What’s in my barn, tack wise, is something I often get asked. I just hosted a 3-day summer workshop and the gals that attended asked me to build out this list, and the places they can get “the things”, so here goes! You’ll find links to all of these things by clicking on them –
Today we'll wrap up this video series on the basics of collection. I hope you've all found it helpful in your journey with your horses. In case you missed them, here's part 1, part 2, and part 3.
We’re covering more ground in our series on collection today! A couple things to note — in the video below: Cosmo wasn’t perfect with her lateral flexions. We are still working on those, and eventually they’ll become just right. But I won’t pick at her, because that will ruin all the try this mare has.
In our continuing series on creating a collected horse, the next thing we need to talk about is how to carry what the horse is learning on the ground to the saddle. Below, in the video, I get on Luna and show you how collection begins to look from their back. Make note that there’s
Keep in mind, you only have about 10 minutes of quality time to train at the lope. Due to this, I do most of my softening work at the walk.
The last thing any horse really wants to do is fidget. No, seriously, think about it. If you’ve watched them in the pasture, when they’re not eating, they’re lazing, and if they’re young and full of energy, they’ll play for a bit and go back to eating or lazing. They’d rather be at peace than bothered, and to me, a horse that paws is a horse that’s bothered.
We like our horses to tune into our seat and our body, so we can use the reins and our legs to refine the cues we give them for turnarounds, rollbacks, spins, or gathering up so we can do a canter pirouette (or swap directions quickly to corral an unruly bull come fall). Plus, anyone else can use "whoa"...