutely no confrontation, no kicking and pulling, just a very positive immediate reaction , yes that's what I want, no back to walk let's try again. The other caveat is only ask for the amount of impulsion that the horse can manage without losing the frame and make sure there is a clear separation of the hand and leg aids. Friend is a good rider and her leg aids are clear so no danger of the leg nagging or being clamped on. It was such a pleasure to watch the horse becoming stiller in the contact as he gained confidence and understood what was being asked of him and also to see the quality of the lateral work improving. Message was clear, even in a canter half pass as soon as you feel horse losing the correct frame, back to walk, correct and back into canter to finish what remains of the movement. How many times have I started to lose a shoulder, lost balance etc and ploughed on regardless trying and totally failing to correct the quality of the pace. Trainer made me laugh because he said years ago he went to an international trainer who said to him, yes, it will all be very good when you learn how to get your horse "on the bit". He was riding small tour! Lovely guy with a great way of training which really suited friend and her horse. I hope I've made the lesson understandable. The aim is, of course, to reach a stage where the transitions become tiny half halts.