Sharing from our IHTC group.. The science of motion work in hand is inspired from Decarpentry idea. It is not a pure perpetuation of Decarpentry approach. The reason for one hand is that the real relation is the riders back and abdominal muscles. With two hands, ones back is round and does not functions properly. Decarpentry was not scientifically aware of the fact that a horse can feel our energy. However, Decarpentry was at the cutting edge of scientific knowledge and he had observed a relation between the rider holding himself and the horse holding his back. This is not in his book. It is only in his personal notes. I would not be surprise that the one hand technique was directed by this observation. The way Decarpentry advises holding the reins is not the one that we use. The reason, one more time is the back. Holding the reins as Decarpentry advises ends with a lot of hand action. As knowledge of the equine vertebral column mechanism evolve, a horse pushing on the bit is not capable of using and coordinating the back muscles with proper refinement. The second reason is that by acting on the bit and the whip, the trainer keep the horses mind on the bit and the whip and the real connection, which is back to back never happens. This is why we advise total lightness and no voice, very little whip and minimum hands actions. The hand and the whip are not the finality. They are only tools leading to a more important dialogue, which is the relation between nuances in muscle tone of the riders body and therefore energy, that is picked up by the horse. Only at this level, the work in hand became a valuable training tool and efficient therapy. This is not easy to achieve and the main obstacle is liberating our minds of all these training systems and formulas that keep our mental processing at the level or simplistic equitation. The real world is beyond that. It is not in the past. It is in the future. The wisdom of centuries helps but it is not the bible. There has been major findings but also major errors in the past and these errors can now be identified through advanced understanding of the equine vertebral column mechanism. Intuition has lead our ancestors to discoveries that were ahead on their time. In modern days, science provides a better explanation but does not replace intuition. What has been the most popular and worse advise ever given to riders is the belief that the application of the correct aids will lead the horse to perfect performance. This is a disaster. The horse is never a perfect athlete and always react initially protecting his morphological flaw, muscle imbalance and other defects. training and riding is not the submission to formulas but instead a subtle conversation involving the whole riders body. Then the horse will do errors before finding the right response. If the errors are judges as behavior, the horse has no chance to ever find the right coordination. Each error is an insight allowing the rider to figure how to reformulate the same question. It is a dialogue and the dialogue is only possible if the riders does not judge the horse reactions in respect of stereotypes. JLC
Posted on: Fri, 18 Jul 2014 19:16:19 +0000
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