TREC and dressage

[racaille]

Had a lesson with the King of TREC yesterday and had a lightbulb moment.

It's tempting to think of the horsey disciplines as completely separate entities but I realised that could not be further from the truth. I did a great exercise to help (hopefully) with Paco's really rubbish COP: a 20m circle was marked out by four cones and I had to transition up/down to canter/trot/walk randomly at each cone, eg walk to canter, canter to trot etc so only a few strides of each. (It was very helpful and I shall be doing it often.) I quickly realised that I was doing part of my current dressage test.

Then I went on to learn how to open and shut the gate and realised that it was simply a turn on the haunches (yeah, simply, with a noisy metal bar over your head - hah! ). Then there are the figures that depend so much on the horse moving away from the leg ....

Rein back does not figure in TREC until higher levels as it is not taught to novices here but is included in higher dressage tests etc etc ...

Given that the premise of TREC is to deal with obstacles you might encounter while out hacking, it just goes to show how important a good dressage base is.

[pboy]

Absolutely Rac! I think it's best to think of dressage as 'training' - it's not about being able to do a test, it's about having a manoeuvrable, obedient horse in all situations. Same with jumping - it's almost impossible to have a good jumping round without good levels of flatwork. Most top show jumpers do a lot of lateral work and transitions to build the adjustability and strength for jumping.

I'm always stunned that hacking / trekking horses in the UK often can't do a basic leg yield. I feel very unsafe hacking a horse that won't move away from my leg.

ETA - I'm glad you had a good lesson! Sorry, should have said that at the start

[racaille]

Absolutely! As they say: Jumping is just dressage with speed bumps ....

It's a shame that (here, at least) the disciplines are so firmly separate - SJ and dressage riders loathe each other while everyone looks down on TRECies. Even within TREC there are factions: the 'true' long distance guys (whose horses can't turn a circle) and the RC riders who do well on the PTV because their horses CAN turn a circle but who are weaker at the orienteering and who dismiss the randonneurs as cowboys.

Funnily enough the nicest bunch are the eventers.

[solomon]

I remember watching a show jumping demo and the professional rider said jumping is just dressage with obstacles. Same thing if you can't control the horses body it's not going to work!

[pboy]

'Dressage with speed bumps' - love it!!

I find eventers to be mega-friendly too. Having said that I've found both the dressage and the Spanish horse world very friendly recently, more so than I remember when I was competing with Pocholo. Maybe it's me??!

[brigadier]

Sounds a great lesson. I'm amazed how many horses cannot move away from the leg also. I always train TOF and TOH as they have lots of uses. I also do RB quite early although plenty think it should be the last thing taught as it can give a young horse ideas but I've never yet found it to be a disadvantage.

[racaille]

Nov 10, 2015 19:10:28 GMT brigadier said:

Sounds a great lesson. I'm amazed how many horses cannot move away from the leg also. I always train TOF and TOH as they have lots of uses. I also do RB quite early although plenty think it should be the last thing taught as it can give a young horse ideas but I've never yet found it to be a disadvantage.

I think that's the thinking here - but I can't count the times RB has got me out of trouble when I've been exploring new paths!

[haffyfan]

I also have always taught then asap - we have to do gates out hacking and i don't get off unless i really really have to so they need to be maneuverable!

They say rein back can encourage nappiness but years ago when murph had a nappy (well i'd call it bloody stubborn really as he never reversed of his own accord just wouldn't shift) stage, if he wouldn't go where i wanted forwards, more than once i've turned him round and gone there backwards instead until he gave in!