Sit still

Gally is now back in work, and today he highlighted to me the importance of sitting still.

I like to get my horses doing lots of turn on the forehand and turn on the hind quarters. It doesn't have to be perfect, the idea is to get the horse moving off my leg. When I was doing the turn on the forehand Gally was ok, but not super responsive. But when I tried a turn on the hind quarters, I brought my leg a smigin forward of the girth and boy did I get an instant reaction. That was fabulous.

I took my leg off and relaxed. Reward for the horse, thinking time for me. Why is Gally not that reactive behind the girth? Because my leg sits there the whole time, and I dig my spur in sometimes intentionally, sometimes in frustration, sometimes because it just dangles.

So I went back to my walk and trot work, paying exceptional attention to keep my leg and my hands very still. Hey presto. Magic. I got much better quality work. Oddly enough I got a better, more active trot, using less spur.

Now I will be the first to admit that coaches have told me this before - plenty of times. It took a horse to show me just how important it really is.