Back to basics
28 June 2011 21:28![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
glenatronI was working with Cash this evening, helping him to figure out back-up under saddle. He's doing so great now- we're approaching the point where the main thing he will need is just miles on the clock.
But it got me thinking about teaching back-up and it's kind of a microcosm of where I'm at with my horsemanship in general. There are several components to a good back-up - it needs to be relaxed, the horse's head needs to be low with the shoulders lifted, the movement needs to come from the hind feet so the horse is pulling themselves back rather than pushing with their front legs and the movement needs to be free and smooth.
With a baby like Cash I am constantly finding the balance point between the different things he needs, trying to do enough to keep everything clear and enough nuance in the signal I'm offering him that he can recognise every backward step as being the right response to this cue, but I still have headroom to ask him to do it in a more correct way, without pushing on the bit and dropping his shoulders. If there is too much pressure on the rein he's either going to feel constricted and get scared or he's going to learn to pull on me so I have to make sure that I am doing enough to provide signal, but not so much that he feels pulled on and then be ready to change things if he tries to run through the cues. If I'm going to do that it needs to happen in a way that doesn't conflict with what I'm trying to help him to figure out, ideally by giving him the impression that he has run into his own pressure rather than it being something I am actively doing.
Meanwhile I also have to be noticing the changes of mind, when possible, or body and rewarding them with a break and thinking time so he is able to process what is going on. And there is no benefit in drilling on this and letting him jam up- once we have got something a little bit right we go back to some more forward work so he doesn't get his feet and mind all stuck.
I make allowances for where we are at, but I am still very aware of what I am asking for and exacting in my expectations of him. There is no point teaching him something now that I will need him to unlearn later, so sometimes I will hang in there when it might look as though things are alright because I know that we can be more correct very easily and that settling for less will help neither of us in the long run.
Today we got half a step of calm, relaxed back-up with his head low and his poll relaxed. I stopped the session on that.
But it got me thinking about teaching back-up and it's kind of a microcosm of where I'm at with my horsemanship in general. There are several components to a good back-up - it needs to be relaxed, the horse's head needs to be low with the shoulders lifted, the movement needs to come from the hind feet so the horse is pulling themselves back rather than pushing with their front legs and the movement needs to be free and smooth.
With a baby like Cash I am constantly finding the balance point between the different things he needs, trying to do enough to keep everything clear and enough nuance in the signal I'm offering him that he can recognise every backward step as being the right response to this cue, but I still have headroom to ask him to do it in a more correct way, without pushing on the bit and dropping his shoulders. If there is too much pressure on the rein he's either going to feel constricted and get scared or he's going to learn to pull on me so I have to make sure that I am doing enough to provide signal, but not so much that he feels pulled on and then be ready to change things if he tries to run through the cues. If I'm going to do that it needs to happen in a way that doesn't conflict with what I'm trying to help him to figure out, ideally by giving him the impression that he has run into his own pressure rather than it being something I am actively doing.
Meanwhile I also have to be noticing the changes of mind, when possible, or body and rewarding them with a break and thinking time so he is able to process what is going on. And there is no benefit in drilling on this and letting him jam up- once we have got something a little bit right we go back to some more forward work so he doesn't get his feet and mind all stuck.
I make allowances for where we are at, but I am still very aware of what I am asking for and exacting in my expectations of him. There is no point teaching him something now that I will need him to unlearn later, so sometimes I will hang in there when it might look as though things are alright because I know that we can be more correct very easily and that settling for less will help neither of us in the long run.
Today we got half a step of calm, relaxed back-up with his head low and his poll relaxed. I stopped the session on that.
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no subject
Date: 3 Jul 2011 01:35 (UTC)I have had (simultaeneously) a QH, a TB, and a WB in training with the same dressage trainer (a pupil of Zettl's who is a genius with the long lines and can have a horse perform an entire GP test in them) and they all did backing as part of every lesson. Most important was the "schaukel" which is a combination of back and forward.
