today I'd like to share with you three exercises I do with my dressage horses to be completely
honest with you I don't do them at the level my horses are at now but in the beginning when I'm
starting them and they're coming up through the grades I certainly do do them and like
anything if I'm having an issue I will go back to the basics and work my way up because that's how
you will find out where your problem is you need to understand your basics so that you can work out
where the problem lies I'd also like to let you know that you hear a lot of people telling you to
do things one way or the other the horse world is full of different personalities my personal
belief is if you have the horse's best interest at heart and you're doing the best you can
then you're not doing it wrong there might be other ways to do it which may be better
or may get you where you want to go faster but in this moment in time if you're doing the best you
can and you've definitely got your horse's best interest at heart what else could you
ask for so I'm going to share with you how I do things with my horses I have a bit of a diverse
background with them I started out as an event rider then I fell in love with dressage because
I had an awesome jumping machine and I realized if I finished on my dressage score I would be up
there in the placings and then I had some problems with a horse that wouldn't load in a float
and then I thought there must be another way and then I went and worked with all sorts of
different horsemen so I think I'm a little bit of a hybrid this works for me anyway
and I hope it works for you too so these exercises are exercises I do before I get on and ride my
horse so they're done with the bridle so your horse should already know how to give to pressure
with the halter if you're not quite sure about that have a look up here and I'll link to the
video I did with the three tools you need to get started okay but the horse should have an
understanding of how to give to pressure in a halter now I hold my reins remember I told
you earlier that people will give you opinions I don't think it matters how you hold the rein
you just need to hold it find what fits for you and then work from that point but I I
don't know why but I started out this way so the way you actually should really hold reins
is for the rein that's why our gloves have this bit here to come between those fingers and over
with your thumb on it now even when I'm doing ground work I hold it like that I don't know why
I think I've I developed quite a feel and I use my ring finger quite a lot to ask the horse to give
so I do hold it like that I don't hold it like that whatever works for you is good but yep so
I hold it up here reasonably close so now this horse should give to pressure so I should just
touch and he should give to the pressure of the bit now to me already you can't see that but to me
he's not as soft as I oh he is now he's not as soft as I would have liked him the first time
around okay so he needs to learn that little bit first okay so once he can give to the pressure
nice and softly he needs to give laterally okay so you need to ask him to come around here
and that's awesome I didn't what I don't want him to move he needs to stay where he is and not move
his feet because all I'm asking is for giving this way he needs to be soft in the ring in the
um hand here in the rein which he is so when he's good you just release so what you do on one side
of your horse you always have to do on the other side we like our horses to be ambidextrous most
horses have one way where they're more comfortable doing things than the other way a bit like you or
I are right or left handed and I always think about it when the horse has a difficult side
that you need to give him a little bit of leeway because if I made you pick your toothbrush up with
your non-dominant hand and brush your teeth you wouldn't be very good at it so they're not very
good sometimes at working on their non-dominant so just check that both sides are the same and
so he gives very nicely to there he dropped his head quite nicely I'd like him to have some
lateral flexion and bend this way which he's doing very nicely can you see that he actually there's a
little less this way (well the flies are pretty annoying) so he needs to pop his head down to
pressure which he's doing nicely and then I need him to give me some lateral bend which he does
quite nicely this way I have a little more feel in the rein on the other side so once you have your
horse giving nicely to pressure going down and bending nicely and giving laterally the next thing
to do is to ask him to pop his head down and then give him a go forward cue he needs to actually
go forward with his head down so the way I think about it is the most important bit for me is
always that he gives to pressure so if he's going forward I want his head to stay down if he decides
to try and bring it up I'm going to block him on the rein not pull block him and I don't care if
he ends up going sideways or swings his butt or whatever he does I'm going to be concentrating
on the feel in my hand that I would like a nice feel in my hand so let's see how we go that way
so I'm going to hold my rein personally I hold it the way I normally do I'm going to ask him
to give and he can give nicely and then I'm going to ask him to go forward about keep his
head down and he you can watch my right hand he tries to come up there and I just hold it
so the horse needs to give to pressure and then he can get a go forward aid and he can go forward
with his head there so when he bumps my hand in there I just block him and then he gives
to the pressure I don't care about much except that I have a nice feel or no feel in my hand
good boy good boy and then he um gives pressure what you do one side remember
you need to do the other so I'd like him to give and give him a forward aid
and you can watch there if you go back and watch this video he keeps hitting
my hand and trying to lift his head up there and I just hold it this is why I actually like
my hand the way I do it because I use my ring finger so when he goes when he pulls hang on
when he pulls up on the rein because I've got it like that with my fingers closed I literally
close my ring finger down firm you can see and I just hold like that until he gives
so I don't have to pull it's literally my ring finger
so when you've actually there did you go back and watch that bit there he actually pulled against my
hand and I just waited until he gave it's almost a little bit it was definitely automatic for me
now I can talk to you and he's resisting and I can just it happens without me thinking too
much about it but I'd like him to give and you can get quite industrious with this give ready
so he wants to bring his head up good
good boy oh boy
so I had to give him a little tap up to get him moving and once I did you'll be
able to look and see he went against the bit and I just tried it's a little bit hard
to coordinate everything but it's something you can do and it will get better and better
so when he gives nicely to the bit and he's going forward you can actually then ask him to trot
but still keep his head there good boy good boy good boy
good boy so you might be able to see in there that he was against my hand a few times
what you do one way you should do the other if you can so I'll just turn him around
ask him to give walk on ready
that's a boy heads up down up no he's against there good boy
good
good boy that's three simple exercises you can do with your horses which will actually
pay dividends when you're riding them under saddle take five minutes before every ride and just see
how you go with those make sure you let me know in the comments how you're going you'll be surprised
over a short amount of time how quick your horse will get much better with that
today with what we were doing we broke our training down and we didn't teach the horse
more than one thing at a time and then yes we put two things together head down go forward
I explained that and two other principles that I keep in my mind when I'm training my horse
in the guide that is linked in the description of this video if you want to you can go there
download it have a read over and let me know what you think I definitely keep those principles in
my head at all times when I'm working with horses thanks for watching see you next week