It has been very interesting to watch the young horses just starting under saddle and how it compares to what we do at home. Basically, lunging with sidereins is standard in a lunging arena but things take a whole new direction when it's time to get on. I have watched a young horse over a period of 3 days go from having someone lay over the saddle to cantering. What makes it so different is that all this takes place in a 20 X 50 meter arena while everyone else is riding. No concession is made for the horse being young, kind of like being thrown in the water, sink or swim. Quite a challenge to navigate in that space on a horse that doesn't know what the aids mean and if they are shy about oncoming horses, they have to get over that in a hurry! Once again, it appears that we baby our horses much more and shelter them compared to the German way. I think there is merit to both approaches, they just get the horses over the shock of riding in traffic over in the beginning, instead of at the horse show like we do. It was rather humerous today though. After lunch there were 5 of us in the arena and one of the working students was riding a very spooky horse. No special treatment here if the horse wants to look at something, just a good crack with the whip and forward they go. What would Linda Tellington Jones say???? Not going forward or hesitations of any kind are just not tolerated here. And there is no worry about how that affects the other riders in the arena. It's damn the torpedos and full steam ahead. Our horses looked more like a school of fish, when one spooked and changed direction, they all did. You had to laugh. I think horses invented Monkey See, Monkey Do. On the other hand, the young horses see all the other horses going round and round, do you think they get more confindence knowing that they are carrying humans around too????