Archive for the ‘Recreation and Sports’ Category

RHYTHM AND TEMPO

Before you can pick the perfect freestyle music for your horse, you need to understand the difference between rhythm and tempo.

Many people use the words rhythm and tempo interchangeably, but they don’t mean the same thing. This month, I’ll go over the meaning of each–both in musical terminology and in riding terminology. It doesn’t matter if you ride DRESSAGE, HUNTERS, or you are an EVENT RIDER. Every equestrian needs RHYTHM!!!

Rhythm – When riding, regularity of the rhythm refers to the even spacing between each step in a stride of walk, trot, or canter. In music, rhythm is made up of sounds and silences. These sounds and silences are put together to form patterns of sound which are repeated to create rhythm.

Look at the two descriptions of rhythm and put them together. Think of the sounds and silences of the musical terminology and the even spacing between each step of your horse’s gaits as the same thing. When the horse’s foot is down it is a sound. When your horse’s foot is up, it is silent. This is how we can relate the rhythm of music to the rhythm of your horse’s gaits.

Tempo -Tempo is the speed of the music or the speed of your horse. Depending on how fast you want to go, you can adjust the rate of repetition of the rhythm.

Tempo in music can be fast, slow, or in-between. Music sounds and feels different depending on how fast it’s played. The same piece of music will have a different effect or mood depending on whether it’s played fast or slow.

Hopefully, this description clarifies the difference between rhythm and tempo as it applies to music and to your horse.

Next month, we’ll talk about choosing the particular kind of music that will accentuate your horse’s strengths. Stay tuned for a whole lot of fun!

Ruth Hogan Poulsen

http://www.Ruthhoganpoulsen.com

Ruth@Ruthhoganpoulsen.com

Author: Ruth Hogan Poulsen
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Merriam Webster online defines dressage as “the execution by a trained horse of precision movements in response to barely perceptible signals from its rider.”

In the days of Xenophon 2,500 years ago, dressage was more than a sport and a hobby. At that time the skill of horses in battle and hunting were a determining influence in the outcome of a conflict and the survival of a society.

Until the beginning of the 20th century, horses were a major factor in many crucial battles that shaped the course of history. Just a couple of examples are the battle of Poitiers where Charles Martel finally broke the force of the Moslem invasion of Europe in 732 and the lifting of the Siege of Vienna by the cavalry of Jan Sobieski in 1683 when the Turks had nearly taken the city.

Xenophon, known as a lover of horses and credited with founding the discipline, expressed the guiding principle of dressage in these words: “What the horse does under compulsion…is done without understanding…and there is no beauty in it.”

Maneuvers like the levade and piaffe, when properly performed, enabled riders to create havoc among enemy troops. This teamwork between horse and rider could only be achieved by long and rigorous training. For the best results, the horses had to be trained in such a way that they were not machines dominated by their riders, but proud, courageous animals anxious to perform for love of their riders. A well trained horse could prove more strategic than a dozen foot soldiers in a battle. The sheer psychological impact of these powerful animals was helpful in turning the course of battle. They certainly were a huge help to Cortez in conquering the Aztecs who were so awed by these creatures.

Today, dressage is a refined sport pursued by hundreds of thousands. Its ideal practice is one in which both horse and rider benefit mentally and physically. Consideration of the whole horse greatly enhances dressage training. No amount of long drills and hard training can produce what the combination of technical skill and understanding yield. Fortunate is the horse whose rider pursues technical mastery as well as deep consideration of the horse as a whole.

Bayard Fox has been riding for 70 years on six continents and has ridden enough miles to circle the globe several times. He is owner and founder of Equitours Worldwide Horseback Riding Vacations. He and his wife also own the Bitterroot Dude Ranch where they raise and train Arabian horses.

Author: Bayard R Fox
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Do you ever feel like your dressage horse’s shoulders are so stiff and stuck that not only is it hard to turn him, but his hindquarters are disconnected from his front end?

If your horse’s shoulders are stuck, it’s like having a kink in a water hose. The energy can’t flow from behind, over the back, into your hands where it can then be recycled back to the hind legs.

