As Prairie Pinto wrote in her last post, “If you do not have the desire, the willingness and ability of your horse to learn and go forward, given freely, then they will not improve”.
The Featherettes have been riding together in group lesson for about a year, and in that time if there is one thing we have learned, it is that we (the human) must be willing to be patient, fair, and free from hubris when working with our equine partners. Why should our horses even try to do anything for us; what do they owe us? Only thoughtless, inconsiderate and selfish riders never question why they have unwilling, unhappy horses (and they may even fail to notice their horse is unhappy).
We (the human) must achieve at least a certain degree of skill and knowledge before any advancement can be made. Building upon each and every skill we learn under the guidance of our Equine Counselor, and striving toward a higher standard by never skipping steps or taking shortcuts, has allowed us to gain a greater understanding and appreciation for the athletics and communication that create a happy horse/human partnership.
Writing about the training from our horses’ perspective gives us another way of looking at what we (the rider) have been trying to accomplish during the schooling sessions. By taking the equine point of view, we then must consider what our horse thought of the work; did he feel me squeezing or gripping too much with my leg when asking for halt?; did I not have a clear picture in my head when requesting a turn on haunches?; and I probably neglected to praise him when he gave me the move I unintentionally asked for! Does he forgive me when I am hesitant or unsure about asking for a specific movement? By watching our horses during session work, trail rides, or at the hitching post and in their paddocks, it’s very evident we have happy, content horses. Schooling, riding, always something new to learn – what fun we’re having!
All of this babbling brings us to the latest report of our work over the last several weeks. Everyone has steadily become more proficient in areas that sometimes seemed to take soooo long to achieve!
Even the warm up has become a time for all of us to relax and allow our horses to soften and supple, just flowing along, quietly preparing for the work to come. It wasn’t long ago we would be stiff and unsure, rigidly coaxing our horses to get ready and TROT, Halt! Wait! What am I supposed to do? Turn on forehand? huh? Uh, no, turn on haunches? How do I cue for that? Poor Tall One! So patient with each of us…..
The past few weeks have been amazing for everyone in class; we’ll have to recap some of the achievements in the next few posts and discuss what’s ahead for the summer – little whispers in the winds that show season is around the corner!
Hi Featherettes of the Nevada Sage,
I’m really enjoying your comments and posts. It makes me feel like I’m part of your weekly lessons.
I’ve decided that I must get regular training so I’ve contacted a barn and hope to start lessons next week!
It’s “Stonepony Dressage” and Mark (my shoer) and Nancy Stearns are the owners. I’ve watched Nancy training with her students and as they are showing; she has the same philosophy as Feather, so I feel good about riding with her. She’s going to trade with me for feeding & etc. when they are out of town. She has a website so you can check out her lovely small operation. (A good example for your future business???) For me, I hope to meet some like minded riders and get some goals for my two pals & myself. I’ll try to get some pictures taken and send them off to you, soon. miss ya all Becky
Hope you’ll be sending us a post or two about the training
sessions – we’ll check out the website too.
We just completed 6 training days in a row with Feather, who
seemed to become more invigorated each day we were at the barn(can you believe it?- she didn’t run into the middle of the desert, screaming – maybe we are improving!).
Every day was fun, interesting and made us want MORE!
Judy rode a new horse today, Breeze, a cute Quarter Horse
belonging to Carly (see her in the above photo on Silver),
who is staying at the barn for a month of work with us.
Once again, Feather put each of us on the ‘hot seat’ in the
middle of the ring to give 5 minutes of instruction. Some of us cheated and said our time was up at 2 1/2 minutes!
See ya!
I checked out the Stonepony Dressage web site. I hope we can use this as a business model for our future plans. I hope we can have a facility that appears to be as well kept as this one. Add in “Prairie Pinto” for inspiration and guidance and I think we have a wonderful future coming our way.
Also was thrilled to get in 3 solid days of training. I loved Feather’s comment she would love to have a morning and afternoon session 7 days a week. Feather give me 1 day off a week to get the errands taken care of and I will be there, I would love it too.
Carley- this photo of you and Silver is a delight to the eye. We’re so glad to have you and your dear boy Breeze join us; you’re both wonderful additions to the group.