TRAINING FOR MENTAL & PHYSICAL BALANCE

AN EXAMPLE OF TRAINING FOR MENTAL & PHYSICAL BALANCE

“When the rider uses the bit to stop the horse - that is the rider’s first wrong move. We must always give the horse an open door. When we hold the horse with our hands we take the horse out of its mental and physical balance, and that is the beginning of disharmony between horse and rider.” Christoph Hess

Meet Katrin Kuenstler and 3 year old warmblood Top Gun aka “Tommy”. This is Tommy’s 15th ride and we had just spent the session working on canter transitions and long stretches of canter work. This footage was straight after a rest break and we wanted to finish off seeing how he felt about going back to work again but also have a look at some canter leads with direction changes. Katrin is just riding in a halter with the reins clipped on in a side pull action because at this stage we don’t care about his head carriage…what we do care about is his mental and physical balance and confidence with being ridden and this is the focus at this point in training. In time he will be moved to being ridden in a cavesson and then a bit where Katrin will start developing his posture but first we need a solid base line of relaxation and rhythm in all gaits.

This is a cool bit of footage as it shows a young horse that is free from tension, moving forward, showing understanding and willingness to do what he is asked and Katrin showing some great riding keeping herself balanced, quiet and communicating with clear aids!