LARRY BAILEY HORSE WORLD
Horse Fever...Catch It!
"Reposted from first volume for reference"
The Training Matrix Introduction
Welcome to Bailey's Tips. The first installment of many that will hopefully help you with the training of horse and rider in the everyday interaction with the horse.
From the years 1966-1998 I have taught thousands of riding seminars and clinics which have varied through all disciplines of horsemanship. From this extremely diversified background I have developed two, time proven rules:
1) Before designing a learning program or agenda for a riding student, you must make an assessment of the mental and physical capabilities of each rider. This procedure will be accomplished by a set of interview questions, manual dexterity test, short-term, mid-term and long term memory test, sensory test (sight, sound, touch) and a wide variety of physical exercises to test the body.
2) Before designing a training program for the horse, the entire body must be assessed. The conformation will be checked and red flags placed in areas of physical weakness. These weak areas will be appraised in regards to how long and difficult it will be to make them strong. While making this appraisal realize there will be mental affects as well. Once the body is assessed then establish what job it is that the horse is supposed to do. The next step will be to build a program of exercise to reconstruct the body. Once the horse starts this program you can start analyzing the mental abilities of the horse.
To have a succesful win/win educational program you must teach according to the individual and avoid fitting each rider into a "perfect" equitation mold. As my late father who was involved in heavy equipment would say "Operate the machine according to its design rather thatn the job the operator wants to achieve. If you don't operate according to design the machine will simply break". Accidents in riding often occur when social pressure say "do it" and the body says "no". An example of this is, the rider has a dust allergy and breathing has been difficult. Oxygen has been inadequate in the bloodstream so you have lactic acid build up. This build up takes elasticity from the muscle, ligament and tendon. The peer group wants to canter but the rider is too rigid to follow the motion of the horse. The result would be the rider falling off at the canter. This is an extremely important point for any teacher/trainer: Only do what is reasonable for the mind to understand and the body to perform. The most rapid progress or instant gratification comes when you repeat the basic principles of riding often enough to make them innate.
So....this all sounds good but how do you go about it? First this is a tall order so it must be apporached in some kind of systematic way. I have developed what I call the training matrix. It is an easy way to start to determine the four components of a person and a horse in any kind of interaction. See the diagram below:
| Mental Rider | Mental Horse |
| Physical Rider | Physical Horse |
