From: Patrick
I live in the UK and have returned to riding over the past 5 years though I rode a little in my twenties. I am now in my late fifties and am rather a over weight male so am more into pleasure riding than anything else though I have done two mini XC courses and some jumping - max about 3ft. In these past years I have tended to ride once or, occasionally twice a week - one of these would be a lesson each week. Last December I bought my own horse, Domino who is a black (well dark brown really I suppose) now (just) 5 year old 16. 1hh cob mare. She must be a well built 'mongrel', part Welsh and part Irish Draft or something, to judge from the size of her enormous hooves!
She is kept at grass all year round and is used for up to 8-9 hours or so a week in the school for teaching purposes in the summer, less in the winter. The school give her concentrated feed when they have used her. I now ride her once a week in a 1 hr group lesson and once a week on a hack of 1-1. 5 hours. The lessons tend to have different attendees from a regular riders group so dwell on transitions rather than anything else. I suspect I might benefit from something else.
Domino has a lovely temperament, is easy to catch in the field, is forward going when not being a touch lazy and is sought after by many other adults at the school as a good ride both indoors and out and she clearly enjoys jumping and pole work. Outside - on her own - her only real 'vice' is a tendency to stop cantering when she has done what she thinks is enough rather than what I think is enough. In a crowd of other horses she is quite different though she cannot yet canter slowly and breaks into trot when others are going slower than her 'minimum' canter.
She knows the basics, has reasonable (by my limited judgement!) transitions between halt, walk, trot and canter - including the acute transitions, though they aren't always reliably performed!. She can make a good attempt at 20m (and perhaps 15m) circles and serpentines at trot though they are harder and more mishapen at canter and she sometimes will do a flying change to 'order' on a cantered serpentine. However bear in mind that I am probably rather more easily pleased than most so what I think of as a good attempt may not really be so!
She has really no 'lateral' knowledge as yet and I have found it almost impossible to get her to leg yield - though I've only tried once or twice because I am a little afraid that she may be too young for that. . She 'sort of' tries when asked for shoulder-in (is it shoulder- fore when the angle is v small ? She is obviously still young and green and I am old and green! I am keen to find ways in which I might prevent her from being too affected by the routine of school use and had thought that trying to get her to do some lateral work when I ride her, might help. It certainly would help in getting gates closed and in avoiding tree trunks and gateposts when riding through woodland!! It might help getting her to recognise me. However I don't know what age is appropriate for introducing her to such things, whether I can expect such a size and shape of horse to do this sort of thing well anyway, or even whether that is the best thing to do to 'bring on' such a horse who is used so much in the school. . I could probably get one of the stable staff to ride her a bit if more time than I can devote was needed. . . . I'd welcome any advice you may have.
Patrick
It's easy for a horse to become confused when it is ridden by so many riders. The problem is not that Domino is inattentive or unwilling, it's simply that she has obviously (vide the demand for her as a mount!) become an excellent school horse. And some of the qualities that make a lovely school horse are NOT qualities that make a sensitive, one-owner riding horse.
More specifically, a sensitive, well-trained, one-owner horse -- a competitive dressage horse being a good example -- is a horse that has learned the language of the aids, and to which each shift of the rider's weight, each vibration of the boot and movement of the leg, each closing of the rider's fingers and tilt of the rider's shoulders MEANS SOMETHING -- and something quite specific. This kind of training, this kind of understanding, is accomplished through many, many hours of consistent riding and handling, during which the horse and rider develop and refine their communication. (It works both ways: the rider also learns to interpret the horse's movements, moods, and expressions).
A good SCHOOL horse, on the other hand, cannot afford this sort of sensitivity - - it would go mad. A horse that is ridden by many people with varying backgrounds, physiques, and riding experience and ability (and some of whom are just beginning to learn to ride) MUST be a calm and generous horse that is able to generalize and extrapolate. If it is regularly ridden by, say, even four different riders: one tall and thin, one short and stout, one very weak and slow, and one very athletic and coordinated, the signals it receives from each rider will be quite different, even if they are all riding at the same level and being taught by the same instructor. If a horse is ridden by ten riders of widely varying abilities, it will either become entirely unresponsive (a BAD school horse) or it will learn to generalize (a GOOD school horse) and interpret, for instance, any sort of push, squeeze, kick, or shove from its shoulder to its flank as a signal to move off or keep moving.
