Why is In Hand Work so important!
This is the start of communicating with the horse from the ground, here you can train with the horse to respond to light aids and develop trust.Of course this takes time and practice, with this in mind,I feel that I need to put pen to paper. When working with my horse,I have found that I am slower to react with my left arm and hand than my right. I'm more responsive with my right side,even though I train my body to be as equal as possible,this is still a problem. So what is happening, is that my brain sends the signal to my hand or fingers and tells it what I want to do. But my reaction time is too slow to do the task. This is telling me that I need to use my left-side of my body a lot more in every day life. To try and teach my brain and body to work as one,not separate.With this break through today,(10.8.18),I will be aware when I am training,I will have to focus even stronger than I feel I need to. Being asymmetric and knowing that I am not quite even yet,will challenge my ability to think way ahead of each little piece of training I do with my horse. Because if I am asymmetric on my left side,so will be my horse in every type of training we do.
As I am becoming more able to self assess my self and sense what I am doing is causing the training to have irregularities, I can really take my training to a higher level, for practical skills are only developed correctly,if I am able to train as equal as I can, on both sides. Training the brain to train the body,is not an easy thing to do,but it is achievable.
How I will teach my self, is with the feel of my right side motion with the horse,as me and my horse are much more fluent on this side. I will train a movement and then try to recreate that feeling on my left side,I will watch every part of my horse from head to tail,so I can then see if I am getting the same responses and reactions from my horse.
My theory was correct,today(11.8.18), in training I had a clear focus on what I was doing with my left side of my body, as I presumed my horses movements on the left side(tracking to the right) were much more through and following.
The contact on the outside rein was consistent and his flexibility at the poll,I could clearly see,when I was giving small signals for flexion. Then his body just bent correctly with the flow on a large corner,I am extremely pleased with my ability to recognize my faults and work on them. Today I had a beautiful forward stretch into the left outside rein,so I continued working in this very active walk for a about 8 minutes and then changed the rein. Of course as soon as I track to the left, we work in a very consistent stretch with more flexibility,so I only did a few minutes on that side.
Then I proceeded to see what his walk was looking like in a lunge, I am amazed at the quality of his stride and the mobility I can see in his hips and back. It was a beautiful sight to see,the glimmer of the sun flickering with his swinging hind quarters. His head relaxed and moving with his motion, the length of his shoulder increased and his withers were at the same level as his croup. The distinct line on his belly,tells me he is starting to learn to engage correctly. I can clearly see him lifting each leg up off the ground and bending his joints,the under side of his neck is almost swinging as well. The most satisfying part of this work,is that my horse has his ears forward,a relaxed jaw,focused soft eyes and I can feel his presence through the whole session.
In Hand Work is the basis of all correct training of the horse,I can say this now,only because I can feel and see what I am learning from Master William Faeber.
I am experiencing what is being taught and what is being instructed, so training of the eye,mind and the body for the trainer need to be connected as well,not just the horse. As I start to become more fluent with my left arm and hand,I know my horse will carry his balance evenly and consistently.
This is why Work In Hand is so Important!