"Contact. Riding from the elbows to the seat. Would you like to see what happens with a rider who is connecting their horse for the first time at the walk and trot?"
Before this session Camille had basically been riding Polo on the trail. She had gone to a dressage show and for the first time saw what a horse looks like that was connected. She decided she was ready to try it. Neither her or Polo had ever done this before. In fact, before this session he would root on the reins and pull her out of the saddle when she shortened the reins. We started with Part #1 (https://youtu.be/qd9MM5BC2fU) at the stand still where I showed her how to feel the reins through her elbows and seat. From there, we were ready to move forward. Since this was new to Polo he was not sure why she was holding his mouth and Camille had to learn how to get him to respond to her leg aids asking him to move forward into the connection. Camille weighed 90 pounds at the time and just tapping or squeezing her legs was not working. So I asked her to "kick" Polo with her inside calf muscles. It was not her strength that got him moving, it was the intent of her legs. You will see that once Camille has him moving into her contact that he quickly changes his shape and begins to connect with her in new ways that they had never achieved before.
What did you learn from watching Camille work through this process?
No comments:
Post a Comment