Hello from Germany! I have created this blog so that I can share some of my training experiences while at Hubertus' stable with all of you. The horses made the trip well and have settled in nicely and after only a week's worth of lessons, have showed tremendous improvement. The work is quite demanding, but the result is a horse that is loose and swinging in his back through all of his movements. Working on the acceptance of the outside rein and staying loose on the inside rein is stressed above all else. The horses have to start out their session with a low stretching neck and be able to maintain that at trot and canter before moving on to collection. Once the collection has started, shoulder in and half pass are the keys to engagement. The half pass must have good bending and the horse must be able to half halt on the outside rein within the half pass. This must happen at trot and canter. The gait must maintain the absolute same tempo within the lateral movement as in the collected trot or canter. When this is accomplished, we move on to canter pirouettes, then on to tempi changes and finally finish with piaffe, when the horse is the most through and relaxed. Quite a straight forward system, but the key is in not compromising on the correctness and throughness of the horse. Key point to remember in the lateral work, you can have flexion (in the jaw) without bending in the neck but you can not have bending without flexion. It is a big challenge to keep the horse on the outside rein during the half pass, but you can't maintain collection without it.