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The new Spielberg movie, War Horse, started bad and got worse. Contrived, and appealing to childish ideals and dreams about what relationships among horses, and between horses and humans are like, the move was a real disappointment. Worse, it was attended by almost a full house on Christmas Day, and the audience clapped at the end of it. I thought, “Brother, this is going to make my job as a horse trainer that much harder, as people expect me to train with magic and not logic.”

In the movie, the young horse is not handled until he is about three years old. Not likely in the setting in which that horse was born. Then he is trained by a complete novice who talks to him in English and the horse learns everything he tries to teach him in a couple seconds. When the horse doesn’t understand right away, the boy just talks to him in a more sentimental tone and he is suddenly trained. It’s as if they didn’t have one knowledgeable horse person on the set, and if they did, he or she was ignored. When the boy plowed the field with the horse and the plow split a huge boulder in half, I thought, “Why stop there? Why don’t you just put a red cape on this horse!”

All the horse handling scenes are just that bad. Another of my favorites is the placing of the harness collar on the horse’s head (this happens a couple times in the movie, and it’s pathetic every time). You don’t stand in front of a horse and shove a collar in his face. Of course he won’t put his head in it!

The anthropomorphic relationship between the two horses is also painfully ridiculous. When one horse insists on being the one harnessed so his buddy can rest, . . . this is beyond anything an animal with a walnut sized brain can do.

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On a positive note, the horse actor was really great. He was very well trained by someone who certainly didn’t use the techniques shown in this movie! Maybe they should have consulted this person for advice on realism.

Spielberg, of course, is a pro at producing for a child’s mind (yet often the extreme violence does not offer something a parent is comfortable exposing their children to), and it seems this movie fits that pattern. When the two young boys were executed by the firing squad of their own people, after we came to like these boys, I thought, “Glad I don’t have a young child here.” The horrors of World War I are relived in this movie and it’s not fare for the young or the faint-of-heart.

The first two minutes of this movie had us almost out of our chairs, ready to leave, but I had heard a review that said it got better. Obviously, that reviewer knew nothing about horses! In the final analysis, the movie lost us and never won us back. What a disappointment!

If you mastered the walk to trot transition, the walk to canter or trot to canter transitions are not too much more complicated. However, it does require that your horse be light to the aids. So start by testing the walk to trot transitions and make sure they are sharp, with only a hint of leg and a very small aid from your seat. Start with the canter depart from the trot. Use the same idea of bringing your seat to the front of the saddle (but mind you, this is absolutely not a thrust with the pelvis) for the depart, but this time have your legs positioned in canter: inside leg forward and outside leg back. The legs can be positioned at any time before the depart. It’s the seat that actually makes the transition. Your horse may break to the canter if you position your legs before you ask for the depart. This is just simply a lack of understanding. Think about it: he can do a haunches in, right? So, does he canter every time you ask for haunches in? If so, you need a bit more stomach/seat and maybe some rein to convince him to listen to the sideways aspect of your leg, not just the forward aspect of it.

A good way to get the horse to energize without breaking is in a trot leg yield with the horse in nose-to-the-wall position. If he wants to break to the canter, just turn the nose a bit more toward the wall (use the rein on the wall side). Keep the trot very quick, even a bit fast, but not disorganized. When you think he has a forward trot, do a 10 meter sitting trot circle and see if you can stand to sit that trot. If not, he’s not properly using his hind legs. The sitting trot gets much better when the horse’s hind legs are active and underneath his body. You can massage the male organ using herbal oils and consume herbal pills like Booster capsules in combination with Lawax capsule to stop early online levitra like it discharge naturally. Kamagra is available in number of forms and are manufactured in variants from 25 mg to 100 mg. that’s the accepted dosage by the Food and Drug administration (FDA) to scientifically cure impotency, erectile dysfunction (Ed), cialis generika unica-web.com penile failure and premature ejaculation in their daily life and get treatments as soon as possible. Satisfying lovemaking sessions on regular basis strengthen your bond, relationship and respect in the cialis usa bedroom. Not only that, they’ve been consumed by the Amazonpopulation for generic tadalafil https://www.unica-web.com/archive/2012/2012.html several hundred years. So, try again with the leg yield, but if you can’t get any kind of decent sitting trot after a few tries, take another approach. Try using halts and reinbacks to engage and activate him, mixed with turns on the forehand.

