Roundness without Gadgets. The Légèreté way!

15 years ago, in January 2011, I attended my very first clinic with Philippe Karl and the School of Légèreté, riding a horse who would completely change my understanding of training. This video is part of my online course, Foundations of Riding from the Ground Up, but I’ve decided to share it here. https://becky-s-site-a232.thinkific.c... Before Jen, I’d spent many years training horses and considered myself a reasonably good rider and trainer. I’d also been fortunate enough to work with some very talented horses, without fully appreciating just how much I’d relied on their natural abilities. Jen was very different. She was extremely sensitive, often tense, and when things became difficult, she would come above my hands, shorten her stride and resist the contact. My previous knowledge and experience weren’t enough to help her. I wasn’t brought up around gadgets or forceful methods of training, yet I’d still spent a fortune trying different bits, hoping to find something that would help. It’s also why Jen was wearing a Micklem bridle in this footage. Although not as restrictive as some designs, it still wasn’t what she needed. With a horse like Jen, I’m sure many of the so-called special bits and restrictive nosebands would be considered. Even I had fallen into the trap of searching for that magic bit or special noseband, when all along, the magic was in my hands. As Philippe told me during our first clinic: “Don’t wait for a miracle. Be the miracle!” One of the most important things we’re taught in the School of Légèreté is how to recognise what each horse needs and understand how to respond. Do they over-flex and lean on the hands? Do they over-flex but feel extremely light? Do they lean heavily on the contact, or, like Jen, repeatedly come above the hands? These are different problems and require different solutions. Not every horse needs poll flexion to extend the neck. Many horses need action-reaction. Both methods are covered in my online course. The footage includes our first three lessons, followed by our third clinic, showing how we began teaching Jen to extend her neck through poll flexion. You’ll see my mistakes and how Jen gradually began to understand that there was a solution to the contact from my hands. Jen taught me that knowing what to ask a horse to do and knowing how to help that horse understand are not necessarily the same thing. Sadly, I had to say goodbye to Jen when she was only 14. Without her, I don’t know whether I would ever have applied to become a teacher of the School of Légèreté. My online course, Foundations of Riding from the Ground Up, is now almost complete, with just two more videos left to add. It covers everything from groundwork and the education of the horse through to ridden work, including the development of the classical seat and the rider’s understanding and use of the aids.