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Is this a crazy way to look at things2007-11-24 21:18:16

I've been laid up for a while with a bad knee, the upside of this is that I have done a lot of watching, rather than doing. I've been watching the yearlings play, and I think that my ideas on training them will need to change.

While I've watched I have seen them walk, jog, trot, lope, canter, gallop and run, at all these I've seen evidence of extension and collection.

They make a creditable attempt at passage and piaffe and even lavade. They can pirouette, half pass, side pass and flat spin

Question now is, do I need to teach these horses anything, or just teach myself to ask the right questions, so they will give me what they already know when I want them to.

Answers:

I have observed this myself, and asked a similar question - who is really training whom here? I think over time we have figured out the right questions to ask and the right ways to ask them...the problem comes up when what a horse can do naturally is made nearly impossible by the addition of weight of rider and equipment, and other various contraptions. If we could only convey telepathically what we want...

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that is what horse training is, learning to ask the rite questions in a way the horses know what you are asking.

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Good question!!! & I think I agree with teaching myself to ask!! I like that question!!

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Agreed that is what training is, the rider needs to be able to change and respond to each individual horse. Granted your queues will end up the same but teaching them to understand the queues is where listening to the horse comes into play.

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No, you dont need to "teach" them how to do any of thoes actions. The point of training is to get the horse to perform the action when you ask him. Basically the two of you need to find a "happy medium" between horse thinking and human thinking and become one. The harder the action... Ie passage, piaffe the more of a barrier there is from horse thinking to human thinking. Thats why one has to work their way up to thoes actions thru training. The horse is learning your language and you are learning his.