Equine Inspiration

30/05/2023

Now this would be an awesome trip - but these words will help you along your journey as well..
Its certainly a need for us to have good relaxed posture that will give us the ideal strength of our position, yet we can softly suggest where we would like the horse to move.. and not interrupt that feeling. All the while explaining and teaching the horse to be gymnastic as well, to enable him to be biomechanically fit for many years.

Classical training : Finding relaxation in a position of strength…

The key to most top level sports is training the body to relax in a position of strength, or endurance, or speed. Dressage therefore can be defined as just that: finding relaxation in a position that requires strength, both in terms of horse, and rider.

Think about it: The horse must be strong enough to perform the exercise, but be able to relax within it. A rider must be strong enough to hold their posture, their seat, their legs in place, strong enough to position the horse, to provide the necessary pressure for the aids, but to be able to relax within that position of strength.

It seems so easy, find your position, then relax. But in terms of both horse and rider this concept is extremely difficult to achieve. Why? Because both horse and rider often fall too far on either side of the relaxation/strength spectrum. A rider will either use too much force (strength) without the necessary relaxation, and produce a horse that is tense, and being moved around the arena by the use of harsh aids, and strong hands. Or the rider will be too relaxed in the saddle, will seem to flop about with the horse, without being able to let the horse balance, because their own weight is being distributed unevenly and without any correct posture or balance themselves.

In terms of the horse, a horse is often either too strong, leaning on the hand, and has not learned the value of strength and relaxation in correct posture to establish self-carriage and balance. Alternatively a horse may be too relaxed, and thus not have the strength to carry himself, and will therefore rely on the physical effort of his rider to sort of drive him around the arena.

So how do we find the right balance between strength and relaxation? How do we find that “relaxation from a strength pPosition” that is so hard to find, yet is at the heart of all dressage training, from young horse to Grand Prix?

First in terms of the rider; this comes down to body awareness. Often as riders we have muscles that overactivate. This means that when we want to do a simple movement, our muscles go all in and use more than the necessary strength required. This also means that when we think we have relaxed a muscle, we actually have only relaxed it partially.

If you don’t believe me sit down with your feet together and your knees out to the side. Relax your adductors. Then, think about whether they are really relaxed and try to really let them go. Typically you will have one of those, oh, moments, where you realised that your idea of relaxed, and actually fully relaxed, are two different things. Once we can learn how to fully relax, often yoga or pilates helps a lot, we can learn how to hold and balance our own bodies evenly, and then relax maintaining that position of strength. Doing it on the horse is more difficult, and it takes patience and work, and thought, and help!

For the horse, Nuno Oliveira used to say that “the horse is not a machine, but a living being. Therefore, we must know what dose of relaxation and degree of vigor that we must employ with each horse.” What he meant of course is that the dose of strength versus relaxation required on one horse, will be vastly different to that required on another.

We must learn to set the horse up for the movement, and then let him do the work, allowing him to relax into it, move alone, and build the strength to carry out said exercise with ease. He will then learn to not only relax physically in the exercise but also mentally, because his rider is not banging and crashing about with every stride.

Finding relaxation from a position of strength, poise and balance, is about patience, and feel, and adjustment. All the elements of dressage that we must incorporate into every training, until things become effortless.

“The criterium of a good rider is a rider that we cease to notice, and we only watch the horse," said Nuno Oliveira.
By Sarah Warne, published on Eurodressage.

Two spots left for the October classical riding tour to Portugal, if anyone is interested contact me. Thanks Sarah

19/05/2023

Juan Diego Garcia Trevijano is coming to New Zealand soon - a great opportunity to learn from a Master...

Touch Dream Gesves - Belgique - Oct 2009

12/12/2022

Woah - what a sight!!! So many horses working together... luckily with lots of grooms!

A mega spectacle! Horses, carriages, nice people - just Brandenburg! Unique in Germany, with 100 draft horses. Titans of the Track - 100 Draft Horse Super Quadrille - 10x10 - Titans of the Track - 100 Draft Horse Super Quadrille - 10x10

03/11/2022

George Morris tells us:
“Today is the time of the cheap read, read the old books. In the next generation that knowledge will be extinct. We will have lost the horse care, the stable management, I love the old, simple, good horse management that proceeds riding. Then you can’t ever learn enough dressage and that precedes jumping, and it all meshes together. It’s what Charlotte (Dujardin), Michi (Jung) and Nick (Skelton) are, they all meticulous, detailed horsemen – it’s all detail, all detail. In modern jumping circles, 10% are interested in dressage – the rest are just fascinated by gadgets.”
Time to start now, read about Baucher, one of the fathers of classical riding:
http://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/whos-who/baucher-francois/

16/09/2022

13/09/2022

🤩

13/09/2022

How does all this fit together ?
Great article here.

HOW DOES BRIDLE FIT AFFECT HIND LIMB ENGAGEMENT?

At The Horse Hub we are all about bringing you answers to the questions you may not know you even need to ask! Here is an excerpt from an excellent article answering the above question - and more, live on The Horse Hub now.

THE HYOID APPARATUS
The tongue is attached to a little group of bones at the back of the skull called the hyoid bones. These are an incredibly important and unique group of bones. Firstly, they are not attached to any other bones using joints; they are attached with ligaments.

The front bone embeds into the tongue with ligaments, it then attaches to two long thin bones, which are situated inside the jaw that attach to the TMJ. Behind these are two small bones that attach to muscles, which run down the lower neck into the scapula, along the abdominal wall and into the pelvis.

