| Issue 13 |
September 30, 2009 | |
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What's New at HorseshoeCorner.com?
Dear Tim,
With this issue we would like to give a special thank you to SUNY Morrisville for allowing us to attend their Standardbred auction. We had the pleasure of setting up a booth for the entire weekend. What a great weekend it was; we had the opportunity to network with past, present, and future leaders of the equine community. We met a lot of great people at this auction and I would like to apologize to each of the businesses and individuals that I don't have the opportunity to mention in this article. Without further ado here are a couple of our networking highlights from this weekend
Lambethdesktop.com - This business specializes in building websites for equine related websites. The owner and operator left our booth impressed with our design and planned to recommend it to his clients, which include numerous breeding farms, tack shops, and many other equine businesses.
An Equine transportation company that intends to be our very first transport profile, and was also happy to distribute our information to his clients. Most of which can be found from the east coast to Indiana.
We also met a highly motivated student named Laura Guyder. She's a senior in the equine business management program of SUNY Morrisville and seemed to have a passion for marketing. We're planning on keeping an eye on her as she develops her career. I've got a feeling we'll be hearing a lot more from her.
I could continue to talk about the people we met at this show for some time, but I'm sure you'd like to hear about the auction. SUNY Morrisville really puts on a show. The auction had over 230 individual horses, most of which were stunning Standardbred yearlings. The parentage of some of these yearlings included a world record holder. Needless to say It was obvious that a great deal of effort was put into each animal. I wasn't able to keep track of the sale prices, but I did hear of prices that varied from $3700-40,000.
In other news we're looking forward to making some major changes with the permissions of visitors to horseshoecorner.com. At the request of our business members we've decided to loosen up our restrictions and offer non-members the opportunity to view information on any item for sale. The classified ads, horse for sale ads, as well as business profiles will be available for anyone to see. Membership will still be required to post ads.
In this manner we believe we'll continue to improve the services to our business clients, while continuing to provide a safe and comfortable atmosphere. Keep an eye out in the coming weeks as we implement this change.
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 Training Mythunderstandings
"Leading" Is Misleading (Heeding - Part 1 of 3)
by Ron Meredith
President, Meredith Manor International Equestrian Centre
Ground control precedes horse control. Before you snap the lead rope onto a horse's halter, you and the horse need to start communicating in a meaningful, horse-logical way.
The reason for that is because lead ropes don't lead horses or control horses. You're in trouble right from the start if you expect a little bitty rope, or even a rope with some kind of chain at the business end, to control a horse. You have to lead a horse using a communication system that clearly tells the horse you are the lead mare he can trust and that clearly tells him the speed, the direction, and the shape you want the horse to move.
At Meredith Manor we don't teach students to move horses by pushing and pulling them at the end of a lead rope. Instead, we teach them a ground communication and control system we call "heeding." I came up with that name because I needed a word that wasn't so common that people assumed they knew what I meant as soon as I said it. Heed is an old-fashioned word that means "pay attention." Whenever you're working with a horse, you should be paying attention to the horse and the horse should be paying attention to you. When heeding involves leading and it's done right, it looks like the horse is heeling like a well-trained dog. So you can think of heeding as a combination of leading and heeling if that helps you picture it.
We start by bringing the horse into a small indoor arena. This confines the horse in way that is understandable him. Starting inside four solid walls minimizes distractions and makes it easier to get the horse's attention, especially in the beginning lessons.
You start by turning the horse loose and letting it trot, run, and play. He is completely free to go anywhere he wants to in the confined area. Horses tend to play by practicing their various means of defense. They run and escape. They kick out at imaginary predators. And its first time in the arena, the horse is going to want to check everything out.
In the beginning, you do not direct where the horse goes, you just follow it around. Imagine a line from the horse's shoulder out to where you are. If you walk a little behind that line, you are pushing the horse, putting very gentle pressure on it to ask it to keep moving.
