The Education of Toti
judicious mixture of relax- ation and activity, but inflammation—and hence the pain it creates—is always guaranteed to increase with the intensity of the workload. My farm manager Kim
Taylor, who is very good at performing myofas- cial work, followed up Dr. Amy Rock’s manipulation with bi-weekly deep massage sessions to continue relaxing Toti’s back.
Kim Taylor working on Toti’s long back muscles for myofascial release.
halter but not to the reins. It is easy for the horse to get used to it because of the small volume and we replace it later by a slightly bigger diameter bit that offers the right degree of pressure for the horse’s mouth. We organize the combination padded chain/bit in such a way that the horse is guided at first 90 percent from the cavesson and 10 percent from the bit. As we lower the rein clips on the chain, the pressure transfers progressively from the caves- son to the bit until it is 10 percent cavesson, 90 percent bit. After that, the horse is ready to be ridden in a snaffle. My reason for doing this is the following: the bit presses
Back to Work After all the stiffness symptoms subsided, we resumed a normal work schedule progressively, first on the lunge line with a low head position. We then went back to work under saddle. Because the rider is not capable at this early stage of producing very much impulsion or direction, this role must be fulfilled by the lunger. The lunge line gives the horse a directional support and the lunge whip provides the necessary impulsion to produce the direc- tion. There is not direction without impulsion, so all big actions on the reins that are not associated with enough forward energy look more like torture than horse train- ing. At the same time, the lunger is both the dominant presence and the reassuring one that provides the horse with the leadership he craves. This rapport has been well established with Toti during the early preparation work described in the previous two articles.
Beginning Techniques Explained Usually we start guiding all young horses with a padded chain fed through the side rings of the halter on which we clip the reins. This works as an adjustable cavesson and it allows us to eventually attach reins to both the bit and the cavesson. We place a very thin bit in the mouth (a thin “saddlebred bradoon”) that is just attached to the
on the tongue and this pressure must be minimized as much as possible. At a time when the horse is not capable of turning, bending or slowing down very adequately, the tongue ends up being the “cushion” between the reins’ demands and the mass of an uneducated, stiff body travel- ling forward. If the bit is used as the only means of connec- tion at this early stage of training, many horses end up with tongue problems (passing it over the bit, rolling it back, etc.) as their way to avoid the pressure created by their lack of balance and suppleness. Our system is an easy means to prevent these tongue issues of ever occurring in the first place. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. We also use running reins attached to the cavesson as
a means to loosely frame the neck and shoulders of the horse from side to side and help with direction. Running reins create a sliding contact that is much more accommo- dating than direct snaffle reins for a young horse whose head position is not yet stabilized. This is the proper way to use the sliding reins: not to force the horse’s head down, but to create a soft, sliding contact while they are kept very loose so they never block his position. Their presumed inventor was the seventeenth century Duke of Newcastle, who always used them on the cavesson and not on a snaffle. The early work under the rider consists of turns, first
in walk then in trot, always guided by the lunger, just as Toti had already learned to do without a rider. In order to obtain the first turns, the rider shortens the inside rein
1 50 November/December 2015
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3
➊ Starting a right turn, JP walking backward, drawing Toti in with lunge whip on his left and Cedar also showing him the stick on same side. ➋ Toti finishing a right turn. ➌ The pair is starting a left turn. We can see the combination of aids: lunge whip and riding whip on the right, opening rein on the left.
Indoor photos by Kim Taylor
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