Here are two shoulder suppling exercises for you to try with your stiff horse.

1. Make a 20-meter box with 4 corners in the walk.

o To give you more control of your dressage horse’s shoulders, do the exercise in counter flexion. (That is, you’ll just barely see his outside eye or nostril.)

o If you’re going to the left, ask for right counter flexion with your right wrist. Stay in counter flexion during the entire exercise.

o At the first corner, bring both hands to the left to swivel your horse’s shoulders around the corner.

o Then, soften the contact without letting the reins get loopy.

o After the corner, walk straight ahead in counter-flexion.

o At the next corner, bring both hands to the left again.

o Do this in all four corners.

o As your horse’s shoulders become more supple, it’ll get easier to spin his

shoulders around the turn without meeting resistance.

o You can tell there’s no resistance when the weight in your hands stays the same as you swivel your horse’s shoulders around the corner.

2. Ride down the long side of the ring, and move your dressage horse’s shoulders slightly to the left and right.

o Walk down the long side of arena.

o Flex your horse at the poll opposite the direction you’ll be moving his shoulders. For example, when riding to the left, ask for a counter flexion to the right by turning your right wrist. Then, take both hands to left to slide your horse’s shoulders over. Move the shoulders over only 1-2 inches.

o Now change to a correct flexion by turning your left wrist.

o Move both arms to the right to pop the shoulders back out to the track.

o Smoothly and fluidly move the shoulders back and forth as you work your way down the long side.

Are you sick and tired of complicated and confusing training techniques? Are you frustrated by negative emotions like fear and lack of confidence? Would you like to be trained by a Three Time Olympic Coach? Learn how by going to: http://www.janesavoie.com/ or http://www.dressagementor.com

Author: Jane Savoie
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You’ve carefully laid out a systematic, progressive training program for riding your dressage horse. Yet every time you add new work, you run into a certain amount of resistance.

Don’t panic. Understand that when you raise the bar, it’s inevitable that you’re going to encounter resistance. It’s a normal part of dressage and horse training. Don’t be afraid of it. Just work through it in baby steps.

Have a checklist in your mind to help you decide if you should back off a little bit, or whether you should push through the resistance. There should be three things on your checklist.

1. Physical issues. You need to know that your horse is not in pain anywhere. Are his hocks are okay? Is his back is okay? Are his teeth okay? Do his saddle and bridle fit him correctly?

2. Check yourself. Make sure you’re giving the aids correctly. You want to be sure that you aren’t giving contradictory signals.

For example, let’s say you’re riding to the right (Your right leg is on the inside). You turn down the quarter in order to leg yield over to the left.

Your right leg is behind the girth asking the horse to move over. However, you have a very bad habit of pushing too hard with your right leg so your upper body leans to the right. Since your horse wants you to stay centered above him, he finds it hard to go sideways to the left because your leg is saying, “go to the left”, but your body weight is saying, “I won’t let you go to the left.”

Then you end up thinking, “Oh, my horse can’t go sideways. He’s not ready. He´s resisting.” But the reality is that you’re giving conflicting signals.

3. The third thing that I do if my horse is really showing me, or telling me with his body language that he can’t do something is that I find a way to take the difficulty out of the exercise. That is, I do the “essence” of the exercise, but I make it more simple.

Here are some ideas so you can be your own problem solver and figure out how to take the difficulty out of exercises but still get your point across. If you take this approach, the resistance becomes manageable or even nonexistent. Then little by little, you can increase the demands again.

For example, let’s say you start to leg yield from the quarter line over to the long side, The first few steps are fine, but then your horse starts resisting. Maybe he slows down or tosses his head. Take the difficulty out of the leg yield by starting only 1-meter off the rail instead of from the quarter line.

Or let’s say you’re struggling when you start your advanced lateral work such as shoulder-in, haunches-in, and half pass.

There are several things you can do. You can reduce the angle. Rather than asking for shoulder-in, do shoulder-fore (half the angle of a shoulder in). Or rather than asking for a 3-track haunches-in, ask for half that angle. With your half pass, rather than going from the corner letter to X, reduce the angle by going from the K or F all the way up to G.

