The lunging was so bad Nareena was often not game to get on.
“Sabbi was a maniac on the lunge. She was bucking and rearing, using her body weight and leverage to shoot off and pull away”. Nareena said
Hmmm… I wouldn’t want to get on that either!
It stopped as soon as Nereena started recognizing Saabi’s fear and working with her comfort zone and the art of gentle leadership.
This photo was taken at a clinic with me some weeks later.
Nareena took a fair bit of convincing to allow this lovely little Percheron Arab cross to have a loose rein. But just look at the result. There’s no maniac here, there’s even a spare hand to be brushing the flies away!
Here in this photo, she has a beautifully co-operative little horse, in the start of self carriage on a loose rein – and in a large paddock – by day three of the clinic. Three days for such a change!
Nareena will work like this on a loose rein until Sabbi’s back is even more elevated underneath her as she goes deep into her comfort zone.
Then she can, if she wants to, pick up two reins and start learning how to dance her horse up underneath her.
I used to think that you got a horse moving beautifully underneath you by driving with seat and hands into 2 reins to hold them into that “frame”. I also used to think that you had to be a really talented rider to have a horse working like this underneath you … or work very hard … or both.
Well, not so. Bobby showed me a very different way to get this lovely way of moving very relaxed, very willing, very quickly.
You’ll see a pattern of photos on this website, where all the horses are moving like this to varying degrees.
My horse freely gives me the gift of the talented rider – even now that I am overweight and older and not so athletic any more – he still freely gives it to me.
What a wonderful foundation to go on with – to any discipline Nareena chooses. She could take this into adult riding club, into dressage, into camp drafting even. Imagine how much safer and more comfortable and fun this would be when she’s off on a trail ride?
If you haven’t seen the FREE LESSONS The 9 Keys to Happiness with Your Horse yet – they are the foundation philosophy behind everything that we do – then you can grab them here.
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