Hi there, have just watched the moving off the leg lessons and was wondering if the wall technique would work for teaching them to move the shoulders from our hands? My understanding is that we move the hindquarters with the legs and the shoulders with the hands. So would the corner technique work if I had the horses bum facing the corner and moving the shoulders side to side? Or is there another method for teaching them to move the shoulders?
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I believe that leg pressure/position helps with moving the shoulders too.
If I am riding from my seat and I want to ask the shoulders to move, my seat position changes slightly too. For example: if I want the shoulders to move to the left, it is my right leg that I want the horse to move away from. So as my seat position adjusts, my right leg is slightly in front of the girth, the right rein is closed and the left rein is slightly open. My left leg stays on the girth because I am not asking the hind quarters to move.
(I hope that made a little sense. It can be really hard to explain without a visual demonstration!)
BUT before I even teach leg yielding from the saddle I teach it on the ground with hand pressure. This has made a HUGE difference in my understanding and my horse's understanding of what I am asking for when yielding shoulders of hindquarters.
There is some awesome vids here on the uni about teaching horses to yield from hand pressure:
INTRINSIC HORSE TRAINING WITH FLORIAN OBERPARLEITER (5)
I encourage you to check these 5 lessons out. I really learnt a lot from them!
Good luck and I look forward to hearing how you go :)
Thank you Rahni for your clear description. I have always the idea that we get a lot of instructions by teachers how to move a horse and I often don't understand how it works. So, how the horse should understand it? I think the main idea should be to think about what the horse is feeling.
Rudi
Indeed rudi, you are so right!
Mary Wanless has a wonderful book called ride with your Mind Masterclass, in it she's gone right back to basics of what the masters meant with the aids & what actually happens with your body; for example, for a circle or bend to the right, what we're told is inside leg on the girth, outside leg behind the girth - it isn't just the inside leg on the girth, it involves the right side of your pelvis slightly in front of the left side to match the horses shoulders.
The horse leads with the inside shoulder ahead of the outside shoulder, so out pelvis needs to accommodate that. If you use your seat to ride the horse, you will find you actually often need very little leg to back it up.
I can't explain it like she can obviously!!! but i hope you get the idea; it really helps you to work out where your body is & if you're not getting what you think you're asking for, try changing your position & see what happens.
Thank you everyone who replied! I will try both suggestions out and see how it goes!
my mare moves her front end from squeezing my right heel on the girth area (to turn left) and pulling left rein. thats how I was taught for pirouettes and turn on the forehand. my horse i believe was tought by backing into a corner like what you said :)
Dear Beryl. Thank you for mentioning the book, it has been translated into German as well. I will read it.
Rudi
Your welcome Rudi, i have read bits of it that relate to what i'm trying to do at the time, it is a detailed text book.
Beryl