Trisha wren ~ Connect With Your Horse

February 07 – 1 line work

I did 3-4 brief groundwork sessions with Hunter in January 07, then started again in earnest in mid February 07. He showed improvement with each session this time, was less spooky and definitely seemed to be letting go more. I decided to move on a bit and progressed to asking him to trot out on 1 line. He found that pretty hard because his tendency is to carry his head high and hollow his back; initially he could only trot for a few strides at a time. Where conventional lunging might allow incorrect carriage to develop, the 1 line work continually reminds and supports the horse to release and rebalance, so by staying soft Hunter gradually started to let go, settle and connect himself better from back to front.

Belly lift before and after; to get him using his abs and softly lifting his back.
(You can see by looking at the trees on the hills behind us how much his back came up, and his neck softened and lowered.)

The photos show great improvement in the 2 rein S walk, although he does still occasionally feel heavy.

On one line the aim is for the horse to maintain the connection at more distance
(ie self-carriage), by constantly releasing and coming through from behind. It’s crucial that the person stays soft, helping the cycle by rotating, meeting and melting.

He did fairly well in walk, so we went into the paddock to try a trot…. Yeeha!
This paddock isn’t flat, and had lots of fresh cowpats, so in his excited state he found it pretty difficult to really balance himself. He did show us some nice moves, but you can also see his tendency to go head high and motorbike.

Above all else, I think what is evident already is that although the work I am doing is extremely sporadic, we are still seeing great improvements in the way Hunter is carrying himself.