The Farm House

Farm Goddess · Goddess

Training

Shannon · Honored Guest

If you are a horse lover, you need to watch this. Even the commentators were speechless at times:

Dancing horse

I don't own a horse and have only been riding 4 times in my life. But, can someone give me an idea of how you train a horse to do that? I know the rider uses subtle hand and leg movements and voice commands, but (and this goes for all animals who are trained to do tricks--not sit, roll over, stand etc, but actual tricks) how do you get the horse to know that, for example, "When I do this, these legs come up high well these legs go down and we will be moving diagonally. Oh and when I make this sound, we do the same thing only slower...." etc, etc......

It literally boggles my mind.

-- Edited by Shannon at 08:14, 2008-09-19

Farm Goddess · Goddess

Shannon, someone sent me that YouTube video last year and I have watched it probably 50 times since. It never fails to bring tears to my eyes it is so beautiful and amazing.

There are levels of dressage training. I know little or nothing about dressage except what I've heard others discuss. I know that, like anything else in horse training, you build a pyramid with your horse. You begin with basic exercises at the walk, trot and canter. Just like human atheletes, the horse must be limber and flexible. The basic level of dressage is to gain that flexibility. The horse must also, in the basic level, learn how to "collect" and "balance" itself. Collection, balance and flexion give the horse that proud, powerful and compact look. Your horse doesn't just jog trot or amble or gallop. You have built in him the ability (with leg and hand cues) to perform a tight collected walk, trot and canter, and, when cued, extend those movements into a faster more extended reach walk trot and canter. You also teach them to turn on the hind or fore.

Once the horse masters those basics, you build upon them. You teach the horse, through leg and rein aids to perform the basic movements while going laterally or completely sideways. When they can perform the basic collected and extended gaits, and can perform hind and fore turns, you pump those up a notch and ask for more collection, teach them to make those tight turns and lateral movements in an even more collected fashion. Slow down their gaits even further. Teach them flying lead changes and how to instantly change diagonals at the trot.

Level 3 dressage and above build more upon the basic levels. Once the horse has mastered the basic levels and the cues to give more with less forward motion they can more readily understand when you ask for higher motion and can understand better when you want them to get that higher motion at a lower speed or while turning or while cantering, etc.

Dressage is not tricks. Dressage is actually motion the horse does naturally. The rider/trainer merely helps the horse gain the balance, flexion and drive to perform those natural motions with more power and agility on command.

Here's a link to a cool website:

http://www.cheval-haute-ecole.com/indexA31102.html

Shannon · Honored Guest

Thank you for the explanation! I'll check out the website when I have a bit more time. But, what you said makes me understand it a bit more. I can't even imagine the patience it takes.

Oh, and when I said "tricks" I didn't mean to make light of what the dressage horses do--I just used it for lack of a better word.

Farm Goddess · Goddess

Oh heck I knew you weren't making light of it. No worries there. It's just that many people don't understand that horses do those things naturally. Watch a stallion showing off to a mare or guarding his herd and you'll see what I mean LOL. Dressage training, at least to my simplified viewpoint, is just teaching the horse to do those movements when a rider asks for them. The training helps the horse be able to do those movements with a rider aboard.

Check out this video of a miniature horse doing high level dressage movements in hand (in a ground driving harness).

http://www.dressur-design.de/inhalte/texte/english/horses/lancelot.php

-- Edited by Farm Goddess at 17:03, 2008-09-19

Shannon · Honored Guest

That's pretty cool. Is it uncommon to see a miniature horse trained in such a manner?

Farm Goddess · Goddess

It's fairly uncommon. There are people who have groups of trained miniatures that they use in exhibitions, but there are no classes for dressage trained miniatures in the mini horse shows. There should be, but there aren't. Most people either show them at halter, driving, jumping or in costume. Halter classes are just like showing dogs you trot the horses around the ring and make them stand square to show their conformation. In driving classes the horses are shown in harness with one horse pulling a two wheeled show cart or there are some classes for teams that pull fancy 4 wheeled rigs. Jumping classes are neat because you wouldn't believe how high some of these little guys can fly! Their owner/trainer runs alongside kind of like at a dog agility show and the horses take jumps sometimes taller than they are. The costume classes can get truly entertaining. We watched one costume class online last year where one horse was dressed up as the S.S. Mini. His owners had built a cardboard replica of the SS Minnow that almost entirely covered the little horse. His "family" walked around him dressed up as the skipper, Gilligan, et al. Another was dressed up as a toy train and you couldn't see anything but his little hooves out the bottom. It was a scream.