Jane Savoie’s Happy Horse tip #7

Happy Horse Tip #7

It’s important not to use your reins to control the things that you should use your seat to control. If you pull on the reins to steady rhythm, slow speed, decrease the length of stride or do downward transitions, you BLOCK the hind legs from coming forward.

So, make it your goal to develop a knee jerk reaction to use your seat instead of your hands for each of those four things.

Your seat can be used in four different ways:
1. Passive Following Seat
• Your passive, following seat tells your horse that everything (his rhythm, speed, and the gait) stays the same.
• Simply open and close your hips to follow the current movement of your horse.

2. Driving Seat
• Your driving seat tells your horse to increase his speed or length of stride.
• Think of pushing the back of saddle toward the front of the saddle, polishing the saddle from back to front, or pretending you’re pushing a swing higher in the air.

3. Retarding or Stilled Seat
• The stilled seat steadies the rhythm, slows the speed, decreases the length of stride, or asks for a downward transition.
• Sit in a “ready” position by stretching up tall so you have a gentle curve in the small of your back.
• Then, contract or tighten your tummy muscles like you’re doing a sit-up. This action braces your lower back and stops your hips from following your horse’s movement.

4. To Control the Position of Your Horse’s Body
• Your shoulders should be parallel to your horse’s shoulders, and your hips should be parallel to his hips.

Jane Savoie’s Happy Horse Tip #6-Improve Your Seat in the Canter

Happy Horse Tip #6-Improve Your Seat in the Canter

Think about how your seat moves when you’re cantering. Notice how your hip angles open and close. Start with your upper body on the vertical, and then open your hip angles and let your upper body rock a bit BEHIND the vertical. Then come back up to the vertical with shoulder over hip over heel.

Visualize arrows extending down from your seatbones. Whichever way those arrows are pointed, is the direction you’re sending the hind legs. If you lean forward and close your hip angles, you push the hind legs out the back door.

If your upper body is on the vertical and you rock behind the vertical, you open your hip angles. As a result the imaginary arrows extended down from your seatbones point forward. You’re saying to your horse’s hind legs, “Come along, come along, go with, go with.”

A Horse That Goes Forward To Light Leg Aids is a Happy Horse

Happy Horse Tip #5
Make sure your horse reacts to light leg aids. Your goal is to “whisper” with your aids and have your horse “shout” his response—Not the other way around!
To check that your horse reacts to light leg aids:
• Close both legs and see if he immediately responds with a surge from behind as if he’s going to do a lengthening.
• If he doesn’t, correct him by tapping with the whip or bumping with your legs to send him forward. (The intensity of the correction depends on the sensitivity of your horse.)
• Then slow down, and RETEST. Ask for the lengthening again with an aid as light as a mosquito bite. (Remember, your horse can feel a fly on his side so he can feel very light aids IF you train him to react to them.)

The key here is to RETEST. Otherwise you’re just teaching your horse to go forward to the “correction” not from the light leg aid.

For more tips for training a Happy Horse, go to: www.janesavoie.com/happyhorse

Happy Horse Tip #4

Happy Horse Tip #4:
If your horse gets nervous in the walk, here’s a tip that might help him.

Think about how relaxed you sit when you’re finished with your work. So, if you’re walking, and you feel like your horse is going to get tense or jig, sit in the same relaxed way. Say to yourself, “We’re done. We’re finished. Work is over.”

Inhale. Exhale. And dissolve into your horse’s back. If you sit with less positive tension or tone in your body, your horse can feel you relax and will mirror that.

Elastic Contact with Your Horse’s Mouth in the Canter

Happy Horse Tip #3 In the canter, your horse telescopes his neck forward and back in the same way he does in the walk. You need to follow with your arms in the canter. If you don’t, your horse can’t use his neck as balancing rod. So, he struggles, gives up, and falls into the trot. He’s not being bad. You’re just putting him in a position where it’s very difficult for him to continue to canter.

Imagine that when you pick up the reins, your arms don’t belong to you anymore. They’re an extension of the rein, and they belong to your horse.

Here’s an exercise to help give you the feeling of an elastic contact in the canter. You can even practice this exercise in the halt first to get some muscle memory.
• Get up into a two-point position.
• Pretend you’re a jockey galloping down a track with your hands pushing your horse’s neck forward every stride.
• While doing that, notice how your elbows open and close with every stride.
• Then sit back down, and keep your elbows opening and closing in the same way.

For more info on the Happy Horse Course, go to: www.janesavoie.com/happyhorse/

Happy Horse Tip #2-The Lateral Walk

If your horse’s walk tends to be lateral, try one of these two things:
1. Slow the tempo down. Just be sure your horse stays reactive to light driving aids in the slower walk. He shouldn’t get lazy or fall behind your leg.
2. Step slightly sideways. That will break up the legs on the same side so he can step more deliberately with each leg. With a young horse, do a bit of leg yielding. If your horse has more education, do shoulder-fore or shoulder-in.

