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
