As I’ve been working on being more forward with Cruise, I’ve been exploring energy concepts again. Having a lighter contact really helps with the forward, but Cruise is (big shocker) not the most sensitive horse in the world, and no amount of thumping really impacts him except to make him lock up even more. A couple of interesting visualizations from the TRT Method have really been helping a lot lately though, and I thought I’d share.
The first is to think of the energy as little red balls or dots that are slowly and separately revolving in your body. As you bring your energy up the balls start revolving faster, and turn from red to yellow to green to brightest green. Kind of like a graphic equalizer on a stereo. The energy can then be used in groundwork or under saddle. Sent out from your body or drawing towards your body or into the ground. The interesting twist though, is that for go forward you are sending a steady stream of energy for the horse to connect to and match. It sounds crazy, but it really works.
Recently I’ve been building my energy as described, sending out the energy stream and Cruise walks on from the halt or goes from walk to trot with minimal leg. In our trot work I’ve been thinking of the stream being a bit further ahead and a brighter green and presto a really nice forward trot with less leg from me. For our canter transition up, I’ve been thinking of building up the energy even more in the trot, letting it get brighter green but not letting it out into the stream until it is time to GO and step into the canter.
This all sounds very woo woo but it works and the better you get at using it in the ground work the better it works for under saddle. I’m still playing with and refining these concepts but WOW.
There is much more detail, explanation, and video at the TRT Method in the Energy module. I highly recommend it!
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