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Developing the Young Horse
 "Working in Hand: Yielding Right"
PALM PARTNERSHIP TRAINING™
By Lynn Palm
If you remember from the previous article, we teach the horse to do certain in-hand maneuvers on the ground so that he will already be familiar with them when asked to do them under saddle. This lesson will help you teach your horse yielding to the right.
Outfit your horse with a properly fitting halter with a longe line attached and leg protection. For this lesson, attach the longe line on the halter's side ring on the side from which you are leading. Start in a small, enclosed area. Once your horse is solid in this lesson, you will be able to execute it anywhere.
Key points when teaching yielding:
· Look up at the topline so you can evaluate your horse's body position and responsiveness to your cues.
· Keep the horse forward by extending your arm and moving with him. If you find that you are moving too much sideways, pick a point on the fence or put up a marker in a diagonal line from your starting point. Keep your horse moving forward and laterally as you aim for this point.
· Always face your horse and move with him. If you are asking for yielding to the right, cross your left leg over your right (and vice versa) to help you move with him.
· Watch so his hips don't swing out away from you. This is a telltale sign that you are cueing him incorrectly.
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 Practice Makes Perfect. Five Weeks to Flawless Freestyle,Part II by Beth Hall
In part 1 of the series, you learned to ride in sync to the clicks of a metronome set to your horse's gait tempos. As you advance to week 2 of your five week freestyle practice schedule, you can begin working in sync to your music.
One subtle advantage of switching over to music is that it tends to "breathe" in a way that a metronome does not. Riding to the clicks of a metronome is a very unforgiving task. Bowing patterns in string instruments and breathing patterns in wind instruments create subtle adjustment opportunities. The metronome sounds a beat; musicians sound a heartbeat.
Continue to devote ten minutes of your daily ride to freestyle skill development and you're on your way to a flawless performance.
Week 2: Learn to Listen
In order to ride in sync to music, you need to identify the underlying pulse - the beat. The rate of repetition of the beat determines the tempo at which music is performed just as the rate of repetition of strides determines a horse's gait tempo. The key to working in sync to music is to match the gait tempo at which you ride to the adjusted tempo of your music.
Watch any orchestra conductor and you'll see that his arm motions define the beat for musicians to follow. When performing music, various rhythms fit into each beat like a hand in glove. The difficulty in finding the beat lies in pinpointing the driving force beneath these rhythms
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