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Horsemanship and Training
the Gaits Funnily enough, the thing we can always agree on is that the “others” – from other countries and equestrian associations – don’t do things quite as well as we do. But are we any better ourselves? I think Icelandic horse people generally do a lot of things really well, as do many people involved with other types of horses. However, when it comes to the Horsemanship debate we are tip-toeing around an extremely sensitive area within our own world: how we build up/educate our riding horses from the first step of basic training to the highest levels of fine-tuning a competition horse with a lot of potential. To start off with I assume that we, the riders, want to
have a psychologically positive and physically strong riding horse, that is
confident in its work and offers the rider all it is capable of: a riding horse
that can communicate with the rider, because it has, during its education,
learnt a language that is used in European equitation. I feel that although many trainers here in Europe have a
background of classical dressage, they focus more often on current training
trends, rather than on the fundamental precepts of their knowledge. I got my first Icelandic horse when I was 10 in the early
70’s, and like so many others at that time, I totally disregarded everything I
had learnt since I was 5 at the local, very English riding school. The only
things that counted were those taught by Icelandic trainers. Fortunately we had
the good trainers like Eyjólfur Ísólfsson
and Siggi Sæmundsson from time to time, (for which my patient horse must
have been eternally grateful), but there were also other less refined trainers
with quick fixes. They relied, as a rule, on a good deal of brute force from the
rider, which the horse would have been quite happy to have gone without. There must have been very few of us who saw any kind of
system in what we did with our horses, but we didn’t question anything. In
those days it wasn’t done. Around the mid-70’s new methods of mechanically influencing the gaits began to come to Denmark
from the USA, via Germany. New methods and new equipment, (some more peculiar
than others) were a ”must” for anyone who wanted to do well on the oval
track. This is what we today call ”mechanical doping”. I could go on for ever: certain trainers regarded as
guru’s, such and such a saddle, bit or other gadget being the answer to a
rider’s problems. In spite of many peoples’ fascination for the various
types of Natural Horsemanship, and the increasing enthusiasm for an academic
approach to the art of riding, many riders who deal with gait training still go
for quick, measurable results. If we look at this and hold it up against the steadily
increasing demands we put on the performances we would like our competition
horses to be capable of, we will see that we have set our horses a difficult –
too difficult – task. There will always be exceptions that prove the rule:
everyone knows of a 4 year old that got fantastic marks for its ridden ability,
or a 6 year old that did brilliantly at the World Championships. If we take a
broader look at the horses around, we will see that these examples are, indeed,
exceptions, and should not be used as role models. The riding horse can be regarded as an athlete. If we, the
trainer/rider, are to be responsible for its education, then we must make sure
we bear in mind the fundamental principles of the horse’s anatomy and the
building up of the riding horse’s strength and suppleness, and act
accordingly. Without strength and suppleness it is impossible to show the horse
at its best. Regardless of the horse’s potential, its natural balance
is disturbed the moment we sit on its back and ask it to carry us. In order to
remain balanced with a rider on top, the horse must build up its strength and
suppleness. This will take a certain amount of time, depending on the horse’s
conformation, its formative years, physical ability and temperament. If we are in too much of a rush, the horse will regard
working with us as something unpleasant, and will hold back from further
cooperation. Depending on the factors mentioned above, in a situation like this
we will get something out of our horse, but never as much as could have – and
the horse will rarely be happy. We must give the horse the necessary amount of time to
build up its physical strength in order for it to be able to give a powerful
performance. It is important to remember here the fact that, after its 5th
optimum stretch, a muscle has reached its limit for one session. The period of time spent on basic training (straightening
up and lateral work is included here) is an exciting one. To put it crudely,
once we have managed to ride the horse in a straight line and can control the
front end, then we can begin to learn to control the horse’s back end. While
the horse is learning, each exercise is split up into several small exercises,
so that the next step is always a logical consequence of what the horse has
already learnt. The exercises improve the horse’s suppleness and strength, and
help us to develop and improve our communication channels with him. This work goes well in tandem with riding the horse in the
gaits he offers, and shouldn’t prevent us from encouraging the horse to go
forwards briskly, in order to maintain the horse’s natural willingness, energy
and good humour. This kind of work can easily be done out on a hack. It is more
a question of the rider’s self-discipline than the physical surroundings.
When the horse and rider have mastered contra-versade
and versade the rider will find he has got a useful tool for further
training of the gaits. We must also remember what the old classic masters drew our
attention to: each horse has a certain potential. We can try to draw it out and
refine it, but we cannot create a characteristic if the horse does not possess
it. Many horses don’t get enough time for their education –
or maybe their owners/trainers just accept a limited ability. We are much too
dependent on results, and there are doubtless many good explanations for it.
