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[RC] diagonals - Marcia NelsonHere is something to
add a new twist to this topic. I went to see Chris Irwin (www.chrisirwin.com) and watched a
demonstration of riders. They were riders unknown to him as it was at an expo.
There was everything from nervous to calm horses. He challenged the riders after
they had warmed up on their own to post to the diagonal that was correct for the
horse's bend and NOT relative to the arena fence. That meant that
the nervous horses that would counter bend to the outside to take a look at
all the scary things outside the arena fence would have riders on the 'wrong'
diagonal based on being relative to the arena fence. His challenge was that
a horse (not in a show) but being schooled in an arena and still in the
place where they are nervous and worried about what is outside gets even more
worried when they are tugged and pulled and corrected to get back to the
'correct bend and diagonal' relative to the arena fence. Each time that a horse
would counter bend because of their worries, he would ask the rider to change
their post to be 'correct' with the horse's bend and he would then ask them to
rhythmically leg them away from the arena fence far enough to float
them around in a head on turn back towards the arena and head off in
the opposite direction. If the horse once again would counter bend to see
outside the arena he'd have them repeat the exercise over and over until the
horse was done with looking. It was interesting to note that not one horse was
as upset as they had originally been and they dropped their fears and worries
very quickly because the riders didn't get in a fight with them at the exact
same moment that they had fear about their environment. They would just ride
them in the direction that the horse would counter bend and then turn back to
the fence and head on down the rail in the opposite direction until they counter
bent again and then they'd leg them over with a change of diagonal and head back
to the fence and change directions again. Pretty soon, the horses were all
happily riding along and the over sensitivity to their environment melted away.
No fuss no muss! It was a nice sight to see.
As they had been
warming up, the nervous horses were getting hotter and hotter as their riders
were struggling to get control of the horse's fears that were then affecting
their bend and the more they attempted to correct the horses the worse the fight
got and the more over sensitive the horses became. It wasn't until he let them
struggle through it on their own and asked them to change their idea of what a
'correct' was that the whole thing calmed down and you would have thought that
these horses were different animals than the ones we witnessed at the start of
it all.
I was dully
impressed at how well this worked across the board and I brought that idea home
to my own training program and I can't tell you what a difference it has meant.
It makes perfect sense that when a horse is already troubled about their
environment and then that is paired with getting in trouble for
looking and counter bending that it would just add fuel to the fire. Even if
they don't specifically get in trouble by their rider, at the very least the
'correct' posting with the 'correct' diagonal relative to the fence is all wrong
in that moment for where the horse's body is bending and that alone feels
awkward to the horse. Pretty soon the horse begins to associate their fears with
riding that doesn't feel good and/ being corrected and tugged around.
I've learned that I
can get nervous horses calmed down pretty easily this way and they stop doing
all that counter bending around and settle right down. Once all of that is going
great, then they're ready for the show ring and staying in a bend
relative to the arena fence.
It has been awesome
for my students to learn to post with the 'correct' diagonal this way too. I
have them go with the feel of the horse and not worry about the arena fence.
They get the feeling and the timing down and then I have them do what I
mentioned earlier and pretty soon both horse and student are going great along
the arena fence with both doing the 'correct' thing relative to the arena.
Try it, you
might like it too!!
Marcia
Nelson
Horseman's
Hangout
Santa Barbara,
CA
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