Marie, you are so right. The sooner students know that horses are individuals with opinions, feelings, and instincts, the sooner they can begin to develop a healthy relationship. And yes, always try to finish on a positive. Often you have to go to something a little easier but so much better to have success on both the horse and rider’s part. Thanks. Barbara

I too like to instill from the get go is horses are Not Machines.
They like us are individuals, they too have emotions, a mind all their own, are so sensitive and intuitive and deserve to be treated with the utmost respect, care, love and kindness. This is not to say the horse can do what he likes, when and how, I believe it’s important to help teach our beginners the art of timing, being firm but fair, rewarding/acknowledging the smallest try just as we do for them. And last but not least always, always finishing on a good note.

Mindreadinghorses
Thank you so much for sharing the description of your first three lessons. You are very thorough and I like how you direct the attention to the horse as an individual. I agree that it is most important that we direct students to become good horseman right from the start. Every instructor, especially those of beginning riders, needs to be able to work with their basic 3 lessons to suit the age and interest of their students. I love the relaxed tone of your description and can picture you adjusting this for small children and also working with the avid youngster and adult. Often a new rider really doesn’t know what they want to do with horses and always we have to do our best to guide them in a good direction. Thanks you of sharing this
Barbara Ellin Fox

My zero day is sitting and talking about “why do you want to do this and what do you expect from it?” Most of everything after day 3 is driven by what I learn from that.

My first day (sometimes combined with the zero day) is “these are horses”, We go into the paddock together and sit with them – we interact with the horses and watch the horses interact with each other, and I talk with the student about their physiology, cognition, emotionality, social nature, the conversations they are having with each other using ears, eyes, neck, body positioning and movement. I show them how each horse expresses its personality in the paddock with the others and how they defer to each other (or not) and try to give a sense of what happens in the daily equine soap opera.

I tell them about each horse’s history – this one is a former ranch horse and here’s what he knew when he came to us; this one is a reining horse who lived his whole life with the family that foaled him – and how all this affects handling and riding them – for instance the ranch horse still prefers to do horseshoe shapes and needs tiny corrections to keep to the circle, all because he used to chase cows for a living and that meant a lot of rollbacks and sharp turns. I talk about their physical differences and how that changes how well they are inclined to perform certain maneuvers. This one is wide, and finds it harder to spin and do crossover lateral work; he picks his feet up more, which makes his trot require more focus to sit; this one is small and light and is focused on stop so don’t just take your legs off him; his narrow carriage makes it easier for him to cross his legs over and he picks up his feet a tiny amount and has one of the smoothest trots around as a result.

It’s critical for me that the student right from the beginning sees horses as individuals and thus cannot fall into the horse = car analogy that keeps so many riders from being horsemen.

I show how to get the horses to come (not hard as they love their work) and then I work with the student to manage the horse on lead line (forward, stop, stand, back, turn, disengage hindquarters), help them learn discipline at the gate, and we practice it all outside and in before we give the horses a groom. Then we put them back, again focusing on discipline before they are allowed to rejoin their herd. We watch them for a while, and day one is over.

Day two is about balance and feeling, but we start by hanging out with the horses again. Once we halter them and bring them in, I explain and demonstrate tacking up and how to keep the horse comfortable with cinching and bridling. I let the student redo the cinching and bridling after demonstrating. I remind them how to reinforce that the horse needs to stand still while we do all this.

Then I bring them into the arena and help them on the horse. I walk them around and get them used to the feeling of moving, stopping, turning and backing, sometimes very rapidly. Then I have them do the same things with their eyes closed and I ask them to tell me what we’re doing without looking. I help them put their bodies into a frame that they don’t sway as we do this. Then back to eyes open, and finally out to the paddock to release the horses, watch them a bit, discuss visualization and day 2 is done.

Day 3 is the first riding lesson. As on day 2, I am continuing to reinforce awareness (“what are his ears saying?” “who’s in charge of that one?”), ground work, obedience and straightness on the ground. This time, in the arena, though, after a refresher in the feelings of riding, the student gets to independently mount, wait, send the horse forward, stop the horse, wait, go forward again and turn the horse using seat and legs. I don’t teach direct direct rein use except as an emergency response (about to crash into the wall), because I want them thinking seat and legs all the time, and they are riding horses who think direct rein use is yelling. I reinforce pressure, release and return to neutral. I stay out of the way, let them feel the ride, and just stop them once in a while to ask them what they are feeling and learning, sometimes with pointed questions, and I offer gentle suggestions. Usually by the end of this lesson they can do a reasonable line, can stop and can make some reasonable turns. I don’t expect them to do circles yet. But at this point, they have started to become horsemen and horsewomen.

