two different but complementary aspects: the biomechan- ics of the movement and the obedience to the aids. The easiest way for Toti to accept the aids (become obedient, hence reliable), is to ask him a question he already knows the answer to. Presenting him with only one problem to resolve at a time facilitates his learning while progressive exercises are the best way to develop proper mechanics. The “school of the aids” is the essence of dressage, its
goal as well as its means. The Classical School (La Guérin- ière, model to the French, German and Austrian Schools) aims at making the horse supple through the exercises, so he becomes obedient to the aids. The Baucherist School teaches the horse the obedience to the aids so he can do the exercises and become more supple in the process. I believe it is best to combine both methods and use each one as needed in different training phases to support and facilitate the goals of the other. Through my own Endotapping methodology
applied to the apprenticeship of every movement, we make sure that the horse learns how to relax and move as needed in response to the physical contact we are using (the aid). The green horse will naturally resist the contact (hand, leg or seat) because it is the reaction he has used to survive in his world since birth. As we insist gently, he will ignore the aid as his muscles habituate to the repetition. For a rider to feel surprised when a horse is resisting or ignoring the aids and calling it a bad behavior is like discovering that equines are mammals and herbivores: resistance is in their nature. Horses are designed that way and we need to help them advance from this stage to the next two: relaxation and increase of the range of motion. The repetition of a painless stimulus does the trick: I use a repetitive tapping/vibra- tion adapted in intensity to the sensitivity of each horse. Eventually, the horse learns to responds to each aid instantly in a relaxed manner.
Exercises to Prepare Counter-Canter The first concept necessary for Toti to learn counter- canter is to make sure that Cedar will have the means to maintain his impulsion and his balance. In the right counter-canter, she is going to need his obedience to her left aids which will push his haunches to the right. Even more importantly, Toti needs to follow the rider’s weight by responding to Cedar loading the right stirrup and moving her shoulders horizontally in the direction she wants the horse to go. By “coming under the rider,” he will increase the reach of his right (outside) shoulder around the turn. At first Cedar has to exaggerate the weight displacement, but as Toti understands and relaxes, her movements will become invisible and she will only need to deviate a tiny amount from the vertical, just long enough to signal her intention. This is the key to create an equilibrium that is never forced in which the horse adjusts himself instantaneously to the most subtle move of the rider. This use of the weight was the hallmark of Nuno Oliveira’s equitation and the main reason for the lightness of his horses. When the horse follows the rider’s weight, the need for the other aids diminishes consider- ably and conflicts fade away. The best way to prepare for that aspect of the first
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END OF SHALLOW LOOP IN LEFT CANTER. Having finished the turn smoothly, Cedar is now pushing Toti straight ahead back to the wall. This is the mini version of counter-canter. LEFT CANTER ON THE SHORT DIAGONAL BEFORE STARTING COUNTER-CANTER. Having turned left at A, Cedar is taking Toti to his left with her shoulders and keeping him bent right. LEFT COUNTER-CANTER. Horizontal phase of the stride (rider vertical), great extension of the left front but the verticality of the horse is less on that side than the other because of Toti’s natural tendency to lean right.
left counter-canter is to ask for a right leg-yield on the right circle in posting trot. In that movement, Cedar trots on the outside diagonal and leads Toti with her weight on the outside stirrup (the weight is the main aid for the right bend). He can then easily yield to the added combined pressure of right leg and right rein. The outside left rein acts forward in harmony with the rider’s weight. This leg yield places Toti’s weight securely on the outside of the circle, which will be the key to the counter- canter coming next. After that, Cedar must make sure she can send Toti forward and straight on a diagonal after the half-circle in leg-yield. Frequent transitions between the two will teach Toti to modu- late the form of his thrust, more sideways or more forward. This will be important when going from counter- canter back to true canter. Now Toti
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(who already knows lateral work in walk and trot) needs
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