Lessons of Lessons

My journey through 2018 made me decide my goal for 2019 is to go over the basics for the millionth time and really define it in a systematic way. I have some youngsters coming up that I really want to track the ideas that helped them learn most effectively. The concept of “Forward” keeps being reminded in every ride when dealing with a young horse but can be the “hole” in a lot of upper level work as well. We are all told good basics can be seen throughout good horsemanship no matter the sport. Sometimes seeing things from a different perspective shines light on parts you have missed. So when I witnessed this eventing trainer jumping horses at my local barn I was like “THAT IS FORWARD”! I could see the commitment the horse has to have to take her to the jump with the self carriage to carry her over it and then precede to be ready onto the next. It wasn’t just a physical action the horse was doing with it’s body but a mental state that allowed it’s body to be free. I wanted to feel that so I asked her if she would teach me.

Overtime I learned how I learn. First of all I am not a very good listener. I hear what I want to hear. And I like to talk about what I thought I heard to define it for myself. Then I apply the concept that was attempted to be taught to me on the rest of the horses in my life then I come back the following week and tell my instructor what I learned. I have to understand the concept so that I can get out of my head and feel. I have to trust my instructor to ride through me so that I can find the feel to then replicate. In school they would always tell me “you don’t learn when you are talking”. Well yes I do! This is me talking so that I can dissect what I learned.

In dressage land I feel like forward is talked a lot about but not fulling grasped early on. That is because the image we have in our head is the look of high collection with light contact. The RESULT of a series of half halts. But we don’t just magically get there without first learning to send the horse forward into the contact to then recycle them onto the hindquarters. The purpose of the collection is to teach the horse to use its hind end to go and whoa. But you can’t whoa what is not going. But what if I changed the image to a moving picture of a extended canted to a pirouette? A horse poised in adjustablility not a stagnant picture.

That means we first must be able to “send” the horse before we can half halt them. I hadn’t heard the word send before used in my dressage lessons. But there is a lot of sending happening when I am cantering towards an obstacle I have to get over. And that word seems to also be yelled with the word leg. So it is safe to say the leg sends the horse. She also had me send the horse into the corner so that I had something to “settle” before my next line. But once I found my line I had to send the horse again to tell them get your ears up we are going to jump. But If I kept my leg “sending” then it turned into “chasing”. Learned that wasn’t a good thing. So for every send I had to add a settle. Everything you ask starts with a send. You send them to the jump, into the turn, into the flying lead change, into your outside rein for straightness. IT NEVER ENDS! And if you don’t get your reaction to the “forward send” immediately then you don’t have the time to settle to resend them for the next cue.

However when the horse is in the state of “forward” the horse is able to respond to just the thought of the cues. Magically when the horse is in “front of you” they don’t need to be reminded to go into your out side rein. They stop stealing distance in the corners. The rhythm stays the same. A thousand other symptoms you normally are managing all go away and the horse lands right where they are supposed to so they can go over the jump when they are forward. Now how did I create the forward again?

Erin's Thoughts