Cari Swanson

Controlling the Hindquarters

This is an excellent excercise to teach your horse feel. Once mastered, this simple excercise will supple and relax your horse, lightening his forehand and preparing him to perform all of his movements with ease.

While mounted, take your leg back an inch or so and apply pressure to ask him to move his inside hind across and in front of the outside hind while keeping his front feet in the same place. Once he responds to your leg pressure, release the leg contact as a reward. Remember, you are only asking for one step at a time, take the time to show your horse what you want and be patient while he is learning.

Take care to check your position, sit up straight and balanced, do not lean to one side, your heels are down, your legs relaxed, you are lifting your upper body, head and neck relaxed. Maintain light contact with the bit.

Ultimately you want him to drop his head, thus raising his back, but the first attempts may not result in that. So the first goal is for him to step his leg over. Once he understands this, supple his neck and show him the way to lengthening his neck downward and outward.

Remember, be quite clear about what you are asking. You must always be balanced and relaxed.

Do this excercise in both directions several times each day until you achieve an immediate response with very little pressure.

Some common problems:

The horse does not respond to the leg pressure, he just stands still.

Simply ask quietly and if he does not shift his weight in response to your leg, reinforce what you are asking with a quick tap from the whip. Then try again asking from the leg pressure only. He should understand what you want with one correction. If not, tap him again to help explain what you want.

The horse moves forward away from the pressure, not sideways.

If you find him walking forward, use a wall or fence to stop him. Once you master the excercise facing a wall, find a place in the center of arena to test your aids.

Learning to Feel Your Horse

There are many horse trainers, however, there are very few true horseman. The sign of a genuine horseman is one who feels his horse. They shine like stars among the average trainers because their horses are happy and obedient. Becoming a true horseman should be the goal of anyone wanting to work with horses. There is no magic involved, simply patience and understanding the nature of the horse will allow you to achieve greater success with few problems. First of all you must listen to your horse, recognizing when he is paying attention to you. This is essential for clear communication. Once you have his undivided attention, be very clear about what you are asking him to do. Always remember to prepare him for the question, setting him up for success. The first thing to focus on is where your horses feet are. Learn to move with your horse, influencing each footfall so that the timing of the aids achieves an immediate result. Spend time with your horse observing when each foot is on the ground in each gait. This will take patience and practice, ultimately becoming highly rewarding when you successfully influence his movements. Remember, horses want to please, and it is up to us to understand how to communicate clearly. Problems almost always result from lack of preperation or understanding, not because the horse wants to misbehave. Each horse is an individual and a great teacher, so all you need to do is learn to listen and feel your horse.

Rules of Engagement

What exactly is engagement? Your trainer or dressage judge is constantly telling you to engage your horse, what does she mean? Engagement is the increased flexion of the lumbosacral joint and the joints of the hind leg during the weight bearing or support phase of the stride. Thus the croup is lower relative to the forehand, in other words lightening the forehand. Carefully observe the withers of your horse raise as he becomes more engaged. Think of engagement as the “carrying power” rather than the “pushing power” which is a prerequisite for upward thrust or impulsion. There are many excercises to achieve engagement such as shoulder in, leg yield, travers, renvers, and transitions. Experiment with these excercises to achieve a greater degree of engagement and enjoy the benefits of a lighter, more supple horse to ride.

Learn to Listen to your Horse

Take advantage of winter to spend quality time with your horse in the stable or paddock. Learn to listen to his voice as he communicates with you. Watch his ears and eyes for alertness, watch the tail for signs of relaxation or unhappiness, and watch his mouth for signs of tension. The more you pay attention to your horse and how he reacts in everyday situations such as grooming, leading around the stable, tacking up, or in the stall, you will quickly be able to determine if he is sick or uncomfortable. One sign of muscle soreness or Lyme disease is extreme tenderness on the immune points on the chest when grooming. Another is extreme flinching when groom the back and shoulders. Take time to note how your horse reacts every day and tune into his mood. You will develop more trust and a better partnership under saddle.

