Aids the final (for now) part

Right, I've GOT to finish this section on the aids. Somehow I think it is only the beginning but that is for another day.
I don't think it's hard to agree that aids should be for and with the horse, as small and light as possible...imperceptible to the onlooker. It's easy to agree too that we must work with the physiology of the horse, creating individual recipes for each horse. Of course my preference is for a lighter, brighter type but that (as I'm daily reminded) comes at a price. I loved what Carl Hester described as *discrete* aids being needed for the hotter horse and that is exactly how one feels riding these types; eat sand if you want to be anything less than discrete.
I touched before on the idea that the horse and rider could communicate without words, a kind of ESP. Paul Belasik is a real *thinking* trainer/writer and I'll finish for now with where I hope the whole system of aids can end up.

From Paul Belasik, Dressage for the 21st Century....

After years of training and repetition, the horse and rider are sensitive to each other's muscular pulses. For the rider, there is no need for thrusting gestures of the pelvis. The physical training of the dressage rider is athletic but suggestive, not forced. Although the practice of dressage is beautiful to watch, in a real sense, it is not for watching. If it is proceeding correctly it is too subtle for the observer to see anything change on a given day. Usually it is just practice. The rider seems to be in the same position day after day but the horse is magically being sculpted.
In fact there is a physical melding; rider and horse do gradually become one. There is also a psychological melding, which is all to often glossed over. Riders become fitted with a 'twin' that gives them literally superhuman strength and speed......When they undertake the study of dressage and position, I don't think many riders realise what is about to unfold-or what they are going to have to face.

Aids are therefore our 'way in' to this incredible world where horse and rider become one, unable to see where one starts and the other finishes. Our aids will become so subtle as to be imperceptible, perhaps they become just thought exchanges or perhaps just that we become adept at knowing when it's going to go wrong and acting rather than reacting.

aids 3

Well this has been a few days of reflection. Semantics!! Does it matter then if we call an aid and aid or a cue or whatever? In a quandry I reached for my old mate Seunig. Now I don't always agree with him but he always gives me food for thought.
Seunig doesn't refer to *aids* but *controls*, which in today's world of lightness and consideration seems a little harsh. However, the great man speaks the truth! What we do is control the horse, yes we make that as considered and thoughtful as we can and we always try to work with the horse on his level but it does come down to domination. We ask for submission (and actually reward it in a dressage test) and if one half of the partnership dominates then the other submits....game of two halves, equal and opposite blah, blah.

So the semantics don't bother me, call it what we will but we come into our horses lives and dominate them and expect them to submit. Our aids/controls, call them what you like, change our horses will, mould them in the image we desire. Pretty serious stuff and no wonder it so often goes wrong.

So lets end on a more positive note from Podhajsky....
Equestrian language has coined the words ''aids'' to give it a deeper meaning than orders. The rider should aid his horse to understand him; this means that the horse should never be afraid of the aids and that the rider has sufficient patience to be sure his horse understands what is demanded of him. The rider must have an exact understanding of his aids and their effect, and must make use of them intelligently; he must not allow himself to be influenced by his feelings. To follow this policy must be the constant aim of every good and successful rider.

Ah, so it's control with sensitivity... a lightness and intellignce that we humans must bring to the equation. Dominance without agression, educated demands of a sensitive creature, knowing when to stop and knowing when to ask more but more importantly LISTENING to the horse's response and being immediate with our feedback.

aids part 2

So, unsurprisingly, we seem to agree that less is more. Agreed Claire, it isn't always easy to accomplish and I think the hardest thing for riders to accept is that their horse may not be that active when they first start working with them. I have often watched new students nagging their horses to walk out just that bit more. With some it becomes every stride and truly I don't think they are aware of how bad the nagging has become. Often riders are actually trying to push their horses out of the natural walk rhythm in search of some activity but in doing so they push the goal of a relaxed rhythmical walk even further away.

So one of the most important things about aids has to be use it sparingly and for the briefest time possible. If we constantly nag with our legs every stride then when we really do need to use some leg then the horse is so confused that it doesn't know how to respond. Sadly, horses like this can be labelled 'lazy' when in reality it is the rider that is too busy.

Expect great things for if we don't we crush the possibility! If we don't believe in the possibility that an aid might work then it won't. Riding/training isn't just about the physical but mental too and if we can use our minds to be calm, excited, happy etc then this helps us to stimulate, calm etc the horse.

This brings me to 'cue' versus 'aid'.



A 'cue' being a signal, such as a word or an action, used to prompt another event in a performance. A reminder, hint, suggestion or prompt.



As before an 'aid' being something that can help to bring about the performance of an action...



So is there any difference? This is my first question and I guess one I'll have to answer before moving on. In many ways the two are interchangeable but at the same time they are not. To me, the inference with a cue is that it brings about a reaction, ie I teach my horse to walk on by screaming 'FIRE' , whereas an aid, surely, by it's definition is something that actually helps to bring about the action. So my aids are designed to work with the horse and help it achieve a goal and a cue just sets something up (bit like Pavlov and his dogs slobbering at the ring of a bell) .



Well it's all just words at the end of the day so maybe I will go forward using the terms cue and aids to define my actions or maybe I should use a term like 'pre-aid' to decribe my actions before an aid.

Hopefully it will become more clear when I describe my method of aiding/cuing.



Oh this makes my brain ache but in a good way I guess

Aids

Well, I reckon start at the beginning. But where is the beginning? The harder I search my mind the less obvious the starting place becomes. In some ways I would like to start with groundwork, the true beginning, but aiding is also tied into the groundwork so perhaps that is where I will start.

I would love to know how to keep these *ramblings* separate from the other posts but I'm not that techy so they will just have to be labelled for now.


So, aids; from the french verb *aider* ... faciliter l'acomplissement d'une action...meaning roughly..to help to bring about the performance of an action...


Well that makes total sense, an aid being the means by which we can influence the movement of our horse. However, is it just the movement of the horse that we want to influence with our aids? Sometimes our aids say stand still, do nothing but then that does still apply to movement, or lack of it. I suppose I'm digging at the possibility that we can use our aids to access the horse on a deeper level, almost outside of his awareness.



My first memories of learning about THE aids was at pony club. We learned that there were the natural (of the rider) and artificial (extra to the rider) aids at our disposal and I'm pretty sure I learned them *parrot* fashion just to pass a test,lol.

Nowadays I feel that less is definitely more and, like so many of us, I am constantly striving to find the lightest, easiest way of aiding.



So this small piece opens up the idea of aids for me and my next task will be to expand the topic and explore my feelings and see how much they may have changed over the years.