This tip is excerpted from The Happy Horse Course. For more info on how to train a happy horse, go to: www.janesavoie.com/happyhorse/

Experiencing the Jane Savoie Clinic as a Demo Rider At Northwest Horse Expo

I have been working with Jane Savoie for 2 years now, via her video analysis of me
riding my horses on her Dressage Mentor website. But I had never met her
in person before.

Therefore I would like to thank ODS for the opportunity to be a demo rider at
the Northwest Horse Expo this year! I was also lucky enough to be able to take off
from work to be able to watch the other 2 clinics that I was not a demo rider in!

I probably enjoyed Saturday the most, as besides her lateral work clinic, she also
gave a very motivational speech about choosing to be happy vs.sad. The main
messages were not to allow negative people to bring you down and that anything
you set your mind to, you can achieve!

Also exciting- her Equisense SmartTack that senses exactly what mistakes the
rider is making both in position and use of the aids! (www.eqtrained.com)

I was so proud of Hindrik during this past weekend and think both he and I
learned a lot. He is usually tense around large audiences and I always have
my hands full with him at shows, but that ‘nervousness’ is also what makes
him a great horse and super responsive to light aids, once he’s warmed up!

On Saturday I rode him in the warm up arena with Mules knocking jumps over
right next to him, and all kinds of riders carrying flags and western
riders zipping all around him. I was so proud of him in that he could
remain focused on me, and stay rhythmic and relaxed! After those rides,
I will NEVER complain about any warm ups at dressage shows again!!!
I was hopeful that after those warm up rides, the Jane clinic would be a piece
of cake!

However, the large audience, loud noise, and new arena made him spook and
adopt a bolting type posture when we first walked in. Jane took good care
of us though, and instructed us to do one of her “relaxation” suppling
exercises. She realized I had to keep him moving and let us keep walking
and as she explained things, and she also asked the audience not to clap
and to do “silent applause” instead.

We got a lot out of being in this clinic, as it was probably the largest
audience Hindrik has been exposed to so far, and he ended up handling
it really well! The audience got to see how a really hot horse can be
calmed down and handled by suppling so it could be a good experience for the horse.

Sue Zoltner

Dressage Trainer, Jane Savoie, Unveils Her Revolutionary Horse and Rider Training System by EQ-Equisense

Dressage trainer, Jane Savoie, is excited about her new company EQ-Equisense’s breakthrough approach to riding and horse training for all equestrians.

EQ Equisense Systems and three-time Olympic coach, Jane Savoie, debuted this unique training system for dressage horses and riders at the World Equestrian Games in Lexington, Kentucky. Developed with the help of the world-renowned McPhail Equine Performance Center, EQ’s line of products changes the face of equestrian sports forever.

Savoie says, “This exciting marriage of training and technology skyrockets a rider’s learning curve far beyond traditional teaching methods because it relies on science rather than flawed subjective human analysis and bias.”

EQ training moves leaps beyond traditional horsemanship and delivers to riders an unprecedented set of tools and technology to improve their own skills as well as their horses’ training. The EQ motto is: If you can see and feel it, you can fix it. EQ helps you see and feel it. EQ Certified Training Centers are opening globally and a mobile clinic begins a multi-event tour in the Spring of 2011.

The EQ Sensored Tack actually senses how a rider moves. It give an instructor a better “magnifying glass” so she can really see below the surface right down to the root of training problems. The EQ Sensored Tack can be used either on an Equicizer for position analysis and diagnosis. But it also can be used on the rider’s actual horse. Data is transmitted wirelessly to the EQPro system where the instructor can analyze the nuances in the riders position and use of aids.

EQ is also launching EQ Live–the premier equestrian destination for riders in all disciplines and all levels of experience. With EQ Live, you can learn, compete, and connect with other people who are passionate about horses. With a range of iPhone apps, DVDs, and online riding simulations, you can tune up your skills day or night, whether at your stable or in your living room.

Experience the most revolutionary advancement in the horse industry for diagnosing, evaluating, and improving your riding skills by visiting dressage trainer, Jane Savoie‘s Equisense website www.eqtrained.com. Check it out at: http://social.eqtrained.com/videos/view/video—_80.html

Dressage Trainer Jane Savoie’s DVD on Handling The Horse That Shys

“How to Handle Shying” DVD

Hosted by Jane Savoie

This DVD on How To Handle Shying helps you:

• Learn Why Horses Shy
• Understand The Dominant Eye
• Avoid Several Common Rider Mistakes
• Learn Simple Exercises to Help You Relax Both On And Off Your Horse
• Learn The Exact Aids For A Suppling Technique To Relax Your Spooky Horse
• Learn How To “Read Your Horse’s Ears” To Know When He’s About To Shy
• How To Gradually Introduce a “Scary Object”

Dressage Trainer Jane Savoie on In Country TV

I’m excited to tell you that you can actually see some dressage on In Country TV this Monday and Saturday.

My segments will be aired May 24th at 8p & 11p eastern and Sat May 29th at 7:30pm. There will be 2 segments–cantering & straightness.

Here’s a link to In Country TV. http://www.incountrytelevision.com/show.cfm?id=70

Don’t miss the chance to see some dressage on TV this week!

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