heppa wrote:
THe idea of AND is beautiful. But it will not suit most people in the horse world. People are not willing or able to take time to develope such a relationship with their horses that they can ride them around without any physical connection to their heads. They want to get on their horses and ride. THey want to get away from their work life, daily cares, etc wahtever the reason is and they want to ride and compete in doing so. THat is human nature.
To spend years on ground work is out of question for most people.
See it this way: this forum is meant for everybody who's on it.
We don't want to change people or force them to join us. That's why this forum is open too: everybody can read everything and decide if they're interested in joining or not based on all the knowledge about us that they could want.
And our aim also isn't to tell people to do groundwork for years before they get to ride. There are other forums for that.
All we want to say is: introduce new stuff to your horse from the ground, then it is easier for you to explain it to him, and it is easier for him to understand. So if you want to teach your horse shoulder-in with the cordeo, teach him the first essentials on this movement from the ground and he will understand it sooner and better. we also want people to know that you can actually train your horse from the ground in such a way that he will be able to carry your weight better.
But that doesn't mean that you can't ride untill you've mastered every exercise in the book from the ground! Just as the right groundwork will make him stronger and will teach him how to carry you in a correct way, carrying you will make him stronger if he does it in the right way, simply because he has to lift an added X kilograms from the ground. So there's no right or wrong, and it all adds up to each other too. That's what our forum is about.