05/12/2022
To be fair, he does seem to know what he’s doing 💪🏻🙌🏻👊🏻😂
Carl Hester notes:
-We ride two days in the ring a hack day, two in the ring another hack day and Sundays just turned out. The upper level horses also use the water treadmill for fitness.
-Stretch and supple the horses for a long and healthy career. Keep them moving to keep them sound. Leaving them in a box and only out an hour a day is not a good way to keep a horse sound.
-Riders tend to bend left (as most horses are stiffer on the left) and not right. Most people also consistently have a higher mark on their left pirouette vs right.
-The younger and weaker the horse the lighter the seat should be in the warm up.
-The weaker the horse the more they take the neck up in the trot to canter depart.
-Let the horse shorten the walk by carrying your hand don't shorten it for them.
-If the contact goes too light the horse doesn't use the head and neck.
-Keep the top "plat" (braid) of the neck up.
-Knuckles together keeps the bit at the corner of the mouth. A light mouthed horse will drop the bit if the hands go wide as it puts the bit on the bars of the mouth.
-Work through your fingers rather than a dead feeling in your hand.
-Collecting is not slowing down.
-The horse should "come back" thinking forward.
-If you use our legs your horse should KEEP going forward until you tell them to stop.
-When he comes from canter to walk he has to step forward to walk not step back to walk.
-Bring the inside rein against the neck if the horse is holding in the shoulder in on the circle.
-Break a circle into four pieces and give the hand in between.
-Good hands are not hands that do nothing. They are forward hands that correct the horse without us seeing it.
-Long horses need to be rounder, short horses need to be longer in the stretching.
-When you do travers riding do it on the inside diagonal to keep your weight more to the inside. Imagine you have a flashlight on your right big toe pointed to A or C if you are doing shoulder in to the left.
-On the strong side start your shoulder in in renvers.
-In a good shoulder in the outside shoulder rises from the inside hind pushing and its what gives a score over 8.
-A good collected trot has the expression of the medium in collection.
-If your horse becomes too strong take your leg off get a reaction with your hand then put the leg back on.
-The horse will only become sensitive when you give him nothing.
-All movements have a start a middle and a finish. Show that.
-Hold the horse out and curve it in.
-Always direct the inside shoulder up the line.
-More and more leg makes the horse go up and down.
-Don't give the horses long straight lines to run away on use the sharks teeth.
-Hot horses you have to be able to ride forward.
-Ride forward with your upper body forward, ride back up through your helmet.
-The biggest problem when you are learning the one time changes is that you can't wait to see if the horse has done them. The horse has to fit in with you not that you fit in with the horse.
-Sit with your knee open and the back of the leg down.
-Use the shoulder fore to close the horse up.
-In the pirouette ride the front around not the hind leg. Think of turning on a clock face 10 past 20 past 40 past etc.... don't leave it to chance. If it is getting stuck ride forward on 3 and 6.
-Rising passage helps them think trot behind.
-You have to have a closed hand to have a contact with the bit.
-To help the horse let you help him with the corners canter straight down the long side into the corner, halt, stand, turn to the outside and canter the other way the same. Can also do the on the diagonals into the corner.
-Ride corrective don't accept them taking advantage.
-When they rock with the neck in the canter you have given them too much contact. Give and retake the reins.
-Don't just sit there holding having the same mistake again and again.
-Because he is on your hand his hind legs lock.
-Make the canter so short I could walk beside you.
-It must be loose.
-Head nodding is a sign of lack of impulsion.
-Show the picture on the short side that your horse goes uphill.
-Know how many steps your horse takes on the short side, on an 8m circle etc...
-Get the feeling you can push into your inside stirrup in the half pass.
-Half halt is collection of forward energy. If it lasts more than a stride it interrupts the hind legs.
-If you can't let the neck go you are the one balancing he horse and the balance is incorrect.
-Train a lot of leg yields.
-The way to improve sevens to eights is impulsion.
-Most horses find it easier to get into the piaffe than out. Ride 6 steps passage 6 piaffe in and out until it is easy.
-In passage sit heavy. In piaffe sit light over the knee.
