Débutant

Everything that happens to us is directly linked to the way we think.
Awareness of this aspect is indispensable to making progress. The rider’s mental preparation is therefore a priority. Don’t imagine that this is a complicated matter. Everyone undergoes mental preparation even in everyday life. You think you are going to do this or that and you do it. Simply walking the course, for example, is already part of one’s mental preparation.
In the introduction to this book, we have observed the evolution of methods used for teaching riding. From the military method with “blows and injuries”, we moved on to the stage involving “100 % technique”:
the physical aspects, the position or seat. Today the aspect we address is above all attention to harmony of the body and mind. We are in search of another form of riding, allowing each individual to express his profound being, without cheating oneself and developing our qualities without blaming ourselves for our weaknesses.
I am not a preacher. Like everyone else, I still have many faults, but everyday I work on them to improve. We are all exactly what we are at the present moment, what matters is to remain aware of progress made.
Fears, disquietudes, anxieties… each person needs a good knowledge of himself, and needs to seriously analyse his mental state (...)


 

I have spent hours watching horses going round on the lunge. This has allowed me to learn a great deal not only about the way they move, but also about their reactions. Horses in fact do exactly the same, whether on the lunge or free, they study human beings’ reactions. After going round a few times, a subtle dominating/dominated game begins, rather like with dog.  Sometimes the horse needs dominating, without exaggeration of course, or you will restrict its movements, sometimes it will dominate, freely showing its joy and pleasure to be able to move freely.
I remember Jean-Claude, a groom I employed a few years ago. The day he arrived in the yard, I asked him to lunge one of my horses. After going round for a few times and after a few happy bucks, the horse stopped and waited, looking at the man at the other end of the lunge. A slightly surprised Jean-Claude cracked his whip, but after a while the horse stopped again and turned to face him.
Watching this scene, I asked Jean-Claude:
« Where do you look when lunging a horse? «
« Well, I think I look at its head! «
It is true, all those who have never learned to lunge tend to place themselves ahead of the horse, looking at its head. Now, as we know, horses are animals that flee. Their nature induces natural reflexes: forward movement comes more easily if a horse feels ‘pushed’ by a potential danger situated behind it.
But, if the danger is in front of it, the horse will tend to stop and to back off in the other direction.
When lunging, these same reflexes lead the horse to move forwards or stop.
So I asked Jean-Claude to continue lunging while looking at the horse’s hocks, at the height of the girth and then looking at its head. «Try to understand the horse’s various ways of behaving depending on the point you look at.»
Jean-Claude quickly learned that when using a focused view on the hindquarters, the horse feels that it should move forwards.
A little later, Jean-Claude concluded that a wide-angle view behind the girth was the most satisfactory, because it allowed him to have a calm horse with regular paces.

Whether mounted or on the lunge, the logic for using aids is identical. Like pointless leg pressure, the horse will quickly become indifferent to clucking or incessant cracks of the whip. You must decide on the gait or the speed and then stop all requests when receiving the correct answers. We have analysed this in the Chapter “Rider/Horse Communication”.
Pay attention to your hands, your position, your voice, your movements … Whether in the saddle or on foot, you must control your attitude: the back upright, eyes looking into the distance, shoulders relaxed, and the legs supple…
The tiniest rigidity in the person holding the lunge has repercussions on the horse. Try to be aware of this and place each part of your body in the right position. It is only when all these conditions have been achieved, that your horse will be free to allow its muscles and joints to work in the correct attitude.
Your breathing must also be regular, allowing the horse to be in confidence. And above all use your voice: «Whoa! Whoa!» to slow it down and calm it, followed by silence. The tone is important, and often better understood than the meaning of the words themselves.
This reminds me of a little anecdote told by my brother, Jacques Robert, while he was teaching a group of young riders and horses he knew very well. He gave the order to turn across the school and halt along the centreline. Of course, everyone obeyed and lined up facing him. Jacques then asked the riders to trot along the side of the school with their hands in their backs, then in exactly the same tone of voice as before he ordered: «you are all imbeciles!»
All the horses turned across the school and halted in front of him. The riders were speechless. This little story well illustrates to what extent horses are sensitive to the tone of the voice rather than to the meaning of words. Intonation is very easy to use both for rewarding the horse and for imposing one’s will.

Extract of the book "Secrets and method of a great champion"

Being capable of riding one’s horse towards a jump, starting with a pole on the ground, calm and straight, and maintaining a quality canter, is at the basis of all training. When I come across a problem with a horse, before actually trying to solve the problem on the fence itself, my first reaction is to analyse the quality of its canter. I very soon discover that this is where the solution lies. A horse that canters correctly will find jumping much easier. It is simple to recognise the quality of a canter: you should feel as if the horse itself is moving forward and at the slightest request from the rider it is capable of lengthening or shortening its stride and of turning left or right. With a good canter, the rider no longer needs to do anything to ensure that the horse keeps the same rhythm or remains on the right track.
There is instead a problem, if one constantly needs to use one’s legs to keep the pace, or one’s hands to correct its direction when turning.
The same of course applies whatever the gait.
Of course, some horses are naturally endowed with a quality canter. These same horses, whether free in a field, lunged or mounted, usually have excellent balance, change leads easily and carry themselves proudly moving with extremely elasticity. They are also usually well built with
an expressive head, an extended neck carried high, a taut back and
hindquarters well underneath. These horses are capable of galloping over damp and slippery ground without studs.
The ideal horse, however, is rare. Although not all horses are endowed with these qualities, luckily it is possible to teach them to canter correctly by suppling and muscle-building exercises.

Once again, one must not look for excuses, horses with problems such as bad balance, pulling, bolting, changes of rhythm, are in most cases the results of the rider’s own attitude. To teach my pupils the awareness of a quality canter, I prefer to have them ride on a circle. I ask them to lengthen and shorten the horse’s stride, to execute sharp turns on increasingly smaller circles.
In the beginning, if I ask them: «Are you ready to slow down?... To turn left? ...» the answer is generally: «No». This happens simply because the rider, due to his mental and physical attitude, only has one choice: turning right or left. In his mind nothing else matters, to the detriment of all the rest.
It is instead important to have an overall view of the current situation, to be open-minded and ready for any-thing. Even being prepared to do the opposite of what one is doing: if one is ready to slow down, one must be ready to accelerate; if ready to accelerate one, must be ready to halt. To achieve this, the rider must always maintain the centred position, allow-ing one to deal with any eventuality. If you are cantering correctly, you do not only have one, but thousands of possibilities, try it out! Test this!
The exercise I consider the simplest consists in cantering on a circle with a diameter measuring between 15 and 20 metres. I begin by placing two wings without poles on the course. The rider must ride between the wings maintaining the same cadence at a working canter. I then place a pole on the ground between the wings asking the rider to remain in the same frame of mind before, during and after riding over the pole on the ground. The pole is the horse’s problem, not the rider’s. Consider that for the rider this pole only has the importance one gives it. The same in fact applies to all fences.
Once the pole on the ground has been ridden over with no change in the canter, one can put up a cross-pole, then an upright, while always bearing in mind that it is not the fence that is important but the regularity of
the canter.
To re-establish these conditions on each landing, I ask the rider to remain concentrated, imagining that after this fence there is a large oxer to be jumped.
When a quality canter is obtained, jumping becomes easy. Problems caused by strides and distances become practically non-existent.
There is nothing left for the rider to do: no need to use one’s legs, one’s hands, no need to become agitated, only the need to think, to control speed and direction. The priority is to maintain this canter until the take-off point, and to be able to analyse what happens, including when landing.

Contrary to one’s habits, often acquired but rarely corrected by riders and instructors, it is important to maintain a clear mind (a wide-angle view) after each jump. Problems arise mainly due to a lack of discipline on landing: «Oof !... I’ve jumped the fence», and the rider gives up. From that moment on, the horse no longer feels his presence and can decide for itself and continue as it pleases.
Get into the habit of carrying out little verification tests. When landing after a fence, check that you are able to stop or to come back to the walk, or to ask for a flying change at a certain precise spot.