If there’s anything more important than starting new riders in the essence of horsemanship, I don’t know what it is.

By the way, just as the beginner’s instructor needs to be highly experienced, knowledgeable and articulate, the horse the beginner rides needs to be light, focused, relaxed, and highly capable. Anything less teaches the new student bad habits that are costly or impossible to remove later. Yes, this means putting students on well-trained, very disciplined horses worth a lot of money – and they need to be schoolmasters whose training is frequently refreshed by a compassionate trainer.

What I want in every student is first, foremost and always love and appreciation for the complexity and sensitivity of the horse, empathy for the horse in the alien world of domesticated equine society, and of paddock, aisle and arena. I want them to have constant awareness of the supreme importance of the lightness and release of every pressure applied. If I don’t have these things, nothing else matters. I believe it takes an expert instructor to create this, because this is where experience with horses and deep knowledge of them as creatures is critical. Done properly at the beginning, this produces outstanding riders who put the welfare of the horse before their success or their own needs.

Which is really why we should all be doing this – for the love of the horse.

Thanks Cindy. You have a really good blog with lots of helps that are useful for all instructors, not just instructors for therapeutic riding. I hope other instructors will take a look http://lessonsintr.wordpress.com
Barbara

You wrote, “The Balanced Seat does not in any way preclude the possibility of sitting in a “forward seat.” Nor does it mean one can’t sit in a dressage seat, a Western seat or even like a jockey. What it means is that the rider is always able to sit beautifully, without grip or tension in all gaits…”

Very well said. Thank you.

And you wrote, “Robert Dover is a Pony Club graduate. Pony Club says it teaches Balanced Seat.”

Pony Club did, but I saw back in the 80’s as it made a transition from the British Horse Society PC to the US Pony Club a drift into the Morris method. Even Susan Harris, who was trained by Col. Kitts, has some Morris “things” in her modern US Pony Club Manuals. Morris has infected everything connected to jumping.

Hollie wrote, “I think people put to much thought into riding a horse. They want to Analyze every hoof beat.”

The line between “feel” and specific understanding is very fine. We need both. Sometimes we feel something odd in the horse we are riding. An example might be a 4 beat canter when the second beat, the diagonal has a bit of a split beat to it. In these kinds of circumstances we feel something different. It is then very useful to understand exactly what is happening if we hope to improve it. We might use trial and error to find a fix through “feel”, but in many cases we truly need to know through disciplined analysis what is actually happening.

“Feel” alone can make for a limited experience with a less than perfect horse, and few are perfect. Analysis alone can make a rider slow to respond and awkwardly outside the true movement of a horse. I agree many riders think when they should be feeling. To them I quote the great baseball player Ted Williams who said, “If you don’t think too good, don’t think too much.”

Susan,
I’m not really in to writing posts that inflame people but sometimes I do so I apologize ahead of time if this is one of those times. I can’t tell you how many times I have heard that George Morris line of comment where he is disappointed that so many riders use the crest release. And I do agree with him that riders of that caliber should be using an automatic release or a following hand. The trouble is that before George Morris began to push the crest release in the 60’s- no self respecting rider would enter a Medal or Maclay if they couldn’t ride fences with an automatic release. If you couldn’t do it you stayed in lower level equitation until you could. That was before George Morris became the Pied Piper of Hunt Seat Equitation.

Most of the time the crest release is what causes riders to jump ahead of their horses and it also undermines the base of support (another thing George Morris has redefined) which is why the lower leg swings back.

Whenever I write a post about any of this (look at my UShorsemanship.com under issues- crest release if you’re curious) I have someone who comments about how George Morris says the crest release is over used or something along those lines. George Morris may have changed his tune and distanced himself from the crest release abusers but he is the one who blessed us with the crest release in the first place even though he isn’t the one who invented it. George Morris will leave a good legacy in some areas but he will not be able to shed responsibility for changing the jumping world in America

And regarding him being tough on horses. Yup. Some of the people that have a system and a method (ranging from natural horsemanship to George Morris to some of the dressage elite) are also capable of covering force with finesse- it can be an illusion

Thanks Susan

Barbara

Bob
I could add some things to the “It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time” museum!

