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The Rhythm Of Hoof Beats
Horses nourish the soul of humans. A quote often attributed to Winston Churchill allures to this: “There is something about the outside of a horse that is good for the inside of a man.” Riders of any discipline know this. Especially trail riding is often credited with mind refreshing and relaxing qualities. Add to that the experience of the sights, sounds, and smells of an unfamiliar or exotic landscape and you have the perfect setting for an invaluable experience that can transcend all aspects of life.
Lynn Webb counts herself lucky that she had plenty of such riding experiences. Her pleasant personality, a background as a barn manager for a private dressage barn, and her degree in graphic arts led her to work in the horseback riding vacation industry for over 10 years. Her profession came with the perk of going on ‘test’ rides in locations such as Costa Rica, Mexico, Ireland, England, Scotland, Italy, France, Spain and Greece! First hand she felt the exhilaration of galloping across a beach in Costa Rica and the peace of mind a truly trustworthy equine partner offers you in the breathtaking but foreign countryside of Scotland.
Beyond the opportunity of going on equestrian trips what Webb loved most about her job was the personal contact with horsepeople. Through email and phone conversations she learned not just about customer’s riding preferences and vacation styles but also about their families, including the family members with four hooves. Many customers kept up a friendly acquaintance with Webb after returning from their vacation. As Webb says, “once you start talking about horses you are family.”
Like her clients, Webb is a horse person in private life as well. Nearly fifteen years ago her Thoroughbred/Quarter horse gelding Cherokee River developed equine protozoal myeloencephalitis (EPM). This was when little was known about this neurological disease and its treatment. She purchased Fulton, a rather grumpy Thoroughbred/Oldenburg gelding a year after she had to put River down due to his severe symptoms. Fulton didn’t like either dressage or trail riding, which were the activities Webb and River enjoyed together. He only seemed to like jumping, which Webb however doesn’t count to her fortitudes. Webb invested in training herself and her equine partner and they formed a long lasting partnership. Now, at 30 years old Fulton is still going steady. He and Webb jump up to 2ft obstacles on trails and do hunter paces together.
Webb’s private and professional life always has been determined by the rhythm of hoof beats. And she loves it that way. A couple of years ago Webb cut back her work schedule to just assist with the content and design of the promotional material of the company she worked for. But she realized how much she missed the personal contact with clients and the horseback riding trips. It wasn’t long when she was approached by some of the facilities she had visited on her trips with the request to represent them. Webb jumped on the opportunity and established her own equestrian travel agency Hoofbeats International, Inc.
Webb proudly represents nine different equestrian facilities in as many countries. She is able to offer over two dozen different riding trips through Hoofbeats International, Inc. Whether it is a once in a lifetime dream trip or an annual group vacation, Webb is happy that she can offer to make people’s dreams come true. She thinks “that everyone who loves horses should experience the excitement and fun of taking a riding vacation!”
ChristiAne Wolski
http://www.articlesbase.com/equestrian-articles/the-rhythm-of-hoof-beats-809082.html
5 Responses to “The Rhythm Of Hoof Beats”
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February 19th, 2010 at 2:45 am
How do even begin to teach a piaffe?
I know, send the horse to a Professional. But I am just curious as to how even the professionals do it. How would you get the horse to beat each hoof in rhythm like that?
Essentially tempi changes are flying leads with every stride, right? So that I at least have an idea of how to teach.
But what about the piaffe? I have a feeling you would have to be on the ground teaching, maybe with a dressage whip.
Oops. I meant how do "you" even begin… now how do begin. Sorry ’bout. I really need to start proof reading stuff.
What is it like to ride a piaffe? Or a tempi change for that matter? Is it bouncy?
fyi Im not thumbing. Just throwing that out there.
February 19th, 2010 at 7:47 am
Some begin on the ground with the dressage whip, some begin in the saddle.
Tempi changes are flying leads with a count of strides. One tempi’s are every stride (you actually don’t go a full stride when you ask for the change, or else you’re late). Two tempis = every two strides, and so on and so forth.
A piaffe begins with half-steps in the saddle (we won’t go into on the ground). First, you must be able to develope a high level of collection already. This means your horse already responds to your seat so that you stretch through the body, lift your chest and your horse rounds deeper, rocks back on the haunches and trots in a collected trot. The horse has enough collection and uphill that he can do a collected and medium trot. Once that has been achieved properly (see 3rd level movements) then you may begin some half-steps. In order to get the half steps you get a high degree of collection, hold the horse on your front seat bones, and softly tap with your crop at the hip if needed. Your leg works with the diagnal.
