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Case Study: Marigold
It seems impossible for me to
believe, but this column marks the end of my first year as columnist
with Ride! Magazine. Wow talk about time flying by. For the last
eleven months we have carefully built upon a series of foundation
training exercises that I use with every horse I work with.
Exercises which allow you to gain control over the emotional, mental
and physical aspects of the horse; exercises which promote having a
horse that is extremely light, supple and beautifully responsive.
And all of these exercises help us achieve one critical goal no
matter what discipline you ride: collection!
Collection is and should be a
primary end goal for every rider. Im sure you hear people taking
frequently about how to get their horse collected, and the
importance of collection to their own pursuits. Why is that? What is
collection and why is it so vital for every rider?
Speaking in strictly physical terms,
collection is when the horse can compress his body. He brings the
rear toward the front, and the body and withers are raised up. The
hind legs are extended up under himself, while the croup is dropped.
He is driving himself not only with his legs, but primarily with his
hindquarters. He will have a nice rainbow arc in his neck, and will
be on the bit with his face perpendicular to the ground.
Mentally and emotionally, collection
is when the horse is truly listening to you and is engaged. He
understands all your cues and is able to coordinate all the key
parts of his body that you have been working on gaining control
over, into a very powerful, balanced and fluid movement.
What you gain with a collected horse
is better performance in every gait, with far greater impulsion.
Collection allows you to excel at leg yields, spins, turnarounds,
flying lead changes, collected trots and canters just a better
performance no matter what you are asking the horse to do.
Collection means the horse is using himself a hundred percent, and
you as his rider are one hundred percent in harmony with your horse.
So again, all the work we have been
doing over the last eleven months has been leading up towards
collection. We must have control over all the major body parts: jaw,
pole, neck, shoulders, ribcage and hindquarters; we must have
acceptance of the bit and not at ten pounds of pressure either
ideally you are riding a horse with the weight of the rein only on
the bit. If the horse is heavier than that on the bit he will be
heavy on the forehand, and thus it will be impossible for you to get
true collection.
As a trail rider you need also need
collection. Going up and down hills efficiently requires collection.
The extra impulsion you gain from driving from the rear means you
can go further, and that you go better (more efficient for your
horse). For example, this means a better heart rate for your horse,
which is critical for endurance riding. A horse that can be
collected is a fit horse. The body has been conditioned physically,
the top line is strong, and the horse is balanced from a profile
point of view meaning there is a straight line from the front end
to the back not tilted, with equal weight on each end.
We gain collection through a series
of exercises which show what we want haunches in, shoulders in,
leg yields, walking pirouettes, teaching a horse to turn on the
haunches, teaching a horse to shift its weight back to its
hindquarters. The horse must flat out know its go forward cues, and
what all your leg cues mean, and then the rein simply acts as the
final method of communication. Think of the bit kind of like the
gate of a dam where we can let so much energy go out through the
nose, or else capture it and transfer that energy up through the
withers.
Case in point we had a show horse
come in for training, Marigold, who was so heavy on the forehand, it
was impossible to get her to pick up the correct lead and as a
result, we could not do flying lead changes either. Now Marigold was
not what folks would consider a problem horse by any means. She was
about nine years old, a super cooperative mare, no emotional issues
at all. She had been professionally trained years before and then
spent a long time being worked by amateur competitors. Simply put
her training had really degraded over the years as her riders had
not maintained the performance standards.
So with Marigold, we went back to
the basics just like we have done for the last eleven months in
these columns. We used the exercises I have outlined to get control
of all her key body parts, to get her to be responsive to aids, and
to end up with a horse that was very light and supple. With time and
patience Marigold discovered there was another world out there
other than being heavy on the forehand sixty to seventy percent.
When we started working her, she had big shoulders, a puny hind end,
no top line, her neck was inverted (muscles on the bottom and skinny
on top), kind of U-shaped. But in about 3-4 months with a good diet,
all the great gymnastic exercises we do as part of the foundation
training regimen, plus conditioning training, we ended up with a
horse that easily learned to pick up her correct leads, both right
and left, and to do exceptional lead changes all because we
collected this horse and got her to pay attention to what we were
asking.
So the point is, while there is not
a quick fix to getting a horse collected, it is critical that
collection is one of your most important goals with your horse.
Collection comes from thorough training on all three aspects of your
horse: emotional, mental and physical. Collection results from your
consistency and commitment to constantly meeting and raising the
expectations for performance from both your horse and yourself as
his rider and trainer. Collection is achieved through solid,
systematic foundation training, and that is something that everyone
really can do with their horse!
So where do we go from here? Well as
we announced last month, I am doing an awesome contest with Ride!
and the deadline is fast approaching for all the entries. We would
like Ride! readers to submit a topic idea in 50 words or less for
the columns for next year. There are some fantastic prizes and we
are really hoping to get some exciting, relevant and fun ideas from
you all! So check out the contest details in this issue of Ride! and
submit your ideas before September 15, 2003. Next months column
will be a topic as proposed by one of you!
If you have any questions, please
feel free to email at cwtraining@comcast.net. We also have a lot of
information foundation training articles on the website which may
help you out. http://www.cwtraining.com.
Until next month,
Charles Wilhelm |