Regarding shoulder-in and haunches-in, do fewer steps. That is, do three or four quality steps, and then straighten your horse. Let him take a breath. Then do three or four steps again. Or do the movements at a slower gait such as the walk.

Just be very clever on taking the difficulty out of the dressage training exercises for your horse. Introduce new training work in baby steps so that your horse always thinks he’s a champion no matter what you’re asking him to do.

Are you sick and tired of complicated and confusing training techniques? Are you frustrated by negative emotions like fear and lack of confidence? Would you like to be trained by a Three Time Olympic Coach? Learn how by going to: http://www.janesavoie.com/ or http://www.dressagementor.com

Author: Jane Savoie
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Is their a difference in training an Arabian for Dressage as opposed to training a Warmblood or even a Quarterhorse?

We found that out! My daughter is the most fortunate girl when it comes to her dressage trainer. Until a couple of years ago, she had mainly trained children and adults for dressage on Warmbloods and Quarterhorses but since we had this cute little Arab which was so willing to please and totally green, she took him on.

Here are some main differences in training hot blooded horses for dressage, versus Warmbloods and even Quarterhorses:

1. Keep your Arabian horse working at least a little 5 -7 days a week. Don’t let him sit and get overly eager to go. They are hard to bring down and concentrate once they are excited.
2. While you can drill a Warmblood over and over again on the same exercise, an Arab needs variety. After you practice something 4 or 5 times, you really need to do something else for a while – preferably before his brain short cuts and he decides he’s done.
3. When you do an exercise the same way repetitively, have him do the exact opposite for a while – otherwise he will let you know what is right and what is wrong. For example, do a ‘leg yield’ away from the rails instead of toward the rails. It breaks his thinking pattern and leaves you in the driver’s seat.
4. Ride the horse you’re on – be calm, don’t override. You are supposed to be the calming agent. If you have an electric seat, take a very deep breath and lower your energy output by lot.
5. Arabs’ heads like to come up, circle, maybe even hit your helmet while doing it. Don’t try to pull his head down. It only makes it worse. On the other hand, don’t give too much either, try to follow with your hands and send him forward and hopefully he’ll learn that that’s not a way to evade the bit and come off the aids.
6. Many Arabians learn to curl and go behind the bit. Again, that is nothing but an attempt to evade your aids (hands) – like above, send him forward while following his mouth with your hands.
7. And last but not least, love him, support him and try to turn all that energy into positive tension. Let him be brilliant and let him show off how cute he is while constantly suggesting to him what you want. You really cannot make them do anything.

Author: Monique Myers
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A lot of riders struggle to develop trot lengthenings with their first level dressage horses. What follows are 7 quick tips to help your horse with his lengthenings.

1. THE AIDS FOR TROT LENGTHENINGS

When you’re ready to ask for an upward transition from working trot to a trot lengthening, apply the aids simultaneously, as follows:

* Seat: use a driving seat, as though you’re pushing the back of the saddle toward the front of the saddle.

* Legs: press lightly with both legs to signal your horse to express his energy forward over the ground in longer strides.

* Reins: soften your hands a bit forward, but keep a contact with your horse’s mouth, and a bend in your elbows. Do not ‘throw the reins away’.

2. TROT LENGTHENINGS develop suppleness.

Here’s an image that will help you understand the type of suppleness you’re developing when you practice lengthenings with your First Level horse. Think of your horse’s body as a rubber band that can easily stretch and contract. Not only will this quality make him more athletic, but it’s also extremely useful for all disciplines of riding. Take showjumping, for instance. Just think how many jumping faults could be avoided if your horse’s stride were easily adjustable like this!

3. MAINTAIN THE TEMPO OF THE WORKING TROT

As with most new work, when you begin to incorporate lengthenings into your training at First Level, you start in the trot. It’s a bonus if you have a horse that can naturally lengthen his trot. Many Warmbloods and Arabians have this ability, but I’ve worked with a lot of Thoroughbreds, Connemaras, Morgans, and Quarter Horses who really need help developing their trot lengthenings.