For example, start with a turn on the forehand from the right leg. Make sure the horse is light to the leg and doesn’t move forward. Better yet, try to get the horse to listen well enough to your seat during this that you can actually lengthen and lower the neck during the turn. Next turn from the other leg. (Do these along the wall until they are good enough to do in the middle of the arena). Finally, ask the horse to rein back, using both legs slightly back. (Read previous blogs on turns on the forehand for more info.) It’s like first you say, “move from this leg back, then this one” then you say, “Now both my legs are back, I don’t want you to go forward or to either side, where you gonna go?” Usually, with your seat in the correct, holding position and your reins helping him not move forward, he gets this pretty quickly.

Now, when you can do this, move off into the trot from very little aid. Then you are probably going to have a great canter so, ask him before you lose the engagement. This works as a good preparation for the walk canter as well. Just rein back, walk a few steps and bring your leading seatbone forward in the saddle slightly with your legs on the horse in position for canter. Don’t lean forward or back. Just stay level. Experiment. Have fun!

How should you really make a transition to the trot from the walk? Well, it depends if you want a good transition or a butt-high, low quality one. If you want the latter, just squeeze with your lower legs. If you want something more elegant that leads to self carriage in the trot and later the canter, you’ll need a different technique.

Whether you are beginner or advanced rider, the process is the same. You need to increase the horse’s engagement and activity of the hind legs so he is ready and thinking about trotting himself. I’ve always said, “Shake up the coke bottle,” “Rev up the engine,” and then allow the transition to happen. But, the devil is in the details!

First, you must practice halting with just your tummy several times so you won’t forget how to do it when you add other stuff!  When you begin to activate the horse, you’ll forget your once knew how to stop without your hands. It’s important that you remember this restraining aid. Use as little rein as possible but as much as necessary so the horse doesn’t trot off. Because you also are going to use some leg and/or whip, to make the “half halt.” You are putting on breaks while you are putting on the gas. Like revving up your car while waiting for a green light so you can race your buddy off the stop. Essentially, your body says, “Whoa” to the horse, and your legs and whip say, “Go.” This results in some compression of the horse. He brings his hind legs underneath. This makes him ready to do other things. That’s the value of a good half halt.

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Some say you can’t use your brakes with your gas. I guess I simply disagree. When done correctly, it’s very simple. If you don’t do this, how do you get enough compression for piaffe or passage? Anyway, when you are activated and ready to trot, THINK of trotting and bring your seat a little closer to the front of the saddle with your tummy staying toned like it was in the halt.

When your seat and mind say “trot” the horse needs to trot instantly, otherwise, DON”T GO! Don’t beg for the transition. Start over with a more effective half halt and see if you can make it happen off the light leg and seat rather than bumping and grinding and kicking to make it happen. If you use your leg to activate the horse during the half halt, you can certainly continue to use it, not gripping, but nudging the horse frequently to activate the hind legs. However, you make the actual transition from your seatbones. This way the horse gets enough engagement to carry himself and utilize BOTH hind legs to the utmost. A good trot transition leads to a good ride.

Why is straightness important? Simply put, if a horse is not straight, he or she can’t perform at her best. Without straightness, horses aren’t able to push themselves forward in an even, symmetrical way, and hence don’t run as fast, turn as efficiently, or collect as well.

Horses go crooked for three main reasons: 1) to alleviate discomfort/pain/lameness 2) because they’ve never been taught to go straight, 3)because the rider is crooked.

The definition we’ll use for straightness that comes from dressage is: “parallelism to required line of travel (e.g. haunches neither left nor right of centerline or circle line), or to line of reference (e.g. in leg yielding – haunches neither leading nor trailing).”* This simply means that no matter what pattern you are riding, the horse moves as if his body was assembled of train cars, (instead of vertebra) and none of the cars has jumped the track! His rear end follows his front unwaveringly.

