The Art of Natural Dressage

Working with the Horse's Initiative
It is currently Fri Mar 29, 2024 7:20 am

All times are UTC+01:00




Post new topic  Reply to topic  [ 1 post ] 
Author Message
PostPosted: Sat Dec 12, 2009 9:04 am 
User avatar

Joined: Fri May 18, 2007 1:20 pm
Posts: 760
Location: Poland
I was asked to give some riding lessons, altough I'm not riding anymore. I thought, that it will be difficult, because I don't remember much of the "how to ride a horse" idea. But I discovered that my groundwork skills (for which I thank to AND mostly :) ) now help me to teach other people, if I work as a riding instructor (occasionally, but still).
In short, now I'm much better in groundwork, than I was before, when I was still riding.
For this reason, I have better control over horses of the "students", even if their riding skills are close to zero :P or especially then.
It helps to teach them how to ride, if I can communicate with their horse, or I can show their horse how to do some basic elements. Usually such horses are not much trained, so their repertoire is not very impressive ;) but they always understand some "abc". So we can do some "stepping under the body shadow", or various turns, etc., and the rider only has to sit there and feel.
I could do this before, but I influenced the horse much more (mostly because of using tools, like reins). And doing things from the ground was something, that is done to improve riding, not for the groundwork itself. Or for the fun of having a conversation with the horse. I mean, groundwork wasn't the "goal", it was a step on the way to riding.

Another thing is, that I don't tell people how to ride, anymore. Like, put your leg like this, your hand like that, etc. Simply because I don't remember these things :P I only tell them what to do, and maybe I ask the horse for it so that they can feel it without doing anything, if they don't know how. Then they have to figure out the cues by themselves, which usually doesn't mean that they will have a perfect posture, but they learn to listen to the horse.

Maybe it's not a surprise for someone who teaches riding regularly, but well, for me it was. Also because I have more experience with teaching a horse, than teaching a human, but teaching humans is fun too. Like, what to do to teach them listening to the horse, instead of moving the horse around + trying to stay on its back. Actually it's almost as much fun as teaching a horse, although horses seem to learn faster :funny:

_________________
"Never just follow the crowd." Margaret Thatcher


Top
   
Display posts from previous:  Sort by  
Post new topic  Reply to topic  [ 1 post ] 

All times are UTC+01:00


Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 8 guests


You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum

Search for:
Jump to:  
cron
Powered by phpBB® Forum Software © phpBB Limited Color scheme created with Colorize It.