Today Cori and I put a jumping saddle on my dressage mare, Winslett. Cori has been riding her now for 3 months and enjoying riding in my dressage saddle and learning about dressage. The riders position and commands are very different than what Cori knew as a show jumper so she's been having fun learning the dressage "buttons" or commands. In Dressage if a horse feels the smallest change in your position it is supposed respond and move invisibly in a new direction. But today we really had a lot of fun playing with lengthening and shorting strides moving from a forward but "normal" hunter/jumper seat to a half seat which is the position used for jumping. Winslett learned that even though Cori body’s position changed she was to hold her body shape/frame and pace the same.
I was able to help Cori and Winslett get in sync. They went from mass confusion to complete harmony. Watching Cori and Winslett figure out what each other wanted was mesmerizing because I could see the light bulb come on for both of them right in front of me. The best part was when Cori came up to me at the end with a huge smile saying, “I can finally feel what you’ve been talking about in my saddle because it's closer contact than your dressage saddle, thanks mom that was a lot of fun.”
1st 📸 Cori learning how to ride in a dressage saddle. 2nd 📸 Cori in hunter/jumper saddle.
Here we are teaching Winslett to be comfortable with someone up in a half seat position. She feels the rider move forward in the tack and the rein contact change when the rider presses down on her neck and thinks she is supposed to slow down.
In the next photos Cori is cantering Winslett in a much more forward position with her upper body, both with her seat up out of the tack in the half seat (1st pic) and sitting in the tack (2nd pic) than Winslett is used to. So the mare is having to get used to carrying herself without the rider driving her with the seat and leg and more importantly with the rider's shoulder in a forward position (ahead of the vertical as we say) which is new for her. She is such sweet, smart, mare always trying to please she figured it real quick.
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