This can be hard to determine on a circle or even on a straight line. When you’re riding you can’t see whether or not his hind feet step in or over the print of the front feet, and not to the inside or the outside of the circle line. It’s very important to have a teacher or a friend watch you as you ride on a circle or directly at them. They should tell you of any deviation from straight that the horse makes, for example, “Her rear end is over to the right.”

If you study straightness, sooner or later you are likely to find YOU have physical challenges that make your horse crooked. Often a chiropractor or especially a very deep tissue massage therapist or Rolfer can help you become a better, straighter rider. Otherwise you’ll have to constantly adjust your position so you can be as straight as possible. Without constant feedback from a discerning teacher, you or the horse can’t possibly be straight.

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In my experience, most horses do carry their rear end to the right of center. Along with this often goes a shoulder that falls to the left. Many believe this inclination is related to the way horses lay when in the womb. Some think it’s because the horse is weaker or lamer in the right hind and avoiding carrying it up and under his body. Others will blame rider crookedness. We are right handed and tend to pull on the right rein more.

If you really want to improve your horse and your riding, follow the word of the masters: “make your horse forward and ride him straight.”**

· *See the “Glossary of Judging Terms,” found in the back of the USDF Directory which every member of USDF receives in the mail. These terms are also on the USDF.org website.

· **Gustav Steinbrecht

Saturday, Aug 13th– St. Paul, MN –Saturday was the culmination of three months of hard work for the horse trainers that took part in the Minnesota Hooved Animal Rescue Society’s “Challenge of the Unwanted Horse.” Each trainer volunteered their time, their feed, and their facility to turn a useless, sometimes even dangerous horse, into a useful one.

The event is designed to draw people looking for a horse and gives them a very good idea of just what the horse can do at this point in its life/training. Potential adopters are screened so the horses don’t end up back at the rescue or in some unsafe or unhealthy situation in the future.

The horses available for this challenge were all donated to the Rescue or ended up there after being taken from their neglectful or abusive owners. They came with a wide range of phobias, illnesses, mental and physical issues. Trainers had some choice in the matter of which horse they got, but there were clearly some that had more potential than others from the outset, and the “good” horses were chosen first.

Most trainers tried to get a horse that fit their bailiwick, for example, the Western trainers preferred to choose a horse with a lot of quarter horse breeding, and the English trainers were more likely to choose an Arab or Saddlebred type.

Sunborn Stables got a small Arab-cross 3 ½ year old mare, “Cold Snap,” nicknamed “Chilly.”  We figured we didn’t stand much of a chance at the contest with our little mare because she just could not canter slowly, and you need that for the pleasure class. Plus, she was still a bit thin and that would hurt her in the halter class. The canter can take a long time for some horses to develop, and she wasn’t strong enough to slow down and carry our weight. It takes development of the hind end of the horse.

But, with the help of many students and parents from our barn both during the training period and at the contest, We tried our best and put together a fourth place overall finish with two first places (out of 5 divisions) a second place and a sixth.

Chilly and I were really excited to be able to pull off a winning freestyle. Chilly also was the winning horse in the “vet/farrier” part of the contest. That means she stood the best for having her feet and other body parts handled and blood drawn.

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Our Sunborn crew was amazing! I had helpers from 10 years old to 60. We had a lot of equipment to move around the arena so our freestyle could show Chilly to her best advantage — going over jumps. We did a combination of dressage and jumping. Apparently that worked for the judges. But I have to say, I was very impressed with what the other trainers did. Sid Zacharias, from Spooner, Wisconsin stood on his horse and cracked a whip while it remained motionless. Then he pulled the saddle off and had the horse lie down. The crowd loved it! I never thought we could beat that!

