by Laura Crum
No,
not in real life. Just as a subject. And right up front, I know nothing about
dressage, and I am hoping those who do will correct all my misperceptions. So
this post is just to show you what comes to me when I read posts by other folks
about dressage. It will reveal how ignorant I am (gasp). Feel free to make fun
of me and/or show me where I am wrong. Seriously.
So
the other day I read a post about dressage that really rang a bell for me. I’m
not going to name the author because I’m afraid I may be misinterpreting what
she said. And I certainly don’t mean to insult her. I believe her to be fairly
accomplished at dressage. Anyway, her post was about the timing of cues.
I
read this post and both laughed and nodded my head in agreement. The gist of it
was that many people make very heavy weather about knowing exactly where a
horse’s feet are at all times. Certain cues MUST be given when a certain foot
is in the air or on the ground or beginning to rise or…you get the idea. And
people go round and round trying to describe how you learn to feel the
footfalls.
Well…yes,
I have never had anything to do with dressage. But yes, also, those of us who
have ridden reining patterns must cue for a specific lead departure in one
stride, and a flying change, and a solid, balanced stop from the high lope, and
a spin (would you dressage folks call that a pirouette?). And we, too, got a
lot of input (much of it conflicting) on how exactly to cue these things. And
yeah, lots of it had to do with cuing when the feet were in a certain place.
Its
not that this is untrue, mind you. It’s just very hard for most of us to do.
And as the author of the blog post I read pointed out, you will NOT learn to do
it by sitting on your couch gathering advice from your internet horse buddies.
You won’t learn to do it by listening to your trainer expound, either. The only
way you will learn to do it is by many, many hours in the saddle. And for a lot
of us, me included, you still won’t be able to say, “Oh, now Fluffy’s left
front foot is rising and so I will cue him.” Uhmm, no.
What
actually happened for me, and I believe this to be true of a few others, is
that after many years of cuing many horses for, let us say, a left lead
departure, I learned, mostly through the process of trial and error, to feel
when the horse could easily take the left lead. And I would cue at that point.
Basically I learned this by cuing at the wrong time and getting the wrong
results, and then cuing at the right time and getting the right results. I did
not learn it by making up a theory about it or studying the footfalls. A more
astute student can (and perhaps will) tell me that what I learned was to feel
when a particular foot was rising or planted or what have you. And perhaps I
did. But I never thought of it that way. To be perfectly honest, in my opinion,
thinking gets in the way of feel—and feel is what counts.
So
after a lot of years in the saddle I could cue for a lead departure or a flying
change or a spin, and my horse would execute the thing I asked. I might be able
to tell you a little story about how I did it, but the truth is it was mostly
about feel. And I got the feel by lots of hours on that horse. After doing it
wrong over and over again, I finally knew the feel of when to cue. I knew both
how and when to push the right buttons.
But
every horse is a little different. So I would have to get used to the feel of a
new one, and learn his buttons. The more horses I rode, the easier that was.
And since I spent my youth riding a wide variety of horses, it was reasonably
easy for me to adapt to a new mount. However, I want to stress that it still
took some of that same trial and error—a willingness to experiment with what
worked (and what didn’t work) for that particular horse. It wasn’t as if I had
some kind of theory that I applied to all horses. In fact, I think theories are
vastly overrated.
I’m
not sure that this concept of mine about feel versus theory will apply at the
higher levels of dressage—perhaps someone will tell me. I do know that if, for
instance, I want my horse to shoulder in and sidepass so he is in the exact
position I need to reach the handle of a tricky gate, I don’t think about what
cues to use. It’s all about the feel. I cue as I sense the horse can/will
respond appropriately. Does this mean I intuitively know where his feet are?
Could be. I darn sure don’t know consciously.
So
what I took from that dressage blog was this message. You can study theories
till the cows come home—it won’t help you that much. Wet saddle blankets and a
willingness to experiment are what will teach you how to cue effectively. And
once you learn how to do this, it will be more about recognizing a “feel” than
anything else. And this was exactly the way I learned to cue a horse effectively,
in my own, much humbler, disciplines.
And
yes, pity the poor horse that you experiment on. Well, yes and no. In my own
case, my primary “victim” was Gunner, a horse I bought when he was three years
old. I trained him and competed on him in first cowhorse, then cutting, then
team roping. And yeah, lots and lots of wrong cues in that process, believe me.
But Gunner still learned how to be an effective competitor in all three of
those events. And from this kind, willing, talented horse, I learned how to give
effective cues.
(Gunner
turns thirty-three this year. I have owned him for thirty years. He is still with me and still doing
well, after a setback just before Xmas where he got cast. I spend time with him
every day, hand grazing him, and he seems happy. I know I’m happy to have him
with me and don’t begrudge one bit of the time, effort or money I’ve spent on
him over the years. Maybe we don’t always have to pity the horse we learn with.
For Gunner, I think, his partnership with me has paid off well—for both of us.)
So
that’s my dressage theory for you—lots of hours in the saddle and a willingness
to experiment with what works. Its all about intuitive feel rather than
theories. And feel free to rip me apart. My riding today looks mostly like this.
Not exactly dressage.
And,
please do vote on my free book contest (my previous blog post—here is the link). Even if you are a dressage queen who considers all western horse events
uncouth, and even if you don’t read on Kindle and don’t like mysteries. Just
vote for the title that sounds even a little interesting to you. I would really
like to get your input. If you have time, please leave a comment—either on this
blog or on facebook—I will link to this post there. Thank you!
