20/11/2024
Beste mensen,
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Every now and then, I hear students say that the academic art is a really slow way. This always makes me wonder.
It implies that people think there is a much quicker way. What exactly should be faster? Is there a set time frame in which a certain development needs to happen? Says who?
Is it about doing exercises neither horse nor rider are prepared for but doing them anyway? Working unbalanced in a higher gait? Is that really progress?
When I started with the academic art of riding, I was laughed at because I worked so much on the ground and I mostly worked in walk. People asked me: when do you finally canter? I answered: When we are both ready.
It’s not only the horse that needs to develop correct posture and gaits. It’s also the human who needs to learn timing and feel, and learn what is correct and what isn’t. And quite often, that's the much bigger development!
The people who pointed their fingers at me mostly rode their horses in a rising trot along the walls of the riding arena for 45min every day. Whole arena, circles, diagonals. Some leg yields. Some rounds of canter.
I worked on correct bend in walk, then shoulder-in, quarters-in, half-pass, walk pirouette, renvers. After some time I started to do the same in trot. Weto changed dramatically, from being afraid of canter to be able to do a very collected, calm school canter and all side movement in a collected trot.
When I met some of the riders again who had laughed at me or raised their eyebrows about how I did things, they still trottet in a rising trot around the riding arena for 45min and nothing much changed. I’m not saying this out of spite. I’m just thinking that many are so eager to get somewhere that they miss the chance to do things which actually can GET them there.
Some of my students tell me that they are finally able to do proper shoulder-in when no coach before has been able to explain it to them. Or that they are finally starting their dream and work on collection, which they never thought possible for their horse. I wonder what is slow about that.
So while I’m on my teaching tour in Australia, I sometimes find it frustrating to hear how slow this is. At the same time, I see students work their horses in a balanced walk in the side movements, each horse, whatever the breed and age, and start nice and balanced trot work.
For the first clinics here, there was lots of learning what correct bend is. The next clinic round was often concerned with shoulder-in and seat basics. In the third, many started quarters-in and I explained a lot how to teach the quarter-in aids. In this fourth clinic round, most are refining their quarter-in and also start side movements from the saddle. I know I will see a lot more trot work when I come back next year!
In the academic art, it’s important that you understand what you do and why you do it. The cool thing is, you learn to educate your own horse! And you can educate the next horse by yourself!
I met quite a few students this tour who, for various reasons, were not able to continue lessons in between clinics. And guess what, they were doing great! Everything still looked good, no wrong developments, on the contrary: They have been able to work by themselves, keep the level or even improve.
I think in all the clinics, it was obvious how the horses appreciated this calm and step by step work. They all made great progress and the students all got a plan to go forward until we meet again.
That’s not slow. That’s sustainable and building up a basis that’s so strong it will last the horse’s lifetime and through which horses and riders can outgrow themselves. It even lead to knowing how to rehab your horse from a serious injury in many cases or bring back a horse into work after a long break.
I just wish we would stop being in a hurry. Trying to do things fast doesn't work for any skill you’re learning. It also doesn’t work for horse training.
