Re: RC: race track to trail

[Sue Brown <sbrown@wamedes.com>]

At 07:36 AM 7/16/99 -0400, you wrote:
>There was an article in Equus years ago explaining why jockies "pull". 
>It was in an article about the horse's center of gravity.  It was
>something to the effect that the horse "leaned" into the bit and the
>jockey's center of gravity was projected about 6 feet in front of the
>horse at full gallop.  

That's why they call it *RE*training...the horse has been _trained_ to pull
on the bit.  In normal daily riding <g>, if the rider doesn't give the
horse something to *lean on* (ie, the rider has to provide the solid
support), the horse can't lean on the bit.  The point I was trying to make
was that the retraining is done slowly and patiently...lots of stuff at a
walk or easy trot...and the rider teaches the horse to respond to leg and
seat cues and to forget about the *leaning* on the bit.  If you don't pull
steady on both reins, the horse can't lean his weight onto your hands...and
you don't end up feeling like you're holding the horse upright.  And the
horse isn't going to run away with you.  I wouldn't take a horse straight
from the track to an endurance competition without months of REtraining.

Sue

sbrown@wamedes.com
Tyee Farm
Marysville, Wa.


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