Balance Before Movement ?

[Linda Baia]

balance before movement

Heu... what does it mean exactly? what do you do to get balance before movement?

Baucher flexions at the halt?

how do you introduce it at the different gaits?
 

[stranger]

I'm not sure what it  CAN mean, out of context like that.  Can we have the rest of the sentence or paragraph it has come from???

Perhaps its a method of training that involves horses standing on one (or even two legs--Rusty could do that   :lol: -in the nicest possible way)) leg at halt  or somesuch??

I don't see how you can improve a horses balance BEFORE it moves though.  

[Linda Baia]

:lol:  :lol:  :lol:

It is the definition for French school vs the German school, which has movement before balance.

I am following the German training scale / pyramid. I have not a clue about the French School. That is why I am asking    

[Wendy]

Perhaps its a method of training that involves horses standing on one (or even two legs--Rusty could do that  -in the nicest possible way)) leg at halt or somesuch??

 :lol:  :lol:  :lol:  :lol:  

[hinny_heart]

Denny can  balance perfectly on two legs only - one at the front and one at the back, on the same side or opposing sides - while standing still. Or relatively still, at least. Remaining on one spot, at any rate, while trying to remove, with her hind foot, a person holding up a forefoot, or vice versa.  Does that count as "balance before movement"?

She doesn't do it all the time - in fact she's not done it for some months now - but I am sure she could be persuaded to repeat the act if she knew it would classify her as at a certain stage of dressage training and thus encourage her human to stop pestering her ...

[stranger]

Ah-I see.  French and German schools.  

Frankly I have never made more than a cursory study of either of them but I suspect that in the end they mean much the same thing.  

Mind you German is an old language--they never know quite WHERE in their sentences to put their verbs.   :lol:  

[Heather]

For a very erudite comparison, read General DeCarpentry's Academic Equitation- still one of my 'bibles'.

I am not sure that 'balance before movement' sums it up very well. The French school wants suppleness and yielding of the jaw, because, and I subscribe to this theory absolutely, if the horse is tense and resistant in the jaw, it will set off a chain reaction throughout the rest of the body. If you clench your own jaw, feel how tight your neck muscles become, and even down the chest and to the stomach muscles.Unclench your jaw and the muscles immediately relax.

This is why I am such a great advocate of the pelham in that it achieves relaxation of the jaw with such ease and so little, and once the jaw is released, the poll softens and the whole horse can swing 'through'.

The German school wants the horse to learn to take the rein down, and will push the horse from behind onto a contact until he yields. In the case of many British horses which have been badly backed and started without proper in hand and lunging work in side reins to teach the horse to accept the contact, this can be nigh on impossible to achieve.

Teaching the horse to yield in the Pelham, achieves in most cases, almost instant softening and release of the jaw, and then provided the rider backs this up with the leg to activate the hindquarters, the horse will be very light in the hand, yet still working 'through'.

My new horse Sudi, is quite strong in the hand in the snaffle, and I will be putting him in the pelham very shortly to teach him to lighten. He has a tendency to rush in trot, and I will be working to get the trot much slower and with a longer stride, and this I will be able to do much more easily in the pelham, but with far less pressure than would sometimes be necessary in the snaffle, if the horse is running through your seat and ignoring it, requiring more leg into hand.

Heather

[shoveltrash]

i'll take a stab at this (where's Pintopiaffe when you need her?)

"balance before movement"

if a horse stands 'unbalanced' - they are at a disadvantage before they ever take a step.  better to have the horse balanced at halt first.  
*light* in front, which as Heather described so well involves acceptance of the bit & relaxation of the jaw.  it also involves displacing weight backwards, if a horse is heavy on the forehand (alot of people do reinback to walk/trot/canter to help with this).
 
 

[Heather]

it also involves displacing weight backwards, if a horse is heavy on the forehand (alot of people do reinback to walk/trot/canter to help with this).

One of my favourite exercises Trish :P !!

Heather