A dressage horse (for example) must register, understand, and respond to a variety of leg pressures -- a school horse, on the other hand, will certainly also feel all the quite different sorts of leg pressure offered by those four riders, but THIS horse will understand that all mean exactly the same thing, and will respond without getting fussed. A squeeze, a kick, a pressure mid-belly, a poke in the lower belly, a wildly swinging leg that bounces off the horse's side suddenly --- to a school horse, these all mean "go forward," just as a squeeze on the reins, a pull, a tug, a lifted hand, a dropped hand. . . . all mean "stop. " A rider squeezing harder with one leg gives one message to a dressage horse: move over, away from this leg; another message entirely to a school horse: keep moving forward, but slowly, because this rider isn't balancing well at all.
You see the difficulty.
You can, however, teach Domino to leg-yield -- and to do a turn on the forehand. These are the beginnings of lateral work, taught first because they are simple and easy for both rider and horse. Shoulder-fore and shoulder-in come later, once the horse has understood the basic concept of moving sideways away from the rider's leg.
You don't need a marked school to do this work, but it does help at first. However, if you'd rather work on these exercises while you are riding out, they are both easy to teach that way as well; in fact, I prefer to do them outside, especially leg-yielding, which must be done at a good forward walk (and eventually at the trot). Indoors, where the horse has no particular incentive to move forward, it's too easy to fall into the trap of thinking "sideways" instead of "FORWARD and sideways. " Outdoors, it's another story -- the "forward" tends to take care of itself to a great extent. The horse that could NOT understand the point of moving away from the leg on the center line of an indoor school is usually quite happy to leg-yield from one side of the path to the other, over and over again. Many things come more easily to a horse that is moving forward energetically in the fresh air, with something to look at.
The key to these exercises is to sit straight and use your leg (take it back behind the girth, but move it back from the hip -- not the knee!) to press the horse's hindquarters OVER, away from the leg pressure. If the horse has difficulty understanding what you want at first, help it by putting a little more weight into your seatbone and stirrup on the outside, in the direction that you want the horse's hindquarters to go, and keep your outside leg very light, so that the horse can move into it comfortably.
Key ideas:
The horse must be straight, and so must you. Leg-yielding and turns on the forehand require a minimal bend -- you should just be able to see your horse's inside eyelashes and nostril.
Signal, don't force. You aren't MOVING the horse's hindquarters with your leg -- you are using your leg to let the horse know that you want it to move its hindquarters. There's a big difference!
Leg pressure is a signal -- pressure is "squeeze and release," not constant pushing.
Be sure to sit straight -- if you focus too much on trying to shove the horse sideways with your leg, you are likely to collapse over your hip on that side, and that will confuse your horse! Your leg aid will be telling it 'move over that way' whilst your weight will be telling it 'no, no, come back this way. '
Ask for ONE step at a time, and after each step, relax your legs,praise the horse, equalize your leg pressure and your weight and balance on the horse, then prepare the horse and ask for the next step. This is essential if you want the horse to move step by step -- otherwise, it will quickly learn to whirl in response to constant pushing by the leg. If you want to open and close a gate on a ride, you need to be able to position your horse one step at a time.
The good news is that if you can take the time to ride Domino regularly, even for shorter periods, and if you can be absolutely consistent and clear with her, she WILL become more responsive to you and to your aids. It's quite possible that you will initially need to spend the first twenty minutes of every ride refreshing her memory, and reminding her that YOUR signals mean something specific, whereas the ones she receives from all and sundry at the riding school may mean little or nothing at all. But as the two of you develop your partnership, it will take less and less time to refresh her memory.
Have fun!
Jessica
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