Eddo Hoekstra Clinic Notes...Day 1...Horse 3...

Next up was a super cute Pinto mare. This horse was very helpful in giving me ideas on things to work with when riding Lady. Namely the first exercise, which involved doing a stretchy circle to help the rider find the correct tempo for the horse. You ask the horse to stretch by giving with one rein, then squeezing with that leg, then releasing some with the other rein, using that leg, and alternating sides while doing that until the horse has a nice stretch. Once the horse is stretched down and out it will begin reaching and letting go...and as a result, slowing down to its ideal tempo. Once this happens you can begin taking up contact again but keeping the same tempo. This can be done at the canter as well.


Next they worked on trotting a big circle, asking for a walk while coming into the center of the circle, trotting, walk and come in, and so on. Then after a few iterations of this the horse would change direction out of the circle and canter on a new circle (like beginning a figure 8).


Eddo's method for teaching shoulder in and travers was really simple and actually relaxing for the horse. He instructed the rider to ride shallow loops on the long side of the arena at the walk. Focus on directing the horse, not steering the horse, keeping it as straight as possible in the neck during the exercise and focusing on the outside ear for when you're at on the loop. Then repeat at the trot once you have the hang of it. As the horse progresses at this you can start doing a very, very small shoulder in, then haunches in. The movements are so small that the horse doesn't even realize she is doing it.


Eddo said that after 3 weeks of doing the baby SI and HI the horse would be able to do it for real. Not only do the shallow loops build toward doing SI/HI but also improve the trot as well.


The final thing I wrote down from this ride was that the more you want your horse to come back (aka collect) the more side to side (aka lateral work) you need