This week in lessons

I was thinking the other day of major hurdles when it comes to riding.

An early hurdle is learning to post the trot...once you learn though, it seems simple and odd that you ever couldn't post the trot.

A more advanced hurdle, one that many pleasure type riders never try to accomplish is what we will be working on this week. This is the hurdle of connection.

Connection can mean many things, but lets take it to mean at the most basic level; that the horse is ready to listen and obey reins and legs without more than a moments hesitation.

The problem is, keeping the horse in a connected state takes work and attention to the horse, although just like posting, once you GET IT, you can't figure out why it was so hard before!

To help with the connection issue, we have two things planned;

1) If you did not take part in the Centered riding clinic, I will want to spend 5 minutes with you either before or after your lesson to do a little exercise to develop a following and compassionate hand. If you did take the clinic, but want to do this again, by all means!

2) We are going to work on the lengthened trot. Not a faster trot. Not a rushed trot. A LENGTHENED trot. This means the horse stretches its poll forward, stretches its back longer, and reaches in longer steps. The rhythm should stay the same.

How do we get a lengthened trot? It is easy. You soften your hands down towards the horse's mouth, and soften your leg aids, and ALLOW IT.

Of course first you have to prepare for it...and this means a horse that is wanting to go slightly faster than you are asking, but not in a rushy way, but in a "at the ready" way. The horse has to already be flexed at the pole, straight through the body, and have a good rhythm. The horse has to be in a calm way, but not super relaxed as you need some tension to get a lengthen. A good lengthened trot is a moderate change...nothing exciting like you see at the Olympics, but you should feel the horse float a bit...kind of like when going over slightly long trot poles.

For the Saturday lessons I did a demo to show what I wanted and meant. I am willing to do this in lessons this week as well if requested.

For jumping we are going to ride lines of different lengths to work on adjustability in the jumping horses.

Karen