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HOW
TO START TTEAM
HORSE ASSESSMENT CHART
By being aware of how your horse responds to
contact on every part of his body you can take the necessary steps to help improve his
health, behaviour and well being. To aid in this please use the HORSE ASSESSMENT CHART
which is available to download as a *pdf file here or a zip file here.
Use the diagrams to mark areas of tension,
'ticklish' places, no-go areas, and places that are over or under developed. Mark patches
that are cold or hot or areas where the coat is worn, raised, coarse or scurfy. Note which
is the higher nostril, ear, shoulder, hip, and so on.
Watch your horses reactions at all times and
only carry out the flat hand assessment if it is safe to do so.
Date the chart and repeat the assessment every
few weeks to follow your horse's progress. You may be amazed at how the simple TTEAM and
Connected Riding body work exercises can change your horse.
Top of page
A
NEW HORSE STARTS TTEAM
Starting from Scratch
A new horse begins the TTEAM journey
Looking at your horse's posture will give you valuable
information about how he behaves. Schooling difficulties can be overcome by working in
hand and transferring the information to the horse once under saddle. By using TTouch
bodywork exercises you can release tension that may be contributing to his behaviour and
teach the horse to stand and move in a more relaxed outline which will improve mobility
and athletic ability.
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Note how the horse is
standing. His head is high, his back is dropped and he is standing with his legs close
together. This posture is linked to horses that have a tendency to work on the forehand
and find it hard to move freely forward from the leg when asked to work in a collected
frame. |
| The posture will influence how the horse moves
in both in hand and under saddle. His body weight is falling through the shoulders and his
shoulders and neck are bracing to compensate for his lack of balance. The way he organises
his posture makes it hard for him to stand still for long. He has developed a bottom line
and is tight in the poll. This tension will run through his body making him stiff. It will
be hard for him to engage his hindquarters. Punishing him for being fidgety will only make
him tenser and lead to an escalation in behaviour. |
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The high head carriage that makes it hard for him to stand
quietly means that he has to walk fast to balance over his feet once moving. Pulling him
back to try to keep control will increase the bracing that is already evident through his
body and encourage him to lean to the left and crowd the handler exacerbating the tendency
to be uneven through his body. This will make it harder for him to work on the right rein
since he has learnt to carry the majority of his weight on his left shoulder and he may
have a tendency to fall through the shoulder when working on the left rein.
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Horse's that are labelled 'dominant' are often simply out of
balance.
They rush and lean on the handler because they lack self-carriage.
Self carriage, self confidence & self control are linked. Teaching horses
to move correctly through TTEAM ground and body work exercises
diminishes the undesirable behaviour without the need to resort
to fearful or forceful handling
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Looking at him from the front shows the difficulties he has
when on the move. Note how unevenly the weight is distributed through the body. His weight
is on the near fore and his barrel swings out to the right. If he cannot stand in balance
it is highly unlikely that he will be able to move in balance. |
Resistance only comes from resistance.
Educating the horse through TTEAM is a peaceful, rewarding and highly successful way of
improving both performance and behaviour.
TTEAM offers many ways of teaching horses to overcome their
habitual behaviours. Adding a second lead line and handler enables the horse to start
learning how to move in self carriage. The second handler is there as a support - this
helps teach the horse to move in a straight line and starts educating the horse from the
offside. Teaching horses to work on both reins in hand automatically helps them when under
saddle. Care must be taken to ensure that both handlers are not fighting for control since
this will merely confuse the horse more. Communication is vital between the handlers who
can alternate who is giving a signal on the line to help the horse release in his poll and
neck.
| At first it is hard for the horse. His muzzle
is pinched, his eye is almond shaped and his ears are back. He finds it hard to move
forward since his habitual way of moving has been changed. |
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By staying quiet and not pulling on the head
collar, the horse quickly learns to come forward with his head carriage low. |
| Dressage schooling sticks called 'wands' are
used by the handlers to teach the horse to come forward, to slow down and to halt. Used as
an extension of the arm, the wands help the horse to focus and encourage him to release
his neck. They enable the horse to learn how to adjust his weight through his body as he
learns how to respond to the quiet movement of the wand. Teaching the horse to slow down
by bringing one wand back to the chest shows the horse how to transfer his weight from his
forehand to his hindquarters. Most horses are taught how to stop from their heads rather
than being shown how to organise their body in a more effective way. This can lead to
problems with performance since the horse is inadvertently taught how to move and halt on
the forehand. Top of page |
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*All form files are encoded in PDF format for your convenience. To
view the files, you'll need to download Adobe Acrobat Reader free of charge from Adobe's
website if you haven't already done so. You can print the file from the Acrobat reader
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