Laine Muir-French Dressage

10/17/2024

10/07/2024

There’s a difference between a rider and a trainer. I’m not talking about the difference between an AA and a Pro. A “rider” is someone who rides the horse, doing what the horse already knows. Certainly you can be a good rider or not so good. And you can even be a Grand Prix “rider.” And that’s nothing to sneeze at! Learning to be a really good rider is a huge accomplishment. You keep the horse where they are in their training. Hopefully through good riding you keep them fit, happy, confident, keep their minds and bodies sound. All wonderful things.

A “trainer” is different, though. A trainer is able to assess a horse, and come up with a path to improve the way the horse goes and then hopefully teach the horse new things. A trainer needs a very inquisitive mind, needs to be bold enough to push the envelope sometimes, and needs enough grit to work through the inevitable mistakes that will arise. Mistakes are no fun, especially when you’re on a 1200 lb animal, who might tell you that you made a big one 😳 But there’s no learning without mistakes. And as a trainer - that’s your job. Your horse is going to have to learn new things from you. New movements, yes, but also new concepts (that we often call “the basics”) that really change the way they use their body.

Are people just naturally “riders” or “trainers?” Sometimes. I’ve met some young kids who just intuitively wanted to train their horse, and not just ride him. But I’ve also met plenty of people who were “riders” and over time became very effective “trainers.”

Want to be more of a trainer? Learn to assess a horse’s strengths and weaknesses. Learn when to push and when to just cruise for a while. What do you do when you run into a problem that’s tricky or one you didn’t expect? All of these can be learned, mostly from horses who will teach you but hopefully from an educated and patient trainer who has run into whatever problem you’re having many times before. That’s why great trainers still work with another trainer themselves. Always more to learn. Always a new problem to solve, and no single person has all the answers. I’m so grateful to all the trainers who helped and are still helping me learn!!

09/26/2024

RIDE THE HORSE, NOT THE MOVEMENTS

Watching some film of Nuno Oliveira this morning before I head off to ride, and I’m struck by how ‘random’ his schooling is.

He flows from movement to movement, often, seemingly, with no specific set pattern.

That’s because he’s not using the horse for the movements, he’s using the movements for the horse.

Patterns are for US, to feel what’s needed from ourselves and the horse to get something specific done.

They can also be used to ‘proof’ our training.
That’s what competition is, essentially.

But whether schooling or showing, patterns can come at the expense of what’s best for the horse.

What use is a ‘perfect’ figure, if the horse has to be held in it the entire time, or does it leaning through a shoulder, or on our hand?

I often tell riders there’s a time and place to be geometrically accurate, using visual markers and static reference points, and there’s a time to ride by feel, where the geometry doesn’t matter, and what we’re feeling for is balance.

This is kind of the next level when it comes to lateral work, where we are USING the lateral work rather than just riding it.

It’s a different type of accuracy, and while it sounds complicated, it’s actually very freeing, and a much better way to get into a flow state with the horse, both mentally and physically.

So the next time you go ride, I want you to use up the entirety of your arena, and just ‘scribble.’

Feel the flexion, feel the bend, feel your ability to move the shoulders in and out of that, and how that accesses each hind, or how you can slide into a new flexion while keeping equilibrium in the shoulders.

Like Nuno, you might find yourself testing shoulders and hinds just a few steps into the bend, halfpass, then ‘resetting’ away from the bend with shoulder-in.

You’ll start to notice where the patterns of asymmetry are.

You’ll start to notice how the horse feels about certain parts of the arena, and you can flow around that, rather than confront it.

This is training done FOR the horse, step-by-step, moment to moment.

Then you can go back out, and test your new mental and physical balance with a pattern, or with a competition, or by putting your horse on cattle, or on the trail, which will give you even more feedback for your training.

Thus, you have a cycle of balancing, testing, balancing, that spirals forward and upwards… that’s the definition of progress vs plateau.

This can also be done on the trail…

Yesterday, I used counter-shoulder-in and renvers to help a horse who fixates on novel objects and gets very sticky.

Horses have very physical feelings about life, and rebalancing them, and bringing them back into ‘herd alignment’ is an incredible relief for domestic horses who are often expected to be a ‘herd of one.’

Happy scribbling!

09/14/2024

How sure are you really, that your feelings are triggered?

How confident are you actually, that your intentions are positive?

How absolutely certain are you, that your intuition is guiding you in a good direction?

Your feelings are real. But you (and your horse) have a lot of control over them. They are not triggered. You construct them. Whether you like that or not, it’s the truth.

Your intentions are not always a good reason to do something. Remember, some of the worst things in history were done with the best of intentions.

Your intuition is only as accurate as your past experiences. Your brain cannot imagine a solution that is not derived from a past situation. You have to experience it, to have an intuition for it. So, if you’re waiting, hoping, expecting for your intuition to kick in before you take command of your learning, you’re actually not going to learn anything. But fall into cognitive bias.

Learning is not always comfortable. But that is not negative. It just means you’re doing something hard. Learn to discern the difference between discomfort and difficulty.

