Before I get into what I learned today I want to show you two photos. The first is of Biasini warming up in the trot. He is stretching down and has a nice swinging in his back.
In the photo below Biasini is cantering in his “up” frame. but Lynsey still has to keep him supple in the contact with his mouth. She has to have his poll the hightest point but he cannot brace his neck against her.You can see she is not using a lot of the curb bit .
That business of keeping Biasini up his frame but not allowing him to brace against Lynsey or pull down is not so easy! Belinda often reminded Lynsey to “Give “with her reins and hands. But when a horse starts to clamp the mouth shut an pull the natural response of the rider is to pullback.Tit for tat as it were.
But with Biasini that pulling back only encourages him to pull more .A vicious circle! At the end of today’ s lesson Belinda ,Lynsey and I talked about this. I said that, when I was still riding , I had just been learning,how well the “give” worked with Biasini. I remembered this quite clearly.Now Lynsey is a very accomplished rider and she is doing excellent work with Biasini. She looked at Belinda and me and she said “It’s easy to ‘give’ when are sitting there in the chairs at the end of the arena but it is not so easy when you are on the horse and he starts to pull like a freight train!
That is the absolute truth. We can all be riding the GrandPrix in the tack room but in the arena it’s a different matter. Lynsey is the one dealing with the live animal and Biasini is one who loves to pull with a lot of strength. Lynsey is doing well with not pulling back and she is ‘giving’ as much as possible. That is why Biasini looks as good as he does when she rides him.
That is what I learned today .
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