If you ask your horse to lengthen in the way I’ve described and the tempo gets quicker because he runs with short, fast steps, you need to systematically develop his lengthenings. Part of his difficulty may be purely physical. He may lack the suppleness and strength that he will gain in time by basic dressage training. But part of the problem may be that the horse just doesn’t understand that he is to take longer strides in the same tempo. He actually thinks he’s being obedient when he rushes off because he feels you close your legs, and he responds eagerly by immediately going forward.

I often find that I can help him understand that he is to lengthen his strides without speeding up, by asking for the trot lengthenings while going up hills. Once he gets the idea, I go back into the ring and see if he can transfer this concept of lengthening in the same tempo on the level footing.

Sometimes I do something unusual with the horse that tends to quicken his trot tempo when asked to lengthen. Since it takes time to develop the trot lengthening, I go out in a big field, or I go all the way around the ring and round off the corners so that I don’t have to slow down for them. First, I take up a heavier contact than normal. In this way, I can temporarily act as the horse’s fifth leg and purposely support him so he doesn’t lose his balance. Then I ask for a lengthening in posting trot. While posting to the trot, I rise very high and stay in the air a fraction of a second longer than normal. I pretend that I can hold the horse in the air with my body. And, in my mind’s eye, I picture him floating over the ground with his feet never touching the ground.

I ask my horse to give me a greater and greater effort and eventually one of two things will happen. The first is that he realizes that his legs can’t go any faster, and he ’shifts into overdrive’ and takes some longer, slower steps. At this point, I immediately stop, praise him, and let him walk on a loose rein.

In my experience I’ve found that the first time, I might have to go all the way around a ring once or twice before I get a couple of longer, slower steps. But after the reward, the next effort yields results much sooner. And the same for the next attempt.

The other thing that might happen is that he loses his balance and falls into the canter. This isn’t the disaster it seems to be. If my horse hadn’t lost his balance and cantered, his next trot step probably would have been a bit longer. So I re-establish and immediately ask for a trot lengthening. It’s in that moment that I’m most apt to get a longer stride in a better tempo. And once again if I get even one or two better steps, I stop and praise him. The reward helps the horse to understand that by doing something different, even if initially he doesn’t understand what it is, he’ll be praised.

Once I get two or three better steps as soon as I ask for the trot lengthening, I leave them for another day. During each session the horse builds his understanding of what’s being asked, and over time he physically gets strong enough to lengthen in a good tempo for a greater number of steps.

4. HEAR THE TEMPO

Use some good auditory images to help you while you’re teaching your horse to do a trot lengthening in the same tempo as his working gait. Pretend you’re standing by a paved road and your eyes are closed. Because the tempo stays exactly the same, you can’t tell from the sound of the footfalls whether your horse is in the working gait, lengthening, or doing the transition in between.

Here’s another auditory image to help you teach your horse to lengthen the trot in the same tempo as his working trot. Pretend you hear a metronome ticking. The tempo stays exactly the same both when you’re in working trot and when you’re in the lengthening. (Even though I’m discussing trot lengthenings at the moment, you can use the same type of auditory image if your horse quickens his tempo in a canter lengthening. ‘Hear’ the tempo as if your horse is moving over the ground with big, ground-covering bounds in slow motion.

If your horse still tends to quicken his tempo when you ask him to do a trot lengthening, overcompensate by imagining that you ‘hear’ the tempo get slower. Pretend that the tempo gets slower because your horse stays suspended in the air for a long time. If you’re doing a posting trot, try rising and sitting more slowly to see if you can be the one to set the pace rather than automatically posting at the speed that your horse chooses.

5. USE FIRMER CONTACT FOR SUPPORT

Don’t be surprised if the contact with your horse’s mouth during trot lengthenings becomes somewhat heavy. Remember that lengthenings are developed out of the working gait at First Level, and the weight in your hands is somewhat firm to begin with. In addition, while your horse is learning how to balance himself during trot lengthenings, his center of gravity might shift even a bit further to his forehand. Don’t be alarmed by this. It’s a stage of his training, and it’s fine to temporarily support him by maintaining a firmer contact. Later on, if you decide to go on to more advanced work, you’ll develop ‘uphill’ extensions out of collected gaits. Because the horse will have a greater degree of self-carriage when he’s in a collected gait, the contact will be lighter.

