A weekend filled with frustration and enlightenment.

A weekend filled with frustration and enlightenment.  That would be the short version of the story of my weekend at the Sandifer Bridle Horse Company. Bruce and Ute are fantastic hosts.

This was my second trip north to ride with Bruce, the first was two years ago and was very enlightening. I have to make sure I don’t wait another two years before I do it again. In the two years since I last spent time riding with him Bruce has made some major refinements not so much in what he does (although that has change some too) but in how he tries to help others understand how to do what he does.  For a riding instructor to say “ride with your seat” isn’t all that unusual. For them to actually to be able to give you instructions as to what they mean by that seems to be unusual to me.  Not trying to knock all the other trainers / instructors out there, just trying to point out that Bruce in addition to being one hell of a horseman is a very gifted instructor too.

One think you are likely to hear (or read) is to sit back on your pockets; you don’t hear that much from Bruce. Bruce wants you balanced on that boney place in the center of your seat and to give you a stable platform to work from he wants your feet out away from the horse not curled under it.  From here you can make small changes in your balance and position that will have a effect on your horse. Lots of how many of us ride gets in our horse’s way and makes them compensate for us. The goal here is to keep in balance with the horse and stay out of its way.  No twisting around in the saddle to look off yonder, keep your spine in line with that of the horse.  When you look where you want to go do it by shaping your horse so that you are looking between its ears, keeping your spine in line with theirs. Don’t pull that mecate way out to the side of the horse’s head. Keep your hands in close in front of your buttons.

The above paragraph is just a glimpse of the huge volume of information passed on. It is actually a very simple system, however simple doesn’t mean easy. Truly simple things are frequently the most difficult to achieve. My day job has be writing software (code), the best code is the simplest code possible to complete the task required. Figuring out that simple code that completes a complex task is a decidedly non trivial undertaking. So is it also with making and riding a bridle horse.

Lots of people have lots of different cues they use to ask a horse to do something or another. So which cue is the “right” one? I’d say it is the one that makes it easy for the horse to understand what it is you want. What Bruce teaches fits that. He got on my mare and inside a minute she was responding to his every cue and looking for him. He claims and I believe him it is that way with any horse he gets on. But it isn’t just Bruce’s magic touch, his students horses respond right away once the student understands what Bruce is asking them to do and execute it. That touches on where the frustration mentioned in my title comes in. Lots of this is different from what I am used to and I have habits to unlearn. The enlightenment comes when you start to get it. The feeling of your horse getting soft and looking for you is… well let’s just say that is where all those smiles in the pictures of people riding with Bruce come from.

A few random thoughts / ideas:
A horse can be light but not be soft or vice versa. If you can only get one or the other soft is better because it gives you the whole horse. Having both is what you really want though.

Bridle horses are ridden from back to front not front to back.

The Californio system is all about balance.
The balance of a hackamore
The balance of a bridle (spade bit)
The balance of the rider on the horse
The balance of the horse

Ride balanced,

Mike