For a horse and rider to be gloriously happy riding together, a deep comfort zone with you on their back, is an essential first step and here’s an easy way to get that.
This exercise that I am smilingly calling The Way of the Child, gets you onto your horse’s back in a beautiful way that creates an opportunity for that incredibly deep comfort zone and I love it, love, love it.
It’s a brilliant exercise for releasing old upsets for horses that had a less than best possible start to riding and for Oliver it was just plain delightful to get an incredibly DEEP sense of comfort and have him humming with happiness about the human being on his back.
AND I am sure when you watch the video, you will be able to imagine starting a young horse with an incredibly deep comfort zone like this.
You can also use this exercise to work on a horse’s claustrophobia for float training. (Horses are natural claustrophobics, so anything that prepares horses for float training will be a good deal!)
If you don’t have the hay or the space to make a picnic table, then put a single bale of hay in front of your horse for the picnic, get a mounting block or something tall to stand on and follow the same very relaxed principles.
SUCCESS TIPS
- Because Oliver’s so tall, it took nearly 40 bales of hay to build this U shaped platform, three bales high and two bales wide for stability because of that height. Oliver is 18 hands tall. Shorter horses, you’ll get away with two bales high and only one bale wide – which is only 12 bales. We had access to some crappy old hay from the floor of the shed for the underneath layers.
- If hay isn’t going to work for you, just get creative about a safe and stable platform that will have you up high and able to be very relaxed. Keep in mind that the “picnic” feeling for the horse with such an excess of hay in front of them, is , I think a significant part of the success of this exercise. I know someone who used two tables for the sides and just had the hay in the front section. I look forward to photos of creativity please!
- As with everything, follow the feeling good – stop and retreat from the Not Quite Rights and wait for The Chew. If you are waiting for The Chew for a long time, that will be for your horse to release an old emotional upset.
- Because I am not so athletic at my age as I used to be, this creates an opportunity for me to lay all over Oliver in baby steps that do not challenge my athleticism. If you were more athletic than me, then you could put yourself into the mind of a child and get creative up there. 🙂 🙂
- Now here is the most important success tip of all. Look for the feeling of lightness of spirit, look for the happiness together, look for the freedom to both just BE together up there like that with no time pressures or need to do anything at all – look for the Way of the Child. This lightness of spirit is something that Oliver is asking for in everything that we do with him. It is this lightness of spirit that is going to give him his expressiveness in the wonderful dance that dressage can be.
The other essential step for that glorious riding together is being able to listen to and understand your horse. Relax, I’ve never found anyone I couldn’t teach this to.
Here’s a little video series to bring you the basics:
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