Enough for a whole book!!! What makes the situation confusing, however, is this: if we
don’t educate our horses within a framework where the keywords are time, logic
and system, and instead take a shortcut and teach the horse habits that may
result in a good breeding assessment or good marks at a competition, but are
nevertheless wrong in relation to the horse’s education as a whole, then we
teach the horse habits that it is difficult to eradicate later. A typical example is a talented young horse that uses his
hindquarters well. He has potential, but is lacking strength. For a while he
will do really well, considering his young age, but over a period of time he
will begin to go down more and more on the forehand. The rider will find he has
more and more in his hands, particularly in transitions. The horse will often
begin to throw his shoulder out or stiffen his neck in an attempt to avoid the
demands which he finds physically difficult to accede to. The vicious circle has
begun: a slightly more severe bit is used with more weight from the rider, and
both horse and rider develop sore muscles. It is not possible for the rider to correct the horse:
partly because the horse hasn’t learnt those exercises which can be used to
correct it, and partly because he has developed the wrong musculature, which
makes it difficult to do as is required, even though the rider asks nicely. Many trainers know of horses like this, and they also know
how long it can take to get the horse to trust the rider again. When a stressful
situation arises later on (e.g at shows and competitions when the horse is asked
for a transition) the horse easily falls back into its old habits. Once a
muscular reflex has been learnt – perhaps stiffening of the neck or throwing a
shoulder out when the rider feels on the reins – it is difficult to remove it
from the horse’s “hard disk”. Things take time with horses… And it is our
responsibility as a rider to give horses time. If we could move our focus away from the quick fixes of the
tracks for a moment, and concentrate instead on the development of our horses so
that we are constantly improving strength and suppleness, it is not
inconceivable that an added bonus would be good results, and above all happy
horses, that physically wear well. As I mentioned earlier, we have many different equine
cultural backgrounds. Consequently, we will also look for our training
“tools” and methods in different equine areas. For many – in the EU, at
least – it will be natural to use classical dressage riding as a starting
point. That kind of riding is the very backbone of what we have learnt, whether
we like it or not. For others, the
principals of natural horsemanship are the solution. Many will argue against that, by saying it will make our
horses boring, stiff, on the forehand and lazy. My answer to this is a resounding NO.
Is a grand-prix horse boring to look at? No. He may have
been when he was started off, but there is nothing boring about a well-educated
dressage horse with good gaits. Think about the Spanish Riding School’s highly
schooled stallions. Are they boring, stiff, lazy and on the forehand? Is this
lack of ability in the gaits? Certainly not - for here they managed to train the horse as
an athlete. There are many boring riding horses and ponies of other
breeds around – boring Icelandics, too – stiff, on the forehand, not willing
to cooperate with the rider. “The others” are neither better nor worse than
us as far as this is concerned But if the curious Icelandic horse rider wants to work on
training the gaits, then it means throwing himself into the process and maybe
even accepting that there are methods that we as riders will have to practise
and learn ourselves, which means we have to learn from those who know more than
we do. The point where many Icelandic horse riders start to have
their doubts is the phase where the horse is learning the most basic exercises.
Many people find it “boring” to teach the horses to learn the signals that
allow us to control first the front end, and then the hindquarters. So they give
up and look for quick fixes. Maybe they also give up because they haven’t
really got to grips with the system themselves. But then it is difficult to go
any further – also for the horse. But it’s a shame, because when we reach a
certain level of communication with the horse and have built up a certain amount
of strength and suppleness, then it is a pleasure to connect all that with the
energy that is so unique to the Icelandic horse. The result is a much better use
of the horse’s resources and a crucial factor in the training of the gaits,
for now we can also use the exercises already learnt to influence the horse’s
gaits. One of the best examples of this relationship is probably Eyjólfur
Ísólfsson, the head trainer at Hólar
Agricultural College, Iceland, and the mare Rás. If we as
riders and trainers wish to progress, we must acknowledge that the naive years,
when anything was allowed, are over. We must use what we learnt as children –
for many of us this will be about
basic training and classical dressage – and combine it with everything we have
learnt from the good trainers in Iceland about gaits and willingness. We
must let ourselves move the focus to the training process itself, which is
completely different for each individual horse, and acknowledge that experienced
riders and trainers too could do with being a bit more sparing in some ways and
a bit more education. Things take time with horses – fortunately. Karen Rasmussen
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