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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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...
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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