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msar-riders - Re: [MSAR] Requirements for horse rider team

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  • From: Una Smith <una.smith@att.net>
  • To: Mounted search and rescue <msar-riders@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [MSAR] Requirements for horse rider team
  • Date: Tue, 21 Jul 2009 15:09:29 -0600

ghfayret@aol.com wrote:
>Do any of your organizations require the forehand and hind quarter
>turns?

I belong to the school of "let the situation dictate the solution"
riding. So I do not drill my horse in turns on the forehand and
on the hindquarters, nor would I care to test for it in isolation.
But I do practice getting through gates gracefully while mounted,
using both kinds of turns. And I practice lateral moves in hand,
to position her exactly where I want her for mounting.

The skill in isolation is worthless if it does not carry over to
real world applications. So test for what matters: the ability
to apply the skill when and where it is actually needed. It may
seem logical that a skill learned in isolation will always be on
hand when needed, but in fact this is often not true. Too often,
training is habitual and the horse does not learn the cue its
rider thinks is being taught, but rather some other contextual
cue.

Many good trail horses have low tolerance for what they perceive
to be "just because I said so" directions from their rider. And
many good trail horses are good in part because they have been
allowed to solve problems for themselves. So I don't care if a
horse refuses to move sideways in the middle of a groomed arena
but I do want the horse to move right up beside a rock so I can
do something there. An obedient arena "trail class" horse that
is used to doing rather arbitrary and pointless things, such as
sidepass along a pole in an arena, may well refuse to sidepass
to stand beside a big rock. Instinct tells the ignorant horse a
big cat might be lurking on top of the rock. Experience tells
the learned trail horse that on that day the rock is quite safe,
and that the rider has some reason to want to go there and going
sideways is the best way to get the rider as close as possible.

Una Smith
New Mexico




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