hi there my name is Laura and welcome to another video today's topic is the
training scale and how you can use it to improve your hunter/jumper training so
let's get started if you would like to improve your writing and training and
develop that relationship with your horse so that you can win more ribbons
it at your next horse show or if you generally like other horsey related stuff
then remember to subscribe and hit the bell icon so you don't miss any new videos
coming out now the training scale is composed of six steps and if you follow
these six steps throughout your writing then you will get all the necessary
things that you need to achieve to improve yourself and improve your horse
the dressage training scale is the gold standard and acts as a roadmap for when
you're riding and training your horse it's not like a ladder where you have to
complete one step to go on to the next step but it just gives you a general
guideline of what you should be doing with your horse and you can also use it
as a report card or a review if your performance isn't that great or
know where you messed up or as a review of how you can improve your own horse riding
and your performance of your horse so if you go to a horse show and you didn't do
as well as you maybe you thought you can use it and have these six points as a
list or a checklist or a review that you can use as a guide to see where you need
to improve your own riding and training here the six main topics of the training
scale that you should consider when you're riding number one rhythm
rhythm is really important and how do you tell if your horse has rhythm at the
trot the horse should have an even one-two one-two one-two rhythm and the
way as a judge we can tell if your horse has a steady rhythm is that we see going
around and we can we can see and count out those definite two beat rhythm at the
trot and a three beat rhythm at a canter what I look for sometimes when I'm
judging is and when I'm training is the horse's tail kind of swishes back and
forth when it's trotting walk should have four beats trot should have two
beats canter should have an even steady three beats missing a step is bad and
may result in tension in your horse or yourself and result in a poor
performance but don't think you have to have one perfect before you head on to
the next step keeping these steps in mind will help
you progress faster and move along and make sure your horse has a good base so
that you can progress faster horse should be going willingly forward
without tension you have tension throughout the horse the horse may be
swishing his tail pinning its ears grinding its teeth that's a sign of
tension and you have to step back and analyze your performance to see where
the tension is coming from second step number two is suppleness suppleness and
relaxation sup on this side to side lateral suppleness and from head to tail
longitudinal suppleness and this is the force accepting the rider and accepting
the exercises that are being performed tension will affect your suppleness and
relaxation and the intention will also affect your relaxation and rhythm so
rhythm on rhythm you build your suppleness and relaxation
and then the third step is rhythm the suppleness contact rhythm supplements
contact contact is that connection from the hindquarters up and to the bridle
and you need this contact when you're going around your hunter course to make
sure you have the horse balanced and up into the bridle so that they can jump
properly and so you can steer properly and have that elastic feeling in your
heart in your hands and contact isn't a pull and tension on the reins it's more
of that elastic feeling on your reins so that you can maintain that forward
energy and do a soft even contact on both sides of the horse's mouth no
contact means the horse is not accepting the bit and there's no energy going
anywhere in the horse it was just kind of like a carousel horse on
merry-go-round if you don't have any contact the horse is usually flat and
the judge likes to see a round horse reaching forward down into the contact
and moving and pressing forward in a relaxed rhythmic fashion so you can see
if you don't have rhythm which is number one the horse can't relax and the horse
can't be supple and if the horses and supple then the horn then you're not
going to get in contact so they're all kind of connected together after you get
the contact the next step is impulsion very important when you're riding your
equitation your hunter your jumper you need impulsion and impulsion is when the
thrusts that the horse gives me that leaves the ground you have impulsion at
the trot where the horse pushes itself off the ground and at the canter where
the horse pushes itself off the ground and of course you have impulsion when
the horse pushes itself over top of the jump impulsion and exercises for
impulsion for example transition doing some trotting poles establishes and
develops that horse the horses muscles that it needs to push itself over top of
the jump and you can see that they're all connected rhythm your horse needs to
have rhythm to this shirts relaxation and suppleness rhythm
supplements contact and once it's supple you can have a contact so the horse can
be put together from back to front once you have the contact then your horse can
develop that impulsion and start elevating itself a little bit better and
a little bit more here themself on this contact impulsion and then once you have
impulsion you have your straightness straightness means the front end is
following the back end so the front end is here then you have the back end it's
straight the front end is in front of the hindquarters and if you think of it
that way think of the front end in front of the hindquarters rather than the
hindquarters is behind the front think of the hindquarters first and move the
horses front end in front of the hindquarters that will help you think of
it more like a train tracks if you think the train track the train tracks going
around a curve the horse is following its hind quarters or following in the
front like a train track as opposed to a bus where the bus the back of the bus
would cut off the corner or if your think of a
tractor-trailer going around the turn the way the tractor-trailer has to make
those wide turns because the back end of the tractor-trailer doesn't get around
the corner very well so think of it more like a train tracks and that the horse
we want to have the horse bending the final step is collection and to think of
collection as the horse thinking of the front end come closer to the main
quarters so if your cantering in your kit and your horse is cantering a
12-foot stride to have the horse collected the horse should be doing it
11 foot strike as an example collection is quite advanced and when you think of
collection it's thinking of shortening the horse but not just shortening the
horse the horse has to also take more weight on its hind quarters so if you
are trotting and you're trying between two poles and they trot ten steps in
between the poles the next time they should try more steps like 12 or 13
steps in between the pool that is shortened the horses stride but you also
want to make sure that you are taking more weight at that the horse is taking
more weight on its hind quarters so those are the six steps now how these
are really important and if you think about these six steps when you're riding
and you will find that you can you can discover where you're riding and
training is missed a step if you think you're having a poor performance for
example if you have a reef if you have a refusal a defense what
part of your of these six steps are you missing to have that happen do you have
your rhythm do you have your supplements do you have your contact we have your
impulsion you have your straightness do you have a collection maybe you're
missing the first week maybe missing the third one and why is it that that
happened I mean it's easier at a dressage show because the dressage judge
will actually market needs more rhythm or needs more work over its back that
type of thing but in a hunter show you're gonna have to be thinking on your
own say well why didn't my horse win or place better or place at that horse show
why is it the under saddle class why is it not placing and it could be because
your horse lacks rhythm it could be because your horse lacks one of these
six steps you probably don't get into collection you're in the hunter show
rhythms up on this contact one of those three my name is Laura if you have any
questions send me an email actually you know what you can do is send me a short
video clip of you riding at your last horse show and we can take a look at it
to see if you are missing any of these things please send me the email love to
hear from you thistle Ridge at hotmail.com thanks now
now go use this stuff go hug your horse go use this stuff thanks now bye