Retraining Racehorses - Yogi Briesner
I didn't get to see the whole demo - a late start due to microphones (which he ended up not using) compounded by a fire alarm, and on a school night, meant I had to leave on time just as the second group was settling in to work.
But what I did see was interesting. Many of the things he showed as exercises were not "racehorse specific".
Yogi started by making clear his view on racehorses, that they were basically well educated and with a high level of exposure so tended to be quite level headed. None of the five horses in the first group turned a hair when the fire alarm went off. All were working in walk, trot and canter quite happily. None had been off the track for very long and one was even still in a racing saddle (and looking for a new home !).
What they didn't tend to know about was hand and leg aids, as they had been required to do was run fast in one direction. Yogi recommended a "simple uncomplicated" approach. So for example, soft hands and sit up to stop, legs to go - and then gradually reduce the space between the two sets of aids.
He was keen for the horses to work as a group as he felt they learnt from each other - plus it echoed their previously training.
He explained that horses were creatures of habit so he would use a plan for training, repeat a lot, and be consistent.
The natural instinct of a young horse is to push into pressure. A steady leg aid could lead to the horse leaning in to the leg rather than moving away. Whereas a sharp "poke" would get a response away.
Racehorses "go" until the end so they need to learn to go, stop, go, stop. Yogi used plenty of walk trot transition to work on that.
When jumping the horses need to learn to adjust their stride into the jump and Yogi used a simple set up of 2 fences with 3 strides between to work on that. He explained how he liked to see a horse "pad" the ground in front of the jump as they adjusted their stride. A horse will
- look (drop their head)
- adjust (move their feet)
- avoid (the obstacle) (jump)
They also need to learn to jump on their own, and he made sure they didn't always follow a lead horse.
But what I did see was interesting. Many of the things he showed as exercises were not "racehorse specific".
Yogi started by making clear his view on racehorses, that they were basically well educated and with a high level of exposure so tended to be quite level headed. None of the five horses in the first group turned a hair when the fire alarm went off. All were working in walk, trot and canter quite happily. None had been off the track for very long and one was even still in a racing saddle (and looking for a new home !).
What they didn't tend to know about was hand and leg aids, as they had been required to do was run fast in one direction. Yogi recommended a "simple uncomplicated" approach. So for example, soft hands and sit up to stop, legs to go - and then gradually reduce the space between the two sets of aids.
He was keen for the horses to work as a group as he felt they learnt from each other - plus it echoed their previously training.
He explained that horses were creatures of habit so he would use a plan for training, repeat a lot, and be consistent.
The natural instinct of a young horse is to push into pressure. A steady leg aid could lead to the horse leaning in to the leg rather than moving away. Whereas a sharp "poke" would get a response away.
Racehorses "go" until the end so they need to learn to go, stop, go, stop. Yogi used plenty of walk trot transition to work on that.
When jumping the horses need to learn to adjust their stride into the jump and Yogi used a simple set up of 2 fences with 3 strides between to work on that. He explained how he liked to see a horse "pad" the ground in front of the jump as they adjusted their stride. A horse will
- look (drop their head)
- adjust (move their feet)
- avoid (the obstacle) (jump)
They also need to learn to jump on their own, and he made sure they didn't always follow a lead horse.
posted by seahorse | 2:51 PM
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