I lurrrrrvvv Carl !!
Now if only I could get to Guldford and afford £80 an hour, I've found my trainer. Carl Hester is a delight. He wants the horses to go just like I want mine to go - light, in their own cadance, in their own balance. He's also very funny.
We watched sessions starting with four year olds and finishing with Grand Prix. The Grand prix schooling was amazing, with a lot of flexing, relaxing, bringing them up and putting them down and nothing whatsoever set or regimented. To relax very tense horses he schools them in a canter almost on the spot, with long reins. Incredible to see, something you would never dream of doing if you hadn't seen it done. "Working pirouettes" were also a new one on me.
The biggest thing I learnt that I did not have a firm idea on already was a "proper" contact - Carl says "the reins should breathe" and I know exactly what he means. Also that I think Zippy is as good as the two young horses that I've seen today, if he had a rider of that experience on him. And that Carl says 20 minutes four times a week is enough work for a big moving horse of that age, so I am doing the right thing with Zip in restricting his work this year. I also learnt when to give the aid for a canter change, which was not when I thought, but when the horse is on the floor, not in suspension.
It's been a really fun day and now I am looking forward to riding tomorrow. But first dinner :-)
C
posted by cptrayes @ 6:30 PM
3 comments
3 Comments:
now i was sure i'd read elsewhere that suspension was the right moment re changing canter lead? did he say why on the ground was? (academic for me at the moment, of course...)
glad you had a good day!
I've read the same Claire, on the basis that the horse changes legs in the air. But Carl said that the horse pushes off in the new lead from the floor, and it did look like the riders who did changes were asking at the moment the horse's feet were in contact with the floor. He said that if you ask when the horse is in the air it will change in front and not behind, and that is what I have been doing with Jazz, and that's what he has been doing too. So obviously I'm going to try to play around with the timing to see what happens.
C
I think the canter cue comes when the inside leg is on the ground just before the moment of suspension when the outside hind leg--soon to be the new leading leg is about to stride off. What you feel is the horse ready to suspend as he is ready to strike off with the new leading leg. All I know is just feel it.
Used to learn to teach the correct canter lead by asking the horse to canter as the outside hind leg was on the ground as the inside hind was ready to stride forward. By giving the leg aid then, the inside hind would take a longer, more energetic stride and therefore get the lead. Since the flying change is a canter depart from the canter, the same principle ought to hold true.
But as I said, I just feel the right moment without sorting through all of that.
Sounds like a great teacher. Wish you could work something out.
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