Connect With Your Horse
by
Trisha Wren
If you would like to really make a
connection with your horse, mentally and physically, a connection that includes
softness, attention and mutual trust, Connected Groundwork and Riding may be
for you.
Time and again, since I have been applying and
teaching Connection, I have seen horses become:
more attentive
less spooky
less worried
generally happier
softer in body and mind
more trusting
happier to be around you
more correct in their carriage
more engaged behind.
In addition, as we saw in the August ’06
and January ’07 issues of OE, it is thrilling to watch the improvement in body
shape of our horses. Horses with high
head carriage soften their brachiocephalicus (the muscle under the neck) and
start to develop a correct topline. That
annoying dip in front of your horse’s withers fills out. Horses with weak / under-developed or
atrophied backs learn to raise and strengthen the back. Hind quarters that are weak, under-developed
or angular become rounder, and the hind legs engage and learn to push the horse
forward from behind. Your horse learns
how to be soft, not just light.
Sounds great, eh?! Whatever you do with your horse, whatever
discipline and whatever level you are currently at, Connected Groundwork and
Riding can help you improve your connection with your horse and achieve even
better performance.
|
The Connected Groundwork exercises are designed to teach your horse to
let
go. When he lets go of worry,
distractions and tension, it will be easier for him to focus on you and to achieve
freedom of movement. The exercises
work on specific areas of the body helping to bring his awareness to parts he
might otherwise tune out from. There
are several areas that horses generally tend to hold tension in: the throat
and jaw, the base of the neck, the underside of the neck, through the ribs,
and the back. By touching the horse in
specific ways in these areas we can really help him to let go of the tension
soften and rebalance. |
|
|
In addition, many horses are unaware of their hind quarters and how to
use them efficiently. If we want our
horses to maintain strength and condition throughout their lives,
particularly carrying us, then we need to show them how to carry themselves –
and us – correctly. Connected
Groundwork includes various ways of working our horses in hand, with
connection, which teach them self-carriage; how to keep rebalancing
themselves, shifting their weight from down to up, side to side, and forehand
to haunches. The connected horse can
achieve this while moving forwards, consistently releasing at the poll and
the base of the neck. By being in good
posture ourselves, working in connection (ie with no slack in the connection
between us and the horse), we can easily and softly convey to the horse what
is good posture and carriage for them, and help them learn how to stay soft
and engaged. |
|
|
One of the many reasons that these exercises are so successful is that
they also teach us how to slow down and pay more attention to what is going
on with our horse. We learn the
importance of our posture, and how what we are doing with our body affects
the cues we are giving our horses.
Often the request we send our horse is scrambled by the way we were
standing or holding ourselves at the time.
Learning to tune in to our horse also starts us thinking in a
different way about how we teach him something new. I’ve found time and again that if I release
the cue even if I don’t seem to be getting what I’m asking for – which goes way
against the grain of most traditional and even natural methods – the horse
will reward me with more softness and understanding and a less mechanical
effort. |
|
Want to know more / see it for
yourself? Contact Trisha now, and
arrange a demo for your group or Riding Club.
Regular clinics and lessons countrywide.
Trisha Wren
©Trisha Wren
January ‘07
as printed in: The Organic Equine magazine (Feb 2007)