This message is from: Starfire Farm <starfiref...@usa.net>
Someone asked earlier that I describe what I call the "hindquarter button." I wasn't sure I had time to answer that request, but now that we're under about a foot and a half of snow...so far...and because Sandy is taking her turn on the tractor plowing right now...I have some time. The On 2/3/2012 8:47 AM, Phillip Odden wrote: > Stephan Peters said the three most important aspects of ridden > dressage were suppleness, suppleness and suppleness. This is very true. But Stephan Peters is one of the MOST supple riders in the current upper echelon of competitive dressage. Because /he/ is supple, confident and has a deep connection in his seat, he instills confidence and trust in the horse. If you are not supple in your own riding, your horse will never be able to be entirely supple. Even if the horse is trustworthy, there will be little imbalances and "braces" that the horse will develop in order to carry you. Which is okay for some horses. Some horses, Fjords included, are better at forgiving their riders' tension and lack of balance than others. > There came a point when I knew that if I couldn't find a way to ride > and drive with light contact while keeping my horse in frame and using > itself correctly I would have to quit. I needed a supple horse. I > needed to drive and ride with contact and I wanted to excel at dressage. To my students, I have always said, "Contact is relative." Contact for driving a horse can be different from contact while riding a horse. Contact for a reining horse is different from contact for a dressage horse. Contact for a "horsemanship" ...Californio, or Vaquero style working horse is going to be different from all of the above. You might see a real "loop" hanging in the reins, but there is contact. I prefer to call it "communication" rather than contact. Contact can be a pretty strong word when trying to describe the feeling you should have in your hands and body in relation to the horse's mouth. Contact within dressage training styles varies greatly. Nuno Oliviera could ride a horse in pure collection, piaffe, passage, levade...all of the High School movements, and extended gaits, in an exhibition, with a thread in the horse's mouth...nothing else (that is one of my goals!) And, though he was offered world-class horses with amazing ability, he chose to train horses that had conformation difficulties and he was able to make them beautiful. In my experience, driving horses seek contact/communication. It can be as light as the weight of the reins, but if it is not there, if you cannot feel the corners of their mouths in the reins, they can feel "lost" and insecure. The body contact that one has while riding makes it possible to ride with a long loopy, rein, yet still have contact. > Two thousand pounds of thundering horse flesh pulling a war wagon > through tight obstacles is exciting. Yes indeedy! ;-) > When I hit the In Gate I ask them to bolt and I encourage them to bolt > with lots of voice and verbal threats. This is important, because you have to first build your horse's confidence and trust to be able to balance themselves well enough to canter with the carriage. Many horses are never allowed to canter...or to really move out, whether in harness or under saddle, which can foster a lack of confidence that can build up over time, resulting in a true runaway or the horse bucking, etc., which I believe the horse learns to do to relieve built up tension. > Doing this with a pair of supple responsive horses is a real rush. > But they have to come back to me with just a little pressure. I like > and expect the same suppleness and responsiveness when we are trail > riding in Wisconsin or hunting in the mountains out west. Suppleness + > responsiveness = safety. I agree. As to the "hindquarter button" I train my horses to look towards where I am touching, the "hindquarter button" being behind where you would normally have a relaxed leg lie, around where a back cinch would be if you had a western saddle on. The technique I use is something like tapping that location, annoying them, until they finally look at it as if to say, "WHAT do you want?" Like a horse reaching around to get rid of a fly. Like you responding to someone tapping your shoulder. When they "look" like that, I stop the tapping. When they "look" reliably, I tap until they shift their weight. When they shift their weight reliably, I tap until they move their feet. When they move their feet reliably, I tap until they move their hindquarters (without moving forward). Once I have all of that at the halt, I tap the button while they are walking. If they don't bend or disengage, I use the rein on that side to bend and halt them. Pretty soon, they make the connection and disengage to a stop when I "touch the hindquarter button." Once it's good at the walk, I move up to the trot, then the canter. I had to use this system when re-training a Fjord mare that had been made to fear the bit so much that as soon as you picked up the reins, she ran away (the previous trainer's answer was successively bigger bits). Didn't matter where you were riding, in an arena, in a round pen, wherever...she ran. I remember sitting on that mare, in my round pen (really, my 60'x60' little indoor) with her running around and around, saying to myself, "Please don't fall, please don't fall!" I rode out the runaway without touching the reins, until she figured out that I was not going to haul on her mouth, no matter what. I taught her how to do a one-rein halt in a halter, then taught her the "hindquarter button." She did have to run with me a couple of times before she believed in the "button." After that, I could ride her without a bridle or halter. But, I still had to teach her to trust the bit, which took several months! Much longer than teaching her to stop without the reins. She is now a happy camper and the owner never had a problem after that (/after/ I taught the owner how to ride the mare /without /contact!) That was a success story...not all that have come to me have been able to be rehabilitated. Some were better off doing other jobs...but that is another story. The foundation that is laid when starting a horse is SO very important. To date, not one of the horses that I have bred and started has been a real problem (I probably just jinxed myself). They can be forward, yes, but not runaways. The "problem horses" that have come to me had been started elsewhere, or there has been an attempt at being started elsewhere, and something went wrong for the horse. Horses have long and good memories! There is way much more to describe, but that is it in a nutshell and is better taught in person! From the snowy east side of the Rockies, Beth -- Beth Beymer and Sandy North Starfire Farm, LLC www.starfirefarm.com Important FjordHorse List Links: Subscription Management: http://tinyurl.com/5msa7e FH-L Archives: http://tinyurl.com/rcepw FH-L Shirts: http://tinyurl.com/8yky94l