Problems with bridle fitting here, which restrict the ability of the tongue and lower jaw to move, will actually shut down the ability of the horse to recruit the lower ventral chain of muscles. If he cannot mobilise his jaw and tongue, he will send tension through the hyoid bones, up into the TMJ, down the muscles of the neck, through the thoracic sling and along the abdominal wall.

This impacts his ability to lift his back and engage his hindquarters. The horse is then put in a U shape; putting pressure along the dorsal spinal processes, disconnecting his shoulder sling and raising his head by recruiting the muscles underneath.

This is when we as riders, get locked into a spiral of asking our horses to lengthen their frame, drop their head, lift their back and engage their hindquarters but, not allowing them to naturally use themselves biomechanically correctly.

https://www.thehorsehub.co.uk/how-to-fit-a-bridle-understanding-the-anatomy-of-the-horse-s-head

10/08/2022

Wow!!!

08/08/2022

Words to remember - always..

07/06/2022

So much can be done on the ground to enhance your ridden work - give it a try it’s a lot of fun 😊

Learning to do better quality groundwork doesn’t mean you ONLY do groundwork. In fact, you will find that, by incorporating mindful lungeing, double-lungeing, work-in-hand, and long reining into your work repertoire, it will improve and complement every aspect of your riding work.

Groundwork is the starting point for the training of green horses and for rehab horses that are recovering from injuries.

But it’s also a great way to warm up horses that are in regular training. Longeing, double longeing, work in hand, and long reining can complement and support the work under saddle so that the horse progresses faster than if he were only ridden.

For many, if not most, horses it’s more pleasant to be able to warmup without the weight of the rider. Longeing or double longeing allows them to find their balance in motion without having to carry the additional weight of the rider on their back. They can stretch forward-downward at the longe line and lift their back so that the rider has a comfortable place to sit when she mounts.

Many horses warm up faster and more efficiently this way, and when you get on, you can immediately pick up the reins and start working.

The stiffer and more unbalanced a horse still is, the more beneficial the warmup without rider will be, because trotting and cantering under saddle puts a lot of unnecessary wear and tear on the horse’s joints and tendons if the horse is bracing his back and neck muscles and his hindquarters.

At the double longe you can already establish connections between the reins and the horse’s legs. The outside rein allows you to reach the outside hind leg and connect it to the ground and the weight, which plays a central role in balancing the horse and establishing a correct bend. The interplay between both reins enables the trainer to supple the poll by completely straightening the neck and then flexing the poll laterally. You also have the option of counterbending slightly for a couple of strides.

Work in hand can be a great way to establish connections between the reins, all four legs and the ground by asking for walk-halt transitions into each leg. This can be expanded into trot-walk and trot-halt transitions.

In hand you can explain new movements to the horse, such as the turn on the forehand in motion or the full pass. Many horses find them very challenging at first, so that it’s much easier for them to learn these movements, if they only have to manage their own balance. Once they understand the mechanics of the movement, you can add the weight of the rider.

The same thing applies to the piaffe and the airs above the ground. It’s much easier for the horse to learn these movements without additional "baggage" on his back.

In addition, when you train advanced movements like the piaffe it’s important to see exactly what the horse is doing and how all parts of the body are working together. In the saddle you don’t always feel whether the hind legs are working sufficiently and correctly or not. But when you are standing next to the horse, you can see every nuance and change your communication with the horse if necessary. In hand, you can introduce lateral movements without the weight of the rider, and you can use lateral movements to supple the horse’s hips during the warmup.


With a slightly more advanced horse, it can make sense to warm up with a few minutes of trotting and perhaps cantering on the longe line or double longe, followed by a few minutes of work in hand. More advanced horses can be warmed up with some piaffe steps or half steps in hand.

Long reining is a type of work that I have found fascinating ever since I first watched it in a live performance at Egon von Neindorff’s institute in 1984, and I have spent countless miles walking behind many horses learning and practicing this skill. It‘s a great way to train a horse that complements the work under saddle really well. You can use it for troubleshooting because you can see the entire horse and how he moves. It taught me a great deal about how the hindquarters are connected to the spine and how the energy flows from the hind legs through the back, the neck, and the poll to the bit and back.

My riding improved a lot through long reining because I was able to focus on the coordination of the reins without having to worry so much about the rest of the seat, and my understanding of straightness and crookedness improved a great deal as a result of long reining.


You can also teach the horse lateral movements first at the long rein so he can sort out his own body without having to balance the rider‘s weight on his back. If there is a problem with a lateral movement you will see where it originates very quickly if you long rein your horse. I have taught a couple of horses the flying changes at the long rein first, and then transferred it to the ridden work. I have been able to create a stable connection between the shoulders and the base of the neck with a complicated horse who had learned to protect a blockage in his poll by escaping at the base of the neck. You can ground the hind legs very effectively through half halts and down transitions.


Long reining is a lot of fun and can be quite addictive (and it’s a great exercise program for the rider, no need to go to the gym). With advanced horses you can perform all the same movements as under saddle: canter pirouettes, tempo changes, lateral movements in the trot and canter, piaffe, passage, levade, and courbette.

Almost all horses I have worked at the long rein enjoyed the work (because they don’t have to carry me around), and in every case long reining has improved my relationship with the horse. It’s almost as if the horse appreciates that I work just as hard as he is. In the Topline Makeover course we show you how to get started in these different types of ground work, because the beginning is always the most difficult phase. Once horse and rider have a good foundation, it’s easy to build on it and add the more advanced work.

Want to learn more about this? Join us for the 2022 Topline Makeover Course and learn to use groundwork yourself to accomplish all of this AND MORE.

Sign up here. 2022 Course starts this week - https://courses.artisticdressage.com/the-topline-makeover-course-2022

23/11/2021

Who is coming with me !