In following the horse, never put a loud pressure on the animal. You don't hurry the horse or chase him or "attack" him in any way. You only push the horse whatever little bit is needed to keep him moving. If you stay relaxed and calm, that relays the message, "I'm here but I'm not hunting." When people get to chasing, they tend to get too aggressive.
Your objective is to keep the horse's attention on you without making any loud moves. So before something else gets his attention, you want to make just a little bit bigger move to get his attention back to you--jiggle a whip, raise a hand, or walk in a little closer or a little farther back from that shoulder line. If the horse gets his head down and starts eating grass or whatever, you're going to have to be loud with your actions to get his attention back. You'll startle him, he'll run from your "attack," and it will take longer for him to trust you.
When the horse is through playing and checking everything out, he will stop and look at you which is his way of asking if you're ready to quit playing. If he wants to come over to check you out, allow him. You just stand still and wait. When he gets to you, do NOT immediately reach out to catch him. To a horse, anything sudden or unusual is dangerous so moving your hands is an attack, especially moving your hands toward his head. This sequence of events might happen the first time you turn the horse loose or it might take several "play" sessions before he gets to this stage of trust.
Staying relaxed and calm, turn sideways and stand alongside the horse's front legs with your belt buckle toward his shoulder. Now you can reach the horse's chest to scratch without moving your hand very far. Grooming is a common language of respect and comfort among horses. They don't do any grooming when they are afraid and if you groom in a calm way they will feel there is nothing to be afraid of.
Keep your shoulders parallel to the horse's body as you scratch and groom. If you can find a place where the horse really likes being scratched, you have his attention on you. You want to captivate the horse, keep him heeding everything you do. After you're through grooming and scratching in these first lessons, just bring him back to his stall.
Repeating this play lesson using consistent moves establishes two concepts that become logical to the horse. When you face the same way as the horse with an imaginary line through both sets of shoulders, it indicates a direction for forward motion. When you turn parallel to the horse, it indicates stop and stand.
Once the horse understands these two concepts, you can turn from facing his shoulder to facing with him in the same direction and encourage him to walk forward with you. Because the horse heeds, now you can lead. You do this by making an obvious move with your feet, maybe rustling a whip behind you and leaving things wide open in front. You will gradually build on and refine these concepts to lead the horse forward, turn him, back him, and ask him to stop and stand whenever and wherever you want. That includes his stall, an aisle, a trailer, the breeding shed, or the show ring.
Heeding is step-by-step communication using horse-logical pressures to control the speed, direction, and shape of the horse's activity.
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© 2000 Meredith Manor International Equestrian Centre. All rights reserved.
Instructor and trainer Ron Meredith has refined his "horse logical" methods for communicating with equines over 30 years as president of Meredith Manor International Equestrian Centre (Route 1, Box 66, Waverly, WV 26184; 1-304-679-3128; http://www.meredithmanor.edu), an ACCET accredited equestrian educational institution.
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The Riding Tree: Following the Motion
by Faith Meredith
Director, Meredith Manor International Equestrian Centre
Our goal as we move up the riding tree is to develop an independent seat so that we can influence the horse. An independent seat means that you are not relying on anything but balance to hold you on the horse. You use an athletic muscle tension to help you stay in balance but you are relaxed, not gripping with your muscles to hold you on the horse. Once you are in control of your own body, you can begin to influence the horse and control its body.
The first step in developing an independent seat is learning to relax while sitting on the horse. The second is learning to balance your own weight over the horse's center of gravity. The third is learning to feel and follow the horse's motion at the walk, trot, and canter.
"Following" does not mean just sitting and passively letting the horse's motion swing you along. It is an active muscular activity that aligns your rhythm with the horse's rhythm and puts the two of you in harmony. The rider needs to be aware of various body parts. She needs to be riding in balance, using elastic, athletic muscle tension to help her stay in balance rather than tight, gripping, nervous muscle tension. It takes strong abdominal muscles and loose, flexible hip joints that open and close smoothly. Being able to follow the motion is an essential skill the rider needs in order to ride in rhythm and harmony with the horse. Without this independent seat where you have total control of your body parts, you are always going to be limiting your horse.
