Clinic Reflections

A number of things triggered this - one was riding my horse today, another was tidying up and finding some old clinic notes from Leslie Desmond and Peggy Cummings.

Mark talks about the figure 8 your hips make, Linda Parelli uses the idea of "pedalling" (a review of the "Secret to Fluidity" DVD says "a “pedaling motion” that allows the rider’s hips and lower back to stay fluid."), and Peggy Cummings teaches a flex/bounce in the thigh.

My Peggy C notes talk about what she called "meet & melt". Mark talks a lot about the quality of the feel in the rein, that the rider needs not to pull back and should offer softness to get it.

My notes from Leslie D talk about how if you repeat drills, you end up with a horse who knows and can repeat the moves without responding to the individual cues. You want the horse to respond/communicate via feel.  Mark used an analogy a few times about not just teaching the horse that "one plus one equals two" as then they don't know how to add up, just that "one plus one equals two".

I like this quote from Leslie: "the fastest way to train a horse is slowly"

Another one from Leslie "the connections that are important are not visible; it is not about the kit".

More from Leslie: horses have a strong drive to be/stay with their person. They will often limit themselves (in terms of energy levels, behaviour etc) to what their person can deal with.

"Control the feet to stop and start, not the mouth." "Don't ride the head, ride the feet."

Now that sounds familiar from watching Mark as well  ;)

This one is pure Leslie - she talked about opening the toe to get the horse to turn its head. And then proved it worked. So that led into canter aids and whether to cue from the rider's outside leg or inside leg. If turning the toe makes the horse turn head and neck, then using the outside leg gives the incorrect bend and makes the correct lead more difficult.