Some dressage riders work on controlling a leg at a time, which means they halt, put their leg against one side and it moves that hind leg, etc. Anyway, you use a combination of half-halts and cues as well as holding front seat bones and following.
It is just the trot that is collected to a very high degree. Some people begin teaching piaffe first, and some teach passage first. It is just a high level of collection. The passage is basically a piaffe with more forward motion and impulsion.
Without a proper dressage trainer alongside you, please don’t attempt to teach piaffes. Do not attempt to teach piaffes until your horse shows successfully at 3rd level and shows the degrees of collection necessary. It can be harmful.
EDIT:
A piaffe is a lot like sitting on a bouncy ball. As the trot grows collection, it simply bounces. Piaffes are actually easy to ride, with smooth movements. Though, horses that are sore and stubborn to piaffes (horses that have been overworked and over ridden in the ring) can be difficult to encourage to press that level of collection while maintaining forward.
If you’ve ever ridden a proper flying change it sounds exactly like it feels. It’s a soft leap into the next lead. One tempis are rather difficult, at times, because they require a cue midway through the canter, and there is no true distinct stride. It isn’t very bouncy, nor is it hard to sit, but it is hard to cue properly and keep the horse collected. A lot of horses get "hot" with flying changes, so imagine a horse trying to surge forward, you having to half halt, yet keep up the movement, and count, and time… lol
It’s well worth it though. A passage is much larger and bouncier. ^_^
References :
11 year owner/rider (Since age 7); dressage, jumping, reining — I’ve ridden piaffes, watched trainers train piaffes, and have been working to progress my dressage horse
February 19th, 2010 at 7:49 am
Well, first the horse has to be ready to piaffe in that he has to have the strength and musculature to achieve that kind of collection. So, you can’t just go out and say ‘I think I’ll teach piaffe today,’ it has to be worked toward for several years. I don’t know the details of how they do it, since I have a little while longer before I need to worry about it. I do know that they usually have two people, one on the horse and one on the ground. The ground person uses the whip to cue the hind legs.
That’s all I’ve got on that. I have ridden piaffe on a schoolmaster horse that already knew how to do it, but I have never taught it. My dressage instructor did say that she wanted to start half steps with my horse soon. That is the preparatory movement for piaffe. So, maybe by this time next year I will know.
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February 19th, 2010 at 7:51 am
My coach and I have just begun teach my Arab pony how to piaffe.
What we did was teach half-step trot before we even thought about piaffe. The half step trot should be shorter then the collected trot, uphill, and as energetic as an extended trot. Though when you get the energy of the extended trot, you collect it. When you collect with this energy, the energy is not able to go forward, so it goes up and down. To do this, your hands must be very, very soft and forward your legs have to hang by the sides of the horse and you must sit deep.
To get the half step trot, you ask (from a collected walk) for an extended trot. As soon as you feel the horse begin the extension, you immediately collect them, thus making the energy in the legs go more up and down into a springier, more uphill collected trot. Once you have mastered this (and it takes a loooong time!) your coach, or whoever is helping you must stand on the ground with a dressage whip, and while you have this half step trot, they lightly tap the horse’s back legs or croup and eventually it becomes the rhythym of the piaffe, and there you have it!
..This was a little confusing, so sorry for that! But that is the way I have learned to train it.
References :
17 year old, competing in Dressage.
February 19th, 2010 at 7:53 am
I’ve never trained my own horses to the point of piaffe, but have ridden the piaffe when I was a working student. One of the horses I was responsible for was an older dressage schoolmaster. I learned so much from him (and Sally O’Connor, whose horse it was). He was older and a little grumpy, so would only perform for me if I gave him the exactly right aids. Before riding him, I always did work in hand first, as a warm up. The piaffe is really just an extremely collected trot, so you could approach it from the ground or by collecting the trot more and more until forward movement is stopped. To ride one is bouncy, but smooth, if that makes any sense. There is a lot of up and down action, but it wasn’t bouncing me out of the saddle or anything. Whoever said it’s like riding a bouncy ball made a good comparison.
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