However, there’s a fine line between a solid, supporting contact and one in which your horse is leaning so heavily on your hands that your arms ache. Here are some things you can try to improve a contact that is too heavy. Before you even begin to ask for a trot lengthening, make sure you drive the horse’s hind legs more under his body by closing both of your legs. In order to carry himself, your horse needs to have his hind legs underneath him. If his hind legs are trailing out behind his body, he can’t support himself in the lengthening and he has no option but to lean on your hands.

You can also ride some quick transitions: from trot to halt and back to trot again, or from the canter to the walk and back to the canter again. This will help to re-balance your horse and make the weight in your hands more comfortable.
Another reason the contact can get too heavy is that you may be asking for too many lengthened strides at one time before your horse is ready. Doing well-balanced trot lengthenings with his hind legs underneath his body for only a few strides at a time is much more valuable for your horse than lengthening for many strides with his hind legs pushing out behind his body. Remember that when you do the downward transition back to the working gait, be sure that you close your legs to send his hind legs under his body. It might feel natural to ask for the downward transition from the lengthening to the working gait by just using the reins. But, as you know by now, if your goal is to rebalance your horse and improve the contact, you need to add hind legs while doing the downward transitions.

6. ALLOW THE FRAME TO ELONGATE IN TROT LENGTHENINGS

In trot lengthenings, the front feet should touch the ground on the spot toward which they are pointing when each leg is at its maximum extension. When a horse has to draw his front legs back toward his body before placing them on the ground, or his toes flip up in front, it usually indicates that he hasn’t been allowed to lengthen his frame.
Sometimes a rider makes it difficult for the horse to lengthen to his utmost. Although I said earlier that you shouldn’t be concerned in the contact is a bit too firm, you want to be sure that you’re not making it heavy because you’re cranking his neck in. If you keep your horse’s neck short by restricting him with strong or non-allowing hands, he has to draw his foreleg back before putting it down. Allow your horse to lengthen his neck and point the tip of his nose more or less forward. To help you to do this, think about ‘opening the front door’ by softening your hands a bit toward your horse’s mouth and by cocking your wrists upward in a way that allows your little fingers to go more forward.

7. SIT UPRIGHT

When you use your driving seat to ask for the transition into the trot lengthening, don’t try to ‘help’ your horse to lengthen by leaning back. Even though you might feel that you can drive him forward this way (and I see many dressage riders doing this in lengthenings and extensions) you’ll just end up driving his back down and making it hollow. Stay vertical at all times.

I learned this lesson about sitting correctly in trot lengthenings the hard way while trying to qualify for the Olympic Festival with Jolicoeur at a competition that was being held at Knoll Farm in Brentwood, New York, back in 1987. One of the finest international judges in the world, the late Mr Jaap Pot, was there. He was a stickler when it came to the correctness of the rider’s seat. I remember Jo and I doing huge extended trots for him. I thought we had done really well until my score sheet came back with extremely low marks for the extensions and the simple comment – rider leaning behind the vertical. Believe me, it made an impression.

Author: Jane Savoie
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Horseback riding has grown as a long time favourite sport, and has just recently begun to become popular not just in the USA but all over the world, which is why using the correct rein contact is so important in riding. A rider’s hands needs to guide, encourage – with a little give and take without being hard or too strong. This is something riders should try. You may be delighted to see how quickly your horse will respond, as the reins are a means of communication. The reins must not be used to punish or to maintain a rider’s balance. Just following that advice will certainly add benefits and a touch of adventure to your riding! Evidence of the growing popularity of horse riding is the availability of horses. There is knowledge and experience for anyone who is unfamiliar with this sport.

