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Video: Rider-Horse Contact
2024 Author: Molly Page | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 15:30
The contact between the rider and the horse is understood as a consciousness-dictated assessment of his own seating position, influences and messages, as well as the perception of the rhythm of movement and attention of the horse. The rider must be able to accurately assess each movement of the horse, to measure his impact on the tasks that he requires the horse to complete. Experience tells the rider whether his effort is enough or too much, whether it should be repeated or whether the goal has been achieved.
No one can teach this to the rider; he himself must understand and feel that contact with the horse has been achieved. In this case, the trainer will contribute to the accumulation of experience, give explanations on those issues that are unclear to the novice rider, suggest new exercises to consolidate the already acquired skill, teach the rider to control himself.
Strict self-control is required for any influence of the rider on the horse, during the send, when landing, etc., because only thanks to this, the beginner rider awakens, forms and gradually develops a skill. The preparation process is more successful if the rider first learns to perform simpler tasks, and then moves on to more complex ones, but provided that he has mastered the simple ones correctly.
If the rider is unable to complete any difficult task, then he should not be content with its incorrect execution, but must ask the coach how to do it better. If a beginner rider does it tactfully and modestly, the coach will try to help. The student's attempt to deceive him will be regarded by the coach as indifference, which will negatively affect their further joint work. The student's interest always stimulates the teacher's interest. This is best explained with an example. To stop the horse, the trainer requires the rider to simultaneously engage the horse with the lumbosacral muscles, legs, and reins. The rider, on the other hand, feels that if he is overly influencing the legs, then the horse does not stop, but strives to move forward. Therefore, the beginner rider tries to refuse to use the legs and pulls the reins more tightly. Most riders are faced with this contradiction, but for some reason prefer not to talk about it.
This is where the mistake lies. The rider should talk to his trainer about this and then try to stop correctly on another, more sensitive horse until he understands how to stop correctly. If riders change frequently, the receptivity of horses trained for horse riding (often blamed on the horse) dulls rather quickly, no matter how well they are ridden: this is most often the case with rental horses. Therefore, it is not always possible to learn how to properly influence a horse, which is given to a novice rider in horse riding lessons. But changing horses is necessary as it gives the rider the opportunity to test his skill again and again. And each horse perceives the rider's influences differently. And the rider should re-check his skill over and over again and match the message with the horse's receptivity.
Related article How to learn to control a horse?
The best riding teacher is naturally a well-trained horse. Tirelessly and patiently, she lets the rider know what he did wrong. You just need to learn to understand it. Most of the novice riders are unable to understand the "language" of the horse and consider themselves entitled to reproach the "stupid cattle" for being insensitive and poorly ridden.
Horse responses vary
A wave of the head, as it were, means a sigh of a horse: "Well, don't tear my mouth like that!" Hitting the leg with a back leg says, "You tickled me with your spur." A tail flap corresponds to: “You are acting too restlessly with your legs. You tickle me with your spur. The horse is immune only if the rider's hands make rough movements. Action, as always in life, evokes opposition. If the rider complains about the insensibility of the horse's mouth, then in most cases he signs his own inability. Of course, the horse's mouth gradually becomes less receptive because beginner riders pull the reins too often. If the horse is treated gently and delicately, then after a short time the worst horse again perceives all the influences of the rider.
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10 Commandments Of The Rider When Overcoming Obstacles
1. Head up, rider looking forward.2. The shoulders are extended.3. Hands from the shoulder are freely lowered down and bent at the elbows.4. Straight line from elbow to bit.5. The body is located as close as possible to the bow of the saddle, the seat during the jump frees the saddle, and you should not push the body too forward on the horse's neck
Rider Muscle Relaxation
The rider should sit in the saddle naturally and at ease, his muscles should not be constrained, that is, involuntarily tense. But this does not mean that his limbs are completely relaxed. A certain muscle tension is required from the rider, as a gymnast strains them, preparing to perform a strength exercise on one of the apparatus
Influence Of The Rider's Weight
Since the horse's body was not naturally designed to carry extra weight, at first, under the influence of the increased load, the horse's muscles convulsively contract, especially the back . This has an extremely negative effect on the horse's ride and posture
The First Exercises Under The Rider
The young horse worked for at least 6-8 weeks, along with the very beneficial for its health prolonged stay in the levada, worked for an hour every day on the line. This will continue for a considerable time, because the exercises under the rider, which we always postpone until the very end of the lesson, taking into account the state of the horse's back and its general fatigue, will be performed only for 10-20 minutes
Rider Training
A good rider should be equally confident in the saddle when riding in a closed arena , in the field and when overcoming obstacles. One who pays little attention, and even more so neglects one of these types of riding, will never become a master of riding