Life Changing
Two years ago I decided it was time to work on my classical riding skills. Having done some research, I decided to book 10 lessons with Nuno. Coming from South Africa, I decided that I would concentrate on ridden lessons. After all, I did not want to fly all the way to Europe to walk after a horse on foot.
Lesson with Acarus
Acarus
Luckily my curiosity got the better of me and I traded my final lesson in for an hour of “in hand”. I’m not sure who was more confused, the horse or myself.
Every mistake I made was amplified and I felt as though I was trying to steer an uncoordinated worm instead of a horse. Much to my surprise, Nuno was able to patiently guide me, so that by the end of the lesson I was walking in more or less the direction I intended.
A year later I returned, this time I only booked in hand lessons.
I had come to realise that it was, some how, the missing link in my training as a rider. Lessons on the lunge can improve ones seat. However: the only way to get a feel for what contact is, is to take away the influence of the riders legs.
When riding it is so easy to get into a habit of allowing the hands and legs some how work in opposition to each other. A too strong hand aid will cause a horse worked ”in hand” to halt, or even go back. Riders will simply squeeze or kick the horse on, to compensate for this. In the riders mind, he/she is keeping the horse between hand and leg. The term inside leg to outside rein is another term that is open to endless interpretations (or should I say misinterpretations). The leg should not be used to correct mistakes made by the hand. By training in hand one learns how to be soft without being ineffective.
Just like work on the lunge improves the riders’ seat, posture, and legs, so “in hand” improves the hands, upper body and shoulders.
The two are a team and can only achieve true harmony when they are coordinated in a way that serves to promote freedom of movement in the horse.
