In this episode of speaking Norse language we talked about on the buckle for you're in the saddle warmer. So right now in the warm up, I'm just going to ask clearly to stretch. And I'm gonna, again read my horses body language. Right now she's walking very freely. She's moving very relaxed and very nice. So this is ideally what I want.

I want that I can reach her with long reins on the buckle. I don't think I can put her on the buckle right now with all this grass because she's gonna just try and eat the grass. This is all I want. It's just for her to stretch and relax like that Good girl. And then I'm going to do the same thing and chopped So in chopped so I'm just gonna ask her to stretch. I'm just gonna ask her to stretch and try.

Again, Lily is the demo. We've been doing this for a little while. She knows me I know her. Depending on your horse will depend on whether or not you can get them to stretch. And how low can you go? See how she's keeping her rhythm.

She's not going faster or slower. Even though I have no reins. She's sneezing. She's relaxed. And she shouldn't change speed even when I asked her to change direction. Obviously the ground here is not smooth.

It's not an arena. So she has to pay attention a little bit where she's going. Good girl. She's moving. She has freedom and shoulders, she can move freely. I'm checking her is she stiff and then I asked for the down transition, keeping her stretching and relaxed.

Again through breathing to my energy. If I'm not relaxed, she's not going to be really So the reason I want my horse to be relaxed and the reason that we want to check all of these things now in the warm up is, if my horse is not relaxed, and if her brain isn't switched on, then she's going to lose her confidence in herself in me, it's going to be a trust issue. But also I can check in the warm up, you know, is she moving correctly? Is she a bit sore today? Are the buttons just not working? Like, you know, they did yesterday or I can I can check and assess her and make sure that everything is okay.

Because you know, a lot of people when they're riding, the mistakes that they make, and you'll see this quite a lot is they get on the horse and before they've even warmed up. What do they do? They shorten the reins, and they make them really tight. See how Lily's got her face immediately in the air. Yeah, she doesn't Like that does she Yeah. And then they start see sawing and they start saying you know, hey horse, be round and collect or whatever it is that they're asking.

And you know, the horse hasn't even had a chance to, to move to stretch to warm up to relax. Check your horse for unusual behavior during your warm up. spookiness or not in this may also be a sign of soreness. And obviously, if your horse is having an issue, if they are sore or stiff or something, then that could be a form of disobedience. You know, they could be naughty, they could be spooky. They could be if they're not relaxed, it could be very spooky.

So all of these things we check now at the beginning. So Lily is at a point in her training where I can warm her up, walk, trot and canter with her stretch and relaxed, but obviously, you know, I've had Lily for a little while. So again, it depends on you and your horse. So right now I'm not asking anything of her. I just want her to stretch. So I'm playing a little bit with her.

Helping her that's what we want to stretch. So she's stretching and now we're gonna ask for that down transition. Carol and then we warm up a little bit the other way. Good girl. Again, I just ask her to relax as much as she'll offer me doesn't have to reach to the floor. In our in the grass field.

There's distractions she needs to see where she's going. Good girl. So Lily's training for endurance. So we do some Hill work, we do some different things. Just gonna ask for that down transition. Stretching, good girl warming up with flexion so now I'm gonna ask her to flex to the right.

I don't want her to walk. I want her to just so I'm just holding it. See how she's hanging on me. There's a little bit of resistance. And then there she softened so I saw fit. Good girl.

Good girl. So that was a little bit her harder side. Now we're going to do the left. See she's already sort of volunteering. She's much more flexible, this direct I'm not even putting any pressure there. Yeah.

So this way, it's a little bit harder for her. I'm just gonna coax her a little bit, she's paying attention to something else. Good girl. That was lovely. Good girl. Good girl.

So the reason that we asked the horse to flex to the right into the left is a couple of reasons. One, you know, when I was asking her to flex and she was hanging on me, that is telling me that she's, there's some resistance. Now horses are usually right or left sided. So she flexes much easier to the left. Yeah, that was a little bit harder to the right. So that tells me it's a little bit.

I have some resistance to the right. So maybe due to fitness or whatever it is. There's something that's making it a little bit more difficult this direction. Yeah. So we want to even that side out a bit. The other reason is for an emergency.

Yeah. We need to be able to stop and dismount quickly. Now, if I can flex my horse, we can't really stop and dismount on a straight line. If my horses running on a straight line, no matter how strong I am even Arnold Schwarzenegger, he's probably not going to be able to stop a bowling horse now, but if I can get my horse with an open rein to flex their head, even just that little bit, yeah, that for me, spinning in a circle is safe that I could dismount, not in the direction that their bum is spinning, obviously to the other direction. So this is something that you need to practice.