A good instructor will choose school horses that can help a rider in whatever phase she is in at the moment. A good schoolmaster can help a rider become more relaxed and balanced so she can learn to follow the motion. Many instructors use longeing to help riders develop a feel for the horse's motion.
This understanding of it is fairly simple. But mentally understanding it and applying it physically takes a lot of hard work and mental concentration. It takes a lot of hours in the saddle on a lot of different horses to achieve a truly independent seat and there are going to be a lot of times when your progress seems very uneven. You get it on one horse but not another. You jump ahead on one horse but fall back on another. The key is to accept the feedback you get from each horse you ride to help you pinpoint weak areas.
The horse's reactions are clues to whether you're not following his motion properly. When people get ahead of or behind the horse's motion, they put the horse out of balance. The horse will try to correct this so he can feel comfortable and in balance again. If you fall behind the motion, the horse will either sense that as a driving aid and run forward or he will slow down, maybe even stop, as he tries to position you back over his center of gravity where it is most comfortable for him to carry your weight. Most people tend to get behind the motion.
Our typical student riding at least twice a day spends about a year developing the necessary skills and muscles to be able to ride at all three gaits first, with relaxation; second, in balance; and third, while following the horse's motion. During that year, there will be times when the rider might easily achieve all three of those goals at the walk but find that it is really difficult to stay steady over the horse's center of gravity at the trot. Or she has no problems with following the horse's motion at the walk and the trot but find she's unable to achieve the right degree of physical relaxation at the canter to follow the horse's motion on both leads.
It's a very normal thing in the development of the seat to hit plateaus. Just remember that everybody progresses differently and even if it takes you longer at one step, you might fly through the next two or three steps when you reach them. Expect plateaus and blocks from time to time and don't get discouraged or frustrated because they will happen. Be aware that it is normal. The body awareness and control you are trying to develop is very complex physiologically and psychologically.
A lot of times in order to progress, you have to give up some level of control you've used and start all over again. The rider who's been staying on the horse by gripping may feel she's "balanced" on her horse. However, if she's going to achieve a truly independent seat, she's going to have to give up the security of her grip in order to learn how to ride with relaxation and true balance. Until she does, she's not going to be able to follow her horse's motion. She's going to get stuck on a plateau. The irony is that when she gives up her grip, her riding is actually going to regress for awhile. That frustrates many people and makes it hard for them to give up the bad riding habits they've developed that at least give them some sense of control. The reality is that unless you are able to give that control up and reeducate your body, you are not going to be able to progress to the next level.
If you don't have an independent seat, you will still influence the horse but your influences are going to create the wrong results and frustration for both you and the horse. Before you and your horse can play at the upper levels of whatever game you have chosen, being able to stay relaxed, to stay balanced over the horse's center of gravity, and to follow the horse's motion at all gaits is essential.
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© 2001 Meredith Manor International Equestrian Centre. All rights reserved.
As a horse industry professional for 30 years, Faith has successfully trained and competed horses through FEI levels of dressage. She currently coaches riders in dressage, reining, and eventing. She holds a BS Degree in Education from Gordon College in Wenham, Massachusetts.
If you enjoyed this article, please check out all of the articles we have available at www.horseshoecorner.com
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Product Review
 I looked over the cold one's leg wraps, at first I was worried about cleaning the inside lining, when using it on a gelding that got hurt. After using it, I found it cleans up nice and was wicked easy to apply. The horses I have used them on loved them. Much harder to get them to let me take them off then put them on. I have tried this qh size on small mare's to my warmblood. They fit them all, I would give the cold ones a 9.9 as I would like to see them change the backing material a little or make it so you could take them apart to clean them.. This is a GREAT product and for sure a must have.
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Sincerely,
Timothy Van Loan
President & Founder
Horseshoecorner.com
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