This is Will Faerber from Art2Ride and I am here today with Dave Murphy and his horse Zoey. Dave started with me a few months back because both of his horses had become very very nervous (they are Arabs) and a little uncontrollable. We have an earlier video where we were in the first stages of lunging his horses and he has done that process very nicely and is now beginning to ride them.

When we started training Zoey the first time I saw Dave, every car that went by and every bird that flew out of a bush would send her into a fit of histeria, so she has come a long long way and is starting to work very nicely! As you can see in the video she has a nice working walk and he shows us a stretch in the walk and what you will see him do as she does get a little uptight is he’ll immediately put the horse in a little shoulder in there if she starts looking to the outside and trying to see what is in the bushes. As she relaxes, he will let her stretch and get even longer.

This is a horse that used to be very nervous in the mouth. She still opens her mouth sometimes because she is just starting to establish contact with the bridle. She was a horse that had learned to drop the bit off her mouth and go behind the bit, this is a big improvement and she is starting to relax and her mouth is looking relaxed and not nervous. Occasionally she will drop it but Dave has learned to keep her out in that working walk.

Dave shows us again a nice stretch during a nicer freer walk. Even when she goes into the part of the arena that used to spook her, look how nice she can go through there and stretch all the way down, beautiful! Remember that when you get the horse to stretch you don’t want the horse to pull the rein out of our hands, we want the horse to stretch into the contact. When the horse is stretched, it’s actually just as much in the bridle as when it’s up in a higher level frame. You still have contact when the horse is seeking the contact with the bridle. Let’s not forget that is why we have put the stretches into all of the dressage tests. So many people don’t know how to do it because their horses aren’t going right and when they try to stretch nothing happens, at best their noses kind of poke out.

The stretches were put into dressage tests to prove the correct foundation of the horses, that is why it’s so important to be able to stretch. For the other reason that I tell all beginners when you are learning how to do this, and this is for everybody, your going to make mistakes sometimes and the beauty of the stretch is the horse will forgive your mistakes if you come back to a stretch and allow it to relax again. It kind of wipes the slate clean with the horse, as opposed to people who just fight and fight and fight and never give the horse a break. So it is certainly normal that you are going to make some mistakes as a beginning rider. Even as an advanced rider, something may happen and you may pop the horse in the mouth or whatever, you go back to the stretch and the horse goes ” Ok, we are friends again”, it doesn’t need to be an ongoing battle.

So once again this is Dave Murphy and Zoey showing us today a nice level of relaxation. She got a little up tight there, but look how nicely he stayed with it. He is going to stretch up and she is showing us a nice working walk and then he lets her stretch all the way down into the contact without going to that loose rein and she is still in the contact. So you can see that Arab horses can become very nice and relaxed just like any others if they learn to work correctly through their toplines and are comfortable in the work. That being the key, horses that are not trained correctly and are never allowed to move in a manner that’s comfortable will never relax and they will just become more and more fit and more nervous.

Once you understand the correct use of the back and how the horse can become comfortable with the work and are relaxed, you realize there is a whole new world of riding that you’ve never experienced before. We will see Dave Murphy and Zoey again next time, thank you! This is Will Faerber from Art2Ride.

Arabian classical foundation correct contact relaxation San Diego horse training stretching topline Will Faerber