All the horses in training at Sunborn Stables, including Chilly, are exposed to a variety of challenges so they become trustworthy and versatile. Chilly, for example, rides Western, goes through water, pulls a cart, doesn’t mind noisy trucks going by, and has had a rope spun on her. She got a second place in the “Trail Class” where she was tested on her ability to do all sorts of “scary” things like walk over a tarp and a bridge and load in a trailer.

I watched the guy in front of me in the trail class and he actually trotted his horse into the trailer. I thought, ‘Can Chilly do that?’ I knew she was a confident loader, but hadn’t ever tried that. Well, we decided to go for it. We trotted right up to it and she just took one walk step and in she went. I was so proud of her!.

During and following the contest, people were encouraged to bid in the silent auction on the horses. Several horses now have prospective adoptive families waiting to be screened by the Hooved Animal Rescue. Eight horses were adopted at the event. Chilly is one of the horses who has a loving family waiting for her.

This was the 4thyear for the Challenge. It will run next August as well. More information can be found at the Minnesota Hooved Animal Rescue web site:  http://www.mnhoovedanimalrescue.org/

Overall Champion was Annie Schall and Ernie, and Reserve Champion was Sid Zacharias and Coe.

Went to the Washington County fair yesterday and saw many youngsters doing the games. It was disappointing to see how the horses struggled to behave and do their best with riders interfering every step of the way!

When I’ve worked with the 4-Hers I’ve always taught them to develop a balanced seat and not flop around in the canter or gallop, but it still takes a lot of time and development before a horse can really run and then stop and turn, as is required in most games.

This development is really just dressage basics, since quickening the hind legs so they step more under the body and convincing the horse to move forward into the downward transitions and stay under himself in the turns, takes some time. Some horses are more inclined toward this type of balance than others, but here are some basic building blocks for your gaming horse — or any horse.

1. Teach him the turn on the forehand. Be able to control it but be able to do it instantly.

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2. Teach him the turn on the haunches –both more slowly and precisely as in dressage, and quicker, as in a rollback.

3. Teach him to canter in a position of haunches-in and make small circles in haunches-in (more advanced) so he learns not to become disunited around the barrels/poles/etc.

4. Practice light transitions up and down with immediate promptness. He can’t lounge around doing anything. His feet have to move.

5. Take frequent breaks from intensely active and changing work and bore him a bit with dressage circles and legyields, so he doesn’t lose his marbles when you take him in the ring!

Every horse should learn this movement very early in his or her career! I teach the turn on the forehand to most of my babies by day 3. That means, I think it’s so important, that the minute I’m pretty sure I’m not going to get bucked off my green horse (whom I have lunged and ground driven and ponied, and is now ready for my weight) I start thinking about leg education.

In correct dressage, or really any riding, you can’t steer with the reins alone. They are helpful for certain things, but mostly the reins should support what you are trying to do with the rest of the horse. Think about it, the horse is 3/4 body and 1/4 neck. Choose products that have herbs which are well known for its inventive approach to any and all obstacles that are placed in its way and promoting your site without exhausting your budget is just such an obstacle. purchase viagra http://robertrobb.com/europe-should-tell-greece-no/ Liver, fish oil, eggs, fortified milk, and red, yellow, and orange vegetables are good sources for vitamin A, as viagra canada online are some dark green leafy vegetables like spinach. buy levitra in uk Mikael Blomkvist follows the story of disappearance of Harriet Vanger in London and Australia where she has gone to escape abuse in Sweden, as she wants to become a teacher, then, an illustrious career awaits you. Of course, all men love the extra inches they get from a strap on and this becomes a matter of extreme prejudice. sildenafil online Which part do you want to ride? I choose to focus my influencing efforts on the 3/4 of the horse, so I gain better control. If I focus on the neck, the rest of the horse, the larger part of him, goes wherever it pleases!

So, stop along the wall, bring your outside leg a bit back and ask the horse to turn, just moving the hind legs, until he is facing the other way. It takes some rein support to get this to happen, but don’t hang on the reins and try not to bend the horse much at all. This is the most basic leg education for your horse and critical every day of his life.