I’d hoped for a long time that George Morris would step up and accept accountability for certain things but I’m finished holding my breath. Some of the things he taught have completely altered the course of riding jumping horses in America.

Rodney Jenkins was a pretty amazing rider and could read horses on a few warm up circles. Blaming him for much….mmm I don’t recall Rodney Jenkins with a huge following of students and hopefuls…if he had we’d have way fewer riders counting strides to fences or needing them lunged to death before classes!

Speaking of posts- I got into a little “discussion” about one of the George Morris Horsemastership clinics that was written up in Practical Horseman when they first started. I objected to Robert Dover stating “You’ve got to be comfortable being back
on your rear ends. I don’t know why you think it’s more comfortable on your crotches.” I commented that Balanced seat does not include “being comfortable on your rear ends”. This is not balanced seat.” gave a description of Balanced Seat according to Harry Chamberlin and added “I don’t argue whether or not hunt seat riders should be taught classical dressage seats in George Morris’ Clinic but I do argue that the correct terminology should be used for the seats that are taught. Dressage seat and balanced seat are not interchangeable terms. Dressage seat teaches “The weight of the upper part of the body should be carried by the buttocks, which are its only proper support.”, from “Breaking and Riding” by James Fillis.”

Robert Dover replied (through the magazine editor) “With the greatest admiration for Gen. Chamberlin and his work, I respectfully disagree with his definition of the Balanced Seat. Here is why:First, his assumption that the fleshy part of the buttocks is not part of the seat is like saying that the fleshy part around my waist is not part of my upper body.

While I truly would love it if that, in fact, were true, it makes absolutely no sense. The seat of the rider, as understood by most people today, has two definitions. It can be used when describing one’s overall position from head to toe. (i.e., “Guenter Seidel has one of the most beautiful seats of any dressage rider today.”) It may also refer to that part of the rider that includes the upper body, from the sitting bones to just below the head, but not including the arms. Those “fleshy parts” are actually (or at least supposed to be) muscles which,when tightened and empowered, help to make adjustments in the forwardness of the horse. To say that they are not part of the seat is false.With respect to “balance,” one need only look at what this means in other sports like gymnastics or skiing. Balance requires that the person have relaxed and total confidence regardless of the terrain, whether that be on a balance beam, a black diamond slope or a trotting horse. He or she should be able to remain in perfect harmony, using necessary parts of his or her body to create the desired result, independent of all other body parts. With riding, the perfect barometer for this is to, while sitting relaxed in a perfect position from the waist up (erect and with beautiful arm and hand positions), lift the legs up and away in the saddle as if doing the splits. Do this at all three gaits. If you find, especially in the trot, you are moving your arms, or even feeling like you might fall off, think of the gymnast again on the balance beam. When the arms flail or they appear to almost fall, they are out of balance.

The Balanced Seat does not in any way preclude the possibility of sitting in a “forward seat.” Nor does it mean one can’t sit in a dressage seat, a Western seat or even like a jockey. What it means is that the rider is always able to sit beautifully, without grip or tension in all gaits and can independently use, as necessary, whichever muscles are required at any given time while remaining
relaxed in all other muscles. Balance means balance—not a particular style of riding. And the Balanced Seat is the product of thousands of years of horsemanship and not that of any one person, American or other.”

I understood Dover to imply that there actually wasn’t a style of riding named Balanced Seat and that all riding should be in balance. Robert Dover is a Pony Club graduate. Pony Club says it teaches Balanced Seat.

The reason I mention this is because I think people who become icons owe it to the rest of the world to be responsible for the terminology they use and the twists they put on the definitions and methods that came before them. If they don’t (and apparently they won’t) the next generation is mislead, sometimes a little, but more frequently a lot, and we lose what we had. I could forgive George Morris if he said “I thought it was a good idea but apparently it wasn’t, now here’s what we can do to change it.” Obviously the blame game is a better alternative.

Your account of the riding instructor certification reminds me of Beery School of Horsemanship’s course by mail!