horses and pressure?

[izo]

hiya just a question that seems to have different answers..

do horses move INTO or away from physical pressure??

;-) thankyou xx

[vieshot]

Horses are into pressure animals

[izo]

hiya thankyou for answering so quick, so can i ask another question? if my horse is cutting corners in a school, why does the instructer say to use inside leg on him? am i being stupid? if they move into pressure, surely using the outside leg would bring him back on track? ...sorry to sound thick!!

[Yann]

Not a stupid question. Nearly all the training we do with horses is to teach them to move away from pressure, not into it. So hopefully using your inside leg will be a cue to the horse to move away from it and back out on to the track. How effective it will be depends largely on the horse but also on you :)

[taskey]

i had this trouble when i had my lesson on friday, my horse kept on cutting the corner.

my RI asked me to 'kick' the horse with my inside leg and pull, release, pull, release with my opposite reign.

i was all confused but tried it out and it worked brill.

i am only a beginner but i find it all very confusing still

Tracy

[izo]

well its years since i have ridden properly, but from what i remember my ri used to tell me to use my outside leg to keep him on the track as he will move into the pressure i am using. now its use the inside leg, ..which to my way of thinking will make the horse cut corners even more?? :confused:

[Bling]

From what I've learned: horses will NATURALLY push back INTO pressure; but we TRAIN them to YIELD to pressure. If your horse is cutting corners, he is probably dropping his shoulder. In a reining clinic I attended, a LOT of time was spent on "lifting" the inside shoulder whenever it dropped, by actually pulling up on the rein, and then driving a strong trot forward across the circle, then trying again, until the horse didn't drop (or cut in) on the corner.

[xloopylozzax]

our horses are 'trained' to move away from pressure, depends on the horse and what they have learnt some move into it (parelli style etc).

[izo]

hi, so if horses NATURALLY move INTO pressure, why do we not use what is naturally there, instead of teaching them to yeild? ..is that another stupid question???:confused: (so sorry!!) but thankyou to everyone that has bothered replying xx

[LindaAd]

hi, so if horses NATURALLY move INTO pressure, why do we not use what is naturally there, instead of teaching them to yeild? ..is that another stupid question???:confused: (so sorry!!) but thankyou to everyone that has bothered replying xx


I don't think it's quite as simple as that, is it? They move into some sorts of pressure, but away from others: they move away from the visual pressure that another horse puts onto them when it's chasing them away; they move away from 'sharp' pressure, like a finger or a rope headcollar, but they lean in to 'broad' pressure, like a flat hand or a webbing headcollar....

I think the reason a horse moves away from the leg, or towards an open rein is that it feels these things as 'openings' - space to move into - rather than blocks. At least that's what RIs keep saying, and it does seem to be true.

[izo]

thanks linda, i know its not as black and white as my question made it sound.. cheers xx

[cwb]

If you tap on the inside shoulder he will turn out to the track and also if you put more weight on the outside seatbone he will tend to move under you. So it is not just about rein or leg pressure either!

[Skib]

Good post cwb.
There is an apparent contradiction between schools of thought in dressage - e.g. in shoulder in, does one use aids so the horse moves away from the weight of your seat, or into it?

It seems to me that these are not the same thing. There is a distinction between cueing the horse with a touch or push (in which case it moves away from the pressure)

And asking the horse to bear a weight? In which case it will adjust its body moving towards and under the pressure, so as to carry the load.

[Grinyer224]

i can only just use the inside leg (i normally use the outside rein more) but it is so that u can sort of push the horse to the side of the school - like when u need to get past a horse u tend to push it on its back legs or belly - same effect