In Hand/ Straightness training
Before I started on the journey of doing In Hand work with my horses I thought I was doing ok, you can see with the photo on the left below, Choccie(Avondale Lindt) was competing medium level. There is lots to like about the photo, he is active from behind, coming uphill, nicely in front of the vertical. Getting ok scores, nothing brilliant, and we were struggling with taking the next step forward into collection. In fact a LOT of the time when I asked him to collect it ended in rather large tantrums!
For some reason I got talked into doing a clinic with Belinda Bolsenbroek, I tried to back out, I don’t know why I agreed, I really wasn’t interested in riding in a funny saddle and doing levades or caprioles. I had looked at her website and really didn’t think it was for me. But I had agreed to go, had paid my money which they wouldn’t give back so there was no choice but to go along and see what it was all about. That first clinic I have never felt more useless and out of my depth in all my life. I was a rider, what do you mean play on the ground with all this lateral movement and exercises. It was hard to get my head around, I felt uncoordinated, had no timing and wondered why on earth I was doing this! But something about this method had struck a chord, I could see from the theory lecture that actually there could really be something vitally important here, the missing piece of the puzzle.
So I went home, promised myself I would try it for three months, if it didn’t work ok so be it, I didn’t have to go back to another clinic. I could prove to myself if it was worth adding to my program or just another method that didn’t work for my horse.
It was a struggle, I didn’t enjoy the work initially, its tiring, you feel ridiculous, its frustrating when your coordination and timing are out. But I had made a deal with myself, 15 minutes 4 times a week I was going to do the exercises and help my horse get strong on both hind legs, correct his natural asymmetry, not helped by being a high/low horse in his front feet. I stuck with it, pure stubbornness on my part!
The second photo (below on the left) was taken 7 months after the first photo. The difference in my horse was astounding! He built topline, he gained power, he learnt how to carry himself in collection. I finally found my missing piece of the puzzle. Its a different story today, I LOVE my In Hand work, I look forward to playing with all my horses everyday because I know the impact it has on everything. They can carry equally on both hind legs, they understand how to move their bodies in a way that creates a sound functional athlete. They know what correct contact and self carriage feel like. We have a real partnership of trust and understanding, its everything.
I wish every rider no matter their discipline could understand the value in training their horse on these very basic exercises, that they knew to build their horse from the ground up before they started to specialise in their ridden work. What a massive difference it would make! How incredible it would be to have sound functional athletes for long competitive careers or riding partners for life.
