At New Years we attend the George Morris horsemastership program at Palm Beach, Florida. On dressage hub we found a video of the clinic where George is pointing out the importance of dressage training for the jump horse. In the world of riding there are three official aids and two artificial aids. The official aids being the leg, seat and hands, the artificial being the whip and spur. These aids are being like a video game remote controller, any combination of aids will change what the horse is doing. For instance, the canter departure, haunches in and pirouette all have the same aids, however it is the level to which these aids are active or passive that move the horse in the appropriate direction. In this video George does some simple exercises to get the horse listening to your aids. When the horse listens, you can be passive, not meaning you are a couch potato up there but meaning you are not applying more pressure. If the horse is not listening or something needs to change, pressure is then applied making the aid active. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDTkqaygRmI
