>From an article about Icelandic Horse training, by Karen Rasmussen: I got my first Icelandic horse when I was 10 in the early 70's, and like so many others at that time, I totally disregarded everything I had learnt since I was 5 at the local, very English riding school. The only things that counted were those taught by Icelandic trainers. They relied, as a rule, on a good deal of brute force from the rider, which the horse would have been quite happy to have gone without.
There must have been very few of us who saw any kind of system in what we did with our horses, but we didn't question anything. In those days it wasn't done. Around the mid-70's new methods of mechanically influencing the gaits began to come to Denmark from the USA, via Germany. New methods and new equipment, (some more peculiar than others) were a "must" for anyone who wanted to do well on the oval track. This is what we today call "mechanical doping". I could go on for ever: certain trainers regarded as guru's, such and such a saddle, bit or other gadget being the answer to a rider's problems. In spite of many peoples' fascination for the various types of Natural Horsemanship, and the increasing enthusiasm for an academic approach to the art of riding, many riders who deal with gait training still go for quick, measurable results. Judy http://iceryder.net http://clickryder.com
