Winning Bridleless Ride

Here's a video of Tucker and me at one of the Pine Dell Versatility Challenges, where we won riding (mostly) brideless. Stick with it-- I took the halter off after the first obstacle, when it was fairly obvious he was "with me".

Please ignore the fact that I look like an old lady. Other than that, I was really happy with this ride.

What an amazing horse! I've just started parelli and would hope to soemtime get to the point where I can do that with my TB. Thank you for the inspiration!

That's awesome, but I have a question.

If you need the stick to guide him anyway, wouldn't it be EASIER with a bridle? I thought the point of bridleless was to have them trained to your leg and seat?

Yup, it certainly is. Unfortunately, we're not that good yet. I can usually get away without the stick these days when we're bumming around the farm, but it would have been asking for trouble not to have it during a precision competition, at our level of competence.

You'll also notice I didn't walk into the arena with nothing on his head. I honestly had no idea what to expect; it was the first competition I've ridden in since starting NH. I figured it would be dangerous to assume that I'd be riding the same horse that I ride at home.

Thank you for the kind words! Tucker's the kind of horse that I always should have owned-- a nice, lazy LBI to complement my own rather RBI tendencies. Unfortunately, I spent an awfully big chunk of my life clinging to the backs of extreme RBE horses as they exploded right, left and center.

LBI? RBi? RBE?
I must be too old to know what that means.
Nice ride and nice horse. YOu, and old lady? HUH?

Ha, ha-- my apologies. I dropped into Parelli-speak for a moment there, since a previous poster said she was doing Parelli as well.

Parelli classifies horses as being broadly either Left Brain (thinkers, non-reactive, non-emotional) or Right Brain (emotional, reactive), and either Introverts (don't really like to move their feet, often called lazy) or Extroverts (move their feet A LOT; often more than you'd like!).

So LBI=Left Brain Introvert (lazy, non-reactive); RBI=Right Brain Introvert (emotional, but tends to shut down or "freeze" when stressed);LBE=Left Brain Extrovert (playful, bold, mischievous); RBE=Right Brain Extrovert (emotional, tends to spook or bolt when frightened).

As you can imagine, the training method for a left brain introvert would be very different than for a right brain extrovert, and so forth. LBIs need mental stimulation to avoid boredom and increase engagement and enthusiasm; RBEs need repetition and consistency to increase confidence and calmness. It's an incredibly useful system, and Parelli folks tend to apply the concepts to people as well, like a shorthand Meyers-Briggs test.

As for looking like an old lady, my posture here (or lack thereof) is a scary, scary thing (for me, at least!). Need. More. Pilates.

That is fabulous

Well done that was great.......just wondering how long did it take you to be able to do that?

Thanks, Juniper! I love my horse.