Guest Blog post # 62: "In For a Nickel" by Bill Woods

guest-blog-62-in-for-a-nickel-by-bill-woods-dressage

Here and there you'll run across a Total Dressage Masochist--a nose to the grind stone sort of rider whose horse's hooves will dig deep and perfect 20 meter ruts in her arena. More often among recreational riders there's a tendency to practice the stuff that's fun and save the difficult issues for "tomorrow." Give this person a schoolmaster and the situation is magnified tenfold. What's fun? Flying changes and extended trot! Did I hear anyone say transitions? I thought not.

It's not too long until every time the poor horse sees a diagonal he wants to extend (and hang) all the way to the next county. Same thing for those flying changes in Third Level.

The remedy is temperance and moderation. If you acknowledge you will reap what you sow, you won't accidentally program your horse to do things to you!

I have one such student who just can't help herself despite my predictions and warnings. If left to her own devices she'd be bingeing on changes like a kid with the munchies goes through cheese doodles!

For this lady I hit upon a solution. I gave her a coffee cup and saucer and eight nickels.

"Empty the cup every Monday morning. It's okay to practice your changes, but every time you do one, put a nickel in the cup. When all eight nickels are in there, NO MORE changes until the following Monday! Counter canter the lines or do them in true canter. Make transitions. Do simple changes. But exceed your allowance, and in the show ring it will cost you more than nickels!"

This may seem like a primitive way to enforce self control, but it beats standing around all day with my thumb on the controller for her shock collar.

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