TRANSCRIPT Training Video #1.1 CREATE STABILITY AND CONTROL The thing I focus on in the very beginning, is controlling of the hind legs. This is where the power comes from, this is how you re able to create bend and stability in the horse s body and to be able to teach him where to put his feet to be able to balance. So from the beginning, I m thinking that I have a horse that is very straight in the body and what I want to do is to start to create some bend in the horse s back, that he s first bending a little bit to the left and flexing the right side of his back. And then he s bending to the right and he s flexing the left side of his back. The position, the method and how I do it, is all about the order in which I ask the horse. It s not particularly about the right length of the rein and exactly pushing it the right time. This is something you ll feel that is different on every horse. I try to start though with about the rein the length of the neck and then I make sure that from the beginning I can touch the horse in the area that I want to influence. If I can t touch him there, it s very difficult to then be able to give him an instruction that he can follow. So from the beginning, if I can t touch him in this sensitive area, if they are a little bit tense and tight in the skin, I try to have the feeling that I can keep my hand there. I m standing in a position of safety so that I m not getting kicked. As soon as the horse shows a sign that he s relaxing, then I take the hand away. It s very important that we start in this position. The idea is, getting some contact with the horse so he s understanding where you are.
The next thing is that the horse understands your energy. That he feels through your energy that you are giving body language in a direction you want him to go. From the body language I give the noise. For me the noise for moving forward is the kissing sound. And of course in the later video s you ll understand more the importance of the noises. And then from the noise I give in the beginning a practical example of what I want the horse to move from. So he s understanding the when, how and why he should move his legs. The first is when: when I give the body language and the energy, then the noise, and then I m trying to press him with a soft feeling through my hand that I can influence the horse, just like I would if I was pushing him with the leg. So a lot of the groundwork for me has to directly relate to the riding. So that the horse makes a very good, easy translation when you get in the saddle. So, first position, hand about the length of the neck, body language, then the noise, then the hand and what I m looking for in the beginning is that the inside hind leg is stepping forward and across. A lot of horses in the beginning will step a little bit behind or together with the legs. And what we want to do is be able to influence the horse from the pressure of a hand and the body language that he learns to put the inside hind leg in and under the body. When he positions the inside hind leg in and underneath the body you start to get a little bit of bend through the back this way. And then he might get a little bit strong in the front and then the hind leg goes out the back and then he bends a little bit through the rein. So you get this action of bending here and getting strong in the front, bending in the front and going out with the hind legs. Until both sides come together and you have this feeling the horse is bending around you.
Quite often from the beginning, when I hold the contact and I push with my hand, I feel like I have this straight, uncooked piece of spaghetti. And what I look for is that I can keep giving the influence, that he knows when he should move, the how he should move: his inside hindl eg underneath his body, inside front leg moves a little bit forward, outside front leg is going a little bit forward also, until at some point, my rein also gets soft. And when my rein gets soft, I teach him the why. The why is because then I give him the release. The moment I stop, the point that I stop, is the moment that he realizes: oh so that s what I should be doing. So in the beginning, my first control is often on the left side, because from the beginning horses that are born in a natural human environment, we tend to do everything from the left. He s more used to seeing me from the left, putting the halter on from the left. So I start on the side he s more comfortable. I then start to go to the other side and I produce the same thing: rub a little bit first, body language, then the noise, then the push. If he walks too much forward, I just lift up my hand to get the hind leg to engage more. So there he turns good, there he gets soft and makes the rope loose and then again I relax. And so the idea is that he learns more and more how to bend through his body, inside hind leg, underneath, carrying weight and then he s ready to take the next step. And not when I ask him to turn from the leg that he doesn t understand the meaning of it and how he should move his body. That he develops a good pattern and good stability for carrying, first himself and then of course eventually his rider. So individually, one leg and then the other leg first. And from the beginning that you re asking body language, then the noise, then the push. Wait until you feel that uncooked piece of spaghetti melt in your hand and the horse makes the round shape. And then again relax.
