The horse whisperer came back

Have had a great day today, with Adam Shereston again, all about connecting with the horse by sychronising your movement to theirs and asking them to move when it's easiest for them..

We started off in hand, leading them, watching how their legs moved and only asking them to turn when the leg on that side was off the ground, so it was easy for them. So if you want to lead your horse left, wait til his left foreleg is leaving the ground, then ask for the turn.

Then we mounted up and did the same from the saddle, moving our shoulders & hips in time with the horse's movement and asking for the turn when the horse's leg was off the ground.

We also worked on stopping, and he wanted us to do it without pulling on both reins, but by raising and gathering one rein each side as the foreleg on that side came up, to shorten the stride and eventually get the stop

You can use the same technique to alter their speed, Fina tends to rush a lot so he showed us how to slow her down

He spent a lot of time working with Jane and Ocarina on this as she gets very anxious if you pull on her reins. He had her going nice and softly after a while.....

So plenty there for us to work on :-)

He also did a bit on catching Polo, who is usually very wary of strangers, didn't take him long to get him to trust though.....

Training Day Part Two.....

After lunch, Eric changed from doing groundwork to ridden work. So the horses were tacked up. But before mounting, he did some work on getting them to flex and disengage their quarters. Then he showed the riders how to do it, first from the ground, then from the saddle.

You can see him working with Ali and Seraphina in this video:

And here with Sheila and Gandalf, in just the bitless bridle:

Very interesting stuff, and a lot like the Philippe Karl DVD we saw recently, using the hands higher than traditionally taught and the bending and flexing that I have been trying out with Chester. So lots to practise there!

Using one rein at a time means that they can't lean or pull against the hand and I like the way he doesn't want you to take up a "proper" contact, but just experiment with a feel on the inside rein and wait for the horse to relax then reward him by stopping what you're doing. As with everything to do with horses, timing is the key......