Only the best for our super model 🥰🔥🦄 (a.k.a. George Clooney of Predarezzo)
Malou training week 8: Introduction of flexions
Being able to request a release at the poll into a tiny lateral flexion is the keys to the kingdom for me. When the horse is able to release on a subtle request through hands or lead rope or reins, you can start any new activity in relaxation which is crucial.
They need to learn this, as do we.
When my Feldenkrais teacher first asked me to release my head into her hands, I could not do it. It requires a lot of trust to release our precious head and neck into someone else’s hands. And if you don’t practice it, you wouldn’t know how to let go of your neck muscles.
Why would we ask our horses to give us their head? Because it allows us to communicate with the them with nuance and finesse. Direct contact of our hands on their head (and body) or indirectly through lead rope and reins, is tactile communication.
Requesting and getting slight flexions allow us to check in whether they are tense or relaxed and if they are relaxed, we can influence their entire body through these small flexions. In a relaxed horse, these flexions travel through their entire body (as they do for us).
I can’t stress enough how important they are.
I’m beginning to teach Malou how to respond to a request for a give into a tiny lateral flexion. Initially, I use three target points: hands on nose and chin and my forehead at the point where she should “fold”. The last point will soon disappear and in the end I can transfer from my hands to lead rope and reins.
Malou is more stiff on her right. So I started teaching it on the easier left side.
You can see in the clip that the right side is more challenging. But you can also see why its important to work on that side because even at a halt I can shift her weight from the overloaded right shoulder to the left by just asking for tiny flexion at the jaw line. Isn’t that wild.
Malou’s training is done together with @equitazioneinarmonia
#animaltraining #classicaldressage #horse #
Malou training week 7. Shoulder balance
Starting a young horse is not only about putting a saddle and rider on her back.
If you want to have a riding horse that is enjoying the rides and keeps enjoying them for many years to come, you must work on balance.
When you put a rider on a horse’s back, you disturb their balance. They will put more weight on their shoulders. And most often, one shoulder will carry more weight than the other.
Malou tends to overload her right front leg, even without a rider. In order to avoid future lameness on that leg due to chronic overloading, we must teach her how to shift her balance a little to the left shoulder so both legs carry the same weight.
This clip shows the very beginning of teaching Malou these weight shifts from the ground. As we go around the circle, I am asking Malou to bend ner neck to the inside and shift the weight from the right to the left shoulder. This round around the circle of cones is the result of many turns around individual cones until she could continue in that balance around the circle.
As we progress with the training, she will get better and better at it. However, the tendency to fall on her right shoulder will always be there and it’s her owner’s @gymnastricks.hundefitness responsibility to keep reminding Malou to carry herself in a good and healthy balance.
Malou’s training is done in collaboration with knowledgeable and skilled @equitazioneinarmonia
#animaltraining #classicaldressage #horse #pferd #clickertraining #clickertraininghorses #clickerhorse #clickertrainer #positivereinforcement #clickerpferd #clickerpony #clickertrainedhorses #clickertrainingpferde #equitazioneinarmonia
Malou training week 7. Getting in the saddle
When you are on your horse’s back, you are disturbing her balance. At the very beginning we do not ask for standing more than a second. It’s similar to balancing on a bicycle at a standstill. They need some movement to find balance.
They will fall on the shoulders forward but also to the side. Malou tends to put more weight on her right shoulder. With the rider, it gets worse. To avoid wear and tear on the right front leg and improve her balance, we need to teach her how to distribute her weight equally on all four feet. This will be a life long journey but she will get better at it.
In this short clip you see me and Giulia @equitazioneinarmonia celebrating Malou’s small weight shift under saddle.
#animaltraining #classicaldressage #horse #pferd #clickertraining #clickertraininghorses #clickerhorse #clickertrainer #positivereinforcement #clickerpferd #clickerpony #clickertrainedhorses #clickertrainingpferde #equitazioneinarmonia
Malou training week 5. Getting in the saddle
When your horse is aligning herself to the saddle and shows no signs of worry when you put weight on her back, then you can get on. I would not do too many repetitions of adding weight to the stirrup. If you have prepared her well, and she stands firmly at the mounting block, then get on. Make sure you wear a helmet and have a helper on the ground. The ground person is leading the horse, the rider is a passenger. Your horse does not understand yet any of the cues coming from the person on her back. Walk on and let her experience this new challenge.
If you are on your own, you can use the mats and verbal cues to get your horse to go forward.
In the saddle Giulia Gaibazzi @equitazioneinarmonia
Fabulous horse by @gymnastricks.hundefitness
Full session on
https://youtu.be/2cRrL18Ox_I
#animaltraining #classicaldressage #horse #pferd #clickertraining #clickertraininghorses #clickerhorse #clickertrainer #positivereinforcement #clickerpferd #clickerpony #clickertrainedhorses #clickertrainingpferde #equitazioneinarmonia
Malou training week 5. Preparing for the rider.
