When I started this journey with Art2Ride 7 months ago,my knowledge of how to correctly recognize the development of my horse was about 50% in my opinion.Today I feel I can see the developing changes in my horse around about 90%.
As my education progresses and the training becomes about the quality of each movement of my horse.I now clearly train for the exact moment when my horse is engaging the inside hind leg and the core muscles on the circle. I only focus on the hind ends movement.As Capri starts to relax and his muscles loosen,the underside of the neck relaxes and starts to swing a little.It is at that precise moment I ask Capri to step deeper under his center of gravity and lift his back,that is when the rein contact becomes fluid and soft,because Capri is in self carriage. Capri can only hold for about 3 to 5 strides at the moment in walk, in Work in Hand & on the lunge line.After Capri lifts his back,I let him relax and stop, as that is what I am looking for. I then repeat this training on the other side of my horse's body and as soon as I get the exact same movement,our lesson finishes. I think it is valuable information that trainers,owners need to teach their horses the third aid of engaging the horse to lift their back.I have started teaching Capri to lift his back in WIH,I am doing this by not confusing him with the move forward aid at the girth or the lateral (sideways) aid just behind the girth. I am making the lift his back aid a very different feeling to the other two aids.So while we are walking and Capri is stepping deeply under his core, I use the handle side of the whip like a little stroke under his belly ,where my heel would be when riding and stroke upwards,not to far just enough, as Capri is learning the different aid,I only ask for this aid a few times.I make the aids very clear,so when Capri lifts up through his core and the back flattens I praise him immediately,then repeat on the opposite side. As a trainer I know it can be hard to explain training to horses,so I felt I should share what Capri and I are working on in our training at the present. I have created a photo with what I see in Capri's musculature development as of yesterday.