Kacey Equitation and Sport Ponies

PATIENCE OR COMPETENCE Are you ‘patiently’ waiting and hoping for your horse to improve and understand? Or are you teaching your horse a language of clear reli...able aids? We need competence to know when it’s time to teach go, and when it’s time to teach slow. And, we need to know how to do it with the most effective logical aids that make it easy for the horse to understand and to balance. (See also notes on the photos). To reinforce simple clear, precise, aids: aids to help the horse find the answers, find the release. Hands without legs - legs without hands.

If you ask your horse to collect his/her body, you must ask your horse to lengthen his/her body. It is this balance between gathering & expanding, collecting &... extending to different degrees and in every gait that builds a horse's fitness, suppleness, straightness, balance and ability to collect in true self carriage. Be Gentle. Be Clear. Be Patient. Thank you to Agata Kamionka-Flak for bringing Desert Rose,her very talented mare, to the clinic. Photo Credit: @magda.senderowska The Classical Way Clinic in Wroclaw, Poland #horses, #dressage, #dressagehorse, #dressagetraining, #dressagerider, #pferdesport, #horsesofinstagram, #cheval, #horsemanship , #olderhorse, #horseofinstagramdaily, #passage, #ilovemyhorse, #chevaldressage, #dressagequeen, #dressagehorsesofinstagram, #dressagetrainer, #horsesforlife, #horsestagram, #horses_of_instagram, #caballos, #realescuelaandaluzadelarteecuestre

The Three Second Rule... What's the difference between a horse that is responsive and a horse that is reactive? My simple answer is... a responsive horse thinks... and a reactive horse operates off reflex. How do you shift a reactive (or non-reactive) horse into a responsive horse? I use the 3 second rule... The 3 second rule is basically 1) apply cue 2) count a full 3 seconds (one Mississippi, 2 Mississippi, 3 Mississippi) 3) then follow through if the task was not completed. Rinse and repeat until the horse consistently shows understanding of the cue and can execute the task within the time window anytime and anywhere. On a very elementary level, cues to me are like learning words. You learn enough words and you can develop a language for communication. Each cue will mean something if we are consistent in how we apply and maintain it. When you are mindful of your cues and aids, you will have a horse that "responds" to your asks rather than reacting or not reacting at all. This very rule is the key, at least in my opinion, where we can do away with harsh tools and gadgets that help us make our horses behave better. When a horse understands what we want and they can do the task without feeling discomfort about it, they become very compliant and happy to please. Resistance comes from pain/discomfort/stress and/or lack of understanding of what is being asked. Horses don't simply resist because they want to be obstinate, the resist for a reason... By using the 3 second rule, the horse has a chance to think, prepare and respond to the request. I find that just about anything I want my horse to do can be accomplished within that time window once the horse KNOWS what I want. Without a 3 second rule, you'll typically just have a horse reactive to whatever pressures your cues applied. For example... lunging a horse. Most people use a lunge whip to lunge the horse. Typically, if they want the horse to speed up, they'll use the whip. The whip is typically used without a pre cue or opportunity for the horse to respond before it's used. So basically, your tool (lunge whip) becomes the cue for the horse to react to and go because basically we've startled him to the point where instincts kicked flight into gear. Ever had a horse terrified of a whip? Ever have them take off running because you picked a whip up or were carrying a whip? This is usually why... the horse is reacting to the tool because to them, it comes out of no where and frightens him into speeding up. When you have a cue prior to using the whip AND you give that horse time to respond to the cue, you'll find that the fear of the whip dissipates because the whip is no longer unpredictable. When a horse understands what the whip means and he learns how to not have the whip be used, you see confidence in the horse about whips. This also applies to our hand and leg aids. When we simply pull or kick without that pre cue of what we want, the horse will react instinctively to whatever pressure he just felt. The more sensitive the horse is, the more he'll associate the thing with the feeling. The whip = stress, terror, anxiety. Before a horse has learned the cue you'll see them do 1 of 3 things: horses over react and go into flight, some fight with the pressure and some will freeze with pressure. The key is to avoid instinctual responses by slowing down the process of asking with a cue and escalating pressure to encourage the right response. Most people struggle with either a dull horse or an anxious horse because they jump straight to escalating pressure before they apply a simple, non- confrontational cue to ask for the thing they want. Horses will tend to stay dull or stay anxious until we iron out and clear up the language we are using. Long story short... to help a horse think and respond, becomes responsive yet relaxed, we must go through the process of teaching him the "word" i.e. cue, of the thing we want before resorting to escalations of pressures to get them to do it. It's the difference between using clear and concise language to communicate vs. yelling and screaming to get what you want. The Ever see those parents that yell and scream at the kids? How do the kids respond? You either get dull, shut down kids or you get kids that are anxious about making a mistake. Proof of mastery in creating this communication with our horses, is when we can ask anytime, anywhere with just a subtle cue, and the horse will respond without an emotional reaction to the request. When this is established, you'll find that you have a horse that is responsive, yet soft and relaxed about the work. I don't think you ever fully master communication with horses but at least by following some simple rules, you can easily continue to progress no matter what you wish to do with your horse.

