IMPROVING horse’s balance & way of going on a circle without gadgets – Video Case Study

Today I wanted to share some footage which we filmed on Thursday. It was a hot day but with a slight breeze and sun behind the clouds so we had less flies (and they can be massive!) to deal with. That was just as well seeing we had quite a few horses scheduled to film…

The footage in this post shows an older mare whose previous job was having babies and her breeder now wants her prepared for sale. She has good jumping papers and had been used for breeding show-jumpers.

I will call her Grey Mare. As you will see from the video below, her natural way of going is tense, hollow and crooked. The 6 min video footage shows clips from about 30 minutes in total and I hope it shows how with a little patience, feel and will you can start to achieve results which immediately make riding a horse much more pleasant for both the horse and rider.

Teaching your horse to move well on a circle can help with keeping him/her sound because it decreases the stress on spine, joints, muscles and ligaments the crookedly moving horse exerts on those structures. It will also save you many frustrating hours of “more inside leg, kick kick!” which is pretty pointless to any horse. Thanks to intelligent lunging  your horse will already know how to initiate the bend and you will be able to be much more subtle with your aids and seat.

If you have a horse that “motorbikes” around the corners and leans on one or the other shoulder struggling to bend, these sort of exercises can help a lot.

Here are two photos showing the shape of the Grey Mare on the circle before and after the exercises.

ESTIMA – AN EX-RACE HORSE RE-TRAINING VIDEO DIARY. Part 1: Meet Estima. Reflections on Posture, Crookedness and Way of Going.

Preface to the series: I am currently involved in training of 11 “project” horses belonging to a “breeder/dealer”.  Together with another Aspire Equestrian instructor, Magda, we would like to share the training journey of some of them. This series will take form of video diaries and reflections on the horses’ progress. The goal  is not to criticise any training methods or breeding choices but to document a no-gadgets, sympathetic yet purposeful training work we prefer. A way that is based on understanding the “why?” not just the “how to?”. This is also the kind of horse training we teach to all our riders. The main character in this series is a 5 year old, ex-racehorse mare – Estima. 

Put your legs up and join the journey – comments, views, observations always welcome. 

Wiola

www.aspire-equestrian.com

PART 1: Meet Estima

Five years old Estima has done very little since her racing days. At least very little as far as correct training goes.