The Education of Toti
the willingness to go forward on the aids (seat, legs). In German, it means increased activity of the hind legs, which is more like “expressiveness of the gaits,” a quality I look for only when the horse is laterally supple and collected. For instance, I consider that impulsion in walk, halt and
reinback (“the desire to go forward”) is fundamental to training from the beginning but in German, only trot and canter have impulsion (“schwung”). Nothing wrong with either meaning. Connection (the quality of the contact with the bit) is a quality we need to seek from day one, but in forms that go from approximate at the beginning to extremely precise in the trained horse. Collection comes at the right place in the scale, after the horse has gone through a comprehensive gymnastic training, but before he is asked to display brilliance. Too much expressiveness, too much suspension, asked for too soon, and we will have a horse that is tense and uneven in his trot work. Toti is a horse with natural suspension, a slow cadence,
a great natural balance and ample movements. He does not need those qualities to be exploited for the purpose of showing off. What he really needs is the balance and relax- ation that comes from symmetry, which comes from supple- ness and the right amount of energy. (Too much energy in a horse that strong will create nothing but tension). We need to teach the horse to cross his legs (shoulder-
in, turns on the forehand and the hindlegs). This is the means to establish the lateral balance and to obtain the bend on the inside of the turn. In fact, the more bend the horse has in his neck toward the inside of the turn, the more he will remain upright, but too much bend will go against obtaining a turn. The two concepts (bend and turn) are mechanically opposite to each other until they can be combined by progressive training. While lunging, we can pull the horse in to turn in, give the line to turn outward (bigger circle), and use little vibrations to maintain the bend once he knows how to hold it.
Desensitization to Saddle and Rider After lunge work, the next phase of training for Toti is to get him used to the pressure of the girth. We start with
a surcingle, very loose, and endotap him to relax before he feels it and make him walk a little sideways to get a progressive feel of it, as his ribs swell in the lateral steps. We want to make sure that Toti never learns to buck as a response to the girth, the saddle or the rider. We follow with more sidesteps and reinbacks, then tighten the girth some more until snug and tolerated at the walk, trot and canter. Next step is the saddle and the stirrups. At each new step, we endotap him to obtain relaxation. Endotap- ping consists of tapping the horse’s body in a rapid tempo with an “endostick,” a whip with a foam ball fixed at the end. This tapping creates a general relaxation and Toti stretched his neck down, chewed and blinked and often let out a big sigh. When Toti could trot and canter in a relaxed manner with the stirrups hanging down, I placed a feedbag in the inside stirrup. Toti got a little nervous for a few seconds, but soon settled. I lunged him with it the other way and placed another bag in the other stirrup. The inside bag usually distracts horses from the outside one which is flying a lot higher and worries them at first. Once that is well accepted, I placed one, then two plas- tic milk gallons with a few pebbles in them for a stronger stimulus, tactile, visual and audible. After Toti accepted those stimuli, it was time to put the rider on, first across the saddle, then in the saddle. Again, each phase is confirmed through some endotapping to make sure it is fully accepted in complete relaxation. It is essential that Toti always associates the rider with a feeling of physical and emotional comfort. Forwardness is developed right away, and I asked him
to trot and canter on the lunge line, with the rider holding a saddle strap. After this work, Toti learned to accept the rider mounting from the ground, which is quite different from getting a leg up (it creates more lateral pressure on the saddle). This phase of “assisted riding” was prolonged until Cedar (my assistant in the saddle) could get walk, trot and canter, turns and straight lines and a beginning of shoulder fore.
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➐ When Toti has had multiple sessions of walk and trot with the rider and he has learned to stay consistently happy and relaxed, it is time to try the canter on the lunge. ➑ Toti demonstrates submission and relaxation at the end of the session offering a lovely stretch at the walk. ➒ Dismounting of the rider, conducted very slowly at first and repeated a few times at the end of these first sessions.
32 September/October 2015
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