Watched a really interesting lesson yesterday!

[oldie48]

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.

 

[Midlifecrisis]

That sounds like great advice.

 

[oldie48]

It was such an interesting lesson because it was a very different approach to many of the lessons that I've seen in the past with very good trainers. I'm not an expert on anything horsey so I try to stay open minded. So often people talk about "throughness" coming from behind ie forget about the front just get the engine going at the rear but with this horse it was totally counter productive, he needed to understand the use of the rein and to take responsibility for carrying himself, then it was possible to put more impulsion in. I'd love to watch more lessons with different types of horses but this approach is definitely working with my friend's horse and they both looked so happy in their work.

 

[Fire sign]

Hey Oldie , am glad you are still fully involved in the horsy world …
Am sorry you are missing riding xx

 

[ycbm]

That was a nice read Oldie, I'm so sick of watching horses pushed out of their natural rhythm to maintain (or simulate) "forwardness". And so much of the time all that's doing is masking lameness.

I do think there is a point where you need to carry on and let the horse learn to put its own balance right when it's gone wrong, but that's not all the time. I'd like to see more slowing down to balance (which also really increases the strength) and less "pushing through".

 

[oldie48]

I so often hear quote the "Carl does thousands of transitions" but I wonder how many of us actually understand what is meant by that and how you use transitions in the training of your own horse. I certainly had a clearer understanding after Saturday and it made me think back to the lovely Mr B, who would have responded well to a lesson like that.

 

[Orangehorse]

Sounds very interesting. Also great that you could see that the horse and rider have made great progress because sometimes we feel that we are simply repeating lessons but not making progress.

Um, no hint as to name and location?

 

[oldie48]

Sounds very interesting. Also great that you could see that the horse and rider have made great progress because sometimes we feel that we are simply repeating lessons but not making progress.

Um, no hint as to name and location?

Message me, I didn't feel it was correct to post a name as it wasn't even my own lesson.

 

[SEL]

I took this on board this morning.

Baby cob had a few weeks off after hurting his leg when the hunt came by. He's had the all clear from the vet and physio but feels a bit like an ironing board to ride and really isn't moving off my leg - unless we go to an external clinic where he completely boiled over and I got to prove I can still sit a rodeo act despite being much too old for that nonsense.

So this morning I had him at home generally acting like a teenage brat who doesn't know what the leg is for. Your post wafted through my head Oldie and I slowed everything down, ignored the fact he was being a brat and just asked for bend in walk, then bend in a slow trot and back to walk if we were being an ironing board, and then trot again. Change to harder rein, slow it down again, flexion, bend etc.

He was actually working quite nicely by the end.

Arena hire tomorrow to see if we can repeat away from home. I think slowing down will work for us right now and hopefully let me keep his concentration on me.