Imagine this......
You are the pony, and your owner is riding you. What your owner has in mind is to get you to have a cute little headset and to engage your back and hindquarters. You are a bit new to this concept of movement, but you have achieved it before. Your rider asks you my playing with the reins a bit, applying her leg and engaging her seat all at once. You respond to this by speeding up. Your rider continues to apply those same aids but with more rein to prevent you from moving forward. You respond by slowing down. Your rider adjusts her aids a bit until you finally decide to step up more with your hind legs and round your back a bit.
One of two things can happen:
-Your rider instantly releases the pressure and gives you a pat
- Your rider keeps applying the pressure so you continue to carry yourself that way
What do you think would be the correct option? Why?
Comment with your answers, short or long! :)
I would immediatley release pressure, because a small break is a rewArd in a horse's mind. continuing to ask for a movement is a form of punishment to a horse. if you continue to ask for collection, the horse suspects that he is doing something wrong, and stops being collected and trys something else. he doesn't get an idea of what is right and what is wrong. You want to let a horse know if he was good and a break is the best way.
ReplyDeleteImmediately release pressure. When you apply the aids the horse searches away to remove the pressures that the riders are giving them. When you release, they connect the fact of rounding their back and stepping underneath with the release of the "interesting" pressure. If continuing it can lead the horse do something else to try to remove the pressure. Removing the pressure is sort of like a little reward.
ReplyDeleteI would remove pressure because it would be a reward for the pony for doing the right thing. A break makes most ponies very happy, so relieving pressure would be almost like a mini break for the pony, and will now encourage the pony to do it more often. But, if you do this constantly, the pony may develop a habit of yanking against the reins when he becomes round because he is anxious for his break from pressure. You do not want this habit! It is very annoying! Instead, I would relieve a smaller amount of pressure from the amount that I relieved before each time he did the movement correctly. I would do this because the pony wouldn't notice the change in his reward and still would know inside that he has done the movement correctly.
ReplyDelete