Post by horseguy on May 2, 2017 13:24:20 GMT
This is another George Morris video. I have been researching him in his later years to try to understand how he got to where he is from his Gordon Wright early training. There are some good things in this video. As an old man myself, I admire his ability to talk and ride without losing his breath, for example. On the other side, since I began riding in 1953 I have seen changes in the "rules" like allowing riders to get 5 degrees behind vertical instead of the Ft. Riley vertical rider's back standard.
Morris uses the term "braced back" a German dressage principle, this from the man who edited out most of dressage for the seat he learned to come up with his Hunter Seat Equitation.
I am beginning to think the Morris's openness to change also includes hyper-flexation of the horse's neck, or rollkur. In this video we see him begin with a horse evading the bit by the typical head up means, thus getting "ahead of the bit". By the end, the horse, having not been allowed to evade ahead, changes his evasion to getting behind the bit. At least this is my take on the ride. Morris might defend his cranking down the reins until the horse goes behind the bit as intense flexing of the poll, which trendy thinkers believe supples a horse. My belief is it simply gets a horse behind the bit. We hear some sophisticated language like keeping the horse "between the inside leg and outside rein", a concept long banished from the Hunter/Jumper world where Morris is god.
In a word, I am confused. I don't see the authentic Military or Fort Riley Seat and I don't see a practical new seat that may have gained something through innovation of evolution. I see jumps out in the arena for this clinic, and I see a horse brought into a state of tightness that is not the traditional "let the shoulders and hips swing rhythmically in the approach to a jump". yes we settle and "gather up" our horse when necessary at the beginning of an approach, but then we release the horse to find his rhythm in the take off area, which that Army called the "box" and Morris renamed the "spot".
I have changed some aspects of what I learned as a beginning and early student of riding. I no longer teach the forward "C" position as the correct means of descending a slope, for example, because there is no longer a need to make a smaller target for an enemy sniper, something the "C" position provides. But I do teach the "C" position to advanced riders because it is more effective to come off a slope and open your body backward from the "C" than to come from a leaning back position into a more forward centered position. Every change I have made I did with great consideration for the US Military Seat. I like Morris, I learned this seat from a US Cavalry rider. He and I and the others left teaching have become the most direct sources to the original. I have found this increasingly to be a burden of historic and practical authenticity. I am by now thinking for Morris it is not that much of a burden. Based on the current videos I see, I am thinking that Morris believes that he has modernized something old, not unlike putting central air conditioning in a century old house (something I would gladly do).
This might sound dramatic, but one thing I have always asked myself when training a horse is, "Would I feel comfortable taking this horse into battle?" That's really the question for a Military Seat trained horse. But there are no more cavalry battles, so maybe Morris is right. But then again, over the years many hunt Staff riders and serious polo players have preferred this kind of training in their horses, that I was glad to supply. Still thinking ...
Morris uses the term "braced back" a German dressage principle, this from the man who edited out most of dressage for the seat he learned to come up with his Hunter Seat Equitation.
I am beginning to think the Morris's openness to change also includes hyper-flexation of the horse's neck, or rollkur. In this video we see him begin with a horse evading the bit by the typical head up means, thus getting "ahead of the bit". By the end, the horse, having not been allowed to evade ahead, changes his evasion to getting behind the bit. At least this is my take on the ride. Morris might defend his cranking down the reins until the horse goes behind the bit as intense flexing of the poll, which trendy thinkers believe supples a horse. My belief is it simply gets a horse behind the bit. We hear some sophisticated language like keeping the horse "between the inside leg and outside rein", a concept long banished from the Hunter/Jumper world where Morris is god.
In a word, I am confused. I don't see the authentic Military or Fort Riley Seat and I don't see a practical new seat that may have gained something through innovation of evolution. I see jumps out in the arena for this clinic, and I see a horse brought into a state of tightness that is not the traditional "let the shoulders and hips swing rhythmically in the approach to a jump". yes we settle and "gather up" our horse when necessary at the beginning of an approach, but then we release the horse to find his rhythm in the take off area, which that Army called the "box" and Morris renamed the "spot".
I have changed some aspects of what I learned as a beginning and early student of riding. I no longer teach the forward "C" position as the correct means of descending a slope, for example, because there is no longer a need to make a smaller target for an enemy sniper, something the "C" position provides. But I do teach the "C" position to advanced riders because it is more effective to come off a slope and open your body backward from the "C" than to come from a leaning back position into a more forward centered position. Every change I have made I did with great consideration for the US Military Seat. I like Morris, I learned this seat from a US Cavalry rider. He and I and the others left teaching have become the most direct sources to the original. I have found this increasingly to be a burden of historic and practical authenticity. I am by now thinking for Morris it is not that much of a burden. Based on the current videos I see, I am thinking that Morris believes that he has modernized something old, not unlike putting central air conditioning in a century old house (something I would gladly do).
This might sound dramatic, but one thing I have always asked myself when training a horse is, "Would I feel comfortable taking this horse into battle?" That's really the question for a Military Seat trained horse. But there are no more cavalry battles, so maybe Morris is right. But then again, over the years many hunt Staff riders and serious polo players have preferred this kind of training in their horses, that I was glad to supply. Still thinking ...