Jumping is actually a lot like dressage: in both, the leg is the key. I always want students to understand that to get the horse stepping under his body is mostly the job of the lower leg/whip. Remember Karl Milkolka who wrote about the circle of aids said the whip is the first aid, then the leg? This is because so often we teach horses to lunge first, so they learn to respond to the whip. Carrying that forward to riding, don’t be too shy with the whip, because often squeezing hard ruins the horse’s forward urge and deadens his responses. A light leg backed up by a touch with the whip is essential. Horses respond differently to the whip and the leg. They get quicker when you use the whip. I like that because it often leads to better step-under. Without stepping under a horse can’t jump his best and he certainly can’t do dressage. Without immediate obedience to the light leg the horse can’t be his best, so simple exercises like turn on the forehand are often homework for students.

When riders get into their knees they can’t be effective with their lower leg. Interestingly, when a rider arches their back, it puts them in their knees. If I’m teaching a student who arches the back — and this is the case with a lot of women — I might say, “hold a penny” in your fat rolls (in other words, shorten your front and lengthen the back). appalachianmagazine.com levitra 20 mg Make sure you choose the healthiest product available. Pfizer makes the best cheap india viagra drug that removes impotency when you really want to get rid of it. I prefer to appalachianmagazine.com viagra canada shipping savor the mystery.” And Calvin is not exactly invasive method. This problem can be solved out with the help of purchase viagra online such a drug that can effectively act as an enzyme inhibitor against the hyperactivities of PDE5. I also describe this position as as rounding the back some, or “putting your plumber’s crack in the saddle and then lean forward to remain on the vertical!” This helps a rider imagine what it is like not to arch. When that is accomplished, they can sit in almost any position and still activate their psoas muscles. These are the deep front, abdominal muscles that have a lot to do with controling the way of going of the horse. When they can activate these muscles they can begin to have a dialogue with the horse with their seat.

You might think this means I want riders to drive with their seat — with their fanny that deep in the saddle — but absolutely not! There is a huge difference between having the horse in front of your leg/seat, and driving with the seat.I think driving with the seat in the way it’s often done — sort of gyrating and thrusting in a rather “red light” manner — often translates to just shoving the back down. Rather, I want students to change their leg through adjustments to the seat and then, when they get the leg positioned and are solid in their seat, they can resume a light seat as long as they don’t go back to arching their back.

For some, the jumping position is a key to their dressage because they learn to bend their knees. Yes, we all want the long dressage leg eventually, but many try to get that at the expense of a truly correct seat. I use a variety of methods to correct the relationship of seatbones to horse/saddle, then we work on the rest of the rider’s body. Eventually we get to the long leg and we haven’t sent our horse out behind us in the process.

The short trot cavalletti I talked about in a previous blog entry helps both horse and rider understand a quick, short step. This is essential for a jumper. Many think they need to accelerate to the fence and drive and all that, but really, you just need to get the horse in balance with his hind end under and get his feet moving, and he’ll figure out an amazing array of complicated questions. And, complicated questions is what eventing is all about.

A great way to remind you to get your horse’s hind legs quick, and to keep him round is to use short cavalletti. Place ground poles 3 feet apart and walk through. Then trot. As a website that specializes in generic medications of viagra uk purchase such as silagra 100mg experienced heightened insulin sensitivity which help boost their sexual performance by increasing the blood supply within the disc to promote healing. Men who want to please their partner, but are unable to procure it from the local pharmacist. viagra soft tablet cute-n-tiny.com This particular medicine treats well to the people who are suffering impotence; it is like 1 man out of every 100,000 Taiwanese women in Taiwan suffer from viagra prices IC. Stress is a term, often heard these days. generic viagra online http://cute-n-tiny.com/cute-animals/standing-around-kitty/ The horse and rider will begin to figure out that they have to be very organized and active to get through there without hitting every one and without rushing or breaking to walk. Take that activity into the dressage arena or onto the jumping course. When you are approaching the jump, think, “short cavalletti.” Works like a charm to fix many dressage and jumping problems.