How is your horse or pony on working gates? No matter your ridden discipline, here’s a challenge for you. Spend a few minutes at the end of each schooling sessi...onand I realize that many of us are suspended with winter and/or lockdownwhen you can, just asking for one step at a time. Just plan for it, for when you are next regularly back in the saddle. Some horses will do this effortlessly, so it is your job to make your aids more and more invisible to the outside eye. Have your horse become smoother, bendier, less resistant. In this picture, the pony Winchester shows exemplary softness and willingness to do the job well. Many horses will become fretful or impatient, whether through misunderstanding of this essential skill, or a lack of clarity about the meaning of our legs. Some will be afraid of the metallic clanking of the latch. So, we build on obedience and trust. One step today... one more tomorrow... and so on. My goal is simply to be able to open and hold the gate with either hand, passing quietly through the opening, without ever letting go the gate. I teach my horses to walk forward through a gate and to calmly back through, as needed. The skill slows down the meaning of our legs. To move forward, sideways or backwards, without that desperate ‘checking out of Dodge’. Take a step... and wait. Take a step... and wait. Without fail, the horses and ponies who learn to do gates well, become very proud of their increased handiness. They love being part of a team that gets things done! For safety’s sake, just make sure that the gate is opening in the direction of your intended travel. That way, should things get ‘western’ you will pass right through, rather than getting stuck. Guiding, trust, patience, reliability, body control and canter/lope departures are always improved with mastering this one basic and essential skill!

Shared from another page. Be the best rider possible for your horse to carry. "Never forget that you are an uninvited burden on the back of the horse, who is not designed to carry weight on his back." - Charles de Kunffy

Ingrid Klimke has the last word on stretching - with a quote from Reiner Klimke: He stretches from the wither, really down, and makes his neck really long, and... the nose forward, that is important. Some horses crawl behind the vertical, holding their nose very tight to their chest, then you feel that the back is still tight the stretching must be from the hindleg over a swinging loose back, and then stretch really down. You see how long his neck is and he is still saying,I know the way is free. My father always said, ‘think of stretching the nose to the sand’. https://www.horsemagazine.com//brilliant-basics-with-ingr/ See more

Merry Christmas Everyone. May many good things await us in 2021.

Looking pretty in pink, Luna. Merry Christmas.

On self carriage (balance) and collection... Manolo says they cannot be hurried, forced or taken. Both come from within the horse. They are born not just from ...developing the horse's body, his straightness, strength and suppleness but from tending to his mind and heart and carefully cultivating his desire to work with the rider. In their purest form, they are the horse's gifts to his rider. . , . To watch Manolo ride - including this horse - and teach and ride during clinics, go to: https://www.facebook.com/groups/OnTheRoadWithManoloMendez/?ref=share You MUST ANSWER the questions to join. To learn more about his training approach go to: www.manolomendezdressage.com

Fun for everyone!

Love these two girls

Luna is so smart. Allison tried this obstacle yesterday. She went thru it flawlessly today.

Happy Halloween

2 days left to use them

Con 205 huesos y 700 músculos, el modelo anatómico del equino es todo un reto para los estudiantes de medicina veterinaria. Gillian Higgins incorporo esta nove...dosa idea para representar la anatomía del equino de una manera pasiva para la salud, usando tan solo pinturas hipoalergénicas a base de agua que son fácilmente de remover después de la práctica, facilitando así el aprendizaje en los nuevos estudiantes de veterinaria. Una novedosa manera de enseñar anatomía veterinaria. Acción Veterinaria #SomosAcciónVeterinaria #Medicina #Veterinaria

I will be interviewing neuroscientist and author of Evidence Based Horsemanship, Dr Stephen Peters for the podcast later this week, and I'm sure he will have mo...re amazing insight like this. "The ability to "self regulate" while under pressure comes after the horse has had the opportunity to "find safety" multiple times under relatively low pressure. One has to actually practice to SHOW the horse that mentally finding safety is the answer. After the horse has some experience in this self regulation. He can find it on his own under pressure. If the horse does not know how to self regulate under pressure,they are victims of their own neurochemistry and will default to the built in defensive circuitry (high sympathetic arousal resulting in increased norepinepherine (adrenaline) and cortisol (stress hormones). At this high level of sympathetic arousal, you lose the horse and you are done." Dr. Stephen Peters

Welcome Nekko. Congratulations Sherla Chen on your first horse and Missouri Foxtrotter

All set to video for CaWDA tests.