Education of
A yearlong series that follows the training and development of a young stallion.
Toti The
By JP Giacomini
Regardless of the discipline one intends for the future of a young, athletic sport horse, most trainers will agree that the first year of work is focused on the basics. Although there are many roads that can “lead us to Rome,” this column will present the ongo- ing education of the three-year-old Warm- blood stallion Totil Hit, or “Toti,” over a period of one year. From backing to his debut in competition, trainer JP Giacomini will present the techniques he uses for Toti, working in hand, on the lunge and long lines, free jumping and under saddle.
Toti is now ridden directly on the snaffle without a flash. Cedar (my assistant trainer) is still using the Portuguese bridle with the (loose) noseband and the side pieces attached together. His impulsion and direction are good enough, so he no longer needs the framing of the draw reins attached to the cavesson (not to the bit) that we used earlier. As the result of our careful progression with the bitting, his contact with the bridle is very light and his mouth is quiet.
Training Journal #5 Developing Toti’s Canter N
ow that Toti understands how to do transitions in and out of canter from walk and trot, vary his speed a little without much support from Cedar, do straight lines and circles in canter, it is
time to advance the training of this gait. The balance and flexibility of the canter is a fundamental quality of training for any discipline. A well prepared horse must be able to adjust his speed in canter, stay light in either bend and either direction, change leg, or not, as requested, and modify his tempo and the energy of his “jump” as needed for the exercise presented. This is our goal, but a journey of a thousand steps starts with a single one. Counter-canter is a gymnastic with no downside and the sooner it can be used in the training, the more beneficial it will be to Toti’s progress. It is a very easy movement for any horse at liberty or on the lunge line, as long as he is not required to maintain the bend of the lead. When we lunge a horse who pulls outward, it is frequent to see him cross-canter or even counter-canter while his head and neck are turned inward, but we never see it in the other bend. Even when cantering on a straight line, horses tend to turn their heads opposite the bend for balance. In right canter for instance, the horse travels left hind, left diagonal, right front and jump. The horse tends to gener- ally bend away from his most loaded leg, so when the right front is his single base of support before the jump, the head tends to go left. It takes a high degree of physical education for horses to learn to
canter without overloading that inside front. We need to teach them how to get the three other legs ready to move into a support posi- tion quickly enough to avoid becoming unbalanced. Advanced dres- sage horses in collected canter show an increasingly elevated gesture of their inside front, while the contact on the inside rein lightens up. This is particularly obvious in canter pirouettes when the inside front barely pats the ground.
The Benefits of Counter-Canter When I watch young horses performing counter-canter at dressage shows, I can see riders who are very preoccupied with keeping the proper lead bend around the corners because this is what the judges
Photo at top by Shelley Giacomini Warmbloods Today 51
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