And then when I go to the other side, in the beginning I walk and then again, he starts to now already go just from the body language. So he s then taking responsibility for how he should shape his body. Of course he understanding when he should shape it, gives him a good response to me, he starts to follow my energy. And the why is because then he realizes everything I just offer a little bit of what he wants, then I get to do what I like best and that is just to relax and rest. So once I have a little bit of control of the hind legs, I then look to controlling the frontend. And my end result should be on the ground that I can control his hind legs sideways and forwards with my legs. So I can control right hind to the side and forwards from my right leg. And left hind forward step, he s stepping in front of the other leg, with my left leg. And the frontend I want to be able to control backwards and sideways with the rein. And so the idea here is that he learns the correct pattern. When I pick up the rein and ride, he learns the correct pattern and in the order in which he should move his body. If a horse is asked to turn right and he moves his leg first, then the rest of his body is left behind. He doesn t have the transferring of weight of his nose, and then his neck and then his shoulder and then the supporting leg and then the moving leg. And so in the beginning, when I start to move the horse s frontend, I want to have the feeling that first I have a good backwards. And so when I have a good backwards step, then I m able to transfer the weight onto the hind legs which gives the horse more stability enabling him to move the frontend more free. If you have a horse that is really strong, and has, if you imagine a compass, where the horse is always pointing north. You move a little bit, he goes forward. You ask him to go back, he goes forward. You ask him to go the side, he goes forward. This is the horse that needs to be set a little bit more, that his compass is more in balance. So we have the feeling that he sits himself more on the hind leg, and so then he s in a position of rest before we start.
If you start to move the horse directly to the side, and his compass is pointing north, you ll tend to get steps that go over the top of you. You re trying to turn him and he ends up running away. And so what we want to teach him is where to put the leg that is going to support him to turn. It s not always about the moving leg, it s about the supporting leg where he gets the balance from to be able to support himself to take the correct step. So my positioning, I want to have the feeling that I m replicating again the riding. So I want to put my body language and my energy in the direction I want the leg to go. And I want to take my hand in the direction that I would be if I was riding. So if I was sitting on the horse and I want to turn to the left, then I open the reign to the left. That he s learning to follow the reins with the front legs. And so from this position, when I take my hand underneath his neck and my body language goes towards the front leg, I want to feel that he s putting his left front leg behind and the right one goes across. And so when I m moving across with my hand, he s following with the front leg. When I relax, he s also looking for the position of rest. So again, I move in towards the front leg, he takes his nose a little bit, and then the neck, then the shoulders. His left front leg has to go behind and across, behind and across, behind and across. So that from the beginning he s learning to balance himself and stay in balance and not be running forwards over you or running backwards away from the rein. So we want a step that s not putting the front legs across, and then forwards stepping out on through your hand. But we want him to be able to step across, and go behind carry weight here, get stability, and be able to push off that leg to take another step. So you give him good stability and good balance to be able to follow the rein correctly. If the horse is not in good balance and not with a good posture and not with a support base through his legs, then he s never going to follow the rein correctly.
So, same on the other side. So again, positioning myself towards the leg I want to move. His head goes and then the neck and then, if I need to, I give the noise for the movement. If I have the problem here of the leg going forwards too much, I then stop with the sidewards and I ask him to go backwards again. So body language, then the noise for backwards, and then a little bit of bumping on the halter until you feel again the release. We have the cooked spaghetti and then he comes back and then he gives looseness and you have the soft spaghetti. And so then from there, when he s able to move backwards correctly and he s set with his support on the hind legs, I can then again take him to the side and then I know that this leg is going in the right position by itself. In the end he s putting the leg not there, but there behind, not there, there behind, there behind, there behind and relax again. And so the idea in the end is that he knows and understands where to put his feet himself, you create a good pattern in his body, that he creates his own balance and his own support. Therefore he gains confidence by moving the legs in the right position. Once I have control over each of the four legs independently, then I can go through the pattern where I join all the legs together. This is when it becomes the yoga for horses. This is the pattern I use when I go to get on the first time, it s the pattern I use when I take my horse to a competition the first time. It s a pattern that through his body gives him a feeling or a physical state of relaxation. He gets stability, support, flexion and bend in the body, All of his body moves independently, with no resistance. He s not moving with any resistance on following the rein and he s not moving on any resistance on yielding away from the leg.
So then we start to put it all together, again, the hand position, always the hand over the rein just like you re riding. That the ropes is coming out of the back of your hand. Not that you re holding it like a hand bag, but like a rein. And then again, body language moves in, the voice, hind leg is going under. As soon as I get some good steps here, then I relax. This is the part where the horse moves around me, so I m putting my right hand over the rein again, I move his nose in the position, then the front legs to the side, right front goes behind and across, behind and across, behind and across. And now the right hind leg is looking at me, I bring the right hand up, and then body language, the noise, again until I get a feeling that he bends right through his body and relax. Left hand over the rein, nose across, front legs across, left front behind so the supporting leg, right front across, there s good and relax. And then I have my backwards. Once you have that pattern set, then you can start to go through it with a little bit of speed. So, hind legs across, front legs over, hind legs across, front legs over, and so that in the end he s in motion all the time, creating good stability and good support and good flexion and bend through the body.