I am teaching Malou to bring the saddle to me. @alexandra.kurland.5 calls this lesson “Capture the saddle”. For this, I am using Malou’s Western Riding pad, which allows me to wiggle and make the saddle relevant. I am also teaching her where she will find the food when the person is on her back. And she gets to practice her mat skills 🤩
Malou is the jewel 💎 of @gymnastricks.hundefitness and I have the honor of training her together with @equitazioneinarmonia
#animaltraining #classicaldressage #horse #pferd #clickertraining #clickertraininghorses #clickerhorse #clickertrainer #positivereinforcement #clickerpferd #clickerpony #clickertrainedhorses #clickertrainingpferde #equitazioneinarmonia
Malou training week 4. Building the saddle.
Sometimes things are easy.
To get to this point with Blondie was a huge challenge. Malou on the other hand was cool as a cucumber 🥒
Super preparation by @gymnastricks.hundefitness
Next step is the real girth and then the saddle with help from @equitazioneinarmonia
#animaltraining #classicaldressage #horse #pferd #clickertraining #clickertraininghorses #clickerhorse #clickertrainer #positivereinforcement #clickerpferd #clickerpony #clickertrainedhorses #clickertrainingpferde
#equitazioneinarmonia
Malou training week 4. Building the saddle.
I used a similar approach to Blondie’s training which was total overkill because her owner @gymnastricks.hundefitness prepared Malou very well. But you can never assume anything so we started at the beginning.
The movement cycle stepping forward, click and dynamic food deliver to reset.
I am then fading the saddle pad into that same loop so that Malou brings herself under the saddle pad as she comes forward, click, feeding backward to reset. Repeat. I’m so enjoying this training collaboration with @equitazioneinarmonia
#animaltraining #classicaldressage #horse #pferd #clickertraining #clickertraininghorses #clickerhorse #clickertrainer #positivereinforcement #clickerpferd #clickerpony #clickertrainedhorses #clickertrainingpferde
Malou 3 weeks
I am testing Alex Kurland’s Mounting Block lesson.
The aim for Malou is riding but before even thinking about that, we need to make sure that she is confident with a rider on a mounting block, next to her side and higher up than normal. We want her to approach this rider, align herself to the mounting block and eventually bringing the saddle to the rider.
In this session, I am asking whether she can yield her hips, shift her weight back and bring herself forward next to me on the mounting block.
She is still a little nervous in the strange environment. The other horses are in the forest next to the arena and comfort her a little.
She is handling it quite well, I am pleased. She also gets better with the mat.
Malou is owned by Gymnastricks and trained in collaboration with Giulia Gaibazzi, Equitazione in armonia
We have a resident deer who enjoys hanging out around our outdoor school. We see him so regularly that we named him “Tino”. The horses still freak out when he makes his sudden appearances though.
A friend of mine @gymnastricks.hundefitness was filming us as I was explaining @alexandra.kurland.5 ’s training progression when Tino suddenly came by. He provided a great opportunity to show the benefits of the foundation lesson “Head lowering” 😅Thanks Tino 🦌
#animaltraining #classicaldressage #horse #pferd #clickertraining #clickertraininghorses #clickerhorse #clickertrainer #positivereinforcement #clickerpferd #clickerpony #clickertrainedhorses #clickertrainingpferde
After a refresher of the Targeting and Grown-ups are Talking in protective contact in the “stall”, we took the next step taking her out. Our outdoor school would have taken her too far from the comfort of seeing the other horses, so we worked close to the barn.
The lesson was about communication with the strange person (me) in the presence of the mat. The mat was not the main focus, it was more about: Can you stand next to me (Grown-ups)? Can you walk with me? Can you stop with me? We also did a little bit of shoulder balance. Remember, this is still very early in the process. She is doing great 💪
The full lesson is on my YouTube channel. https://youtu.be/3GPdQPYyV6k
#animaltraining #classicaldressage #horse #pferd #clickertraining #clickertraininghorses #clickerhorse #clickertrainer #positivereinforcement #clickerpferd #clickerpony #clickertrainedhorses #clickertrainingpferde
I start every horse with targeting in protective contact, even the very sweet and clicker savvy such as Malou (owned by @gymnastricks.hundefitness ). It creates a clean starting point without too many assumptions. In this clip you can see that we go through the lesson really fast, because Malou already knows the stuff. But she is a new environment, new people, new treats, new variation soft clicker training.
We start by testing if she can eat the treats I am offering. I offer the treats she knows from home, hay pellets that are new and carrot slices. Only after testing if she is calm enough to eat and likes the treats, I start with clicker training.
