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I have a 15.1 middleweight cob which I bought from a dealer. He was infested with mite and very nervous. It took me 6 weeks before he would surrender his feet and he is terrified of whips. With lots of groundwork and clicker training, he is turning out to be a super little chap now. However, he hasn`t really been "schooled" as such.

He will go into outline, but from time to time resists, raising his head and occasionally taking off (back, mouth etc. are o.k). I was told to squeeze hard with both reins and to put my leg on when he comes out of contact, by my instructor who competes at Advanced Level Dressage. As my usual instructor is now on holiday, I decided to have some extra lessons with my old instructor. She watched me and said that although he was in outline, she felt that he was feeling panicked and was looking uncomfortable.

With her, I have been told to alternately "give" with my left and right reins to encourage him to carry himself. I have been riding lots of circles to encourage bend and acceptance of my leg. Yesterday, I was even riding walk to trot transitions holding onto the buckle of the reins. Admittedly, the first few times he rushed off into trot, but eventually was beginning to get the idea that he didn`t need to.

I must admit that he does seem more relaxed and even stretched down at the end, something that he had never managed up to this point. It worries me though, that in riding like this, that I am not correcting him when he goes above the bit as I have been told to ignore it and to put him on a 10m circle if he comes out of contact and other people have remarked that he did not look as "rounded" as usual, when I had my lesson.

I like my normal instructor because I am very interested in Dressage, but my old instructor is less "forceful" in her methods and more into a sort of "Parelli / Monty Roberts etc etc" way of thinking. My horse seems to be telling me that he prefers the more subtle approach. Who do I believe??

Marie.


James Loffett from Moreton Saddlery replies.

My feeling with horses is that there is never a right or wrong, just different ways of doing things. You can achieve your goal by many different routes. What you have to try and do is take on board the bits of what you learn that you feel are right.

I think this situation rather depends on what you are trying to achieve at the end of the day. My sympathies, but I hasten to add that of course I have't seen the horse or you riding, are with the instructor who want syou to allow him free carriage.

You don't say how old the horse is which has some bearing on it, but if you are trying to train him with as little stress and upset as possible then this is the way to go. Generally if you don't worry to much about his outline, but concentrate on getting him to move forward and use his hind legs he will come naturally into a reasonable outline of his own accord. The exception would be if he has a very bad conformation. I like the idea of correcting him by doing a small circle, 5 metre may be better than 10m.

This is a similar methodology to that of the Dutch Rider Albert Voorn, he won a silver medal in Sydney with a horse that no one else had been able to ride with any success. Apparently he spent the first few months when he had the horse cantering him round a race track with a loose rein, to teach him to carry his own weight and find an outline and carriage that the horse felt comfortable with. The problem with previous riders had been that they had adopted a Germanic approach, using draw reins etc. which this horse just could not cope with.

Eventually, especially if you want to compete in dressage you will have to take more of a contact and make him shorten his outline, but I would do that gradually and start off with the methods advocated by your "old" instructor.

Good Luck!
James

http://www.moretonsaddlery.co.uk