Watch this session with Vitor Silva for essential information and demonstrations on the art of long lining from a master.  He provides the basics as well as the benefits of long lining in teaching piaffe and passage.

 

Part 1: Vitor Silva introduces us to long lining as a basis to introduce piaffe and passage.  He explains the tack needed and the safety issues of long lining.  Before long lining, the horse should lunge, and Vitor begins by doing some work in hand.  He next demonstrates  how to rig the reins to the surcingle for various issues.

 

Part 2:  Mr. Silva explains why he uses bamboo in the training, and how to accustom the horse to the trainer being on either side.  He begins the work with the reins quite short and by working from the side starting in the walk.  He demonstrates the shoulder in, turn on the haunches and half pass.

Part 3:  They move into the trot next, and end with some piaffe.  Vitor explains where to use the whip to ask for the lowering of the croup. He discusses the reason and progression of using the long lines and the benefits of starting the piaffe without a rider. Vitor next demonstrates the Spanish Walk and shows how it can improve the passage.   

 

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Part 1:  Christoffer rides a six year old mare they've had in training for two years.  Catherine has him show us the transition between working and collected trot.  They demonstrate how they use a passage trot to teach the horse to bounce off the ground more. The mare occasionally becomes irregular, and by concentrating on the push and self carriage she improves. The next exercise is the shoulder in, again using the bounce in the trot to keep her shoulders up.

Part 2:  They maintain the bounce while going haunches in and half pass, and then ask for a medium trot.  They check the walk in the middle of the work to make sure she keeps her overstep, soft back and relaxed neck.  When they go to canter, they go forward and back to keep the elasticity in the gait.    

   

Part 3:   In counter canter, they make sure that they keep the length of stride and the quality of the canter the same.  The mare shows beautiful single changes and canter half pass.  When they school the changes, they work them on the quarter line, and end the session with three changes on the long diagonal.

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