Extract of the book "Secrets and method of a great champion"

As we have just seen, gaining a horse’s trust involves visual, olfactory and kinaesthetic contact. If I place an open hand on the horse’s neck, he will feel reassured by this permanent presence. If instead I raise my hand and lower it again a number of times, the horse will wait for contact to be re-established each time without knowing whether it will be pleasant or not.
Once in the saddle the same applies. If you tend to mount leaving the reins loose, the horse will fear the moment you make contact with its mouth and hence receive what is known as… a “wake-up call”.
Without contact communication is broken. The horse wonders what it
is supposed to do. It is free to choose for itself and even to make a bad choice that the rider will quickly punish. It is this lack of communication that horses loathe; and it is what leads to them to lose trust.
To encourage good communication, the horse needs permanent contact. This means a presence that is reassuring, that is a starting point for the horse to remain receptive to its rider’s requests.
Contact must be transmitted by a very light pressure of the legs… only a few grams! Too much pressure bothers the horse and limits its movements.
It is all in the dosage. Between vice-like legs gripped to the saddle and legs jerking around the horse’s sides, the rider must once again find the “centred position”, knowing well that the truth consists in subtlety.
Contact is established through the legs (buttocks, thighs and calves) and through the hands towards the mouth, with the reins as intermediaries. Hence, the importance of the rider remaining fixed and stable in his position and acquiring what is known as independent aids. This means the capability to be able to move a leg or a hand without this having any involuntary repercussions on another part of the body.
I always speak of “4 contact points”: the two legs and the two hands. They are the communication relay between the rider and the horse.
These 4 contact points can be compared to “4 doors” that open and close channelling energy forwards. If the rider needs power in the hindquarters (the engine), the legs move into action, increasing pressure that will move from a few grams to a few kilos. An averagely well-trained horse must understand its rider’s requests. Contact with the mouth must also be established through supple fingers and with the arm joints free of all useless tension. The horse is sensitive to the slightest rigidity, the smallest tension… his confidence in the rider’s hands is extremely fragile. It must be safeguarded at all costs, and above all… be aware of the natural reflex that leads one to hang on to the reins and move the hands back towards oneself. The rider must, on the contrary, move his hands forward without changing his seat and this must occur whatever movements the horse’s neck may make while jumping, extending the canter… or each time the horse needs to relax after working in a “fixed” position.
Contact will be more sensitive and comfortable for the horse if the rider keeps his hands slightly apart, at a minimum of 25 centimetres and in certain cases much more (see Chapter 8).
Likewise, do not hesitate to move the outside hand forward when riding bends or corners.
To keep constant contact, imagine that you are riding with elastic reins allowing variations in tension to be eliminated. In reality, your arms will act as ‘shock-absorbers’ by moving forward.
You can also imagine that the bit is linked to the ends of your reins with nothing else keeping it in place… no cheek pieces, only the light and soft contact you establish with the horse’s mouth. If you lose contact, the bit will fall out of the horse’s mouth… and communication with the horse is interrupted.
Remember that this contact must create a sort of reassuring framework within which the horse moves in complete confidence. Starting from this point the rider will be able to act while allowing the horse total freedom in its movem.

Extract of the book  "Secrets and method of a great champion"

Usually start training sessions with my pupils with preparatory work on a circle. I find it difficult to get horses to evolve on a straight line. The circle “helps the horse” because it facilitates work without imposing excessive constraints. To slow down a horse that rushes its paces, it is for example pointless to interfere with its mouth; it will be sufficient to simply shorten the circle. Generally speaking, working on a small circle allows one to “collect” the horse and regain control in good conditions. This of course does not exclude varying one’s work. The aim is to improve the engagement of its hindquarters, to obtain a lowering of the haunches, a bending of the spine, supple shoulders and abdominal and upper line muscles.

JI usually start by drawing on the ground a first circle with a diameter of 15 metres and a second slightly larger one forming a circular corridor (1 metre wide) within which the rider is allowed to ride. You can also create this corridor placing poles on the ground.
The rider must at all times have a clear idea of where he is going.

If there isn’t a real circle on the ground, you must decide with precision the track on which you will ride. In your mind, this could be a plate or any other circular object. The horse must bend to follow the circle’s curve. The horse’s spine duly bends without exaggeration. You will be able to see part of the horse’s inside eye.
Be concentrated, ride “as if” there were walls forming a corridor within which you must remain; above all, think about maintaining your basic position, the one previously mentioned: “the centred position”.
If the horse goes towards the exterior of the corridor, this is no doubt caused by the weight of your body. In this case, look outwards to re-establish your balance in the centre, on all four the horse’s legs.
Be uncompromising if the horse does not stay on the track.
Naturally, this exercise is carried out at all three gaits, including transitions, and following the planned route. The aim for the rider, when riding on a circle, is to be ready “for anything”. This means leaving no doors open that would allow the horse to avoid the exercise. The only thing that it is allowed is to move at the pace and in the direction requested.

Extract of the book "Secrets and method of a great champion"