On Tue, Apr 03, 2007 at 09:43:37PM -0700, Judy Ryder wrote: > You don't have to go there, or go to icelandic trainers, or to Americans in > Iceland to get advice on slowing down a horse. They are just learning these > things, so it seems to me that it would be easier to get it from someone > here first-hand who has long-time experience, than going there to get it > from someone who has just recently learned it second-hand. > > That's just logical to me.
we all learn things second (or third, or n-th) hand, except on the rare occasions where we create new knowledge. (i've done that a few times, probably never about horses though :) i did have better luck with my american-in-iceland friend (who had previously worked with stjarni, which may be the more crucial element) than with an american i ride with. she's a genuinely excellent horse person in my opinion, but her suggestion on slowing stjarni down was to sit back and pull on both reins. "pulling on both reins" and "sitting back" both seem to be cues to him for more speed or work, or a gait transition (say upward from walk to tolt, which i ask for with an increase in rein contact and a deep seat -- if i want a loose-rein tolt i just use the voice command "up up!" but he doesn't seem to step under himself as well with that). my american friend is sixty-three years old and has been a professional with horses for most of her life. my american-in-iceland friend is in her twenties and has been a horse professional for about ten years. i don't think either of them is "just learning" about slowing horses down, but i kind of am, at least with stjarni. and the advice i got from the a-in-i worked, whereas the advice i got from a didn't. mind, this is on just one particular thing; in general i'd ask both of them for advice (probably the american first, since she's handier :) as they both know far more than i do, and i'd try what either of them advised, since i trust them to do their best by me. but sometimes one approach works better with some horse than another, and as stjarni was trained by an icelander, it makes sense to me that someone with some experience in that tradition got him right. hope this post makes sense; i'm really tired and using some horribly non-ergonomic equipment :/ --vicka