In Chapter 2 we explored the objectives of riding. We quoted the FEI: “The object of dressage is the development of the horse into a happy athlete through harmonious education. As a result, it makes the horse calm, supple, loose and flexible, but also confident, attentive and keen, thus achieving perfect understanding with his rider.”(1)
Inger Bryant (List 1 dressage judge) summarised her training objectives as “First I aim to have the horse understand what we want and second to develop his physical ability.”
In chapter 3 we learnt about the mental models we hold in our heads. “The way we think the world works”. We saw how Systems Thinking (ST) gives us a language for sharing and improving our mental models and a philosophy for making better choices. We saw that unless we trace and fix the root causes of our problems we will be unable to progress in a sustainable way.
In chapters 4 to 6 we applied ST to learn how, by strengthening our connection with our horse, we can improve our communication and so understand each other better. When we have this understanding we can use it to train ourselves and our horses.
In this chapter we will use ST to explore the cause and effect relationships at work in training. In this way, we can understand the potential choices we can make in our training. We explore what we need to work on to train our horses to perform sustainably and with lightness.