Nervous riders

It will not matter if you are not an expert at horse riding, because there is always a skilled rider who will be available to give a few horse riding tips to those who are completely inexperienced, but who want the thrill of riding and owning their own horse(s). As a learner, you may be afraid of being run away with the faster gaits; jumping can also cause you to become preoccupied with keeping the horse down to a reasonable speed for control, rather than developing fluidity and freedom. This can cause a nervous rider to pull on the reins subconsciously. There is also the fear of falling off, and this fear can be transmitted to the horse, often resulting in the horse refusing. Under a nervous rider, a galloping horse will go faster, generally, because it senses the lack of control. The horse will get nervous itself, and will do what most frightened horses do – run away!

What You can do

Consider your abilities and genuine fears. You want to ride a horse and be professional like a Pro. You want to learn dressage riding – the set series of movements performed by dressage riders. There is no need to struggle on your own, without help, as this could result in you or the horse getting injured. Ride more suitable mounts under good instruction until you are more competent and confident. Get good quality help and instruction from people who have years of experience and know. Ride at a slow pace that you are happy with under instruction, from an understanding instructor. Once you follow the instructions and are confident you can progress on to the faster gaits.

You need to understand, through a good teacher, exactly what you are doing to stop the horse. You may badly want to do something, but are afraid of doing it, such as jumping or cantering or having a gallop in a wide, open space. You may be pulling back on the reins unconsciously, clinging and gripping – pulling back with your body? The epitome of fear could be the “foetal crouch”, which you may be unaware of doing.

Author: Sonia Dixon
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Dressage is the fastest growing equestrian leisure interest today!

Horses maintain a vital role within the history of mankind. They have taken part in several purposes from carrying to arduous cavalry. Today, due to the development of know-how horses are thumbs down very widely; horses are used for sale, intended for something else. They can be located working with humans within ranches, farms, circuses and driving carriages in place of amusement rides.

In support of this, course of action, you can purchase horse apparel and riding accessories like jackets, boots, hats and saddles. Although horses are not the same as they were back in the field of traditional of riding; things did not vacillate. Equestrians were regarded in the role of nobles inside Rome, who are members of the cavalry. In this day and age, dressage is the fastest growing equestrian leisure interest, and at hand there are riders who take part in a quantity of sports.

Equestrians now are well-known to be in favor of equestrianism. It refers to the skill to ride and drive horses. This definition does not solely include the aid of horses in place of recreational activities and sports but as well as for working and useful purposes. The phrase refers to other skills not merely riding them on behalf of equestrian sports.

Classical riding and training methods has been exhibited survival for hundreds of years, largely accepted by word of mouth. Dressage is in relation to riding and training your horse or else your pony; it recognizes the meaning of training the rider, which enables you to develop your horses’ talents.

A Dressage test

Dressage tests practice set activities and sequences with the purpose of reflecting the horse’s education. A complete size dressage arena can happen to be a completed one, which is 60×20m. The tuition sheet used for each dressage test specifies the size of the arena with the aim to be used. If it is a comprehensive sized arena, and you simply have a minute area inside to practice, nominate yourself to know wherever the additional markers are placed. You ought to also check the rules regarding tack – they are very exact. Generally anything not permitted inside the arena is not permissible in the warm up area either, with the exception of boots and bandages.

Equestrian actions include dressage, exhibiting show jumping and trials. The rider, training the horse and the dressage competition are all valuable factors. Equestrians ought to be able to get the horse convey natural actions on demand while running free during competitive dressage. It is additionally referred to, for example, “Horse Ballet”. Its goal is to develop a horses’ physical ability and its initiative to carry out and take full advantage of its capability. The Show jumping is a timed even somewhere equestrians are vital to leap over a succession of obstacles with the least mistakes. At this level, riders and their horses suppose to be able to get through the blockage with the slightest knocked over portions of obstacles.

Eventing is the combination of dressage and show jumping. Riders and horses are popularly renowned for participating featuring in equestrian sports for the duration of Olympics. Horse back riding is still kept for the rich. Even now horses are still expensive and prized. Riding the horse, you undergo a sequence of fixed obstacles such as stonewalls, water, logs banks, ditches with the fastest moment possible.

Although the role of equestrians has altered through the centuries with the culture of (English dressage and the American Dressage), it still holds the aura of nobleness that it previously enjoyed during medieval period.

Author: Sonia Dixon
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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