We progress fast and I can quickly go in with her. In this lesson, we did targeting, offering the target at different locations (which we could do already because this lesson is not new to her) including lowering her head, dynamic food delivery (Backing) and Grown-ups are talking. I already focussed on Happy Faces. So basically we touched on all foundation lessons except Standing on a mat (which she also already knows).
If you doing this lesson with a horse that is new to clicker training, don’t expect such a quick progression. For Malou this was a refresher under new conditions.
From this we can continue her training in collaboration with @equitazioneinarmonia
The full lesson is on my YouTube channel. https://youtu.be/usCjRZPjyso
#animaltraining #classicaldressage #horse #pferd #clickertraining #clickertraininghorses #clickerhorse #clickertrainer #positivereinforcement #clickerpferd #clickerpony #clickertrainedhorses #clickertrainingpferde
You want to know why I am obsessed with the Feldenkrais Method?
It’s the only method I found that helps me understand instruction from great riders such as Anja Beran. Anja’s instructions for a good seat are: stabilise your torso, i.e. using abdominal and back muscles, follow the horse’s movement with your pelvis, keep your arms and legs relaxed.
Easier said than done.
My difficulty, for years, was that I would either let the horse move me, which created a wobbly passenger OR use my muscles to stabilise but in turn blocking all movement. I could not get my head around it.
My Feldenkrais instructor understood the problem and also knew what to do.
Nathalie was a professional ballet dancer and an Olympic level gymnasts trainer before becoming a Feldenkrais practitioner. She knows how to stabilise the torso. But it was not easy for her to make me understand.
Nathalie has put the pieces together for me over the last 10 years, and I think I NOW begin to understand Anja’s instructions. It doesn’t mean that I can implement them 1:1, far from it, but now I understand and know how to get there.
The videos I share are from today (left) and one month earlier (right). Can you see the difference? Look at me, not at Graya. Her role is to help me explore my own movements.
On the left (today), my torso is more stable and the movement is more up down along the spine.
On the right (last month), the movement goes back to front in the belly area, it does not move up the spine.
I still have work to do for the next 10 years, but we are going in the right direction.
#animaltraining #classicaldressage #horse #pferd #clickertraining #clickertraininghorses #clickerhorse #clickertrainer #positivereinforcement #clickerpferd #clickerpony #clickertrainedhorses #clickertrainingpferde #feldenkrais #feldenkraismethod
Hind leg lift to target
Hind leg lifts to a target
Graya tends to drag her hind legs. They often lag behind, not carrying her weight and causing her back to drop. This is partly due to her hock arthrosis. Keeping her hocks bendable and strong is vital for her soundness in the long term.
I am using the pool noodle as a target for the hind legs. Initially, I would start with only one leg, e.g. ask for the right hind leg. When that works for both legs separately, I can ask for two legs consecutively (left, right, c/t).
With increasing speed, I will get a little hop from one leg to the other. This then develops into piaffe-like steps.
If you have introduced the pool noodle to teach Spanish walk, I advise using a different target for the hind legs to avoid confusion. I am teaching Spanish walk out of front leg lifts and forward. The leg lifts develop out of tactile cues from my hand shaping weight shifts, and only after that do I add a cue for forward. This creates a beautiful lift upward before the step as the horse learns to balance first before adding movement.
Communication in calmness
Here’s a clip showing the result of a carefully trained progression from the Feldenkrais-inspired hug using the hand through the lead rope and then reins and how this developed into our fine-tuned communication.
Blondie replies to my request with a flexion and a release of the jaw. With sound on you can her chew every time she flexes a little bit.
As she tends to get very low with her head and neck, I taught her a rein cue asking a lift of the head which opens the angle between head and neck. (Note: the cue is both reins gently upward. Using only one rein upward would cue her to drop her head towards the ground.)
After a flexion with a good head elevation, I ask her to take that into a shoulder-in. The shoulder-in position brings her inner hind-leg under the body which enables her to keep her front end elevated and moves the weight from her overloaded right shoulder towards the left into a healthier balance.
Thanks to the constructional training approach, she understand the movement and is able to do it without a rider holding her there. Which has the advantage that I can ride Blondie with a broken hand and the phone held in the other hand which is a foolish thing to do.
Don’t do this at home
#animaltraining #classicaldressage #horse #pferd #clickertraining #clickertraininghorses #clickerhorse #clickertrainer #positivereinforcement #clickerpferd #clickerpony #clickertrainedhorses #clickertrainingpferde
Graya is progressing with her Spanish Walk. We started with individual leg lifts. Then added the forward to the lift to build the movement. Now I can slowly start requesting alternating legs. 💪
Blondie now ready for serious work. 💪She is relaxed about the contact and communication through the reins and we start working on precision. 🎯
I add more in the comments below ⬇️
Those who know Blondie will appreciate the importance of it ❤️
