Is it difficult / complicated?….No! Rider: Mathilde, Horse: Ósk
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The communicationsWhen the time comes, we need to teach the horse how to react to the different aids and communications. We need to establish the right situation between a man and a horse that is that the horse has respect for the man as well as trust towards him. What we need to teach a horse is simply the language / communications that we need so that we can control what it is doing under our riding. We need to teach the horse to move forward from encouragement in that direction (what direction?), ….we need to teach the horse to stop and stand still by command, and we need to show the horse how to move away from us by command. These lessons are the preparation before the horse is under a rider. Methods will not be described here as they are a material for a longer article.
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If we manage to build up the right Contact with the horse plus enough physical strength and we have also managed to show it how to react to our aids,......we can ride in any way we want to. Meaning, we can ride all the gaits the horse has to offer, and we can ride/use any exercise we hear / read about or see somewhere, without any special education. Just use the aids to influence the horse so the movement/exercise becomes a reality. A good 6 months work / in-riding from day one should leave us with that situation and it becomes possible to train/take the horse through the rest of the Classical trainingstages. |
When the education is by, meaning that the horse understands all aids and communication and has learned to trust and respect the trainer, a longer process takes over. That is the training of the horse. A well trained and cared-for horse can increase in capability for a big part of it´s life. In many cases a competition horse reaches it´s best situation when it is 13-15 years old as the goal of training is to make it easier and easier for the horse to meet the trainers demands, to be able to move and perform better and better as time goes by. Well organized and performed training makes the horse stronger and stronger and the horse gets better at doing the exercises and gates it is asked for. Reactions to aids becomes more automatic with the more often the horse experiances that. Taking the horse through this process and becoming better and better as a rider is the Horsemanship,.....in my opinion.
Trausti Þór |