Major Anders Lindgren Teaching Exercises

Product Description

Since first coming to the U.S. in 1981, Major Anders Lindgren has established a well-deserved reputation as an excellent, clear, methodical and delightful teacher. His innovative system using traffic cones in his progressively arranged exercise patterns, combined with his use of colorful imagery, has helped countless instructors and riders understand and improve. He has, simply put, touched many lives in the field of dressage.

Now, after years of requests from his students for a collection of his exercises, he has finally written the book, his “cookbook of equestrian recipes,” as he has called it. As in his seminars and clinics, his joy and humor shine through in these pages, as well as his deep love and respect for the horse.

Major Anders Lindgren’s Teaching Exercises will be of tremendous value for all instructors and riders—professional and amateur—in their daily work with students and horses.

(hardcover, illustrations, 141 pgs.)

Excerpt from the book:

Often a tense and nervous horse seems to be very stiff in the mouth. In this situation, the horse blocks the atlanto-axis joint (the joint at the poll between the first vertebra atlas — C1 and the second axis — C2), generally called the axis joint. When asked to flex his head either to the right or the left, the horse seems to say “No!”

When the horse relaxes in the axis joint, he normally begins listening to the riders aids.

To create this relaxation, the rider shuttles the bit in the horses mouth. To shuttle the bit means to move it through the horse’s mouth like you move a shuttle through the loom when weaving. This should be a harmonious use of the reins in order to make the horse’s mouth loose and mellow. The rider should have a feeling of lubricating the axis joint with anti-rust oil.