Kimberwicke

["Kathy Mayeda" <Kathy_Mayeda@atce.com>]

Title: Kimberwicke

I tried the kimberwicke on Beau this weekend.  I really didn’t care for it for arena work, although I have taken lessons on other horses using a kimberwicke fine.  But Beau does very well with a french link snaffle under 95% of conditions.  I think I need to refine my feel with the kimberwicke so that I know how to use it on race day.  But it is icky for arena work.

I rode Drako and had another person ride Beau in the park yesterday.  Tempest rode Beau had him going beautifully with perfect arena equitation form with the French link snaffle.  So Tempest will be doing arena riding with Beau during the weekdays, while I haul her and Drako out on the trail on weekends so that Beau and I could condition them for endurance!  Win, win, huh?  We’ll see how this goes.

I was reading the other posts about “riding every step”.  In the arena, “riding every step” is an essential part of dressage… after all dressage is schooling, isn’t it?  It seems that every one of your body parts has to be accounted for, because if your eyes are not pointed in the right direction, your seat is pressing in the wrong place and your hands are not in the proper position, it all has an effect on the horse.  This conscious riding will eventually become ingrained as habitual riding that requires less thought to maintain.  That is why I took lessons so that I can get the proper “habitual” riding.

Like I was telling Tempest – I never trotted downhill in my life until my first LD ride.  I suffered greatly during that ride.  Since then and many miles trotted downhill later, my muscle memory became more automatic.  I still can’t do the fast downhills like some other horses and riders, but I’m not suffering as much anymore because I’m not holding as much tension in my muscles trying to maintain my position.

I’m a hybrid rider.  I learned to ride neck reining Western style as a kid, but learned to ride English as an adult.  It was really, really, hard for me to learn to ride with direct contact after riding with a loose rein all the time.  You will still see me jamming down the trail with loose reins in one hand, neck reining with a snaffle bit.  This is when we are the happiest and riding without much thought…. BUT, we needed to learn to “ride on the bit” so that Beau learns to be more thorough in his back – he would tend to string out….

K.