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

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/

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

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

http://www.youtube.com/user/janesavoie#p/u/0/Pmwilf0-xAs

For more information on how you can be trained on this tack or even become a certified EQ trainer yourself, go to: www.eqtrained.com

http://www.janesavoie.com/a_happy_horse.htm

By the way, I know it’s a pretty long page. I tried to keep it short, but describing everything in the course took a lot of space.

If you’ve already made up your mind that you want one, just skip to the bottom where you can claim your copy right away.

Here are some sample clips from the Happy Horse course:

1. THE AIDS FOR TROT LENGTHENINGS
When you’re ready to ask for an upward transition from working trot to a trot lengthening, apply the aids simultaneously, as follows:

• Seat: use a driving seat, as though you’re pushing the back of the saddle toward the front of the saddle.
• Legs: press lightly with both legs to signal your horse to express his energy forward over the ground in longer strides.
• Reins: soften your hands a bit forward, but keep a contact with your horse’s mouth, and a bend in your elbows. Do not ‘throw the reins away’.

2. TROT LENGTHENINGS develop suppleness.

Here’s an image that will help you understand the type of suppleness you’re developing when you practice lengthenings with your First Level horse. Think of your horse’s body as a rubber band that can easily stretch and contract. Not only will this quality make him more athletic, but it’s also extremely useful for all disciplines of riding. Take showjumping, for instance. Just think how many jumping faults could be avoided if your horse’s stride were easily adjustable like this!

3. MAINTAIN THE TEMPO OF THE WORKING TROT
As with most new work, when you begin to incorporate lengthenings into your training at First Level, you start in the trot. It’s a bonus if you have a horse that can naturally lengthen his trot. Many Warmbloods and Arabians have this ability, but I’ve worked with a lot of Thoroughbreds, Connemaras, Morgans, and Quarter Horses who really need help developing their trot lengthenings.
If you ask your horse to lengthen in the way I’ve described and the tempo gets quicker because he runs with short, fast steps, you need to systematically develop his lengthenings. Part of his difficulty may be purely physical. He may lack the suppleness and strength that he will gain in time by basic dressage training. But part of the problem may be that the horse just doesn’t understand that he is to take longer strides in the same tempo. He actually thinks he’s being obedient when he rushes off because he feels you close your legs, and he responds eagerly by immediately going forward.
I often find that I can help him understand that he is to lengthen his strides without speeding up, by asking for the trot lengthenings while going up hills. Once he gets the idea, I go back into the ring and see if he can transfer this concept of lengthening in the same tempo on the level footing.
Sometimes I do something unusual with the horse that tends to quicken his trot tempo when asked to lengthen. Since it takes time to develop the trot lengthening, I go out in a big field, or I go all the way around the ring and round off the corners so that I don’t have to slow down for them. First, I take up a heavier contact than normal. In this way, I can temporarily act as the horse’s fifth leg and purposely support him so he doesn’t lose his balance. Then I ask for a lengthening in posting trot. While posting to the trot, I rise very high and stay in the air a fraction of a second longer than normal. I pretend that I can hold the horse in the air with my body. And, in my mind’s eye, I picture him floating over the ground with his feet never touching the ground.
I ask my horse to give me a greater and greater effort and eventually one of two things will happen. The first is that he realizes that his legs can’t go any faster, and he ’shifts into overdrive’ and takes some longer, slower steps. At this point, I immediately stop, praise him, and let him walk on a loose rein.
In my experience I’ve found that the first time, I might have to go all the way around a ring once or twice before I get a couple of longer, slower steps. But after the reward, the next effort yields results much sooner. And the same for the next attempt.
The other thing that might happen is that he loses his balance and falls into the canter. This isn’t the disaster it seems to be. If my horse hadn’t lost his balance and cantered, his next trot step probably would have been a bit longer. So I re-establish and immediately ask for a trot lengthening. It’s in that moment that I’m most apt to get a longer stride in a better tempo. And once again if I get even one or two better steps, I stop and praise him. The reward helps the horse to understand that by doing something different, even if initially he doesn’t understand what it is, he’ll be praised.
Once I get two or three better steps as soon as I ask for the trot lengthening, I leave them for another day. During each session the horse builds his understanding of what’s being asked, and over time he physically gets strong enough to lengthen in a good tempo for a greater number of steps.

4. HEAR THE TEMPO

Use some good auditory images to help you while you’re teaching your horse to do a trot lengthening in the same tempo as his working gait. Pretend you’re standing by a paved road and your eyes are closed. Because the tempo stays exactly the same, you can’t tell from the sound of the footfalls whether your horse is in the working gait, lengthening, or doing the transition in between.

Here’s another auditory image to help you teach your horse to lengthen the trot in the same tempo as his working trot. Pretend you hear a metronome ticking. The tempo stays exactly the same both when you’re in working trot and when you’re in the lengthening. (Even though I’m discussing trot lengthenings at the moment, you can use the same type of auditory image if your horse quickens his tempo in a canter lengthening. ‘Hear’ the tempo as if your horse is moving over the ground with big, ground-covering bounds in slow motion.
If your horse still tends to quicken his tempo when you ask him to do a trot lengthening, overcompensate by imagining that you ‘hear’ the tempo get slower. Pretend that the tempo gets slower because your horse stays suspended in the air for a long time. If you’re doing a posting trot, try rising and sitting more slowly to see if you can be the one to set the pace rather than automatically posting at the speed that your horse chooses.

