Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

> Actually this "bump" thing came from an old John Lyons technique.  It
> works quite well.  Has nothing to do with striding or anything else.
> It's an "annoyance" thing.  When you do something to "bug" the horse,
> his tendency is to start trying things to get you to quit.  You
> IMMEDIATELY "release" when he "guesses" the right answer.
Well, no, the "bump" thing that Barb and I are talking about predates John
Lyons by a century or two, and is not annoying to the horse at all.  And
it has everything to do with striding, because if you don't do it at the
right point of the stride, you don't get the result.

John Lyons may have a totally different technique--I don't know.  But I
know this particular maneuver is one that was taught classically to
cavalrymen (which is where the instructor who indirectly taught it to me
learned it way back in the 20s or 30s, and it was "old" then) and is also
a basic in dressage.  And it works by enhancing a reflex arc--if you time
it properly, the response is actually virtually involuntary on the horse's
part.  But it DOES get him in the habit of striding further, so in the
long run, he gets to where he walks out without the bumping.

There is no "release" involved at all in this technique initially--you do
it, he responds.  You don't do it, he doesn't respond.  You keep doing it
stride after stride.  As I said before, it isn't a "cue" per se--you are
not "asking" him to change, but instead you are mechanically altering each
and every stride as he goes down the trail.  It is subtle, and he isn't
even really aware that you're doing it most of the time.  But the
lengthened stride becomes a part of his natural walk over time.

Heidi


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