We worked for the last three months for this boy and his owner to have the session as we did today :) A little pocket rocket, ex-racehorse Shabby had his focus, his relaxation and his power on point today. On the photo above Emma and Shabby are in the middle of an exercise suggested by the McTimony therapist: halting at random moments over the poles, standing for 10 seconds or so, then walking on. It is said to improve horse's awareness of the hind legs and I must say it was very interesting to watch S. deliberately lifting his hind legs very high and watchfully placing them on the ground way away from the poles in the moment of move off. Proprioception upgrade :)
We did the same with the grey boy but in-hand as he gets very unnecessarily over-reactive still whenever he sees poles on the ground. He did the exercise very well and I can see myself using it more often with different horses.
The lovely, young mare I teach fortnightly and her owner are really doing their homework, makes my work so much easier ;)
One thing that hit me more than ever today is that we devise all these training methods and all these techniques but to chose the right one for the given horse for his given state of mind, physical readiness at the given moment whilst making sure the rider is able to execute it, understand it and react upon changes happening is truly an never ending art. An art that I am forever learning thanks to all these great horses and pupils.
Until tomorrow!
Wiola
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