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relationship between confidence and balance. It is a lesson that applies to all horses, not just working equitation ones.
One of the most pleasurable things I found as young boy and then man riding working horses was that it truly is teamwork. In dressage, there is quite a bit of talk about harmony and partnership but I rarely see a horse that has any choice in the matter of how it is ridden.
Riding a working horse, failing to listen to him when you are in the middle of separating a cow or taking a group of bulls to a new pasture, may get you killed. A working horse not only has to be in independent balance to react and move as fast as lightning without being blocked or slowed down by the rider (who will not process data as quickly as a horse with his eyes on a cow), but it has to be trusted that it knows how to do its job.
You train the horse, you make him fit and balanced, you introduce him to his work gradually and safely and when he is ready and he is reporting to duty, when he has experience under his belt, then you have to say: “ I trust you. I will guide you but I will also listen to you, and sometimes, we will do it your way”. Because you are a pro. Because you carry me.
Because you are doing the brunt of the work and you know how the earth feel beneath your feet, and how this cow feels to you today. You say, “I am your rider but sometimes, you know better” and that is true of all horses, not just working horses.
but sometimes, you know better” and that is true of all horses, not just working horses.
A good horseman should know the difference between his horse’s working instinct and disobedience whether he is riding dressage, garrocha, jumping, etc...
Like many a working horseman before me, I learned that while we ask for our horses trust, we should not forget to give them ours - and as they have to deserve ours, so do we have to
deserve theirs.
In truth, riding can be boiled down to this: If a rider and a horse are both independently balanced, they will have confidence in their ability to move together. If the rider makes helping his horse his first priority, his horse will give him his trust and have even greater confidence in him.
As the horse’s balance and confidence increase so will the quality of his work and so can the rider’s trust in his horse grow. When these conditions are in place, there are very few limits to what can be taught and
experienced.
These are lessons that come naturally when we learn to ride in the fields and we have a job to do. When our horse is our only companion sometimes for entire days, and from his soundness, confidence and well being depends our livelihood and sometimes survival, we learn to really value his generosity. That is the best lesson of all, knowing how giving a horse is, if we give him the chance to be.
"I trust you. I will guide you, but I will also listen to you"
And sometimes, it is about just having fun and letting your horse have a say. Dinamico loves nothing more then to charge, and in this session, Manolo indulged him
In working equitation, the horse sometimes has to move at warp speed and make very sharp turns or spin multiple times. The horse is responsible for his balance and the rider for his own. The rider leans into the movement, lightening his seat to free his horse’s back and help him collect and turn as much as possible.
Carrying a heavy pole is not reason for a rider to not carry himself and sit lightly on his horse, this allows the horse in turn to rise up beneath the rider.