Mark Rashid clinic - footnotes

Transitions: riders tend to think in "words" for gait. The horse doesn't understand that word/picture and it tends to be a static image. Horses seem to respond well to rhythm, so it helps if the rider thinks the beat e.g. 1.2.3.4. in walk (or gallop !), 1.2.1.2 in trot, and 1.2.3.1.2.3. in canter.

To work on canter: set the canter depart up on the short side - start thinking 3-beats as you come into the corner and as you come out of the short side, move your focus to the far end of the school and only then, if they haven't offered already, ask for canter. Normally the horse offers canter fairly early in this process and the rider just needs to let it happen.
 
Mirror Neurons: there was some research done in Italy on primates. They noted that the brain fired up the same way for a monkey that reached out for a peanut AND for the monkey that watched the same activity. Basically this is down to mirror neurons which allow us to feel something that isn't happening to us.

Why sitting trot is harder than sitting walk: most people buy a horse that they can get up on from the ground. That means that leg length is similar for horse and rider and, in walk, stride length is similar. So the rider's hips only need to move as much as they do when the rider walks on the ground. But in trot the horse's stride lengthens and the rider will often struggle to lengthen their hip movement to match it. In canter the stride shortens again and gets faster, and that is easier for the rider to sit.

The rider's hip moves in a figure 8 - that doesn't change in different gaits, just gets faster or slower, bigger or smaller.

From previous clinics:

point to point  get the rider/horse to go "fetch" specific points around the area. "ride like the wind". In an arena you can use letters - but not just the dressage letters, letters on signs etc. Like a game of i-spy "find me something with a letter Y" and so on.

"with most forward movement, the more pressure you use the worse it gets". This is because the leg pressure constricts the ribs so affects both breathing and movement of the horse's barrel - which is needed to allow the hind leg to step through in the movement.

Mark talks often about how the hind leg movement (as it comes off the ground) affects the rider in term's of their hip (the rider's hip will lift and fall as the horse's hip rises and falls) and the leg (as the barrel swings away, the leg swings in with it). But I have an extra note which says that when the rider's shoulder goes back, it is the horse's front leg about to push off.

Notes from a horse being asked to halt but offering canter - Mark asked the rider to ask a little with the inside rein just after the cue. This loads the inside fore so stops the canter strike-off for that instant. He commented that the same thing can be used for horses that offer a lead change when it is not wanted.

So I found this analogy in my notes and I am not sure I have written it down very well, but while I try and think of a way to check it, here it is for the record. Here goes..

If you have a stick and put a block of ice on top, then lift one end of the stick, the block slides off.
If you have a stick and put a bag of rice on top, and lift one end of the stick, the bag flows either side of the stick and you can lift it up.

"it's easier to carry rice".

I read this as being about being soft rather than braced.