Learning by Teaching: Carriage Drivng Aha Moments

I have always maintained that teaching carriage driving lessons helps me be a better whip. This weekend was another illustration of this concept. Micheal Scott, a fellow carriage driving competitor, came to Serendipity for a lesson. This was a wonderful opportunity to evaluate my teaching. Having a whip of Micheal's excellence as a student really challenged me.

We focused on body awareness and its relationship to bending in the horse. The first exercise involved snapping two lead ropes together, which I held pretending to be the horse while Micheal held the ends of the ropes as reins and pretended to drive me. With my back to him, I asked him to turn to the right or left and then I interpreted the turns by telling Micheal what my 'horse's' body would do.

We talked about how some cues of the inside rein made my shoulder come into my hip, which is the desired effect of bending the horse around a turn. We also discussed how much support was needed on the outside rein to support the bend, and I did my best to 'be the horse' and respond to each cue of each rein. This, of course was not a news flash to Micheal. But, when I asked him to participate in the turn by using his own body on the box seat to mirror the horse's through the turn, he said, "I never thought about that!"

Using only the whip's upper body [shoulders, arms and hands] to turn the horse will do the job. The horse will turn, and depending on the athleticism of the horse, they will turn ok, good or well. But adding a slight shift in the whip's hips and legs to the upper body, will allow the horse to turn better. Instead of making the horse bring its shoulder back to its hip on the inside of the turn with the former, with extra participation by the whip, the horse is allowed to bring its shoulder back to its hip.

This is something on which I base my entire philosophy of carriage driving and training. Don't make the horse do what you want it to do, allow the horse to do what you want it to do. Just make sure you are doing as much work from the box seat as you are requiring the horse to do. It is a partnership. Participate.

As I watched Micheal drive Don Pecos, I was able to further hone my teaching skills. I hope he got as much out of the experience as I did. Saying that, I might rue the day. It is hard enough to place above Micheal in the show ring. I might just have made that impossible. Oh, well. A big thank you to Micheal Scott for his belief in me as a teacher. That is what I'd like to be remembered as, after all.

Kind Regards,

Michelle Blackler

Serendipity

www.hossbiz.com

Serendipity is an Accidental Sagacity Corporation company.