Communicate with your feet!

I have ridden horses all my life but not until I took lessons many years ago did I start to understand that there is a lot more to all this than meets the eye. As a youth I was taught to keep my toes forward and parallel with the horse’s body. I was always a little bow legged and it was hard for me to achieve but I tried. A little later on in my development I realized that you could not put your low leg on the horse while keeping your feet pointing towards the horses head. I also realized the heal and ankle of my foot was necessary to communicate with the horse. I relaxed, pointed my toes in a natural direction away from the horse, and wrapped my legs around the horse’s belly. WOW! What difference that contact made in my horses performance. If you are still gripping with your knees and inner thighs then you need to let your toes point out and hug your horse with the ankle of your boot. You will notice immediately that your balance is transferred back into your seat away from your shoulders and control and communication with your horse just jumped light years ahead. Carl Wood

Why not a snaffle forever?

I have heard many times people asking why should they change from a snaffle when their horse seems to like it just fine. The snaffle is a great bit to start unbroken horses because you can pull on it and communicate directions using two hands. You can pull pretty hard and the horse is not confused or frightened. It learns to follow direction in learning its new role. But the snaffle is only good for those very simple tasks it has been ask to do. In time the horse will lean on the snaffle and loose his feel because of the way it works. When it is time to ask more complicated things of him you need a bit what will communicate to him in more ways. At the same time it will not allow him to lean on the bit but instead give to the pressure. You can always go back to the snaffle when necessary to remind them of lessons already learned. Some people look at the Spade bit of the Vaqueros with alarm because it looks so harsh. Most horses that graduated to the spade were over ten years old and had gone through a very thorough training program before it was ever put in their mouth. In the right hands the Spade is like a fine musical instrument in the hands of a maestro. It all takes time to achieve more than the simplest of tasks and you can’t do it without the progression to other bits. Carl Wood

Me in more places!

I'm trying as best I can to bring myself up to date in this modern world. The internet offers so much opportunity to let others connect with what you are doing that I decided to make the plunge and get on Facebook and Myspace as well as my web site. Now I can communicate events, clinics, ideas, tips, and opinions all over the place. Check the blog in the future to see what's happening at Doubletree