A lot happened in the arena that day with those horses. A sizeable list of issues were raised in the introductory morning session - this horse plants her feet in response to the rider, that horse bucks into canter, this one doesn’t pick up a right lead, and so on. One or two participants had been eager to know how much of the 3 hour session would be spent riding. It was understandable. This was a plethora of challenges, perceived to be problems under saddle.
By the time we had observed all the horses at a standstill, and experimented with changing their shape at a standstill, a new landscape was hitting the canvas. We saw how each and every horse was heavy on the left front foot, and when asked to bring their head and neck only to one side or the other, all moved their feet. This is a set up for lack of balance and straightness in the horse, and implies a lack of clarity – in essence does pull mean move your feet, stop your feet, or is the rein used for something else entirely to do with shape?
Each horse tripped at least once, when a mix-up occurred in their foot placement, rooted in a commonly taught foundation that sets the horse up to load the inside shoulder on a turn.
We explored why these things matter, what contributes to their creation, the confusion for the horse, and then for the person - and how to start unraveling things for a better and lasting connection. We set about re-building the ride from the ground up – with clarity for the horse that transfers to the saddle. We would focus on a connection with the horse that supported open communication and the horse’s unguarded try.