I'd like to recommend an article written by a clinician named Chris Irwin called "Feel the River in Your Horse" that was featured in Saddle Up magazine a few months back.
It is about a clinic Irwin did in Germany wherein he demonstrated his ideas of how to channel the energy within a horse much as the banks of a river channel the flow of water- threw the path of least resistance. He actually uses a line of four people to simulate the "sections" of a horse and long lines them around an arena in an attempt to show how even we are subject to the same natural instincts that govern the flow of energy within our horses. He suggests that riders, "dont tell a horse where to go by pulling on the reins in the direction you want to go-you tell a horse where to go by using your legs and reins to block off the directions that you dont want to go."
It is about a clinic Irwin did in Germany wherein he demonstrated his ideas of how to channel the energy within a horse much as the banks of a river channel the flow of water- threw the path of least resistance. He actually uses a line of four people to simulate the "sections" of a horse and long lines them around an arena in an attempt to show how even we are subject to the same natural instincts that govern the flow of energy within our horses. He suggests that riders, "dont tell a horse where to go by pulling on the reins in the direction you want to go-you tell a horse where to go by using your legs and reins to block off the directions that you dont want to go."
A good read! Check it out.
What was that you said?
What does the 1991 movie 'The Man In The Moon' (starring a 15-year-old Reece Witherspoon) have to do with the Chris Irwin article?
Why I'm glad you asked.
Because that was, *insert bratty 13-year old voice* like my favorite movie ever!
And it just happened to be on TV last night.
And I just wanted to point that out... even though it has nothing at all to do with horses. In fact it doesn't even have a horse in it, despite being set on a farm in 1957.
Ahh... the good ol' 1950s...
Of course, I wasn't born in the '50s so really aught not to be nostalgic about that era.... but I am.
Because I love that the daughters in this movie call their father "Sir" ....and that the Dad still cared enough to put the fear of God into the cocky young man who came to take his daughter out on a date...
but then I also love that the Dad was played by the guy with the bushy eyebrows on Law & Order...
I'm just weird that way, I guess.
Anyone seen it?
I haven't seen the whole thing, but Reese was pretty impressive in the parts I did see.
ReplyDeleteI DID grow up in the 1950s, and it was a kinder, gentler time. Respect for your parents? OH YEAH. I did manage to pass that on to my born-in-the-1980s offspring.
I didn't happen to catch this movie. But I was born in the 50's and as a kid I can definitely tell you we had lots more rules and respect than we see around nowadays. My kids were all born in the 70's and they have had the respect gene passed on to them. I like it better that way.
ReplyDeleteI'll have to check out that article you mentioned.Sounds interesting.
p.s. if you want to get that graphic water effect there's a web site that 'all horse stuff' pointed me to.
http://watereffect.net
It's really easy to do.
I think I may have watched it - wasn't this movie incredibly sad?
ReplyDelete