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Posted by PHPiaffe on August 22, 2002 at 20:22:02:

In Reply to: Re: Andalusian Colt and Learning Dressage....Confused posted by Mouse on August 21, 2002 at 23:29:10:

First of all, i'd like to correct a small misconception on your part. Spanish walk, as such, is not "dressage" Its a trick that is actually a corruption of the Extended walk called for in the medium to upper levels. Teaching him this from the ground shouldnt hurt his dressage training later, but if you want to teach him correct dressage, i wouldnt teach it at all. It teaches the horse to lock his shoulder, which is a very improper response if you're looking for a soft, supple, willing partner. Bowing is fine, and you're teaching that correctly, what some people actually do is teach it from a whip cue: very lightly running a dressage whip down the front leg from elbow to fetlock. Or you can teach from voice command, which works too, and can be used later while mounted if you desire.

Behaviors i ABSOLUTELY wouldnt teach are Rearing and one foot pirouetting. (That's actually a corruption of turn on the forehand, but it places tremendous stress on the pivot leg in front, and that's just an injury waiting to happen) Rearing has its place, but again, the dressage horse has no need for that behavior.

That being said, you can begin to bridle him and put him in longing tack. Dont do any actual longing yet, but you can let him play with his bridle and surcingle, walk him around in side reins with the halter or cavesson over the bridle. NO Contact on the bit yet, just attach the reins very loosely. Its good to introduce the idea of a girth while theyre still young and small enough that it wont bother them, though if he was imprinted it probably wont bother him anyway. :)

You can teach him other things, trick type things, like counting and giving in to pressure on the sides (western type people call that sidepassing), learning to bend his body in response to pressure, etc. Those would be useful things later on in his career, though the counting would probably only be fun.

That's all i can really reccomend at this point, because he IS such a baby still... I'd really work on the basics, standing, grooming, braiding mane, clipping all body parts, etc. Anything he's not okay with or only partially ok with is what needs to be worked on now so that the stress of undersaddle training doesnt amplify that.

You can also show him in hand in breed classes and dressage breeding classes if you can get him to wear a bridle and carry himself nicely.

Hope that helps a bit,
Piaffe

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