Putting Principles to Purpose- Freestyle

It's time for some much needed updates!

Now that Rydel is becoming a pro at stepping towards me for mounting, I have been playing around with freestyle riding a lot more. Saturday I had another fantastic lesson with Juli Piovesan during which time I  had some major "aha! moments"on the ground that I think will help decode some of our problems in the saddle. However, it's freestyle that I want to talk about today, and during the lesson we also worked on riding the follow the rail pattern with a lot of transitions, direct and indirect rein turns, and neutral lateral flexion to stop. Our focus was on helping Rydel really understand the pattern we were asking her to maintain (i.e. her responsibility). We also focused on teaching me to really use my phases starting with the most subtle in order to be the most effective teacher possible and to not constantly rely on the reins (i.e. my responsibility).

Practicing the "pattern" of the squeeze game during our lesson. 

A few weeks ago I wrote about putting principles to purpose online (you can read about it here). Well, the same concepts are true about freestyle; putting a purpose to the ride helps to give your horse a reason to play the seven games in the saddle. Making it a game, such as "don't make me have to correct you on this pattern," or "don't make me close one more finger on my rein," or "you don't want to stand still? Ok, let's trot" uses reverse psychology to achieve your desired outcome and keeps it interesting for your horse. Likewise, playing with the same patterns and games during freestyle riding as you would online allows the horse to link what they learned on the ground to the saddle, making your rides more effective teaching tools for the horse. Especially for right brain horses, giving them a job or a purpose, "go from point a to point b at the trot and stop in the corner," helps to teach them responsibility and how to learn to act like a partner instead of a prey animal.

Viewing my rides this way has really helped fill in the missing link for how to transition from the ground to the saddle. It has helped me be able to have a plan for my rides rather than to just get on and mindlessly travel around the arena, without giving my horse much to think about in terms of maintaining her own responsibility. I believe this is going to set us up for success for riding in bigger and unfamiliar places and for transitioning to finesse in the future!!

Happy ears after a great ride! :D