Re: RideCamp: Rope halters and endurance

[Linda Cowles <linda_cowles@mentorg.com>]

Barbara Madill wrote:
>         I, too, was trained in Dressage, but have been won over by "western
> dressage" as exemplified by resistance free hackamore (or rope halter)
> training.  It is FUN to do all of the third level test figures with just a
> rope halter or neck string!!
>         My long distance sport is 3-day 100's (6-8MPH) and rode my most recent
> mount 400 miles with a string halter ... with a snaffle bridle over it --
> in case, because he could hardly be called a dead head!
>         I can't recommend this type of training enough.  Too many people equate
> endurance with white knuckle hanging on to the reins....  That's too tiring
> for both horse and rider.

My private reply to Lisa said about the same things. If I'd known these
NH techniques BEFORE trying dressage, my dressage would have been much
better, and would have progressed faster.

I too ride a hot horse in a string halter - no head stall - on a loose
rein. Often in a single lead. A young, excitable arab in a halter? Yep.
No problems at all. 

I can get on-the-bit and collection when I ask for it unless it's been
months and then he balks for a minute or two - "Do I *have* to???". 

I was showing off last week and tried some moves that I hadn't done in a
while, and I was getting great shoulder-in, haunches-in... smooth and
collected, in a halter. And then switch! YiHaaa! A fast, straight
back-up into a spin on the haunches LEFT! spin-on-the-haunches- RIGHT!
Another fast back-up into a hand gallop, transition to a 40 meter circle
in a counter canter - WHOA at "x"!! and salute the rodeo clown!!! Wheee!
Actually, there was no "X"... I was in a 40 meter round pen... and it
sounds better than it looked because while he "submitted to my aids", he
was VERY mad at having to do arena work after a trail ride...  had his
ears pinned and was wringing his tail. I expected a buck.

The cowgirl in me likes that hoity-toity dressage stuff - and vice
versa!

Linda
Gilroy, CA


=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net.    
Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/RideCamp   
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=