Through the years that I've been working with horses and riding, many people have told me that I think too much because I have always asked the question “Why?”. My continual questioning has often annoyed people and in addition it has often been taken as criticism of what they say. But I just want my teachers to explain their ideas. As an example why should I use that aid or that rein in that particular situation, or why should I ride faster or slower towards that obstacle. It's only when they can explain why, that I will have the ability to do the same exercise without them. It is only when I have things explained to me, why, that I have learned something.
Because of this, I have found it difficult to learn how to ride. I thought for a long time that it was harder for me to understand than for others. But the difference is that I don't give up until I understand. I can't do to things on command, just because someone tells me so. I want to know what was better, why, and how things can be improved by this action. Sometimes it has taken a long time to sort things out, and I'm probably not done yet.
For me it's not enough to have proof that things actually work. I also want to know why it works, and how it works. For me, the quest for knowledge about riding is more interesting and more exciting than to ride myself.
I think my curiosity made me a good teacher. I have gathered enough knowledge to analyze a situation and to find a solution, and being able to explain to others.
I try, and not only with horse riding, to peel away everything unnecessary. In riding, this means that I've analyzed each part of the various exercises. Furthermore I also examined how, why and when we have to use the different aids.
I don't think the horse gets another mentality just because we switch from a Western saddle to a show jumping saddle, or from a dress suit to an Icelandic sweater. A horse is a horse is a horse. Thus it should be possible to find a general, or universal, knowledge about how a horse works mentally and physically, and how to best communicate with him, so he can learn and continually improve.
It is this large, common, universal knowledge that I try to explore.
In this large body of knowledge there are some small parts, pointing in different directions. These are the different disciplines; the different ways that we want to use the horse.
Most of the knowledge and most of the exercises can be shared since the horse is the same regardless of what we want to do with him. To teach the horse to do a sliding stop instead of piaffe, is a minimal part in the huge common knowledge.
I have tried to find out why we ride the exercises we do, and what makes the exercises useful.
Many riders search for perfection rather than function. Many riders believe that an exercise must be accurate and give a high score on the dressage competition to be useful. Therefore many riders often ride the exercises after the demands on a dressage show. There is an enormous enthusiasm to center the turns on the forehand and every leg yielding must be from letter to letter all the way to the wall with...
No. Learn how an exercise is constructed, how it works, how to teach the horse the exercise, what parts of the exercise that are important and why you should ride the exercise. There is, if one cares to see it, a very simple and basic purpose of every exercise. If we see that, we have a much better opportunity to train our horses than if the purpose of the leg yielding is to get more points at next competition.
It is better to use the exercise to improve our horse, than to use our horse to improve the exercise.
I believe that we use too many aids. There is an over-reliance in, for that particular horse, finding just that combination of aids that makes him get the correct contact with the hand or do the leg yielding.
There are no secret aid combinations. There are no advanced aids that solve one’s problems. On the contrary, it is important to remove all unnecessary aids and learn the purpose of each and every aid. Then, use the right aid and that one only. We should look for one aid, not a combination of aids. We should never use more than one aid at the time anyway. Neither can the horse's brain cope with it, and nor can the rider's brain.
Instead of searching for aid combinations we must train the horse to be obedient to the simple basic commands. These are the following five;
- Control the rythm and gait
- Control the speed
- Move the front to the side
- Move the hind to the side
- Bend the horse.
If the horse and the rider master these five elements with only one aid at the time, they can do everything