Think of all the really hard things you’ve done in your life? Get your degree, have a child, maintain a long term relationship, learn to ride, run a business, learn a high level skill, art or sport… all of those things are extremely positive and extremely hard and often uncomfortable.

Our addiction to comfort is driving us to misery.

Our triggers are disguising our resilience as helplessness.

Our intuition is limited by our ability to gain new experience with an open mind and energized body.

I could be wrong about all this. But this is the best available information we have at this time.

09/03/2024

“It really boils down to this: that all life is interrelated. We are all caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.”
– Martin Luther King, Jr.

Art Credit: Lian Meaney

09/02/2024

Bert Rutten tells us:
“Contact is not determined by the weight you have in your hand, that’s a mistake a lot of riders make, they think contact is weight. Contact is that the horse has the desire to follow the bit at all times...” Pic is Bert riding a young stallion he bred... Follow the link and find out more:
https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/2024/09/bert-rutten-beautiful-riding-is-simple/

08/16/2024

Contact comes from connection, and then a soft contact keeps that connection, but you must always start with connection.

“I’m teaching my horse to accept contact”

If I had a dollar for every time I heard this! Typically it is accompanied by a horse throwing their head up, diving behind the vertical, gaping at the mouth- essentially attempting to be anywhere BUT the contact.

Here is something I often say to people in my clinics.

Imagine you’re on a date. Your date grabs your hand and doesn’t let go. You squirm to get away, but he holds tighter. He says, some day you will have to hold my hand so you need to get used to it. I won’t release until you accept this contact. Maybe he’s brought up in the school of thought that your display of evasion should be countered with a strap of some kind to prevent you from moving away- a flash nose band of sorts for you.

It doesn’t matter how light or heavy he touches- it is contact that isn’t right for the moment. It’s greedy, and inappropriate.

Now imagine you’re on a date and the conversation has lead you to realize you really enjoy his company. Your relationship is developing, he brushes your hand, you reach out and hold it.

Those are two very different feelings, and they come from two very different places.

When the conditions are there, the contact is taken by the horse. Not the other way around.

Contact has meaning. It is not meaningless pressure on the horses mouth, it is a holding of hands while you dance- it is a connection between your body and the horse’s hind legs. It is the display of everything you believe and who you are- manifested through your hand and into the horse- and the horse’s response is a direct representation of their preparation and feelings about your body and hands.

08/06/2024

I couldn’t resist 🤣

08/01/2024

Attn: capable riders looking for a heart horse. Big heart, little package.

I rode a really lovely, little, green mare today for a friend and I almost took her home with me. 10 y/o, Friesian, sound, easy keeper, socially mature, submissive type in the herd, fine in a stall, flexes sound, good feet, in dressage training, loves trails and jumping. She seems like such a wonderful girl.

She's had lots of fun experiences and outings in her current program and loves to go do things. She is green in her balance under a rider, but is forward thinking. She needs someone who is also forward thinking, and fun loving, with independent hands and seat.

I'm happy to connect interested parties with her trainer. Send me a p.m.

05/28/2024

“Those who overcome great challenges will be changed, and often in unexpected ways. For our struggles enter our lives as unwelcome guests, but they bring valuable gifts. And once the pain subsides, the gifts remain. These gifts are life's true treasures, bought at great price, but cannot be acquired in any other way.”
~ Steve Goodier

Art: Cath Driessen

05/22/2024

I can't get enough of this stuff 😍

05/21/2024

A young mare who broke her neck in a loading accident has made a successful return to competition – and is enjoying life to the full. Lizzie Burford was loading her five-year-old mare Nova Zembla (Poppy) after a lesson, this time last year, when she slipped and fell heavily on to the concrete of t...

05/15/2024

"Touch with intension" (for the horses benfit).

You know how your great aunt can’t be around you without commenting on your weight?
You know how your mother in law can’t stop asking when you’re gonna have a baby because she’s dying for grandchildren?

You know how your mom licks that napkin and squeezes your face while she whipes dirt off your cheek?
You know how, when you were a child, your parents brushed your hair too fast, pulled on your hair, and your feelings were dismissed? “Oh you’re being such a baby!”

You know the way that family dinner is so stressful, but your aunts make amazing food- so you have the draw of the food, and the stress of the discord and passive aggressive comments? You know the pressure to have seconds, to not offend, coupled with a comment on your weight?

You know all those tiny, nitpicky, well meaning things that drive you crazy? You know how horrible the hands that fuss over you feel? You know how terrible the dissonance between what’s said and what’s felt is?

They’re made to sound like they’re for you, but they’re not- they’re for the person doing them.
Don’t be that guy with your horse.

Pinching, picking, constant cleaning, fussing
Nitpicking every little step
Fussing with buckles, forgetting about the horse and wrenching leather over soft, sensitize surfaces
Yelling, smacking, emotional corrections and making up for it with food

Those are not for the horse- they’re for you.

Every touch should be for the horse.
Touch with intention
Focus on the task AND the horse
Guide, with care
Say no when you have to, without judgement or emotion
Say yes when you can, without going off the rails
Bring the horse to center
And be someone they find peace standing next to.