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[RC] Riding with contact - k s swigart

Donna DeYoung said:


What he was doing is giving the horse something
?to do, other than spook. ...

?
The other thing that riding with contact does (and if you ask me, it is more 
than 'giving the horse something to do") is letting the horse know that you are 
THERE and he is not alone.
?
Dropping the "contact" with the horse (whether through the reins or otherwise) 
is the equivalent of hanging up the phone.? This was really brought home to me 
when I was teaching somebody how to drive her horse and explaining contact 
through the reins to her and why she needed to maintain it.? When you are 
driving a horse and it has blinders on its bridle (which almost all of them do) 
and you are behind the horse in a cart or carriage so you have no seat or leg 
aids, contact through the reins is the only way that the horse knows that you 
are there and if you drop that contact....you disappear.
?
Disappearing contact with a horse that knows its job and will just keep doing 
what it thinks it is supposed to do may not be a huge problem, but on a young 
or green (or otherwise insecure) horse that doesn't leaves this not very secure 
horse in the posistion of making decisions on its own....which can be a huge 
problem.??A disappearing rider can be very disconcerting to an insecure horse
?
When riding a horse, the reins are not the only way to keep in "contact" with 
the horse you are on, as you have multiple aids for that purpose, and I will 
use all of them in some degree or another to keep the lines of communication 
open, at all times.
?
What is the most effective form of open communication and how much a horse 
needs to continue happily down the trail is very much a function of the 
individual horse.? Finding the right type of communication for your horse, or 
finding the right horse for your type of communication (or some combination of 
both) is the art of riding.? Teaching it to the horse is called horse training; 
teaching it to the rider is called riding instructing (and these are not the 
same things).
?
kat
Orange County, Calif.
:)

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