The cordeo cues when riding
Karen had a great post in which she summoned up the cues she used for riding, and that just had to be turned into a Riding sticky.
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Karen's post:
I just wanted to add that horses can learn many subtle variations of the cordeo position.
I use:
1) Straight up lift to mean just that - rear up or lift the front end.
2) More backward lift to mean stop or back up.
3) With two hands I lay the cordeo across the top of the neck with slight downward pressure...this means to lower the head (for a mounted Goat on a Mountain or emotional control, or travel with the head down)
4) Right or left light "tipping" of the cordeo with a straight up lift is part of the cue for Spanish Walk.
5) Right or left tipping of the cordeo at a slight backward angle is for right or left turn with forward motion and bend.
5) Right or left tipping of the cordeo at a more extreme backward angle is for a turn on the haunches (pirouette).
6) From the ground, and backward touch of the cordeo from one side (at the horse's shoulder) means to rock back the weight for a bow.
7) Also from the ground, a light lifting touch (should be whisper soft) to cue the ramener.
From the ground, a downward touch is to lower the head.
All the above are assisted with appropriate leg/weight/seat aids, or from the ground with accompanying vocal or body language cues. I think, with a skilled person, the list of potential variations of cordeo positioning and combinations with other aids is endless!
Now, I am OF COURSE not totally perfect at my consistency with all these, so Cisco (and definitely not Tam) is not perfectly consistent in his responses, but we're getting a teeny bit better each time.
But if you have already well established leg/seat/weight aids, then for riding it is just a matter of teaching the horse gradually to understand the language of the cordeo, and how the cordeo is used in conjunction with the various movements.
For turning, in essence I think you are teaching a dressage horse to neck rein like a cowpony...but it works!
If your horse will respond to body cues alone without anything on his head or neck, then you could, if you like, hold the cordeo with two hands as if you had two reins in your hands, but this is much harder to teach from the ground prior to mounted work unless you can easily reach over the horse's back as you are working in hand. Since I mostly work with only one hand on the cordeo on the ground, it made more sense for me to develop ridden cues with only one hand as well.
Oh...and stopping is a matter of trust in the extreme. I would work on this often, with many, many, many rewards. It also goes without saying that all work in the cordeo should be done at or below the horse's level of comfort where he can maintain his balance, composure and his connection with you. If you go beyond the composure level, he/she may push through the cordeo and you have to then go back to basics and re-establish the trust of the halt.