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Winter Riding

Riding in the winter can be challenging at times with inclement weather and inconsistent footing. Take advantage of fresh snow fall and ride your horse cross country galloping up the hills and across fields. Always take care on ice, and be sure your horse is shod properly with winter shoes of snow ball pads and studs. Wear a quarter sheet if your horse is clipped or heavily blanketed to keep him warm and comfortable. Make sure you cool your horse out before dressing him up in heavy blankets after a solid workout. Riding your horse in the snow is an excellent opportunity to practice all your movements, transitions and accuracy. This is an ideal time to check your geometry and count your strides. The fresh foot falls will allow you to visualize the patterns and movements. Remember, do not allow your horse to become bored and stale by riding all winter indoors, he needs to play and have fun outside on occasion.

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Working Students at Windrock Farm

There are several positions available every summer for working students, there is no limit on how much time they are here. It varies depending on how long the student wishes to stay. There are opportunities to compete at jumper and dressage shows as well as local events depending on the skills of each rider. Each year there are more and more applicants with limited postions available, so if you are interested in this unique opportunity, you should contact the farm immediately. Each applicant must send a video of themselves riding, as well as an essay explaining why they wish to work at the farm and what they hope to learn from the experience.

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Words of Wisdom from the Master Egon von Neindorff

When asked what is the most important philisophical consideration for the rider? Egon replies “Modesty and wanting to serve, putting ego aside. The desire to listen to the horse which must come from one’s heart and then must be filled in practice through the feeling of the rider. The ability to co-relate and unify the feelings from the saddle with the philosphy in which we believe. We must be fully aware of the fact that a lifetime is not long enough to come to know all about horsemanship.
Accordingly, it is essential that we stand on the shoulders of the past Masters in order to fully utilize and profit from the experiences. And only because of the past can we now enjoy that harmony–a harmony that the horse understands because the training is founded on its nature. It is only the true gymanastic school that makes beauty possible. These are things that are beyond subjective opinion; they are deeply rooted in the laws of nature. And it is this that keeps the horses sound and healthy to a ripe old age. The knowledgeable horseman sees this in and through the horses, both in the way they go and in the build of the muscle structure. That is what distingushes the real high-school riding from the pretender to the throne.”

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The Shoulder In Boxed

An effective and simple excercise for connecting your horse. After a sufficient warm up, find a place in the arena to carve out a box of 8 strides in shoulder in, turn the forehand to another 8 strides of shoulder in and so on until the box is completed. Take care to time your
aids so the the horse moves around the corner smoothly and relaxed. After one box take working trot around the arena and feel if there is any difference in the quality of the gait. There should be more lift in front and a smooth relaxed swinging trot. Always remember to ride both directions so that your horse remains balanced and even.

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Dancing with your Horse

When riding, think of how a dancer who is about to be lifted must be light on her feet with all the energy in the torso lifting upward. Thus when her partner comes to raise her above his head, she is already helping him by sending her energy in the correct direction. Riders must remember this to allow the horses back to be open and free to move under their seat. Practice feeling the lifted energy in canter and tune into how much easier it is for your horse than when you are collapsed and allowing your weight to sink downward. Alwasys remember the training scale, rhythm, looseness and contact. Your horse can only dance in a relaxed rhythm if the rider is light and balanced.

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Advanced Shoulder In Excercises

Once you have established a proper shoulder in, where the horse’s forehand is brought about half a step inside the track of the outside hind leg, thus the outside shoulder is straight in front of the inside hind leg. The inside hind leg is brought well forward in the direction of the outside foreleg. The horse is flexed and slightly bent in the direction he is moving. The inside hock is engaged, carrying most of the weight due to the diagonal postion of the horse, the lateral bend and the increased collection. First ride a 10 meter circle on the long side, continue up the long side 5 steps in shoulder in and turn onto another 10 meter circle, repeat up the long side. This will help supple your horse and test your timing with the aids and communiction to your horse. Once this is performed seamlessly, track up the long side 5 steps in shoulder in, stop the forward movement with your outside aids and ride the horse straight on the diagonal 5 steps, shoulder in 5 steps, straight 5 steps, halt, rein back 5 steps, immediately into shoulder in 5 steps, straight 5 steps, repeat until you reach the end of the arena. This excercise will become a dance as your horse waits for your aids, starting to collect into piaffe as he becomes more proficient, but ask him to continue moving forward and sideways, staying very light in the bridle. The series is very difficult to ride and for your horse to initially understand, so take your time and try it in walk first. Once you have mastered the excercise in walk try it in trot. Be certain to demand immediate response from your horse in all transitions and slow it down if it becomes confusing. Once mastered, this is an exciting excercise to ride.

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