and advances her hand in a “leading rein” position (acting toward two o’clock for a right turn and ten o’clock for a left turn) and advances the outside whip (or Endostick) toward the horse’s face to create a visual indication. At the same time, the lunger pulls the horse forward toward the center of the circle and shows him the lunge whip on the outside of the turn. As soon as the horse understands the turning concept, the rider gives him a little tap on the inside hip to make sure he keeps going forward. In short, whichever part of the horse becomes stuck (front or back end), it needs to get animated by the rider tapping on it to quicken its lift off. Resistances to the actions of the hand are labeled as
“mouth resistances” or “neck resistances.” In reality, they start from the horse’s feet bracing in one direction or another. A horse who doesn’t want to go forward will brace his front foot forward (often the left). One who doesn’t turn will keep too much load on a foot for too long. One who falls forward and loses his balance is bracing a foot backward (usually the right front, which stays too long in the pushing position and therefore throws weight on the forehand and does not assume the forward balancing stance soon enough). Toti has been well prepared by the work in hand to limit those resis- tances to the minimum but when the weight of the rider is added to the mix, the lessons have to be repeated. It is by moving his feet (activating them by a tap of the stick) that changes of direction are obtained, not by pulling on the reins. Rein actions need to simply become a “code” that replaces the stick actions eventually, as the horse learns to move his feet in any direction from the small- est indications of the hand. However, at the beginning of the training, it is the moving of the feet that creates the true lightness to the rein aids we are looking for in a riding horse.
Use of Voice We also use vocal commands because Toti has learned to respond to them already: little clucks to maintain the impulsion before the turn, then the command “turn!” Next
comes the acknowledgment “good boy!” as soon as the turn is initiated. I insist on this vocal command system because it
improves the horse’s understanding and helps him partici- pate in the learning process. I do not think that horses should have to learn through “riddles” that seem incom- prehensible to them and I am convinced that they under- stand us very well—maybe not so much our actual words at first, but the clear images we project from our minds carried out by the clarity of our intentions. Verbal rewards make the horse feel validated by his leader and also serve as identifiers of the action that preceded it. Toti is very intelligent and has a high play drive. We can see that when he is turned out, as he plays endlessly with old water tubs and balls. It is therefore doubly important to engage his mind in the training.
Training Concepts This is how horses truly get trained as opposed to just ridden through the movements. Riders today often confuse equitation with dressage. Equitation is the sum of the aids that we use to get horses to perform at first: they create the balance, the energy, the positions that make it possible for the horse to experience a given movement. The aids must be diminished in intensity, duration and frequency from one demand to the next and replaced by the horse’s understanding and willingness to perform. It is this educational process that constitutes dressage, which is both a science and an art: it needs simple but clear principles as well as a lot of improvisation, measure and adaptation to the needs of the moment. We call the latter “equestrian tact.” Many dressage books convey the idea that horse train- ing is some kind of linear process, and every promoter of a “new” method guarantees that his or hers will get you a trained horse without any bumps on the road. After half a century training horses, I believe that training is more like soccer: you know where you are starting from and you know where you want to end, but anything in between is fair game for the opposing team who will resist your
4 Rider is Cedar Potts, assistant trainer at Baroque Farms USA.
5
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➍ They finish a left turn, then JP walking forward and pushing Toti, with Cedar still showing the stick on his right side. ➎ Toti halting in a left rein corner. Corners are claustrophobic, so it is helpful to halt at every step, before, in the middle and after the corner to relieve anxiety. ➏ Toti halting in the middle of a right corner.
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