|
OK, guess I qualify to address this. I have NOTHING flat here. In fact,
on Sunny's first Endurance ride, he thought he was supposed to canter ANYTHING
flat. <grin> Wanted to run it all at Million Pines.
First, you need to understand that the way a horse would "normally"
go downhill is totally different from what you want with a rider and saddle
on his back. A horse normally will get "faster and faster" downhill, just
like a roller coaster. You have to teach him how you want him to handle
hills.
To start a new horse on Endurance, I always make him walk down hills,
because he needs to learn how to carry you down hill. This is also
for his safety, since a young horse's suspensory system is not strong yet.
He's gotta learn to tuck his butt, hold a constant speed, and deal with
your weight. It helps if you can keep your upper body still and let him
figure it out. Stay off the reins as long as he holds the walk...this will
help him relax and use his head and neck for balance. Once he learns that
we trot up hills and walk down them, he sorta automatically does that after
a while. Stay off the really steep stuff at this point.
Once he is real comfortable doing that, I ask him to canter up hills
and trot down them, again insisting that he slow down and hold a constant
speed. Since he already knows that we slow down going down hills, it's
an easy transition from trot-up, walk-down to canter-up, trot down.
He must LEARN to do a controlled (slow down) trot downhill. It's not "normal".
On the really steep stuff...the kind you must walk or get off on, I
teach zig-zag. I've taken Sunny cross country in the wilderness on
some pretty steep stuff. He now just does it automatically if it's
really steep...don't even have to ask for it. First , you must teach
hills as described above. Then, you use "turn on fore" to teach him
to zig-zag. Walk across the hill to the right, rein left, kick his butt
over with left leg, walk across the hill, rein right, kick his butt over
with right leg. It doesn't take him long to figure this out because
it's easier than walking straight down hill. Uphill on REALLY steep stuff
works the same way, but you're normally on the ground. Leading uphill or
running with your horse downhill is much easier if you zig-zag across the
face of the hill as much as possible.
Once your horse knows all this, he will begin to become a "push button"
horse on hills. He will "use" the hills. That is, he will do a controlled
trot down a hill, then roll into a canter just before he reaches the bottom,
using his momentum to canter up the next hill. This is a big advantage
at a ride like Leatherwood with all the "roller coaster" hills.
All this takes time. I've been working on my second horse Magic for
a year now. He's just now beginning to figure out controlled walking down
hills. IMHO, practice, practice, practice is the key.. Don't ask your horse
to deal with a "hilly" ride at speed until you are comfortable that he
can handle it. Easy way to come up with a suspensory problem.
Jim, Sun of Dimanche, and Mahada Magic
>I would love for those mountain riders to chime in on this one,
because I was told at Leatherwood >that this is a good thing for the horse
to do when going down a steep incline. Kind of like a snow >skier
zig-zaggin his way down the mountain.
|
