hi it's josie and today i'd like to talk to you about training your horse
and in particular up transitions up and down transitions are a very
important basic building block and you need to understand it and how to do it and then your
horse needs to understand it and how to do it so by the end of this video you should understand
how to do an up transition and then you should understand how to train it to your horse
what i'd like you to do is take the time it takes to learn it yourself it's a bit like
thinking about driving the car when you're trying to change gears with a clutch you have to take the
time to learn and you don't do it very well in the beginning but then it becomes second nature
and before you know it you can change gears and chat to your friend in the car with you
and then you can use it as one of your building blocks and add something else onto it
when we're doing this in the beginning and you're learning it don't worry about putting the horse on
the bit because being on the bit and doing an up transition is two things we only teach our
horses one thing at a time and we should only teach ourselves one thing at a time so we do
the up transition then we teach when it comes to a horse we teach the horse to go on the bit
not in a transition they learn to go on the bit going forward and then you put them on
the bit in a transition two things at once so we keep things really basic to start with
you need to have a scale in your head that you use to get your horses to respond to an aid mine
go from one to ten one being the most subtlest ten being a pretty loud excuse me let's do this
you need to decide where you're happy to have your horse answering your aids and then that is
your point at all times so i like my horses to go from a one to a three ish in there i don't
have a specific number because all horses have good days and bad days but as long as they're
responding between a one and a three i'm happy if i have to go above that that's called a correction
and you must go back if you've done a correction you must go back and repeat the aid until your
horse gives you the aid within the window period that you're happy to have this is how you get your
horses to respond to light aids so you never leave and aid on a correction you always leave an aid on
that little window where you're happy to accept it and just as a little adjunct there when i want a
really green horse i don't expect them to answer between a one and a three because they're green
and they're actually just learning what all the aids mean i like my horses to go from a one to
a three and i like that because i want them to go from my seat why do i want them to go from my seat
because i would like to keep my legs for lateral movements and bend so if you're having to use
your legs all the time to get your horse to go you lose a little bit of the subtlety when it comes to
bend and lateral work let's get on and do some transitions and see what it looks like
so an up transition starts from my seat always one is just asking with my seat
uh a two to a three i'm starting to ask with my legs a four five six my legs are getting stronger
and ending up in quite a bit of a bump or a kick if you like and then it will end up in
the with a tap of the whip if the horse doesn't go so and i move up that reasonably quickly
the first thing i do before i give my horse any aid is i pick my body up now to me that doesn't
fit on the scale that's zero but it's something i do before i do anything with my horse because
it's just a warning to him if he's daydreaming a bit to come back to me because we're about to
do something how do i pick my body up i sort of pick my it's hard to explain to you but i pick
my core up within myself so you engage your core pull your belly button to your backbone
but none of this is done really hard this is all very sensitive horses are sensitive so
and i sort of grow a tiny bit taller in the saddle i just it's a little stretch that you wouldn't see
but my horses can feel through my seat and if you watch your horse's ears your ears will tell you
where your horse is if he's daydreaming out that way and i pick my seat up there you go
he he came back to me the aids happened a little bit quicker than i can say to you when i'm doing
an up transition but when you're teaching yourself and you're teaching your horse slow it right down
so that you can do it bit by bit so i'll see if i can do one a little slower
so i'm not going to worry about whether he's on the bit or where his head is i don't care
at the moment i'm teaching him and up transition so i pick myself up i use my seat what do i mean
by that i tip my seat on him and that's where i really would like my horse to go
and if he doesn't go from that i add my legs if he doesn't go from that they will get stronger
if he doesn't go from that i'll bump him with my heel if he doesn't go from that he'll get a little
kick and if he doesn't go from that he'll get a tap with the whip so let's see if we can do that
growing tall a listening rebel seat on legs on not listening bump bump okay so he actually didn't go
there until i personally feel i got to about a seven so i need to correct that so
i'll sit up taller are you listening seat on legs on bump bump yep so he's still going from above
a bit sleepy this morning it is early here so i need to correct that again
i do just let i don't stop him as soon as he goes you'll see there that i let him trot on a bit
because if i keep stopping him i'm almost correcting him from going so i'm going to sit
up tall i'm going to tip my seat legs are on okay so there he went from about a five but it's still
not good enough for me for him so we'll do another one because that was classified as a correction
i don't care where his head is
straighten up a bit mate okay so now he's going forward i'm gonna
pick myself up tip my seat and legs okay that was possibly a four i would like him
to go from a lighter aid if i was a young green horse i'd be very happy with that
but he's not so pick my seat up is he listening to me i can feel when he listens to me as well he
he changes underneath me which is why you need to try and get yourself a
uh soft supple seat because then you feel what the horse does so i picked myself up at a tiny yeah
that was a good transition he started to go from probably a three is he is he forward and full of
energy as i want no but i'm not doing that at the moment we are just doing an up transition
so we do it again i grow a little bit taller i'll tip my seat and a little bit of leg
good boy whoops and i fell back into the back of the saddle
is he nice and forward in walk yes i'm just moving up this pick myself up tipped my seat
and he went from a three there he went from the seat and just a tiny hug from my legs
when i hug with my legs by the way to give a leg aid to my horse
it's my calf that does it the middle of my calf and i think about pushing
my right calf towards his left shoulder and my left calf towards his right shoulder
it's not um it's not this is my legs on his side it's not a squish like that it's actually
like that it's i come forward so my right leg goes a little towards the left shoulder
and it's a squeeze forward i'm pushing him in the direction i want him and it's as subtle as
i can make it but as much as i need one thing i want to tell you if you correct your horse
yeah because he wouldn't go then and he does that you can't grab hold of him you have to pat him
and tell him he's a good boy because he went forward he just went forward
with more energy than you wanted but he shouldn't be punished for that
i've done a video of how i teach horses this in the very beginning when they're very green and i'm
just starting them under saddle i'll link that one up here if you want to go and have a look at that
so sitting up tall asking him to go forward and yep good boy so that would have been
a three so once your horse understands go aids and you're pretty happy you've got them
and he also understands going forward on the bit you can put them together so now i have
him on the bit in walk and now i'm going to ask him to trot grow tall yep good boy
and then he does the transition on the bit
hope you enjoyed that and i hope that helps
you