Clinic: Day Three
Putting more pressure on a horse requires a rider to be increasingly nuanced in their presentation and feel. The aids have more meaning, which requires the human to be more subtle in their questions as well as the release. Every moment is a judgement call, and when a horse is first learning, the moments of understanding are incremental, and only last for seconds at a time.
Piper is far enough along to use two reins to guide her focus and relaxation under saddle. When a horse reliably understands how to rebalance, and step their front end around, without relying on the rider to keep their weight shifted back, they become ready to feel of the outside rein for softness into different degrees of a turn. This process begins by using one rein to ask a horse to let go of their thought, and replace it with yours. The first step is asking for a hindquarter yield with the feel of the inside rein. When a horse lets go of their thought to push forward or sideways etc, their front end will stop, and their hindquarters will step over. How easily a horse does this maneuver tells you a lot about their willingness in that moment to let go of a thought. The smoother this becomes, the easier it is to direct the movements.
On the third day of the clinic, I worked on getting Piper to soften her stride going forward in-between two reins. When she would struggle to let go of her top line, I would use a bend with a supporting outside rein to help her stay free and soft in forward motion. The outside rein was there to support her softness rather than blocking her thoughts to maintain a turn to the inside. It wasn't long before I could shorten or lengthen her stride at a trot with just a minor adjustment on both reins. Using these transitions to obtain more focus was essential in increasing her emotional comfort in preparation for bringing all of the pieces together for the basics of self carriage. It was clear to see when Piper let go, because when the reins were asking for something more specific, or when they were loose in forward motion, her level of comfort was the same.