5. USE FIRMER CONTACT FOR SUPPORT
Don’t be surprised if the contact with your horse’s mouth during trot lengthenings becomes somewhat heavy. Remember that lengthenings are developed out of the working gait at First Level, and the weight in your hands is somewhat firm to begin with. In addition, while your horse is learning how to balance himself during trot lengthenings, his center of gravity might shift even a bit further to his forehand. Don’t be alarmed by this. It’s a stage of his training, and it’s fine to temporarily support him by maintaining a firmer contact. Later on, if you decide to go on to more advanced work, you’ll develop ‘uphill’ extensions out of collected gaits. Because the horse will have a greater degree of self-carriage when he’s in a collected gait, the contact will be lighter.
However, there’s a fine line between a solid, supporting contact and one in which your horse is leaning so heavily on your hands that your arms ache. Here are some things you can try to improve a contact that is too heavy. Before you even begin to ask for a trot lengthening, make sure you drive the horse’s hind legs more under his body by closing both of your legs. In order to carry himself, your horse needs to have his hind legs underneath him. If his hind legs are trailing out behind his body, he can’t support himself in the lengthening and he has no option but to lean on your hands.
You can also ride some quick transitions: from trot to halt and back to trot again, or from the canter to the walk and back to the canter again. This will help to rebalance your horse and make the weight in your hands more comfortable.
Another reason the contact can get too heavy is that you may be asking for too many lengthened strides at one time before your horse is ready. Doing well-balanced trot lengthenings with his hind legs underneath his body for only a few strides at a time is much more valuable for your horse than lengthening for many strides with his hind legs pushing out behind his body. Remember that when you do the downward transition back to the working gait, be sure that you close your legs to send his hind legs under his body. It might feel natural to ask for the downward transition from the lengthening to the working gait by just using the reins. But, as you know by now, if your goal is to rebalance your horse and improve the contact, you need to add hind legs while doing the downward transitions.

6. ALLOW THE FRAME TO ELONGATE IN TROT LENGTHENINGS
In trot lengthenings, the front feet should touch the ground on the spot toward which they are pointing when each leg is at its maximum extension. When a horse has to draw his front legs back toward his body before placing them on the ground, or his toes flip up in front, it usually indicates that he hasn’t been allowed to lengthen his frame.
Sometimes a rider makes it difficult for the horse to lengthen to his utmost. Although I said earlier that you shouldn’t be concerned in the contact is a bit too firm, you want to be sure that you’re not making it heavy because you’re cranking his neck in. If you keep your horse’s neck short by restricting him with strong or non-allowing hands, he has to draw his foreleg back before putting it down. Allow your horse to lengthen his neck and point the tip of his nose more or less forward. To help you to do this, think about ‘opening the front door’ by softening your hands a bit toward your horse’s mouth and by cocking your wrists upward in a way that allows your little fingers to go more forward.

7. SIT UPRIGHT
When you use your driving seat to ask for the transition into the trot lengthening, don’t try to ‘help’ your horse to lengthen by leaning back. Even though you might feel that you can drive him forward this way (and I see many dressage riders doing this in lengthenings and extensions) you’ll just end up driving his back down and making it hollow. Stay vertical at all times.
I learned this lesson about sitting correctly in trot lengthenings the hard way while trying to qualify for the Olympic Festival with Jolicoeur at a competition that was being held at Knoll Farm in Brentwood, New York, back in 1987. One of the finest international judges in the world, the late Mr Jaap Pot, was there. He was a stickler when it came to the correctness of the rider’s seat. I remember Jo and I doing huge extended trots for him. I thought we had done really well until my score sheet came back with extremely low marks for the extensions and the simple comment – rider leaning behind the vertical. Believe me, it made an impression.

Click here for more info on First Level Dressage Trot Lengthenings.

That probably doesn’t sound like a problem except when the fulfillment house reprints, they are going to charge more for production which means that the price of the course will increase.

I just wanted to let you know ahead of time so you don’t get a nasty surprise. I realize that $597 is a big chunk of change, but many people are sharing the course (and the cost!) with a few friends to make it more affordable. They even tell me they have a “Happy Horse Party” once a week where the watch a lesson, discuss the content, and have a fun dinner! (Who says dressage can’t be fun!!)

They also tell me that they’ve figured out that when they divide the cost of Happy Horse by the 44 discs in the program, it only comes to $13.57/session (and that doesn’t even include the manual!). That’s a whole lot cheaper than a lesson in most any part of the country. Plus they still have it in their library for reference anytime they need help!

Click or copy the link below to get A Happy Horse at the original price while they last.

http://www.janesavoie.com/shop/a_happy_horse.htm

One of the most fun things for the riders was that Ecogold donated 19 of their gorgeous saddle pads!! They even embroidered them on one side with Jane Savoie Clinic. What an awesome keepsake.

Check them out at: www.ecogold.ca

John and Particia are terrific people!