The Art of Natural Dressage

The bow looks lovely!! It's ok to guess two knees now and again...put it on a different cue and save it for something else? It's a nice way to ask them to lie down when you're riding...a friend of mine calls it a "deer down".

It's all perfect anyway!

And Mucki looks like he's filling out some!

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"Ride reverently, as if each step is the axis on which the earth revolves"

Thank you all!

Oh, you noticed? He added height, weight and muscles. I´m so very proud of him . His hindlegs look really strong now and his chest has grown enormously . Also his belly has grown. Right now I stick with "he´s a baroque horse, he´s supposed to look like that", but I´m not sure how long I can keep that up . No, if I feel his belly or shoulder or anywhere, it feels tight, like packed with muscles. It´s strange, because I never had the impression that I train him that much, but than again we have very steep pastures and they walk about them 24/7.

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Volker

The horse owes us nothing.

What a lovely video! So nice to watch you two experimenting together.

I also was surprised how grown up Mucki looked.

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Diego's Journal
There's no more looking back - no more grey skies black.

Absolutely. Getting students to loosen the hips, let their belly go, relax the thighs, is something that I have to approach, with most students, indirectly with various exercises. I find too even from the neck down people are stuck ... rigid and tight. And usually sore from it one way or the other. Belly dancing is one way to loosen up for sure. Riding a horse is another. Currently I have a student who has ridden no other horse but her own for the past two years. She does pretty well with him, but is too much a part of him. They interfer with each other occasionally. She needs to get more range of motion from shoulders to knees, so I've assigned her to exercise other people's horses in their barn. Let's see how that goes.

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Love is Trust, trust is All
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So say Don, Altea, and Bonnie the Wonder Filly.

i try to keep up again after my holiday.
But you doing great, he is so smart.
And both working very softly i like it so much, i will watch it again, when i have more time.
give great inspiration. i have to teach my little pony to lay down, and you give some nice ideas to try out with her.
She have to lay down because she is handicapted (one of her front legs) and she must some hoofcare now.
i have tryed several things but nothing works still now.
So maybe your film will help me a bit furter.

When she lay down it is more easy for me to do her feed, i need more time then a farier. i am not that strong and quick as they are

Volker....sorry to hi-jack your diary!


Inge, we had a horse with a broken front leg who could not place weight for trimming for many months. We put a sturdy log buried in the ground and had him place his foot on it. With a bit of patience he understood he could balance his hoof and leave it hanging over the edge. It was not ideal but we could at least rasp from the top around the edges to stop his toes flaring. Later he held it for a few seconds at a time (the trim was not pretty but over a few days we could get some hoof rasped).

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Annette O'Sullivan

Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans. - John Lennon

The problem is that this little pony would never become normal i think
So i have to train her not for a short period but for the rest of her life. So thats why i wanna learn her to lay down
and trust me. So we can take care of her food.
It is the one who is alright, the one she uses all the time, her sore leg is good to handle. She can not lean on the sore leg.
She had no pain or what ever but she have not the strength and trust to stand complete on that leg.
It looks like she had some nerve injurys, so her leg goes downwards as soon she put weight on it.
Because she can not control it anymore.

Oh please - hijack away!

Inge, I tried to get him to lie down a few times, but didn´t pursue it with much effort, since I´m pretty sure he will lay down for me one day when he´s in the mood, or have understood what I want from him. But your reason is a whole different story of course. My plan was to get lying down via kneeling, which I get occasionally when we try to do the bow.

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Volker

The horse owes us nothing.

yes that is why i like it so much
she can do a little bow, the start of it is there.
Sometimes when i do a little force because i have to check her food. She kneels because she can not stand anymore.
When she kneels she start to eat, so it is not completly uncomforable or stressed or so i think.
But when she kneels i can not do much because her belly is there.
So i wanny try to go from there furter.

Thats why i like your film, it give me some thoughs about how to go
i have to check some things by myself if i give the right commands which she understand.
We go for a try.....when it is dry again...today an terrible day, whole day rain.

Today Mucki lay down for me! Just like that - totally unexpected for me. We did a bow, he stayed down, I tapped his other leg, he went to kneeing and then he lay down . He even stayed down and rested a bit and I gave him tons of treats and was even allowed to touch him everywhere. He must have really felt comfortable then, because I needed to actually tell him to rise again.
It´s going to be interesting if he´ll do it again, or it was just the circumstances, but it was definitely nice!

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Volker

The horse owes us nothing.

Yesterday we did some classical groundwork with caveson and reins - that´s what we´ve been doing with Oliver lately. We tried shoulder in and stepping under mainly. It had been raining for days, so the arena was in a terrible shape with puddles of water and patches of deep sand. Mucki was very distracted, swishing his tail, avoiding the open side of the arena. So we had to go to basics sometimes and do some halts, backups and so on.
It felt like hard labour yesterday, but when I watch it now, it´s not so bad after all seen from the outside. But bear in mind that what you see here is actually among the worst mental conditions that Mucki can get in while working in the arena .

Afterwards he offered a lot of jambettes and bows just to do something more to his liking .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3slxLYT6Edk

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Volker

The horse owes us nothing.

what relaxed and good!! well done again

Yesterday was our first session ever where I actually tried to "ride" Mucki. Or try out some specific things in the saddle. It was very exciting for me (and for Mucki as you can easily see at the end of the video ), but it was also a very nice, calm and bonding experience. I never felt insecure to sit on him while he was moving, even though at the beginning he was a bit agitated when he was getting a treat from me on his back. But we figured out how to treat calmly in the end.
I tried a few flexions and to get him to turn left and right. Bending worked nicely, but when I tried to get him to move it failed except once. I decided not to pursue this any further, but wait till he gets better acquainted with this whole riding issue. Besides, I have to get a clearer picture in my head first how to get him to move first. If any of you has some practical tips, it would be much appreciated.

But now without any further ado - the very first moving pictures of Mucki being ridden:
http://youtu.be/uw5GrVCjPoc

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Volker

The horse owes us nothing.

The first time I sat on Tam's back and actually asked him to walk away from the mounting block, it was one of the most thrilling times of my life because it was the first time ever, that I did a first ride on a horse without some means to control him with reins.

With all our ground preparation, I thought honestly, that we would have the whole direction thing worked out and it would all go perfectly.

In hindsight (somewhere back in my diary you can find this conversation) we discovered that in fact for every direction I tried to give I would get the exact opposite result from what I expected. I would ask Tam to go right, he would go left. Ask him forward, he would back up, etc.

I have to say that you and Mucki did much better in the bend and direction department than Tam and I did! Bravo!!!

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"Ride reverently, as if each step is the axis on which the earth revolves"