Horse Training tips and tricks for all disciplines.

What language are you speaking?

by Diana Bayer on 02/12/12

The horse training world, to me, can be divided into 4 different camps.

The first is teaching the human to speak horse.

The second is teaching the horse to speak human.

The Third is down before up.

And Lastly is up before down.

The first 2 groups might surprise you about who I would would put where.

There are the "natural" horsepeople, but not all are created equal. Ray Hunt and Chris Irwin and a few others I would put in the first group. They move in the horses world, but also in there are the old school classical dressage masters like Phillipe Karl.

All these people have in common a way of training that is so automatic for the horse to understand it is like breathing. they almost seem to get it the first time out. (or at least once the human does it right)

The second group, now don't all hate me, but is the Parelli people, the western reiners, the gaited people.

These styles of trainers seek to be able to get on and turn a key and the horse responds. You can teach a horse to canter by tweaking his ear, but is that natural?

Now we get to the next bunch.

Down before up, means doing the long low stretching over the back to lift the back idea. So these people believe that if you can get a horse to touch his back feet, you will lift its back. Yes the back comes up, it has to, BUT, where is the weight transferred?

To the front feet. the head and neck of a horse weigh quite a lot. The front feet are designed to carry that weight, but while grazing, not while moving. Yes you can chase a horses back feet under the body more and this will help with the balance, and it just might work in bringing the horse into a lighter place.

Particularly if the horse is already built uphill. Like many well bred warm bloods, Friesians, saddlebreds, etc.

Not if you are riding a quarter horse, stock horse, pony, anything where the withers are lower than the hind quarters.

Now if instead you look to old school advise like Phillipe Karl, and others you will see that up before down has merits worth investigating.

If I teach my horse to raise his head and neck and the back up with his head high, he is forced to lower his croup and round his back. Then the horse is ask to lower his neck with the back already up, then less weight is transferred to the front legs because his back legs are already under him.

I can get a horse to lift his back, carry his head, and stay in balance all without him ever breaking a sweat. That way he can go in the ring and compete full of energy and with less risk of mileage injuries to his legs.

I can also teach a horse this without getting o his back, which means a two year old can be taught the correct way to move, and build the correct muscles, so when he is mounted for the first time, he is ready physically to work correctly.

There are merits to all training and every style and reasons for them. I have simplified it all here and most likely offended a few people. All I can say to that is, this is how I feel. sorry.

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Competitive, Classical, natural, … What style of dressage riding?

by Diana Bayer on 07/08/11

Classical, natural, competitive… What kind of dressage riding?

Dressage has always found itself divided into different schools, each with their own gurus and differing approaches, often in direct conflict with each other right down to the basic philosophy behind them.

i like to call the two species Dressahhhge and Dress-age. Dress-age being the work form that is multi-usefull, and Dressahhhge being the lofty only for it's own purpose sport version.

I believe that good riding is good riding, full stop, and that this is what defines dressage, nothing else. The true essence of dressage is in the gymnastic connection between horse and rider, and the thought of the mechanics of the exercise, developing specific muscles as needed.

There are no styles or schools of thought to pure gymnastic equilibrium - it is a physical state which is either there or not. Engagement is the phenomenon which characterizes this state, with its specific characteristics.

In fact it could be said that the different schools of dressage are only defined by the particular way in which they diverge from what is universally correct about good riding.

For example, So-called Natural dressage is also prone to losing the relevance of the gymnastic dimension of training by focusing on conditioning the horse's mind rather then developing his body in the right way.

Competitive dressage in turn has to a large extent lost the emphasis on true quality and purity of movement through engagement by favoring the spectacular display, and meaningless precision achieved through force rather than a genuine unity between horse and rider. With even the very rule book that defines the sport being tossed out the window.

Classical dressage on the other hand, although sometimes obsessed with it's focus on Lightness and purity of all the work, is the bringing together of the two previous styles with a strong focus on the original teachings of the masters.

All of these divergences result in a parody of true dressage when they lose their foundation in correct riding, and the love and respect of the horse.

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Sit on it and rotate

by Diana Bayer on 06/23/11

That phrase has lots of different meanings but I wan to use it to show you how to sit on a horse correctly.

Let's start at the bottom, your bottom,

When you sit in the saddle do you feel two quarter sized pressure points on the saddle and between your thighs? Very important, not back in the squishy stuff behind you.

Some people will feel like they are leaning forward at this point, you're not, you are straight up and in balance. For the first time, do it with out stirrups, it's easier.

Once you have found these precious points then we can learn to turn.

To turn left, draw your right knee back a few inches, NOT your lower leg, your KNEE. When you do this you should feel your left seat bone press harder into the saddle.

The horse feels this and turns left. Too simple. Ya it is.

Think of two cables running down your horses back from his ears to his tail, if you press into one it shortens and the horse has to turn. Once mastered it is very hard for a horse to spook into your seat bone like he can your leg.

Now sometime it doesn't work, that is because you need to look where you are going silly. But don't just turn your head, turn and look like you are going there, so turn your shoulders. Your eyes are in you chest, not your head.

Now should the horse turn left but like a stick of wood, then you are most likely pressing with your right leg, that is not what it is for. IT is just there to get your seat bone on.

Everyone has a good seat bone a bad one, one way is easy to turn and the other not so much. Often because our hips are crooked, for this I say go see a Chiropractor. That is their job, if you ride you need a good Chiro. Unless you want a crooked horse then don't bother.

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