Back to basics

[glenatron]

I was working with Cash this evening, helping him to figure out back-up under saddle. He's doing so great now- we're approaching the point where the main thing he will need is just miles on the clock

Comments

[joycemocha]

First of all, cool! Good progress. And so cool for you that you stopped the session at just the right point! Your rationale is entirely correct, especially since you're retraining. I might suggest that this is something to work on from the ground. I don't know if you've been trained to use cluck when you ask for transitions, but that's something my trainer is very firm about--and he starts patterning a whoa, then back very early from the ground. It's part of how you can get a good reining stop. The horse anticipates that it is very likely to be asked to back up, so G does a "whoa," then cluck back from the ground, until it's almost a reflex based on the horse's observation of whether you're turning to face him or not

[greyskyridge]

Oh cool, that makes a lot of sense.

Sorry about the link, I suppose I got a little carried away with the re-watching instead of the copy and pasting:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pUAMwuyAus0

I personally just love how she rides, but I am certainly open to other perspectives.

[glenatron]

That back-up looks fine- the horse drops their hindquarters and backs up pretty smoothly.

On the whole I like the way she rides- she's pretty quiet for a dressage rider. A lot of them seem to be all heels-heels-heels the whole time or doing that nod-nod-nod thing. She isn't too exaggerated with that, although she's clearly very wiggly-heels in the passage. You can certainly ride more subtly, though you don't see a lot of people doing it. I'd be pretty happy if I could ride a test a quarter as well as she does...