Yesterday we went to see the Mike Bridges clinic just west of Birmingham. It was great to see so many familiar faces we have grown up with in the Parelli world there. I think Pat would have been proud as well. He always says that his program provides the foundation and then we should branch out and seek good instructors in whatever discipline we wish to follow. The knowledge Parelli provided lead me to the Bridle Horse discipline, which I love, and Mike is one of the best instructors in the world for that. Along with Buck I guess, but less well known and therefore a little more accessible.
The format of the clinic was the usual format of a set of riders in the morning and a different set in the afternoon. It was great watching David Zund riding on his little Spanish mare. I was stunned to learn later that the mare is 20 years old !! She was easily the best performing horse all day, but then she had David on board ;)
During the clinic I was getting thoroughly confused about weight shift again, especially after what I had learnt in Montana. So I sought out Mike during the lunch break for some clarification.
He said that what I had learnt in Montana was good for a juvenile horse just learning to move with our aids as it made it super obvious where to go. However it also caused them trouble with regaining balance after the move. So weighting the outside stirrup during a fore quarter turn did make it obvious to move the shoulders away from that side but once the horses legs had moved that way then they would struggle to regain balance. So what I was told in Montana was a way of getting the movement started in a horse that was still in the training phase but not appropriate for a more advanced horse.
Then he came up with what he called the golden rule which comes from classical dressage.
"Move your seat in the direction of travel and over the engaged leg"
He gave the example of a leg yield. If leg yielding to the left then your seat needed to move over to the left side of the horse. That confused me because the most engaged leg in the leg yield is the right hind. But he said the right hind should be stretching across under the mid line of the horse so your weight should be over where that engaged leg is going to strike the ground which is again to the left of the mid line.
I asked about how to position my weight for hind quarter disengagement. He looked a little aghast and asked why on earth I would want to teach the horse to disengage. Everything should be about engagement. I take his point and maybe for a rider of his calibre that is fair enough.
For me I want to be sure that I can quickly disengage the hind legs of Filly. She is a race horse and hates cows at the moment so for me that is a safety issue even if it reduces her performance a little.
The format of the clinic was the usual format of a set of riders in the morning and a different set in the afternoon. It was great watching David Zund riding on his little Spanish mare. I was stunned to learn later that the mare is 20 years old !! She was easily the best performing horse all day, but then she had David on board ;)
During the clinic I was getting thoroughly confused about weight shift again, especially after what I had learnt in Montana. So I sought out Mike during the lunch break for some clarification.
He said that what I had learnt in Montana was good for a juvenile horse just learning to move with our aids as it made it super obvious where to go. However it also caused them trouble with regaining balance after the move. So weighting the outside stirrup during a fore quarter turn did make it obvious to move the shoulders away from that side but once the horses legs had moved that way then they would struggle to regain balance. So what I was told in Montana was a way of getting the movement started in a horse that was still in the training phase but not appropriate for a more advanced horse.
Then he came up with what he called the golden rule which comes from classical dressage.
"Move your seat in the direction of travel and over the engaged leg"
He gave the example of a leg yield. If leg yielding to the left then your seat needed to move over to the left side of the horse. That confused me because the most engaged leg in the leg yield is the right hind. But he said the right hind should be stretching across under the mid line of the horse so your weight should be over where that engaged leg is going to strike the ground which is again to the left of the mid line.
I asked about how to position my weight for hind quarter disengagement. He looked a little aghast and asked why on earth I would want to teach the horse to disengage. Everything should be about engagement. I take his point and maybe for a rider of his calibre that is fair enough.
For me I want to be sure that I can quickly disengage the hind legs of Filly. She is a race horse and hates cows at the moment so for me that is a safety issue even if it reduces her performance a little.
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