“Controlling Your Horse’s Shoulders”
When it comes to riding a horse,
shoulder control is a must.
Control the shoulders and you can do
amazing things.
Any time you’re riding your horse,
you want his shoulders up and square.
This goes for virtually any activity
you do with your horse.
A big reason to have this is so his
hips stay balanced.
If his hips aren’t balanced, he’ll
move out of kilter.
If the hip is out of kilter, it won’t
move right with the forequarters.
For example, if his left shoulder is
leaning inward, it will put pressure on his
right hip and cause it to move outward.
Then his front end will slow down and
his hip will rush outward.
A way to tell if your horse is dropping his
shoulder is by riding a circle.
If it gets smaller and smaller as you
ride, then chances are he’s dropping his
inside shoulder.
On the other hand, if the circle got
bigger or oval, your horse may be dropping
his outside shoulder.
Another consideration is how we sit
on the horse.
If we’re not deep in the saddle and upright,
we might otherwise be leaning to one side.
Even though the horse is quite strong to carry us,
leaning to one side will cause him to compensate.
If you ever carried a child on your
shoulders and he leaned w-a-y over to one side,
you would know how difficult it was to stay
upright and balanced.
You would move the direction the child
is leaning to compensate for being off balance.
Anyway, all this translates into having your
horse broke to ride.
To have a horse that’s good and broke to ride,
you must somehow have an Operating System.
By far, one of the best explanations we have seen
was presented by Sam Burrell – one of our featured
trainers.
Sam shows how to divide your horse into sections
(not literally, of course) and how to get them
moving independently and then in unison as needed.
He has four zone exercises to do with a horse that
complete the Operating System.
Zone One exercise begins with walking a circle.
When you do, you’ll use the inside rein and leg.
The circle should be about 12-15 feet.
You want to be able to see your horse’s eye outline
but you don’t need to see the whole eye.
Then you’ll follow Sam’s instructions
to get the horse doing what you need to do.
(I can’t write it all down because you should
really see it to get it right)
The important thing to remember is to
do this at the walk first.
When he has it at the walk, then you
can go to the next gait.
The Zone Exercises have precise instructions and purpose.
Once you get through them (which doesn’t take
all that long) and do them properly, you’ll have a
very responsive and fun to ride horse.
Before you know it, you’ll be doing all kinds of
neat things like counterarcs and such.
Anyway, if you haven’t read about Sam’s video,
you can read about it by clicking the following:
http://horsetrainingresources.com/dvd-samburrell.html
I might add that not only does Sam show you how to
do this, he also reveals the mistakes often made
and how to correct them.
That’s good because if you’re having trouble,
these may be the very reason why.
Stops a lot of the frustration factor.
http://horsetrainingresources.com/dvd-samburrell.html
Ok… that’s it for today. Stay safe around your horses!
Charlie
P.S. I’ve decided to help make you decision to get any DVD
easier. Let me pay for the shipping! Use Coupon Code
FREESHIP and I’ll pay for Priority Shipping to your address.
Sam Burrell is one of my favorite trainers. He has a
real down-to-earth character and is an excellent teacher.
I urge you to try this DVD and see if you don’t agree.
P.P.S. We still have the Beery specials going and have a
special page you can see all the Beery-related products
on:
http://horsetrainingresources.com/Jesse_Beery_Horsemanship.html
Everything is 15% off – even the heavily-discounted bundles!
Use coupon code BEERY15 soon.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Discover the most successful horse training course ever created.
“Prof. Jesse Beery’s Illustrated Course in Horse Training”
8 Volumes of pure, effective horse training wisdom used
by thousands around the world.
Printed in one, easy-to-use, spiral-bound manual.
http://horsetrainingresources.com/beery.html
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
