|
|
Quotes of Dr. Thomas Ritter
"As always, everything is connected, every single exercise or movement influences all the others, which is the reason why we can improve certain movements by not riding them at all, but by practicing exercises that improve the necessary ingredients of the movement in question."
(1999)
"As a rule of thumb, you can say that if the half halts don't go through, the horse is not really on the seat. And the reason he is not on the seat is that he is not on the leg. The obedience and attentiveness to the leg empowers the seat."
(1999)
"Acceptance of the bit happens in the haunches, not in the mouth."
(1999)
"Poll flexion is not Pull Flexion."
(1999)
"In the course of his education a horse will sooner or later offer most dressage movements on his own, either out of a misunderstanding or as an evasion - travers, counter canter, flying changes, piaffe, passage, even airs above the ground. So, in order to "train" the horse to do them, the rider merely has to seize the right moment and polish what the horse is offering. Before the right time has come, however, the thinking rider will not punish the horse for the premature execution of a movement he wants him to perform at some point in the future. Rather, he will obseve and remember the circumstances that made the horse volunteer the movement, so he can use them to his advantage when the time has come."
|
