(upbeat instrumental music)
- OK, so this brings me to a very important point.
When I lift my hands here, and I take him into that turn
or I lift his shoulder and you see this happen
a lot in training where we pull towards us
with our reins like this, and we push the horse forward
in the bridle with our legs, well to the outside,
it seems like hey, why is he just pulling and kicking.
And that's what it looks like.
And I think that's what sometimes many people just do.
And that just doesn't make any sense at all.
In order for that to be effective and to work,
you always have to remember this very important factor,
is that you always work in diagonals.
Even if you're turning, or if you're going straight
in the counter canter whatever you're doing,
you're always working in a diagonal
so you're prioritizing your outside leg
and your inside hand at all times.
So when you see me go here like this and forward
and push him with my legs and pull him towards me like this
lift his shoulder and make him turn, OK,
my focus is all on my outside leg and my inside hand,
this is what, this is how I pull him and this
is how I remind him that hey, you need to follow your nose
and lift your shoulder through that turn
and the outside hand is only gonna be support
and the inside leg is going to be support
and what helps me keep my forward motion.
Okay, so it's very important that if you see me pull here,
it's gonna have a similar effect as when I did it this way,
except that I'm pulling a little bit more towards me
to lift that shoulder, and I have the support
of the outside rein.
Okay, and release.
Go straight.
Lift there see he pushed down on me,
got a little bit lazy so I'm gonna (clucks) to then push
a little harder with my legs and remind him
that hey, he needs to work a little harder like this.
There you go.
And when I have it pretty good
I'm going to change direction.
(uplifting music)
Yeah and here I'm prioritizing my outside leg
and my inside hand, OK.
Remember what I said horses are right handed or left handed
this horse is right handed so this is the side he favors.
He has a slight natural incurvation in the body
on that side so whenever I asked him to follow his nose
and lift his inside shoulder and turn here,
his first reaction is often to just stick his rib cage out
first and then do it, which is not right because it's not,
I need this body to be straight and pushing himself
to the diagonal.
So here what I feel is that if I feel that rib cage come out
I'm just gonna bump a little harder my outside leg
and (clucks) cluck, and insist (clucks)
until he makes the effort of.
There you go, of lifting his shoulders,
and going, following me into that turn.
So here, I feel like I feel like he's a little bit heavy
in my hands and he's not really really giving to me, 100%.
And the only reason that is is because
he's not really turning he's not really following his nose
into that turn, he's not following my body into that turn.
So what I do to help myself here
is I'm going to pull a little bit harder on my inside rein.
Okay, I'm going to remind him that hey,
here you remember you're supposed to follow your nose
like this, and lift your shoulder.
You go and follow your nose.
So this is the basic.
Now we're doing the same thing, but from here.
There you go.
That was good.
(clucks) (uplifting music)
Always precede your hands, and always proceed your hands
with a little bit more leg and with your body movement.
Remember the cue comes from your body,
eventually when your horse does this
just like here on the left.
When your horse does this well, he follows you.
There you go.
He follows your body, okay where I want to go he goes,
and he goes the right way.
OK, so I'm only showing him how to use his body,
just to make the simple movement of trotting
and following into a small circle or turn,
and then going straight, change direction, there you go.
(Upbeat instrumental music)
Whoa
There you go.
So his head down there,
his head low is something that I'll tolerate
if I feel that he's keeping his energy in his body
and using his body through the turns
and maintaining that energy in his body
through the straight line,
if I feel that after I release and then his head goes down
and then he pushes into my hands and his shoulders go down,
then this is when I'm going to lift him again
and turn again right away, and again and again
until I can release them and I feel he keeps his,
his body working and his neck can relax at this point
because his body is working so there is no stress,
no tension so his neck can relax and hang
on this ligament here, and this is what some horses
like to do when they're working with their body.
So I'm gonna tolerate that.
And then, and encourage that I just don't want this to be
him pushing down into my hands so don't let that happen
if you feel that the head goes too down,
and the shoulders go down and every time you go to turn
you feel like you have to lift something heavy
in order to make the turn, then that energy
shifted back in through the shoulders
and into the neck and didn't stay where it belongs
so you got to perform that turn again and again
until you feel that that's the case.
And then when that is the case, as basic as this may sound,
it is the perfect position to stop
so even if you're just trotting
a stop should be performed to perfection
even when you're walking or trotting.
So, but what you've done there
is that you've put your horse
in the perfect position to stop.
So this is what is key here because once I make a turn
and go straight here, and that horse keeps
that energy in his body, and the drive coming
from behind and the shoulders up and his body's in line.
Well, he's in a perfect position to stop.
Okay, so now this is always, this is the point
of this whole exercise, this is the goal.
I'm doing this because I'm setting him up to do something,
when I feel that he's in balance like that,
if I could be loping and have my horse
with that much drive and have his body this lined up
with this much perfection and how he uses themself
but at a lope, then I know that I can do
a knee change easily or I could ask him
to make a good sliding stop.
So my goal again this is what I call my comfort zone.
So my goal is to put my horse into this comfort zone,
where he's using his body to the best of his ability, OK.
And then asking him perform a maneuver.
(clucks)
(upbeat instrumental music)