Great Lesson

Hey there,

This is more of an informal post. I just got back from teaching a good friend of mine who's riding a rather old (20-something) tb. She's riding him as a favor for his owners to get him back into some shape so that he can at least enjoy his retirement and move properly. Anyways, my friend is a lovely rider - very solid seat, quiet leg, super talented - but for some reason the horse she rides gets super hot and he often tosses his head, gets unbalanced and then races off at whatever gait he feels like (throwing in a buck or two). He's been getting much better (more flexible, longer stride, softer mouth), but still this rushing problem. SO, I hopped on and walked/trotted him and discovered an interesting hitch. When he pulls his head up and in the air, the instinct one has is to lift your hands higher and then wait there for him to release - BUT when I did this he began to race off, so I immediately gave him a lot of rein (without losing the contact, but being very kind and giving) - and, suddenly, he slowed down. Interesting - since it appeared to me that my friend was releasing - so I trotted around some more, and every time he resisted with the bit I'd place him and then give. All of a sudden, a round, balanced horse (albeit for only 3 strides at a time, but that's pretty great for an old guy with no muscles - and so we'd repeat with lots of praise).  So, I put my friend back on, and tried to make her give more often. She was obviously resistant to the idea of letting a horse that takes off take more rein, but I finally convinced her to give it a try - only problem was that even though she was giving, it was barely a give. So using some psychology here (and sensing my friend was still a bit tense) I told her that every time he slowed down and balanced himself at trot she had to pretend that she was riding Totilas and he'd just done 15 clean tempi-changes down the diagonal and praise her horse accordingly. Not only did this help her release more clearly, but all the tension left her body and she was much happier with the small improvements her horse was making (small in comparison to tempi changes, I suppose, but I thought self-carriage was a pretty big step!).  So there's my new teaching trick of the day - next time I have a student I feel is 'death gripping (not pulling, just not releasing)' their horse I'm going to make them pretend they've just ridden a super fancy amazing movement and/or just won a grand prix test and to praise their horses like they've done just that. Something tells me both the horse and rider will appreciate it ;)