What IS impulsion?????

[friedegund]

OYE!

When did this get SO hard? Again, newbie to the ring, learning the ropes in weekly lessons. I know that a horse that is collected has hocks engaged, head perpendicular, neck arched, on th bit, is that right?

What in the name of all that is equine does impulsion mean? I have been reading my manual of Horsemanship in between lesson, and it states that the inside leg asks for impulsion.

Hmmm........ooootayyyyyy. Impulsion.

So, I look up Impulsion in the index.

Impulsion is "balanced energy and can be produced only when everything else is correct"


Hmmmm..


I reread this paragraph again, mulling it over and over , and deduced that this definition sounded much like something I pulled out of a fortune cookie at the Jade Garden last week and made as much sense to me.

Impulsion is collection? maybe????? How does one ask for this mysterious "impulsion"???? If the inside leg asks for Impulsion, then what the heck is MY inside leg asking for???? I use it to steer. I think.



:(

Signed Impulsionally Challenged.

[cvb]

imagine a boat - no oars, no engine - how easy is it to steer ? It just gets pushed around by the waves and the wind. In fact you're out of control.

Now give it some motive energy - an engine or someone rowing - now you can steer, decide direction, speed etc etc

So - the starting point of that definition "Impulsion is energy"


So what about the "can be produced only when everything else is correct" ? Well - lets swap out vehicle for a car...

Engine is running but you go nowhere. press the accelerator, the engibne races, take your foot off and it idles - so why aren't you going anywhere ? You need something to take the energy from the engine to the wheels... Axles, transmission etc

So your horse may have energy - but if they are not going "correctly", that energy can not reach all the bits of the horse in the way it should..

The you get choppy strides, or shuffling feet, or bucking, or the horse goes sideways when you want it to go straight, or.....

"Collection" is about taking that impulsion and containing it in a different frame. Think of a spring. The spring has a certain amount of energy in it - but can be stretched, or "neutral" or compressed. (OK, so you actually alter the energy in a spring by putting it under tension - but allow me some poetic licence !). Collection is a shorter spring. But extension does not lack impulsion !!
:p

[bexj]

Brilliant explanation CVB!

[alwaysfallingof]

Wow cvb, light bulb moment! I think you just summarised in a few lines my biggest problem, thank you!:)

[Mehitabel]

t oadd a little to cvb's excellent explanation, you can also think of impulsion as power (like the engine revving) or more specific to a horse, 'the desire to move forward'.

[friedegund]

THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

*NOW* it makes complete sense!

Thank you all, CVB, your explanation is brilliant! If you even write a manual of horsemanship, let me know!!!!!

[cvb]

If you even write a manual of horsemanship, let me know

ooo thanks for that. It does help when you know you're not just waffling but are making sense to someone ! ;)

A lecturer once said to me "commonsense is obvious once its pointed out"

so when I was off-work jobhunting in 2002, I started trying to write down the stuff that I seemed to have found out over the years but don't seem to be actively "taught".

Then I found newrider :D

and I have to say that trying to explain stuff here has probably improved my abilities to write ten fold.

So one of these days I may try and pull it all together....

One of my other "out of work" projects was writing a "how to train your human" piece.... but have no idea who would publish something like that !

[canadianbeaver]

wow, cvb that's probably the best analogy i've ever heard!

[cvb]

so thats one for the book then ;)

The nice thing about all explaining stuff is that you always learn something from it as well :D