I have ridden with a multitude dressage trainers and was a working student for a two time Olympian and I have never heard anything negative about backing up. Backing up is part of every dressage test from Second level on, and in schooling a few steps of backing are routinely used to help develop an upward transition (which obviously would not the technique of choice in an up transition if we all thought it would destroy the forward impulse).
I use it all the time and I have not encountered this prejudice against backing in either the dressage or jumping worlds. The only time it is seen as "bad" is if a horse backs in the piaffe or something as a forward evasion.
Glenatron, I have been quietly following your blog and think Cash is a real cutie.
Good job with him!
no subject
Date: 3 Jul 2011 03:07 (UTC)I'm glad this attitude appears to be a lower level thing and not at all common, then. Happens.
no subject
Date: 3 Jul 2011 20:26 (UTC)Certainly my dressage teacher wouldn't say that ( and I wouldn't ride with a dressage instructor who did ) but I have never seen a dressage horse that backs up the way I like a horse to back up, although I have only seen dressage ridden at a local show type level and at the WEG/Olympics. I'm sure there are people working their horses that way and using it in competition, but I have never been fortunate enough to see them.
no subject
Date: 7 Jul 2011 02:23 (UTC)I ask because in your description of the components of a good backup, you say the head should be low. But the dressage objectives like the poll to be the highest point (or at least close if your stallion is cresty). So you will probably not see it in competition ever although this does not mean they can't do it at home.
I am just interested to hear how you amalgate the teachings as I too do several disciplines with the hunters, the dressage, and a little NH sprinkled in on each horse.
What are you thoughts on the back up here at 3:12?
This lady
a.) rides beautifully (at least IMO) and
b.) got great comments for the back up in this test.
no subject
Date: 8 Jul 2011 23:21 (UTC)I am going to guess wild that there was a link in that text?
For where Cash is now the head should be low, because the alternative is going to be resistant and bracey around the poll and using all those muscles along the bottom of his neck. As he gets more advanced I would expect him to hold himself correctly as some dressage riders would see it. On the whole I prefer the back up you might see on a good cowhorse or reining horse to what you typically see on dressage horses but head position isn't so different in that, it's just that the feet are typically more free and the horse is pulling from behind a little more.
Steve talks about riding with one of his mentors and thinking he had scared the horse because it ran backwards so fast when he picked the rein up. Turned out it was just a horse that knew how to back-up. I like the idea that if my horse is capable of moving in a certain way then they would move in the same way if I asked them to.
no subject
Date: 9 Jul 2011 00:42 (UTC)no subject
Date: 9 Jul 2011 01:52 (UTC)Sorry about the link, I suppose I got a little carried away with the re-watching instead of the copy and pasting:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pUAMwuyAus0
I personally just love how she rides, but I am certainly open to other perspectives.
no subject
Date: 9 Jul 2011 21:55 (UTC)On the whole I like the way she rides- she's pretty quiet for a dressage rider. A lot of them seem to be all heels-heels-heels the whole time or doing that nod-nod-nod thing. She isn't too exaggerated with that, although she's clearly very wiggly-heels in the passage. You can certainly ride more subtly, though you don't see a lot of people doing it. I'd be pretty happy if I could ride a test a quarter as well as she does...
no subject
Date: 9 Jul 2011 22:32 (UTC)She keeps all her horses in huge fields and will not accept customers who want their horses stalled all the time. The boxes are 10x30 and all open onto runs which go back to the trees.
She does not have an indoor arena (in Germany), rides outside in all the elements, and still keeps her horses on schedule to compete with the big kids.
Her husband works all the horses on the ground in both NH and the long lines. So I thought you would like her because she too combines the natural with the dressage in the best interests of the horse.
Btw, don't know if you speak German but the announcers pretty much fell over themselves praising that backup. Apparently at a different show in Frankfurt she won a special prize for "Best Backup".
Someday I will have a midlife crisis and ride with her for a year.
I just love everything about her.
http://www.eurodressage.com/equestrian/2010/11/03/uta-graf-and-stefan-schneider-kingdom-horse