 Fall has arrived and along with the change in the weather, a change in the behaviors of our equine partners. Let's hear it for "Enter at A, bucking"! We have been busy over the summer re-designing DressageOnline. We are hopeful that the new site will launch in a couple of weeks. I'd like to thank those of you who sent your suggestions and desires for the site and I am hopeful you will enjoy what we have designed. We have a new feature this month, Pro Tips, as well as the continuation of a series of articles with Lynn Palm on Developing the Young Horse. As always, I hope the newsletter is helpful and everyone is having an enjoyable and successful show season.
Best Regards,
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Developing the Young Horse
 "Working in Hand: Turn on the Forehand & Turn on the Haunches"
PALM PARTNERSHIP TRAINING™
By Lynn Palm
Thank you for all the comments on the previous series of articles, "Riding Training Level, Test 1." From some of your comments, it is apparent that a number of you are having problems that go back to the very basics of ground manners. Some riders forget that working with your horse in every day ways, such as grooming and bathing, is part of your horse's training. If you let your horse lean on you when you pick his feet or avoid having his face washed or jig around when you are tacking him up, how can you expect him to respect you under saddle?
I usually start my ground manners series with the very basics of the above-mentioned activities. However, for Dressage Online subscribers, I am going to begin with teaching your horse some maneuvers "In Hand." I will continue this series with the ground training techniques of working at liberty, ponying, and longeing.
When you teach your horse certain maneuvers on the ground, he will already be familiar with them when you are in the saddle. To teach these maneuvers, outfit your horse with leg protection and a properly fitting halter with a longe line attached to the lower side ring of the halter on the side where you are standing.
(MORE) |
 Half Pass at the trot Q&A
Pro Tip: by Gail Hoff Carmona
"Which is the correct or better way to start the half pass and why? From the shoulder-fore off the rail or from the haunches in off the rail?"
The half pass is the same as a travers on a diagonal line. It is not a leg yield with counter flexion andbend. That means that the backbone of the horse is NOT parallel to the long sides of the arenawhen making a half pass from say from M to K. Instead, the horse must be bent through the loinarea (same as a travers) see Fig. 1
If a judge were seated at M or K, the half pass movement would be judged as a travers. However,the judge seated at A sees a horse bent in the direction of movement with the outside legs crossingwell over and in front of the inside legs and this is called half pass.
Fig 1, a bent horse, shows how positioning a horse in shoulder-in can set up a horse for half pass. Inthe shoulder-in, the rider's inside leg is active and the outside leg guarding or passive but when thehalf pass is executed, the reverse becomes true. The outside leg of the rider becomes the active legand the inside leg holds the bend and forward motion of the horse. The actual bend of the horse is
the same whether doing shoulder-in or travers but the positioning of the horse changes. (MORE) | |
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