J Ashton Moore once instructed me to noodle my horse.. Interesting visual isn’t it?
His process behind noodling your horse was to always keep them keyed into where you are planning on taking them. The definition of noodling is to keep changing directions and adjusting movements. An example would be riding a four loop serpentine the full width of the arena for the lower level horse or a serpentine from quarter line to quarter line for the more advanced horse. This works very well for the hotter horse or the horse who anticipates your every movement. Noodling has a wonderful outcome in multiple ways, it helps regulate the horse’s tempo without having to hold the reins tight and the changes of direction along with the smaller movements make the horse slow down and balance its self. For the laterally stiff horse the smaller geometry causes the horse to have to bend through its body and then to rebend again in the new direction. The horse who anticipates has to wait on your direction and because you are changing frequently it can’t anticipate and this requires it to rely on your leadership. Noodling its just good of the horse!
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